Grand Central Market turns 100 this Friday, we take a look at how it's changed, Hot Wheels is celebrating its 50th anniversary, catching up with Chris Thile.
Grand Central Market turns 100 — and it has lived many lives
Claudia Armendariz recalls the first time her grandfather Celestino Lopez took her to visit his stall at Grand Central Market.
"One thing I do remember from the market is the sawdust on the floor," she says. "It's weird coming in here and not seeing the sawdust anymore because since I was a little kid, that was the one thing that made the market 'the market.'"
Lopez opened Chiles Secos in 1975 to sell Latino groceries at time when Grand Central Market was still about getting eggs, flowers, fresh fish and more.
"Back then it was more of a 'locals-only' place," says Armendariz, 32, who has run the stall since Lopez passed away in 2008, "but now, it's a destination."
In just a handful of years, the market has transformed into a trendy food hall selling artisanal cheeses, handcrafted peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, vegan ramen and more.
But Chiles Secos is one of the long-time vendors that has held on through the changes, and Armendariz says she welcomes all the newcomers.
"This has always felt like home that I never feel pushed out," she says. "Whenever we have a new vendor come in to the market, we always go over there and introduce ourselves."
The stall sells a variety of goods like dried pintos, chiles and canned hominy.
A highlight, though, is the selection of molé pastes that the Armendariz family imports.
"We have molé from three different regions of Mexico," she says. "We have from Oaxaca, Puebla and Guerrero."
They range from the brightly tanned pipián made from hearty pumpkin seeds, to the onyx sheen of the Oaxaca Negro colored by black chiles and Mexican chocolate.
And more people than ever are drawn to the stall as the popularity of Grand Central Market grows as a place to eat.
"It's all different kinds of people that come," says Armendariz, "and I think it's a great thing."
But despite the changes, she plans to keep Chiles Secos looking just the way it did when her grandfather ran the stall.
"We don't want to change anything that my grandfather set up for us," she says. "Walking into the market and seeing our stall, it reminds me of him."
Grand Central Market celebrates its 100th anniversary on Friday, October 27th, with the cutting of a 100-layer cake at 10:30 a.m.; and music performances, free Angels Flight rides and vendor specials from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Hot Wheels partners with Chevy Camaro on full-size, drivable toy car
Which came first: The Chevy Camaro or Hot Wheels?
The answer is the Camaro, by a a year. The first Chevy muscle car was a 1967. Hot Wheels came out one year later in 1968. Now the two companies are partnering on a new 50th anniversary special edition Camaro, unveiled Wednesday at Mattel's Hot Wheels garage in El Segundo.
"This is a life-size car that you can buy and drive and own," said Todd Christensen, marketing manager for the Chevy Camaro. "It's the first time we've partnered with a toy company, so you can take your toy and actually have a version that you can drive for real."
Chevy will make between 2,000 and 3,000 of them. The car goes on sale in spring 2018 at a price of about $38,000, Christensen said, and is available in one color.
Orange.
"The beauty of the orange is that it actually has heritage both in Camaro as well as in Hot Wheels," said Chris Down, senior vice president and global general manager for Hot Wheels. "In Hot Wheels, it's known as iconic orange track that all 1:64 diecast miniature toys travel on. To Camaro, it goes back to the early days when they introduced the Camaro. Hugger orange was something they coined and established early on and is a fan favorite."
The 50th anniversary Hot Wheels Camaro will be available as a miniature toy from Mattel, and, from Chevrolet, in both coupe and convertible versions as a full-size car. An even more extreme version of the Hot Wheels Camaro, called the COPO, is capable of an eight-second quarter mile and has a top speed of 160 mph.
"We're in the car business, and we also do this for fun," said Christensen, the Chevy Camaro marketing manager. "We all have hot rods and cool Camaros at home, all the Camaro team does, and every one of us started our love of cars with Hot Wheels for sure."
The real estate agent who became a street gang 'shot caller'
Truth is often stranger than fiction, especially when it comes to the story of Arlene Rodriguez, the so-called Queen of Florencia.
Reporter Sam Quinones wrote about Rodriguez, who seemed to lead an ordinary life as a single mother of four who worked as a real estate agent in Los Angeles. But around the same time, she became entangled with the Mexican Mafia and the Florencia 13 street gang.
Here's Quinones, talking about Rodriguez, and the incredible way she achieved the status as a "llavero," or shot caller.
In his Los Angeles Magazine article, Quinones said that in the early 1990's, the Mexican Mafia prison gang set up a system where the local drug dealers would have to pay a "tax" to the local neighborhood street gang, who would then funnel that money to the Mexican Mafia. But in order for that to work, there had to be someone on the street who was in charge of overseeing the operation, and that person was referred to as a "llavero," which translates into English as a key holder.
