Why L.A.? – Documentary on Los Angeles – November 30, 1963 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
Like they say; “Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be” – the question is; was it ever? There are no hard and fast rules where mulling over events that left an imprint on our lives is concerned. Everyone witnesses the same event differently – what was wistful recollection to one person could be lamentable hell to another. Age has a lot to do with it – something about that impressionable age and how events leave the deepest mark around 12-15 – by the time we hit our 20s and 30s those impressionable events are further and further away from us. Just part of being human, I suppose.
For me, 1963 was a pivotal year and I look back on it with a goodly degree of nostalgia and fondness. Fact of the matter; it was a horrible year – we had an assassination of a President which hadn’t happened in a very long time. We had The Cold War, which entertained the notion of doom and obliteration at every turn. We had the Civil Rights movement which left a lot of emotional scars and perplexing feelings towards each other.
But for the most part, they were anonymous background noise and didn’t hold a candle to being a kid and experiencing a lot of things for the first time was all about.
So looking at Los Angeles in 1963, as this documentary does, seems a bit baffling to me – but I understand L.A. has always been a bit strange, ever it since it first got settled. We shook to the ground, burned up and mired ourselves in scandal because that’s what living in L.A. has always meant. I confess to having lapses of nostalgic reverie when I smell smog – it represented a series of good things and it never reminded me that smog burned the crap out of my eyes.
This documentary, made for TV and not identified as being part of any specific station or network, let’s us know on no uncertain terms, that L.A. has always been the place where nothing is at it seems. Los Angeles, according to the documentary, is a city that has no right to exist. How it’s gotten to the place it did by 1963 was via scandal, as it always has. And the next hour is spent looking at all that. Even though at times it seems like a promo piece for the L.A. Chamber of Commerce, there are interviews and descriptions of places that no longer exist.
It’s an interesting if somewhat cynical look at a town that in 1963 was #2 in population. Expanding to the suburbs at the risk of losing Downtown – urban renewal – mass transit (which was in the process of being dismantled since 1961). A growing sense of dissatisfaction with Los Angeles in general. Looking wistful at the 1920s (no doubt the age the filmmakers of this documentary had “come of age” during), and generally a curio of a city that has built, demolished, and fantasized what it could be and has always been that way.
We live here – we sometimes don’t know why – but we’re here and it’s home.
So here is what Los Angeles was all about in November 30, 1963 with a Documentary entitled “Why L.A?”, including some memorable ads for Shell Gasoline. It’s TV audio and it’s visual, but the message for 1963 is still there.
