LAPL Blog
exhibits
Conceptual British-American artist Ellen Harvey has been commissioned to create an installation for the Los Angeles Public Library/Library Foundation of Los Angeles’ upcoming exhibition, No Prior Art: Illustrations of Invention.
Come on a trip with me. We'll time travel to 1938, a difficult time for the United States, slowly recovering from the economic disaster of the Great Depression, but a wonderful time for the recently revived Olvera Street in Los Angeles.
![A close-up shot is lined up by the director and cameraman during a Maverick shoot on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, [1961]. Valley Times Collection](https://lapl.org/sites/default/files/styles/blog_latest_list_120x90/public/blogs/2021-07/backyardheader.jpg?itok=bT2zfOpi "A close-up shot is lined up by the director and cameraman during a Maverick shoot on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, [1961]. Valley Times Collection")
In January 1947, KTLA Channel 5, Los Angeles's first commercial television station, aired its first broadcast, and the Herald Express newspaper was there to report the milestone event.
Los Angeles has always been a city of rich cultural diversity, often serving as a beacon of prosperity for migrants and immigrants around the globe.
In the early 1960s, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy symbolized hope, change, and the dawn of a new era for a country that was caught in the clutches of Cold War fear, and in many cases, clinging to certain outdated social attitudes.
Los Angeles in the late 1930s was a city in transition. It was suffering through the Great Depression with the rest of the country, but forging ahead with progress. Old Chinatown and La Grande Station were being erased, but Union Station and a New Chinatown would soon emerge.