Arturo “Tablas” Castellanos was serving a life sentence in Pelican Bay State Prison in Northern California, but he was nevertheless in charge of Florencia 13. Through a series of events, he decided to make Rodriguez the llavera for the gang, which was a very unusual job for a woman to have. Here's a passage from Quinones' Los Angeles Magazine story:
A llavera? Arlene had never heard of a female shot caller. Castellanos likely saw in her everything the typical llavero was not. Llaveros were usually parolees or criminals with drug addictions. She had a real job, with no drug problem and not much of a criminal record (Arlene was convicted of smuggling marijuana from Mexico in 1999).
“OK,” she said, not knowing what other answer would work, and that afternoon, as she steered her car south, she wondered what she had gotten into. One week later, she says, Castellanos wrote a kite to a connected friend of hers: Arlene’s in charge now, it read.
“Damn!” said the friend. “A female."
A Martinez spoke to Sam Quinones about his story, and what happened to Arlene Rodriguez.
(click on the blue arrow to hear the entire interview)
One year in: Chris Thile on hosting A Prairie Home Companion
Chris Thile is a singer and virtuoso musician who took on one of the most thankless tasks in broadcasting. Last fall, Thile became the host of A Prairie Home Companion, replacing Garrison Keillor, who hosted the show since he created it in 1974.
A Prairie Home Companion with Chris Thile will be at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium this Saturday afternoon. Thile also has a new album of songs he created for the show called "Thanks for Listening."
Take Two’s A Martinez spoke with Thile about what it's been like to take the host's chair.
You're three shows into the new season. How's it feeling?
I’m having so much fun... Certainly there’s that crackling energy that comes engaging in the pursuit of something brand new. And I love that and will continue to court it during this process – make sure there’s always a new thing to do.
Last week, we had the writer George Saunders on the show and did a big reading from his last novel…. That was something brand new for me, reading a 15-minute excerpt. I kind of music-directed the thing, we had some sound effects– it was so much fun. I think to always be tweaking the format and squeezing in new challenging things is going to be of tantamount importance moving forward.
A great moment is from the show after Tom Petty died, and you led the audience in a singalong. How did that come together?
It was a testament to the power of live radio, I think. It was part of a segment that we call the Instant Song Request. Right before intermission, we let people know, fire up your Twitter account and start requesting songs. Usually it’s quite silly. That week, it ended up being fairly poignant. I started seeing people moving their mouths to the chorus and had the idea that if we split up the floor and the balcony, we could get a little call and response going on.
While Prairie Home still has a lot of radio listeners, the trend hasn't been good. How concerned are you about the numbers?
While yes, it’s down from where it was 15 years ago, it’s up from where it was when I started, even if only slightly. I think all that sounds pretty natural to me. When you lose a presence like Garrison Keillor, you’re talking about one of the most brilliant radio personalities of all time, an incredible storyteller, the foundational makeup of the show has changed in almost all respects. The most unexpected pleasure is that we retained that many people.
You've got Dan Auerbach and Fiona Apple on the show this weekend. What’s your process for working with performers?
That’s a big part of the gig, I think, is making your guests feel comfortable like they’re just in your living room where you’re sitting down to appetizers… just shooting the breeze. Depending on how much collaboration there’s going to be– I think Fiona and I are going to do all of her stuff together. Dan is, I think, more self-contained, which is great. It’s so nice to have those scene shifts where the whole sonic-scape shifts to this other world.
Also Hilary Hahn, one of the greatest concert violinists in the world is going to be on that show. And Nick . It’s loaded.
Do musical guests assume they have to play something mellow for A Prairie Home Companion?
Yeah, I definitely don’t need things to be acoustic and rootsy and all of that. I would really love for the show to be representative of width and breadth of what’s going on with the great music being made in the world right now.
Tickets are still available for A Prairie Home Companion Live from Pasadena for Saturday, October 28th at 2:45 PM.
Or you can listen to the show in a special live broadcast at 3:00 PM.
Prairie Home is distributed by KPCC's parent company, American Public Media.
Quotes edited for clarity and brevity.
Semi-spooky LA history for Halloweenies
Halloween is just around the corner. Before the holiday became known for costumes and candy it was dedicated to remembering the dearly departed. So, in the spirit of remembrance, Take Two is bringing you some little-known, kinda spooky stories about L.A., including Showmen's Rest.
Find the pink tiger
Evergreen Cemetery in Boyle Heights is one of the city's oldest and largest graveyards.Historian Kim Cooper knows a lot about this place. She's an expert in LA crime and oddities for Esotouric bus tours. She says if you walk all the way to the very eastern side of Evergreen cemetery, you may come across a little pink tiger atop a tomb.
It's a fitting symbol for those who are buried there - members of the Pacific Coast Showmen's Association. It was for people who participated in the carnival arts, circus performers, sideshow workers, etc.
"These people are all buried together because they were part of a traveling community. And though some people believe that the Pacific Coast Showmen's Sssociation graves represent penniless carnival workers who were buried because they couldn't afford a burial, that's actually not true."
