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WHAT L.A. GAVE THE WORLD -- Stories

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  • 1

    In 1510, a Spanish writer named Garci Ordóñez de Montalvo published a fantasist novel called “Las Sergas de Esplandian,” about a golden island ruled by a dark-skinned Amazon queen called Califia.

    Dec. 3, 2006

  • 2

    The dubious Julian Petroleum Corp. crashed, spectacularly, in the 1920s. That event presaged the Depression but eventually helped to spur stock market reforms.

    Dec. 3, 2006

  • 3

    Southern California’s development model has its critics, but it’s rooted in a powerful idea. As the world adopts our rampant growth, we are reassessing our civic structure.

    Dec. 3, 2006

  • 4

    Freeways changed the region forever and created a blueprint for suburban life throughout the nation.

    Dec. 3, 2006

  • 5

    LOS ANGELES reinvented the wheel.

    Dec. 3, 2006

  • 6

    Big things happened -- for L.A. and for baseball -- when Walter O’Malley brought the Dodgers west. Not without controversy, he began the nationalization of what was America’s pastime.

    Dec. 3, 2006

  • 7

    Pasadena and UCLA claimed Jackie Robinson as a sports sensation long before he stepped up to the plate.

    Dec. 3, 2006

  • 8

    Images of tanned, fit bodies working out in the sand put L.A. beaches at the forefront of the early, and continuing, fitness frenzy.

    Dec. 3, 2006

  • 9

    This sport was born, crawled and burned through its training wheels in Southern California.

    Dec. 3, 2006

  • 10

    A dark aesthetic that found a firm foothold in the movies -- fed by hard-boiled crime fiction and scandal-sheet journalism -- is a flourishing Los Angeles export.

    Dec. 3, 2006

  • 11

    WE all live for the sun. At least, that’s the case in Southern California.

    Dec. 3, 2006

  • 12

    Here, the glamorous wear sweats to swanky restaurants and flip-flops with gowns. Chalk one up for the lifestyle that redefined — and demystified — what chic meant.

    Dec. 3, 2006

  • 13

    Photographs ushered in the modern era. But it was Hollywood that used the camera to make beautiful strangers into celebrities.

    Dec. 3, 2006

  • 14

    Since Helen Gahagan Douglas traded the footlights for the hustings, a steady stream of Hollywood stars has sought public office.

    Dec. 3, 2006

  • 15

    Fusing resentment of the police with violent films, N.W.A struck a raw nerve and created a new genre called gangsta rap.

    Dec. 3, 2006

  • 16

    KROQ ushered in a new era of music and changed what we wanted to hear.

    Dec. 3, 2006

  • 17

    Forget the huddled masses. L.A. became a migration magnet because of its shiny tourism and bustling growth. So it’s no wonder everybody here is from somewhere else.

    Dec. 3, 2006

  • 18

    BY the 1920s, one of Hollywood’s greatest cinematographers, James Wong Howe, was already a chief cameraman for the Lasky Studios.

    Dec. 3, 2006

  • 19

    What is it about Los Angeles that annoys people so much? Let’s face it -- everyone needs some place to despise. And we’re it.

    Dec. 3, 2006

  • 20

    Latinos have had a major influence on the L.A. of today. They still grapple with retaining a bit of their culture and winning acceptance.

    Dec. 3, 2006

  • 21

    With a world of cultures and a bounty of fresh ingredients, it’s no wonder that California cuisine emerged as an inspirational celebration of food. And yes, it plays in Peoria.

    Dec. 3, 2006

  • 22

    In a wildly polyglot city — where Midwesterners live next to Oaxacans; Taiwanese, Armenians and Russians mingle with Hollywood hipsters; and Tongans live side by side with native Californians — is it any wonder that their various cuisines have blurred into each other too?

    Dec. 3, 2006

  • 23

    GOING to the drive-in! What a breezy, James Dean-ish life!

    Dec. 3, 2006

  • 24

    MESQUITE, nopal, maguey, wild maize: These were some of the foods eaten in Mexico 9,000 years ago by nomadic people.

    Dec. 3, 2006

  • 25

    SUPERMARKETS can gnaw at the soul.

    Dec. 3, 2006

  • 26

    From its earliest boom-town days, Los Angeles has always sold itself as the city of the future. Thanks to its changeable nature and international status, it’s still a model for how contemporary urban

    Dec. 3, 2006

  • 27

    The lure of Hollywood has raised the bar for what is beauty, feeding the explosive growth of cosmetic surgery that has become both a business and an art.

    Dec. 3, 2006

  • 28

    The latest American religious movement had its genesis just outside the borders of Little Tokyo.

    Dec. 3, 2006

  • 29

    Far from going the way of all flesh, the porn industry has worked its way from the Valley into the American mainstream -- particularly via the Internet.

    Dec. 3, 2006

  • 30

    More than asphalt, the stretch of Sunset has fueled the myth of Hollywood.

    Dec. 3, 2006

  • 31

    Oranges. Oil. Movies. Surfing. Space flight. L.A.’s tangled history is tough to sum up.

    Dec. 3, 2006

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