Esotouric offers Raymond Chandler-themed bus tour Aug. 11

Raymond Chandler-themed Bus Tour Explores Philip Marlowe's Lost L.A.

WHAT: Esotouric's "Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles: In A Lonely Place" bus
tour

WHEN: Saturday, August 11, 2012, 11:30am-3:30pm (tour repeats October 27)

WHERE: Tour departs from the Los Angeles Athletic Club, 431 West 7th Street,
Los Angeles, CA 90014.

COST: $58/person, includes complementary noir-themed gelato from Scoops

MORE INFO: visit http://www.esotouric.com or call 213-373-1947

In August (and again in October), Esotouric, the eclectic bus
adventure company whose tours reveal L.A.'s secret history, offers a bus
tour dedicated to the city's greatest detective novelist, Raymond Chandler,
from the downtown streets he roamed as a young oil executive to his uniquely
poisonous portrayal of the city's hustlers, heavies and suckers. The tour
reveals the secret historic city that still breathes under our modern
streets, and offers unexpected insight into the life and work of a beloved
writer and his immortal white knight detective hero Philip Marlowe.

And just to show that Chandler scholarship continues to evolve 52 years
after his death, Esotouric's Raymond Chandler tour features a startling new
theory developed through Esotouric's original research. Get on the bus to
learn all about the idealistic Los Angeles policeman whose one-man crusade
against the evils of his own department is among the most convincing cases
for a real life prototype of the Philip Marlowe character ever proposed. And
you won't hear about him in any of the Chandler biographies, but only on the
Esotouric bus.

For more original Raymond Chandler research uncovered by Esotouric, see the
blog post "Raymond Chandler and the Creamery" about the criminal happenings
the young writer might have witnessed at his first job in Los Angeles, at
the link below.
http://www.esotouric.com/chandlerandthecreamery

And in 2011, Esotouric principals Richard Schave and Kim Cooper took a road
trip to San Diego to attend the moving Valentine's Day ceremony in which the
ashes of Raymond Chandler's wife Cissy (died 1954) were finally placed in
his (died 1959) grave, as both had intended. In keeping with their pledge to
share interesting Los Angeles lore on their tour bus and online, video and
photos from the ceremony have been posted at the Esotouric blog:
http://www.esotouric.com/chandlergrave

ABOUT THE TOUR:

RAYMOND CHANDLER'S LOS ANGELES: IN A LONELY PLACE delves deep into a lost
city that exists in shadowy parallels to contemporary LA. Bungalows. Crime.
Hollywood. Blondes. Vets. Smog. Death. This was Raymond Chandler¹s city,
which resonated from deft and melancholy fits of his writer¹s bow. Join
Esotouric on an exploration of the city that shaped Chandler's fiction, and
that in turn shaped his hard-boiled times, in a four hour tour of downtown,
Hollywood and surrounding environs: Musso & Frank, Union Station, the Hotel
Van Nuys, Paramount Studio¹s gates, and beyond. Through published work,
private correspondence, screenplays and film adaptations, the tour traces
Chandler¹s search for meaning and his anti-hero Philip Marlowe¹s struggle to
not be pigeonholed or give anything less than all he has, which lead them
both down the rabbit hole of isolation, depression, and drink.

Get on the bus for a revealing time travel journey into the literary history
of Los Angeles, and discover the places and people who inspired Raymond
Chandler's timeless novels, screenplays and stories. And as a special treat,
the tour's complementary snack break features a selection of noir-themed
gelato flavors from the creative kitchen of Tai Kim's Scoops, the most
interesting and acclaimed ice cream shop in Los Angeles. Scoops doesn't
announce the featured flavors in advance, but Chandleresque offerings on
past tours have have included Coffee/Jack Daniels, Bacon/Caramel,
Guinness/Chocolate and even Nicotine (made with Nicorette gum)!

For more info on Esotouric, visit http://www.esotouric.com

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour and special event schedule
Sat August 4 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: Route 66 (weekend pass
available)
Sun August 5 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: South LA (weekend pass
available)
Sat August 11 - Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles
Sat August 18 - Haunts of A Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's Los Angeles
Sat August 25 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: Boyle Heights & The San
Gabriel Valley
Sat August 26 - Crime lab seminar: Cold A Long Time (info at
lavatransforms.org)
Sun September 2 - The Flâneur & The City: Broadway walking tour (info at
lavatransforms.org)
Sat September 8 - Weird West Adams
Sat September 15 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: The Lowdown on Downtown
Sat September 22 - Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice
Sat September 29 - The Real Black Dahlia
Sat October 6 - Pasadena Confidential (weekend pass available)
Sun October 7 - Eastside Babylon (weekend pass available)
Mon October 15- The LAVA Salon at Musso & Frank: Jim Tully: A Hobo in
Hollywood (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat October 20 - The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain's Southern California
Nightmare
Sat October 27 - Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles

Esotouric's Kim Cooper and Richard Schave are proud members of LAVA - The
Los Angeles Visionaries Association. http://www.lavatransforms.org