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Lost LA

Walt Disney and His Imagineers: An American Phenomenon

Walt Disney envisioned Disneyland in 1955 as a place where audiences could step into their favorite movies. When Disney moved to Burbank, people sent letters asking if they could visit and see where Snow White and Mickey Mouse lived, but Disney knew that would be logistically difficult, so he thought of a way to let audiences do that, which eventually became Disneyland. Who would build such a place and fill it with things people could interact with? The imagineer. In the case of Disneyland’s Horseless Carriage, Main Street’s Fire Truck, Autopia, the Monorail and the Matterhorn Bobsleds, that imagineer was Bob Gurr.

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Tiki culture isn’t a Polynesian import — it’s a Hollywood creation.
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Visit Hollywood Forever, Evergreen and Forest Lawn, where L.A. reinvented the cemetery.
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The hiker-activists who led Angelenos into their hills and onto the trails.
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How Filipino Americans in Southern California are making their heritage more visible.
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Iconic fast-food chains from McDonald’s to Taco Bell were born in SoCal.
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After internment camps, Japanese Americans made L.A.'s Crenshaw neighborhood their home.
German Exiles
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During WWII, L.A. became a sanctuary for Europe’s accomplished artists and intellectuals.
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Dig deep into Southern California’s past to reveal lessons for our climate-changed future.
Winemaking
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Explore a forgotten age when winemaking was Southern California’s principal industry.
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Why did Los Angeles dismantle one of the greatest rail transit systems in the nation?
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Explore the lasting impact of the Shindana Toy Company, created out of the need for community empowerment following the 1965 Watts uprising, whose ethnically correct black dolls forever changed the American doll industry.
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