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I am a big fan of Raymond Chandler, and it’s super interesting to read his books set in LA (which are most of them.) Set in the 30s and 40s, they portray a city

I am a big fan of Raymond Chandler, and it’s super interesting to read his books set in LA (which are most of them.) Set in the 30s and 40s, they portray a city multiple orders of magnitude smaller than today. The area between Downtown and Santa Monica was basically rural. Here’s a cool documentary on the city during his time: https://youtu.be/-MYY4CxG_GQ?si=P1g1k0h-6W0CZtaX https://youtu.be/-MYY4CxG_GQ?si=P1g1k0h-6W0CZtaX

caycep 3y ago
Also reflecting the racial attitudes of the time - Asian/Latino/Black residents were depicted - sometimes sympathetically but as a rule, as persons unfortunate to be the race that they were. A stark contrast to the current melting pot, much more integrated and diverse, and where you can see such ethnicities accepted as a given in society (police/law enforcement, prominent businessmen, cultural icons, and in top tiers of government at judges, politicians, etc)
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mikhailfranco 3y ago
Thanks, interesting doc, real life Chinatown. If you like Chandler, you must listen to the six 90-minute BBC radio adaptations, with Ed Bishop as Marlowe from the 1970s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_BBC_Presents%3A_Philip_Marlowe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_BBC_Presents%3A_Philip_Mar... Stream or download: https://play.google.com/store/audiobooks/details/Raymond_Chandler_A_BBC_Radio_Collection_Starring_E?id=AQAAAEBs9Ce0WM&gl=US&pli=1 https://play.google.com/store/audiobooks/details/Raymond_Cha... Cool, retro, atmospheric and crisp. This is not casual listening, you have to pay attention to every name and plot twist. Better than Gould (not difficult), Mitchum and even Bogart, Ed Bishop is the best Marlowe. Perhaps the femmes fatales do not come close to Bacall - who can? - but there are delightful female performances of banality, calculation and evil. Pour yourself a big one, turn the lights down, relax on the couch, and prepare to lose yourself in 90 minutes of perfect noir. P.S. There was a BBC second series with Toby Stevens as Marlowe, so not these, accept no substitute for Bishop, but they are free to download: https://archive.org/details/BBCMarlowe https://archive.org/details/BBCMarlowe

caycep 3y ago

Also reflecting the racial attitudes of the time - Asian/Latino/Black residents were depicted - sometimes sympathetically but as a rule, as persons unfortunate to be the race that they were. A stark contrast to the current melting pot, much more integrated and diverse, and where you can see such ethnicities accepted as a given in society (police/law enforcement, prominent businessmen, cultural icons, and in top tiers of government at judges, politicians, etc)

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mikhailfranco 3y ago

Thanks, interesting doc, real life Chinatown. If you like Chandler, you must listen to the six 90-minute BBC radio adaptations, with Ed Bishop as Marlowe from the 1970s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_BBC_Presents%3A_Philip_Marlowe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_BBC_Presents%3A_Philip_Mar... Stream or download: https://play.google.com/store/audiobooks/details/Raymond_Chandler_A_BBC_Radio_Collection_Starring_E?id=AQAAAEBs9Ce0WM&gl=US&pli=1 https://play.google.com/store/audiobooks/details/Raymond_Cha... Cool, retro, atmospheric and crisp. This is not casual listening, you have to pay attention to every name and plot twist. Better than Gould (not difficult), Mitchum and even Bogart, Ed Bishop is the best Marlowe. Perhaps the femmes fatales do not come close to Bacall - who can? - but there are delightful female performances of banality, calculation and evil. Pour yourself a big one, turn the lights down, relax on the couch, and prepare to lose yourself in 90 minutes of perfect noir. P.S. There was a BBC second series with Toby Stevens as Marlowe, so not these, accept no substitute for Bishop, but they are free to download: https://archive.org/details/BBCMarlowe https://archive.org/details/BBCMarlowe