Don’t like fresh LA smog? A can of vintage stuff from the 1950s is for sale

Los Angeles this month marked an ignoble feat achieved some 80 years ago — when air so toxic and foreign appeared on July 8, 1943, seemingly from nowhere, to spur panic across the region.

Now, we simply call that stuff smog — or just another day in L.A.

You can read all about the history of smog and how an enterprising scientist at Caltech in the 1950s discovered the source of said noxious fumes (spoiler: cars) written by my LAist colleagues.

A can of Los Angeles smog from the 1950s.

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David Clark

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Golden State Decor

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David Clark

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Courtesy Golden State Decor

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One of the city's smoggiest days ever recorded was Sept. 13, 1955, fanned by the tail end of an extreme heat wave and a weather kink that kept pollutants close to the ground. The air was so bad the local air quality control agency was ready to shut down oil refineries and keep cars off the roads, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times published the day after.

It was against this backdrop that a Hollywood actor by the name of Carleton Young launched a side hustle in 1957 to "can" and sell L.A.'s bad air, according to PBS SoCal.

Whether it was a wink, a social commentary or a naked money grab — these cans of "Genuine Los Angeles Smog" are still sought after decades later.

A can of Los Angeles smog from the 1950s.

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David Clark

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Courtesy Golden State Decor

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Ingredients listed on a can of Los Angeles smog.

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David Clark

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Golden State Decor

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 "This is my favorite California collectible because it's got City Hall ... and then you've got the beach, and then you've got really, really cool images of airplanes. You've got Olvera Street,” said David Clark, who operates the Etsy shop Golden State Decor. “It's good stuff."

His online shop is selling one of these vintage cans of air.

" It's probably toxic. I mean, look [at] what it says: 'Hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, organic oxides, aldehydes, and formaldehydes,’” Clark said. “That's a party in a can."

Clark, who works in real estate and lives in South Pasadena, started his Etsy shop in 2018, reselling cool things he'd find in antique shops, thrift stores and swap meets. A few years later, he began to specialize only on pieces "that have been manufactured and built here in California" mainly from the  turn of the century up to about the 1960s.

" I've been fascinated by the history of Los Angeles — all its ups, all its downs and everything in between," Clark said.

The top of a can of Los Angeles smog.

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David Clark

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Courtesy Golden State Decor

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For instance, he’ll soon put up a hotel key for a room at the Hotel June — famous for being where Bob Dylan wrote "Blood on the Tracks" in the 1970s. The room key in Clark's collection is just a couple doors down from bungalow 13, where Dylan had holed up.

As to the can of Genuine Los Angeles Smog — he actually got several of them over the last couple of years. Clark has since sold some, restocked and has put up another can for that special someone who could appreciate the object’s noxious, gritty, cough-inducing layers.

A gross percentage from the shop’s sales, Clark said, go toward the California Conservation Corps, a youth workforce development program created by Gov. Jerry Brown in the 1970s.

" I think you have one of the most unique experiences of California at your fingertips. It's got the most perfect elements of politics, but it has the levity," Clark said. "It's a time capsule of intelligence, of fun, of an era that seems to be repeating again, because our air quality isn't too good."

Fun fact: Los Angeles has been named smoggiest city in the nation 25 out of the last 26 years.