John Fante's Dreams from Bunker Hill bus & walking tour April 9, 2011

L.A.'s most famous "unknown" author John Fante gets a 102nd birthday bus tour

WHAT: Esotouric's "John Fante's Dreams from Bunker Hill" bus and walking tour with the author's daughter Vickie Fante Cohen along for the ride
WHEN: Saturday April 9, 12pm-4pm, departs from Clifton's Cafeteria, 648 South Broadway, Los Angeles, California 90014
COST: $58/person, or $90 for a two-literary-tour discounted weekend pass
RELATED TOUR: "Haunts of a Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's L.A." rolls on Sunday, April 10. For a weekend pass or more Bukowski info, visit http://www.esotouric.com/fante-hank-weekendpass-4-11
MORE INFO: visit http://www.esotouric.com/fante or call 323-223-2767

LOS ANGELES- Last April 8, the 101st birthday of L.A. author John Fante, the City of Los Angeles officially designated the intersection of 5th & Grand, beside the Central Library, as John Fante Square. After many decades as the obscure favorite of literary insiders, Fante made a quantum leap into public awareness, with tens of thousands of Angelenos passing through his Square each day. And this week, UCLA Special Collections officially unveils John Fante's personal and creative archives, with a free March 10 lecture from John Fante biographer Stephen Cooper. John Fante is obscure no more.

This April 9, lovers of John Fante's books and those curious about the lore of downtown's lost neighborhood Bunker Hill are invited to come celebrate Fante's new-found fame with L.A.'s most interesting bus tour company, Esotouric, and their once-a-year tour JOHN FANTE'S DREAMS FROM BUNKER HILL bus and walking tour.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: John Fante (1909-1983) was Charles Bukowski's favorite writer, his "Ask the Dust" was the book Robert Towne wanted to film after "Chinatown" (it finally was made in 2006 starring Colin Farrell, Salma Hayek, and Donald Sutherland) and he is honored with an annual festival in Italy. And while his fame in his adopted city has been slow to arrive, Fante might be the funniest, most heartwarming, honest and appealing writer to ever take this city as his subject.

ABOUT THE TOUR: On April 9, Esotouric rolls out its annual literary bus and walking tour, JOHN FANTE'S DREAMS FROM BUNKER HILL, a chance to discover a great writer and the lost downtown he celebrated, through the narration of Esotouric's Richard Schave, the L.A. historian who proposed the Fante Square designation. Downtown Los Angeles is a neighborhood to watch, but the New Downtown exists on the footprint of a fascinating old neighborhood whose stories are in danger of being lost. Many of Esotouric's tours are devoted to revealing this lost downtown, from the burlesque and freak show delights of Main Street Vice to the secret post war woman's history of The Real Black Dahlia to the architectural anthropology of The Lowdown on Downtown. On JOHN FANTE'S DREAMS OF BUNKER HILL, passengers walk and ride in the footsteps of Fante and his anti-hero Arturo Bandini, from the lost Bunker Hill Victorian rooming houses where Fante starved and dreamed of fame, the main library where he roamed the stacks (and later, where Bukowski discovered "Ask the Dust"), the Skid Row bars where b-girls pocketed his royalty payments, on the newly restored Angels Flight Railway, the Grand Central Market where kindly Japanese farmers gave the poor writer free oranges, to the retirement home Angelus Plaza to see Kay Martin's stunning paintings of Bunker Hill's mansions just before the city condemned them.

ABOUT THE TOUR GUESTS: Special guests on the April 9 tour are John Fante's daughter, Vickie Fante Cohen, and Gordon Pattison, whose family was the last hold out against eminent domain of historic Bunker Hill and owned the last two houses on the hill, the Saltbox and the Castle.

Get on the bus to bask in the spirit of the weird old L.A. that's not there anymore, where a poor Italian-American Colorado kid could sell a novel, become a screenwriter, and inspire a new generation of writers just by telling the raw and funny truth. And eventually, even get a street corner outside the main city library named in his honor!

To learn more about Esotouric's forthcoming tour of John Fante's Bunker Hill, visit
http://www.esotouric.com/fante

DISCOVER FANTE'S LOST BUNKER HILL AND DOWNTOWN L.A. - In addition to their bus tours, Esotouric's Richard Schave and Kim Cooper are the creators of ON BUNKER HILL, a comprehensive historical, architectural and cultural survey that is part of the 1947project time travel blog series. ON BUNKER HILL is online at http://www.onbunkerhill.org

For Esotouric's self-guided walking tour of John Fante's lost Downtown, visit
http://johnfantesdowntown.notlong.com

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour and special event schedule
Sat March 12 - Eastside Babylon crime bus tour (weekend package available)
Sun March 13 - Blood & Dumplings crime bus tour (weekend package available)
Sat March 19 - Pasadena Confidential crime bus tour
Sat April 9 – John Fante's Dreams from Bunker Hill (weekend package available)
Sun April 10 - Haunts of a Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's L.A (weekend package available)
Sat April 16 - The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour
Sun April 17 - Trace: inside the world of Lynne Herold, Criminalist (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat April 23 - In A Lonely Place: Raymond Chandler's L.A.
Sat April 30 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: Route 66 (weekend package available)
Sun May 1 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: South L.A. (weekend package available)
Sat May 14 - Weird West Adams crime bus tour
Sat May 28 - Crawling Down Cahuenga: Tom Waits' L.A.

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/fante