Becoming L.A.

Griffith Park Observatory

We had the opportunity, yesterday, to preview the new permanent “Becoming Los Angeles” exhibit opening today at the Natural History Museum. It presents a solid overview of the history of L.A., but is nowhere near as deep or fascinating as, say, the Getty exhibit we saw last weekend. Still, the curators did a good job examining Los Angeles from various ethnic perspectives and sprinkling interesting factoids throughout, including the unanticipated impact of cow dung and ostriches.

Freeways east of L.A.

Early 20th-century oil rigs on the beach

The centerpiece of the installation is a late-1930s model of downtown L.A., created as part of a Depression-era Works Progress Administration (WPA) project. We, of course, loved it and spent a long time trying to find and identify several architectural landmarks that are still standing. The exhibit is worth the price of admission if only just to see this fabulous diorama.

The model at ground level—City Hall is upper left

City Hall detail

Los Angeles Public Library (center) and

California Club (lower right) detail

Union Station detail

Museum Sunday

One of my absolute favorite L.A. places to visit when I was a kid was the Natural History Museum in Exposition Park.  In those days, every fourth-grader in public school took a field trip to the museum to see the dinosaur bones, followed on the same day by a visit to the La Brea Tarpits, where many an ancient animal lost their lives.

With the state’s budget the way it is, I highly doubt kids get to take field trips to the museum or tarpits any longer.  Nevertheless, the county recently renovated the entire Natural History Museum, including three new rooms dedicated to prehistoric animals.  In a definite mood for more exhibits (see yesterday’s post about the Huntington Library below), we finally made our way over to Exposition Park to spend Sunday afternoon in the fabulous new Dinosaur Hall.  To say that this is every six-year-old’s idea of heaven would be a huge understatement!  Here’s just a taste of some of the amazing fossils on display:

P.S.  While we were out-and-about, we also stopped by the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) to see two more Pacific Standard Time exhibits: “Kenneth Anger: Icons” and “Naked Hollywood: Weegee in Los Angeles.” Anger, of course, is the underground filmmaker who also gave us the original celebrity gossip books Babylon Hollywood and Babylon Hollywood II.  But even more notorious, in his time, was tabloid photographer Weegee, who loved to capture the less glamorous side of post-WWII L.A.  Both exhibits are highly recommended if you’re into a slightly twisted view of fame in early- to mid-twentieth-century Los Angeles.