Raymond Chandler's LA bus tour January 12, 2013

Raymond Chandler-themed Bus Tour Explores Philip Marlowe's Lost L.A.
WHAT: Esotouric's "Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles: In A Lonely Place" bus tour
WHEN: Saturday, January 15, 2013, 11:30am-3:30pm (tour repeats May 18)
WHERE: Tour departs from the Los Angeles Athletic Club, 431 West 7th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90014.
COST: $58/person, includes complementary noir-themed gelato from Scoops
RELATED TOUR: "The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain's Southern California Nightmare" rolls on January 26
ADDITIONAL WEEKEND ATTRACTION: And on Sunday, January 13, Esotouric's Richard Schave hosts a free tour of Rancho Los Cerritos. For more info on this very special event, http://lavatransforms.org/rancholoscerritos2013
MORE INFO: visit http://www.esotouric.com or call 213-373-1947

LOS ANGELES- In January (and again in May), Esotouric, the eclectic bus adventure company whose tours reveal L.A.'s secret history, offers a bus tour dedicated to the city's greatest detective novelist, Raymond Chandler, from the downtown streets he roamed as a young oil executive to his uniquely poisonous portrayal of the city's hustlers, heavies and suckers. The tour reveals the secret historic city that still breathes under our modern streets, and offers unexpected insight into the life and work of a beloved writer and his immortal white knight detective hero Philip Marlowe.

And just to show that Chandler scholarship continues to evolve five decades after his death, Esotouric's Raymond Chandler tour features a startling new theory developed through Esotouric's original research. Get on the bus to learn all about the idealistic Los Angeles policeman whose one-man crusade against the evils of his own department is among the most convincing cases for a real life prototype of the Philip Marlowe character ever proposed. And you won't hear about him in any of the Chandler biographies, but only on the Esotouric bus.

For more original Raymond Chandler research uncovered by Esotouric, see the blog post "Raymond Chandler and the Creamery" about the criminal happenings the young writer might have witnessed at his first job in Los Angeles, at the link below.
http://www.esotouric.com/chandlerandthecreamery

And in 2011, Esotouric principals Richard Schave and Kim Cooper took a road trip to San Diego to attend the moving Valentine's Day ceremony in which the ashes of Raymond Chandler's wife Cissy (died 1954) were finally placed in his (died 1959) grave, as both had intended. In keeping with their pledge to share interesting Los Angeles lore on their tour bus and online, video and photos from the ceremony have been posted at the Esotouric blog: http://www.esotouric.com/chandlergrave

ABOUT THE TOUR:

RAYMOND CHANDLER'S LOS ANGELES: IN A LONELY PLACE delves deep into a lost city that exists in shadowy parallels to contemporary LA. Bungalows. Crime. Hollywood. Blondes. Vets. Smog. Death. This was Raymond Chandler’s city, which resonated from deft and melancholy fits of his writer’s bow. Join Esotouric on an exploration of the city that shaped Chandler's fiction, and that in turn shaped his hard-boiled times, in a four hour tour of downtown, Hollywood and surrounding environs: Musso & Frank, Union Station, the Hotel Van Nuys, Paramount Studio’s gates, and beyond. Through published work, private correspondence, screenplays and film adaptations, the tour traces Chandler’s search for meaning and his anti-hero Philip Marlowe’s struggle to not be pigeonholed or give anything less than all he has, which lead them both down the rabbit hole of isolation, depression, and drink.

Get on the bus for a revealing time travel journey into the literary history of Los Angeles, and discover the places and people who inspired Raymond Chandler's timeless novels, screenplays and stories. And as a special treat, the tour's complementary snack break features a selection of noir-themed gelato flavors from the creative kitchen of Tai Kim's Scoops, the most interesting and acclaimed ice cream shop in Los Angeles. Scoops doesn't announce the featured flavors in advance, but Chandleresque offerings on past tours have have included Coffee/Jack Daniels, Bacon/Caramel, Guinness/Chocolate and even Nicotine (made with Nicorette gum)!

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour and special event schedule (free events starred)
Sat January 12 - Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles
*Sun January 13 - A Tour of Rancho Los Cerritos (info at lavatransforms.org)
*Tues January 15 - LAVA Visionary of the Year Award (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat January 19 - Charles Bukowski's LA
Sun January 20 - Crime lab seminar: Arson Murders and Fire Death Investigation (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat January 26 - The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain's Southern California Nightmare
Sat Feb 2 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: Route 66 (weekend pass available)
Sun Feb 3 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: South LA (weekend pass available)
Sat Feb 16 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: The Lowdown on Downtown
Sat Feb 23 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: Boyle Heights & the San Gabriel Valley
Sat March 2 - Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice
*Sat March 9 – Behind the Scenes tour of the Southwest Museum (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat March 16 - Pasadena Confidential crime bus tour (weekend pass available)
Sun March 17 - Eastside Babylon crime bus tour (weekend pass available)
Sat March 23 - Weird West Adams crime bus tour
Sat April 6 - John Fante's Dreams from Bunker Hill (weekend pass available)
Sun April 7 - Charles Bukowski's LA (weekend pass available)
Sat April 13 - The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain's Southern California Nightmare
Sat April 20 - SPECIAL EVENT: Crawling Down Cahuenga: Tom Waits' LA
Sun April 21 - Crime lab seminar: Insights in Criminal Investigation and the Secret World of Street Gangs with Nick Guskos (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat April 27 - The Real Black Dahlia
Sat May 4 - Blood & Dumplings crime bus tour
Sat May 18 - Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles

Esotouric's Kim Cooper and Richard Schave are proud members of LAVA - The Los Angeles Visionaries Association. http://www.lavatransforms.org

Official Website: http://www.esotouric.com