Esotouric, Los Angeles
Dark Side
WHAT: Esotouric presents the Pasadena Confidential crime bus tour with
Crimebo the Clown
WHEN: Saturday June 8, 12pm-4pm (tour repeats September 28)
WHERE: Tour departs from Fair Oaks and Arlington Street, South Pasadena
COST: $58/person
RELATED TOURS: The crime bus rolls every Saturday in June, including East
Side Babylon (6/1), Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice (6/15) and Weird West
Adams (6/22)
INFO: http://www.esotouric.com, 213-373-1947
LOS ANGELES On June 8, Esotouric, the eclectic bus adventure company whose offbeat tours expose L.A.’s secret history, offers its popular, occasional Pasadena Confidential tour, a true crime bus adventure delving deep into the weird and horrible past of one of L.A.’s most exclusive suburbs. Making a special appearance on this tour: Crimebo the Crime Clown, providing comic relief and leading a supervised history walk onto Pasadena’s legendary Suicide Bridge.
In June, Esotouric offers four different neighborhood crime bus tours: East Side Babylon (6/1, East LA, Boyle Heights, Commerce, Montebello), Pasadena Confidential (6/8, Pasadena, South Pasadena, San Marino), Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice (6/15, Downtown LA), Weird West Adams (6/22, West Adams). Taken together or individually, they offer an alternative history of life and death in 20th Century Los Angeles.
Tour guide Kim Cooper, who wrote and researched the Pasadena Confidential tour, says, “I believe every neighborhood gets the crimes it deserves, and Pasadena’s dark side is suitably rife with rocket scientists driven mad by their work, wealthy eccentrics spoiling their pet chimps and bears, seemingly respectable families misbehaving behind tall hedges and a general air of genteel psychic decay.”
Crime fiends will enjoy a four-hour guided luxury bus tour to the darkest recesses of Pasadena history, with vintage photos and film clips show to set the scene. From celebrated cases like the Robert Kennedy assassination (Sirhan Sirhan was a Pasadena resident), “Eraserhead” star Jack Nance’s strange end, firebug arson investigator John Orr, black magician/rocket scientist Jack Parsons’ death-by-misadventure and the 1926 Rose Parade grand stand collapse, to fascinating obscurities, the tour’s multitude of murders, arsons, kidnappings, robberies, suicides, auto wrecks and oddball happenings provide an alternate history of Pasadena that’s as fascinating as it is creepy.
Crime Bus passengers will tour the old Millionaire’s Row on Orange Grove, boggle at the shocking Sphinx Murder on the steps of the downtown Masonic Hall, thrill to the misadventures of one very poorly-behaved (but beautifully dressed!) chimpanzee and discover why people named Judd and rocket scientists should think twice before moving to Pasadena. And they’ll enjoy the offbeat charms of Crimebo the Crime Clown as he leads passengers out onto Suicide Bridge for a personal look down into the gorge that tempted dozens of tormented souls to their demise.
Riders on this eye-opening, funny and informative tour will forever see Pasadena in a new light. It is highly recommended for natives and newcomers alike, crime and history buffs and anyone who likes to seek out the unexpected.
And if you’re looking for offbeat L.A. history but can’t wait to ride the Esotouric bus, there’s plenty of good stuff online. Esotouric’s weekly podcast You Can’t Eat The Sunshine launched in January 2013 and can be found at http://esotouric.com/canteatsunshine and on iTunes and excerpted on L.A. Magazine’s CityThink blog. And in addition to this and other historic Los Angeles bus tours, Esotouric’s team created the 1947project “time travel blog” series of alternate history websites, including In SRO Land (“lost lore of the historic core” at www.insroland.org), On Bunker Hill
(www.onbunkerhill.org) and the original 1947project (“a crime a day” from 1947, 1927 and 1907 at www.1947project.com and 1947project.blogspot.com).
Upcoming Esotouric bus tour and special event schedule (free events starred)
Sat June 1 – Eastside Babylon crime bus tour
Sat June 8 – Pasadena Confidential crime bus tour
Sat Jun 15 Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour
Sat June 22 – Weird West Adams crime bus tour
* Sun June 30 – LAVA’s Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat July 13 – Charles Bukowski’s LA
Sat July 20 – The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain’s Southern California
Nightmare
Sat July 27 – The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour
* Sun July 28 – LAVA’s Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sun August 4 – South L.A. Road Trip: Hot Rods, Adobes, Googie & Early
Modernism
Sat August 10 – Raymond Chandler’s Los Angeles
Sat August 17 – Boyle Heights & The San Gabriel Valley: The Hidden Histories
of L.A.’s Melting Pot
Sat August 24 – The Lowdown on Downtown
* Sun August 25 – LAVA’s Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat September 7 – Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour
Sat September 14 – Weird West Adams crime bus tour
Sat September 21 – Eastside Babylon crime bus tour
Sat September 28 – Pasadena Confidential crime bus tour
Esotouric’s Richard Schave and Kim Cooper are proud members of LAVA – The Los Angeles Visionaries Association. http://www.lavatransforms.org
For more info on Esotouric, visit http://www.esotouric.com
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