Bunker Hill photo exhibit and talks July 12

Celebrate the lost L.A. neighborhood of Bunker Hill with George Mann's debut
photo exhibition, historic talks

WHAT: Bunker Hill historians (and one former resident) discuss L.A.'s most
beguiling lost neighborhood, during the Downtown Art Walk opening night
celebration of the debut Los Angeles gallery exhibition of the photographs
of Vaudeville star George Mann (1905-1977). Exhibition features rare color
images of downtown's Bunker Hill from the 1950s and 1960s. Framed prints are
$100.

WHERE: Gary Leonard's Take My Picture Gallery, 860 S. Broadway, Los Angeles,
CA, 90014

WHEN: Thursday, July 12 7-9pm with historic presentations at 7:30pm and
again at 8:30pm

MORE: And on Saturday, July 14 from 6-10pm, Jim Dawson signs his new book
"Los Angeles's Bunker Hill: Pulp Fiction's Mean Streets and Film Noir's
Ground Zero!" in the gallery. Bunker Hill historians and George Mann's
daughter-in-law/archivist Dianne Woods will be present to answer questions
about the photos.

INFO: For info about the July 12 event, contact Kim Cooper at 323-223-2767
or amscray@gmail.com. For info about the July 14 event or for general info,
contact the gallery at 213-622-2256 or info@takemypicture.com.

George Mann just might be the most interesting Los Angeles
photographer you've never heard of. His color scenes of the lost Victorian
neighborhood of Bunker Hill, taken just before it was demolished fifty years
ago in a misguided urban renewal project, have transformed our understanding
of downtown through their presentation on the On Bunker Hill history blog.

Now on Bunker Hill and LAVA- The Los Angeles Visionaries Association are
delighted to announce the debut Los Angeles gallery exhibition of the
photographic work of the late George Mann (1905-1977). Mann's rediscovered
color images of mid-century Los Angeles are astonishing, and a must see for
anyone who loves the city and wants to know it better.

The exhibit of George Mann's Lost Bunker Hill opens at Gary Leonard's Take
My Picture Gallery for the Downtown Art Walk on Thursday, July 12, followed
by a signing for Jim Dawson's brand new book "Los Angeles's Bunker Hill:
Pulp Fiction's Mean Streets and Film Noir's Ground Zero!" on Saturday, July
14. George Mann's photos of Bunker Hill will be on view at the gallery
during regular hours and by appointment, and framed prints are available for
$100/each. Call 213-622-2256 for more info.

JULY 12 OPENING - http://lavatransforms.org/mann7122012

July 12 event (7-9pm): During the Downtown Art Walk, join On Bunker Hill
bloggers Richard Schave (Esotouric bus adventures) and Nathan Marsak (author
of "Los Angeles Neon"), and Bunker Hill native son Gordon Pattison--whose
family owned the last two iconic Victorians left on Bunker Hill, The Salt
Box and The Castle--for an informal presentation and Q&A on the rise and
fall of downtown's most beguiling residential neighborhood, from the
mansions of silver kings to the era of grand hotels, the rooming house
years, the looming threat of redevelopment, the fight to save Angels Flight,
the evictions (Bunker Hill is the largest eminent domain land grab in
American history), the hill's flattening, the slow process of redevelopment
and how Bunker Hill still resonates in the imagination almost fifty years
later. On Bunker Hill blog creator Kim Cooper (Esotouric bus adventures)
will also be present to answer questions about George Mann's 3-D
photographic viewing machines and the rediscovery of his photographs. The
presentation will begin at 7:30pm and repeats at 8:30pm.

JULY 14 BOOK SIGNING - http://lavatransforms.org/mann7142012

July 14 event (6-10pm): Join writer Jim Dawson as he signs copies of his new
book "Los Angeles's Bunker Hill: Pulp Fiction's Mean Streets and Film Noir's
Ground Zero!" (The History Press, 2012). Also present during some or all of
the evening and available to answer your questions will be George Mann's
daughter-in-law and keeper of his archive Dianne Woods, On Bunker Hill
bloggers Richard Schave and Kim Cooper, and Bunker Hill native son Gordon
Pattison.

