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History Lessons

At my heart I’m a historian. So sometimes I write essays on weird topics. Yes, I write these because I want to, not because I’m getting paid or anything. Seriously.

Screencap: Men take a body out of the orange and blue Laff in the Dark building, covered in a white sheet.

Tracing the Journey of Mummified Outlaw Elmer McCurdy to the Long Beach Pike

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Last week I talked about the history of Long Beach’s infamous Pike, including the location being used in an episode of Charlie’s Angels and The Six Million Dollar Man. What I didn’t mention was that in the Charlie’s Angels episode, “To Kill an Angel,” a man’s body is found within the Pike’s Laff in the…

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A rounded front building faces the street, atop it a tall spire stretches toward a bright blue sky. Near the bottom red letters spell out "Crossroads of the World." Atop the spire a globe.

The Violent History of LA’s Iconic Crossroads of the World

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Sunset Boulevard is synonymous with Hollywood. It’s home to a plethora of iconic buildings and linked to many legendary people. One such building is Crossroads of the World, a bizarre little 1930s shopping center turned office complex that looks like something out of a Disney theme park, with a steamship style building “sailing” past storefronts…

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