South LA architecture tour (hot rod edition) May 1, 2011

Gale Banks reveals the real history of L.A. hot rods on Esotouric's May Day tour

WHAT: Special guest, legendary automotive engineer Gale Banks, is just added to Esotouric's May 1 architecture and urbanism tour REYNER BANHAM LOVES L.A.: SOUTH LOS ANGELES, offering an insider's guide to the birthplace of American hot rodding with a tour along the Gage Avenue corridor of Huntington Park, Bell and Maywood.
WHERE/WHEN: SOUTH L.A. departs from Philippe The Original, 1001 N. Alameda, Chinatown on Sunday, May (11am-3pm)
COST: $58/person, or just $45 with a weekend pass (see below)
WEEKEND TOUR PACKAGES: Enjoy two days of architectural Los Angeles bus tourism, and save with a weekend pass ($90, regularly $116) on ROUTE 66 (April 30) and SOUTH LA (May 1), details at the link below:
http://esotouric.com/route66-soutla-weekend-may-11
ESOTOURIC INFO: http://www.esotouric.com, 323-223-2767
GALE BANKS INFO: http://www.bankspower.com/media

LOS ANGELES- South Gate, Maywood, Huntington Park, Bell, Downey. These unassuming South Los Angeles suburbs were ground zero for mid-20th century American automotive innovation, from the nation's first speed shop, to the garages of visionary customizers like George Barris (The Batmobile) and Ed "Big Daddy" Roth (The Beatnik Bandit), to the vibrant teenage cruising scene that Tom Wolfe chronicled in "The Pump House Gang" and George Lucas celebrated in "American Graffiti." The influence of the hot rod culture that bubbled up like lava from these postwar 'burbs remains powerfully present in contemporary America, but it's not often that the public gets a chance to go back to the roots with one of the few people who knows first-hand how it all began.

On May 1, Esotouric, the offbeat bus adventure company whose tours reveal the secret heart of Los Angeles, adds a very special guide to their SOUTH LOS ANGELES bus adventure: legendary automotive engineer GALE BANKS, who grew up in Lynwood and learned his trade in the region's hot rod scene of the 1950s and 1960s. Gale Banks holds the record for the World's Fastest Passenger Car (1987 Pontiac GTA, 277mph), is recipient of the 2009 Automotive Hall of Fame Distinguished Service Citation, and a living legend of the hot rod, drag race and turbocharging worlds who today is exploring green fuel technologies. His fifty years of automotive innovation are on display in the ongoing Gale Banks Automotive Technology Exhibit at the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum in Pomona. Gale's personal recollections about the incredible characters of the mid-century Southern California hot rod scene, told at the scenes where they worked and played, will make an unforgettable addition to this offbeat Southern California history tour.

ABOUT THE SOUTH L.A. TOUR:
Architecture critic Reyner Banham called them "The Plains of Id"—those vast, uncharted flatlands between the freeways of Los Angeles, home to millions of L.A. residents but rarely talked about unless something extraordinary happens--like the recent scandal over outrageous city salaries in poor, tiny Bell. But to Esotouric, The Plains of Id are among the most fascinating parts of Los Angeles, deserving more attention than a brief, scandalous blip. And with their SOUTH L.A. tour, they delve deep into the uncharted wonders of two centuries of history through the neglected neighborhoods where some of the city's most compelling and unexpected landmarks rub elbows with stucco taquerias and seemingly endless sprawl. The tour rolls through VERNON (the controversial zone of industry with a lively Prohibition-era past), SANTA FE SPRINGS (a bucolic retreat destroyed when oil was discovered -- but not before Irving Gill built one of the most beautiful and little-known houses in Southern California, THE CLARKE ESTATE), BELL GARDENS (site of GOVERNOR GAGE'S MANSION, a boggling architectural layer cake of an adobe-wrapped-in-a-Victorian-wrapped-in-a-trailer-park), EAST L.A. (site of THE EAST LOS ANGELES TRAIN STATION, important in the history of Southland rail transit) and DOWNEY (home of the Carpenters, Kustom Kar Kulture and the newly restored JOHNIE'S BROILER / BOB'S BIG BOY DRIVE-IN, as featured in Tom Wolfe's "The Pump House Gang"). Special guest on the May 1 tour: GALE BANKS, legendary automotive engineer sharing his memories of the hot rod and custom car scene of the southern suburbs of MAYWOOD, BELL and HUNTINGTON PARK. The SOUTH L.A. Esotouric bus adventure begins downtown and works its way south through the past two centuries, exploring some of L.A.'s seldom-seen gems. The bus goes into areas not traditionally associated with the important, beautiful or significant, raising issues of preservation, adaptive reuse and the evolution of the city from Spanish ranchos to the 'burbs. The locations all speak to the power, mutability and reach of the Southern California Dream.

ABOUT THE REYNER BANHAM LOVES L.A. TOUR SERIES:
In addition to the upcoming SOUTH L.A. and ROUTE 66 tours, Esotouric's ongoing architecture and urbanism tour series includes THE NEW CHINATOWNS, BOYLE HEIGHTS and THE LOWDOWN ON DOWNTOWN. Inspired by the British architectural critic Reyner Banham, who host Richard Schave studied under at UC Santa Cruz, the REYNER BANHAM LOVES LOS ANGELES series offers a fresh way of looking at the urban web of history, mass transit, migration and mystery that somehow holds L.A. together. The Reyner Banham Loves LA series of Esotouric bus adventures provides fresh ways of seeing the Southland and mingling with fascinating fellow travelers, and are a must for urban explorers, architecture buffs, curious locals, daring tourists, and anyone who enjoys turning over rocks to reveal the secrets beneath. Come ride and see for yourself.

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour and special event schedule
Sat April 16 - The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour (sold out)
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.
Sun April 24 - LAVA's free Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)
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.
Sun May 29 - LAVA's free Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat June 4 - Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour
Sat June 18 - Pasadena Confidential crime bus tour (weekend pass available)
Sun June 19 - Eastside Babylon crime bus tour (weekend pass available)
Sun June 26 - LAVA's free Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat July 9 - The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour
Sat July 16 - Raymond Chandler's L.A.
Sat July 30 - Maja's Mysteries: Rapture & Release
Sun July 31 - LAVA's free Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)

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

For more on Reyner Banham, see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reyner_Banham

And the BBC documentary "Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles"
http://reyner.notlong.com

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