Think of it as more of a guild or a union. Because they were all in the same career/field, the workers would pay an annual fee to this association and in return, if they died out on the road, they would get shipped back to Los Angeles and be buried among their friends.
"Every December when the shows went off the road because the weather was terrible, people would gather in Los Angeles to remember those that had come before," Cooper said.
Some circus and carnival notables buried there include:
- Fat lady Dainty Dotty Jensen (who was the wife of tattooing legend Otto Jensen).
- James Louis Cooley (who is believed to have introduced the ice cream sandwich in the west).
- The armless and legless Billy Pilgrim (who was famous for his exquisite penmanship).
- Flea circus proprietor Professor W.E. Alexander.
The world-class shopping mall and the LA gangster
A lot of people say it's America's first outdoor shopping mall: Crossroads of the World. It sits on Sunset Boulevard between Las Palmas and Cherokee Avenue in L.A.
Built in 1936, it was designed to look like an ocean liner and it's surrounded by cottages built to resemble ports o call all over the world.
You've probably seen it. If not in person, it's been in films like "L.A. Confidential" and "Cafe Society." Today, it's home to offices for a variety of creative companies, but as part of our mini-series on semi-spooky places in L.A. Esotouric's Kim Cooper and Richard Schave share the story of Crossroads' forgotten roots.
It was actually built as a tribute to an OG Los Angeles gangster.
"Charlie Crawford was one the original guys that was in Los Angeles from about 1915/1916 doing all these bad things...Charlie Crawford owned this property. Crossroads of the world was developed by his widow."
It all came about because in May of 1931 Charlie Crawford was in the middle of a meeting with newspaper publisher Herbert Spencer.
According to Schave, suddenly an unidentified person walked into Crawford's office, shot Spencer dead and fatally wounded Crawford and walked away.
"They rush Crawford to the hospital and say, 'Charlie Crawford, who shot you?' and he said, 'I'll never tell you.'"
Turns out, Crawford was trying to live a legit life, and that's why they shot him. So, as a result of the shooting, Charlie Crawford's wife said, "He was the greatest Angeleno anyone ever knew, and I want to make sure everyone remembers him."
In an effort to have him remembered. She had Crossroads of the World erected, "based on all the wonderful trips we took on cruises around the world."
Psychometry and the La Brea Tar Pits
L.A.'s urban center is also a treasure trove of ice age fossils.
Mammoths, ground sloths and saber-toothed cats are just some of the prehistoric creatures found at the La Brea Tar Pits in Hancock Park. It was George Allan Hancock who donated the land where the tar pits are located in L.A. County.
But it was a lesser-known geologist named William Denton who first identified the tar pits' bones as ancient fossils. Esotouric's Kim Cooper told us the REAL reason Denton made his way out west.
"Usually when scholars talk about Denton, they say oh, 'He was a geologist from Boston, and he came out looking for oil.' That is not true. He actually came out because he and his wife had the most extraordinary hobby, she had a gift from very very early childhood."
The gift was that of psychometry. Which means having the ability to hold objects and while having little to no information about the object, and narrate the object's 'experience.'
"Old man Hancock, gave him this fang and Denton recognized this fang as coming from an extinct cat and he took it home to Elizabeth and I'm sure they had lots of fun holding it to her forehead and seeing what life was like on the edge of the tar pits..."
The Bradbury Building
The Bradbury is one of the most iconic buildings in downtown L.A.
It isn't the brown brick exterior that's so noteworthy but its naturally lit interior of iron grillwork that's made the Bradbury a star, and not just architecturally.
The building has also played a role in films like "Blade Runner," "500 Days of Summer" and "The Artist."
Gold mining millionaire, and real estate developer, Lewis Bradbury had it built way back in 1893.
For the conclusion to our miniseries on semi-spooky LA stories, Estouric's Kim Cooper explains how the Bradbury's beginning is a classic "right person at the right time" kind of story...with an occult twist.
It all started with a drawing. Lewis Bradbury wanted a building that had his name on it and that was really extraordinary. Unfortunately, the architect he hired for the job, Sumner Hunt was not delivering.
It was then that he came across George Wyman's sketch, inspired by the sci-fi fantasy novel "Looking Backward" by Edward Bellamy. He offered Wyman the job on the spot.
"The young man went home and told his wife of his problems and his problem was, do I actually take this commission and steal a job from my boss and build something that's just a fantasy from a science fiction book?"
The answer, was yes. But how he got to that decision is where things get interesting. Wyman decided to consult his deceased brother, using a planchette, an instrument very similar to a modern-day ouija board.
"The planchette began to move and quiver and shake, and the planchette began to make a mark and it said, 'Take Bradbury you will be...' then an incoherent scribble.
It wasn't until someone got up from the table to go to the restroom and look at the table upside down that they saw if you turned it over it said, 'Take Bradbury you will be...successful."
And he was.