ABOUT BUNKER HILL, the ON BUNKER HILL blog and GEORGE MANN:

Bunker Hill in the 1870s was early Los Angeles' most distinguished address,
an enclave of grand Victorians, gorgeous gardens and clear-skied views out
to Catalina and beyond. By the 1910s the wealthy had moved on, and the
Hill's mansions became rooming houses. Up on the Hill, life moved at a
different pace. Writers Raymond Chandler, John Fante and Charles Bukowski
came and were captivated by the place. Painters Leo Politi, Kay Martin and
Millard Sheets made its rotting hotels and sad-eyed residents the subject of
their art. And down at City Hall, planners schemed about how Bunker Hill
could be declared a slum, its old houses pulled down, its people moved
along, leaving a blank slate where skyscrapers could grow. By 1970, Bunker
Hill was a field of dirt. In 2008, the time travel bloggers of
1947project.com turned their attention to Bunker Hill. Over a year, the blog
grew into a house-by-house survey of the great old downtown residential
neighborhood that was demolished to create the high rise district that
shares its name, but none of its charms. The blog's contributors, including
authors, historians, librarians and tour guides, delved deep into historic
archives to uncover the most fascinating tales of more than a century of
life on Bunker Hill. 1947project is the brainchild of Kim Cooper, pop music
historian ("Bubblegum Music is the Naked Truth"), tour guide (Esotouric bus
adventures) and preservation activist (Save the 76 Ball). She was joined ON
BUNKER HILL by author Nathan Marsak, LAPL history librarian Mary McCoy,
Esotouric's Joan Renner, LAPL photo collections manager Christina Rice,
Esotouric's Richard Schave and author John Toomey.

George Mann's Los Angeles photos were discovered in his archives by
daughter-in-law Dianne Woods in 2010. While researching the images, she
found the On Bunker Hill blog, and offered to let the blog feature Mann's
Bunker Hill images, online and in archival prints for sale. Since then,
Mann's family has also shared with On Bunker Hill some of the short films he
made featuring fellow Vaudevillians like The Three Stooges and W.C. Fields,
and dozens of photos of landmark Los Angeles restaurants.

Born in Santa Monica in 1905, by his early 20s George Mann was a vaudeville
star as the hilariously taller half of the comedy dance team Barto & Mann.
Of their east coast debut, "Zit's Theatrical Newspaper" raved "Ten minutes
before they went on at the Palace last Monday afternoon nobody thought very
much about Barto & Mann; ten minutes after they came off stage, the whole
Broadway world was talking about them." As Vaudeville faded, Barto & Mann
joined the Broadway cast of "Hellzapoppin" with featured billing from 1938
through 1942. The team split up in December 1943.

In his post-performance life, George Mann turned his imagination to
entrepreneurial enterprise and professional photography, which brought him
to Bunker Hill. In the late 1950s, when the neighborhood's days were known
to be numbered, he arrived atop the peak with his camera to document some
representative scenes, returning in November 1962 for additional shots.
These long forgotten color images of old Bunker Hill were originally
displayed in 3-D viewers of Mann's own design, which were leased to various
Los Angeles restaurants, bars and doctor's offices. Mann would swap out the
photo selection every two weeks, so if these evocative scenes of Bunker Hill
weren't available, one might peep at Calico Ghost Town, Catalina Island,
Descanso Gardens, Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, Pacific Ocean Park, Watts
Towers or Palm Springs.

In his Bunker Hill set, created to distract anxious patients and hungry
tourists, George Mann captured a seldom seen side of this lost Los Angeles
neighborhood: the gracious avenues and genteel decay, the old people, their
cats and their gardens, abandoned newspapers, vacant lots, the shadows and
the sunlight. We are in his debt.

To see George Mann's rediscovered Los Angeles photographs and learn about
his fascinating career that took him and his diminutive sidekick Dewey Barto
(real-life pop of TV's "Rhoda's" mom Nancy Walker) from the stages of west
coast vaudeville to the Great White Way, visit all the On Bunker Hill blog's
George Mann pages at http://onbunkerhill.org/taxonomy/term/507

See Barto & Mann dancing in "Broadway Through A Keyhole" (1933)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWVojP9GDCc&t=4m31s

For more info about ON BUNKER HILL, please visit http://www.onbunkerhill.org

Explore lost Los Angeles history on these upcoming Esotouric bus adventures:
Pasadena Confidential (7/14), Eastside Babylon (7/15), The Real Black Dahlia
(7/28), Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: Route 66 (8/4), Reyner Banham
Loves Los Angeles: South LA (8/5), Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles (8/11),
Charles Bukowski's Los Angeles (8/18), Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles:
Boyle Heights & The San Gabriel Valley (8/25), Weird West Adams (9/8),
Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: The Lowdown on Downtown (9/15), Hotel
Horrors & Main Street Vice (9/22)