From the late Robert Campbell's IN LA-LA LAND WE TRUST:
"The rain had washed all the baby prostitutes and twangy
boys, the chicken hawks and queer bashers, the gonifs and
petty grifters off the four corners of Hollywood and Vine.
The empty streets looked as quiet and innocent as they had in
the fifties when Hollywood was still a small town
beauty."
With such an idyllic climate something had to be rotten in
Los Angeles. Add to that the fact this is where movie stars
and the attendent glamour was centered.The city has almost
becomes a character in some hard boiled writing.
Chandler wrote of it as a contemporary in
the '40's. and 50's. Mosley, Ellroy and Kaminsky have written
of it at that time. . How do hard boiled writers portray The
City of Angels and what influence does it have? Has the view
of modern Los Angeles as a city of corruption changed ?
I think Los Angeles' smog is
mentioned in all the books I have read that are set there in
the present day.. Each book of one author, John Shannon, has
had the environment as a continuing theme, as is evident in
his titles: THE CONCRETE RIVER, THE CRACKED EARTH and THE
POISON SKY.
Could Marlowe, Bosch or Elvis Cole have lived
elsewhere?
Mark
"The street was lined with run-down motels ...
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