The Birth of La La Land
In 1900 the city of Los Angeles had a
population of 102,000; by 1930 the population had soared twelvefold to
1,238,000. Gary Krist tells the story behind this explosive population growth that
took Los Angeles from being a sleepy city on the shores of the Pacific to a
world famous city through the biographies of water engineer William Mulholland,
film director D.W. Griffith and evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson.
He tells a good story about the city
that I lived in for over 20 years and still work part-time there. William Mulholland
an Irish immigrant and self-taught water engineer was a man of Napoleonic vision.
He understood with the city leadership that if this desert city were to thrive
it would need water. Mulholland seized the water from unsuspecting farmers in
the Owens Valley 200 miles to the north. Aside from the Panama Canal it was the
biggest public works project of its day. To be sure the farmers rebelled and
dynamited portions of the aqueduct, but ultimately failed in stopping
Mulholland.
He later came up with the Colorado River
water project as well. While living in Los Angeles we mused that the city’s thirst
for water so unquenchable that sometime in the future water from Canada’s Mackenzie
River would be piped in to fill the hot tubs of LA. Mulholland star collapsed
when he failed to do the appropriate due diligence on the soils where a major
dam was constructed that collapsed killing an injuring hundreds of people.
D.W. Griffith was the leading motion
picture director of his day. In part Hollywood was his creation. His racist “Birth
of a Nation” was the biggest hit of its era with a showing in Woodrow Wilson’s
White House. Griffith developed the film techniques that are still used to day
and discovered many of the stars of the silent era. Nevertheless by the 1920s
his star began to fade, but the Hollywood he was so much a part of creating
went on to far bigger and better things. It was Hollywood that puts Los Angeles
on the global map.
Aimee Semple McPherson was the first
female evangelist with a large scale following. An immigrant from Canada she
established her Four Square Church that now has 1600 affiliated churches. She
captivated gigantic audiences who far away from home were yearning for some
sort of spirituality. She is the precursor of the many spiritual fads that
would arise out of Southern California.
My problem with Krist is that he is
viewing LA’s history through his 21st century liberal biases. The
world of 1900 was far different than today’s. Los Angeles, if were to grow,
needed the water and they stole it fair and square. If the city didn’t do that
where would it be today? He is critical of the “whiteness” of the city’s
establishment and if you weren’t a white Protestant you would not get into the
club. However, economically the city was wide open and it offered hope and
opportunity to practically all who came. No one forced over a million people to
move to Los Angeles from 1900-1930. And for many there wildest dreams were
exceeded. Along the way sprawling city of today was created. Krist is critical
of the sprawl, but it was the sprawl that made housing affordable.
Although he mentions the important role
of oil discoveries in the region in explaining the city’s growth, he
understates it. In the 1920s California was the number one oil producing state
and such oil giants as Richfield, Union, and Signal Oil was headquartered there.
Also the world’s leading drill bit supplier, Hughes Tool (yes that Hughes) was
headquartered there. If Krist were to write a history of Los Angeles from
1920-1950, my guess he would choose Howard Hughes as one of his leads.
He also remarks that much Hollywood’s
creativity was lost by the late 1920s as Wall Street money began to dominate
the studios. Here I differ, in my opinion the golden age of Hollywood creativity
was from 1930-1945 aided in no small part by the arrival of emigres from Berlin’s
famed studios who were being forced out by Hitler. As in the prior 30 years,
Los Angeles was open to newcomers; the secret of its success which comes
through in Krist’s book.
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