| Denny and Lawrence were both born in the Port of Los Angeles community of Wilmington. They went to different elementary schools but they both went to Wilmington Jr. High and Phineas Banning High School. Years later they both got jobs at Paramount Pictures as tour guides. Up to this time they never met each other. Here's their stories... My name is Lawrence. There was a time in my life when I was a studio tour guide at a major Hollywood motion picture studio for a good many years. I met people from all over the world. That's what made my job interesting and different each day. Visitors asked me all kinds of questions, not only those relating to the studio and film business in general but questions about Los Angeles also. I was surprised that many of the tourists had false impressions about this city, such as Los Angeles has little or no culture (this city has more than 300 cultural venues), no downtown (then what's that place with all the tall buildings then?), no mass transit (we have 600 miles of rail mass transit), no natives (then who's being born in all those hospitals?) etc. Get the picture? That's why I'm doing this web site, to take those questions and answer them with text and pictures. And now a little about me. I was born then raised in the rough industrial neighborhood of Wilmington in the waterfront area of the Port of Los Angeles. That's where the oil refineries are located. There used to be shipyards there too but all have since closed down. Most of my neighbors were second and third generation dock workers and tuna fishermen (and women now) as the fish canneries of Chicken of the Sea, Starkist and others were also located there. As you can imagine, there were a variety of smells in the air, usually a mixture of crude oil and rotting fish. To add to the ambiance, a city dump was also located in my old neighborhood. About nine out of ten people residing in the harbor communities of Wilmington and San Pedro are native born, the highest ratio in the City of Los Angeles. Today I live with my wife in our beautiful three story townhouse about four miles west of City Hall in an area that residents call East Hollywood but which I've personally dubbed South Los Feliz. It just sounds better to me. Since we live within walking distance of a Metro Rail subway station, we take advantage of the city's mass transit system. I dumped my car many years ago (my wife kept hers) after discovering that I wasn't using it often enough, yet I continued to pay high prices for gas, insurance and the yearly license registration fee and taxes. Whenever I did have to drive it was always a hassle getting from one place to another on congested streets. Now each month I purchase a Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) Metro Pass for only $52 which allows me to ride MTA city buses, subways, and light rail trains to most areas of the city. Los Angeles is a constantly changing city and I will be updating these changes on this site. So in the meantime, please enjoy this site. Yours Truly, Lawrence - My name is Denny. Just like Lawrence I'm originally from Wilmington which was and still is the beer joint capital of the world thanks in part to the Longshoremen and Teamsters (my dad was a member of Teamster Local 396) who work in the port unloading and loading thousands of ships per year. Getting together in the beer joints and having a few dozen or so after work on Fridays was their favorite recreational activity. Here's my story. I went to Parochial (Catholic) school thru the 8th grade then I went on to public school (Wilmington Jr. High and Phineas Banning High). After graduation I took some classes at Los Angeles Harbor College but never completed them because I got a job as a movie theatre usher. Later I was trained as a projectionist then joined IATSE Los Angeles Local 150 as a member of the Moving Picture Operators union. It was a sweet life running films in the different theatres. I worked many of the downtown theatres including the State, Tower, Orpheum, and Roxie. I also ran films at the Wiltern, the old UA Theatre in Westwood Village, and the Paramount (now the El Cap), World, Fox, and Vogue theatres on Hollywood Blvd. As my senority improved I won the bid for the big prize, the Cinerama Dome. Eventually automation eliminated my job and other projectionist jobs as well. Projectionist jobs were getting scarce so I got a job at Universal Studios working with the IMAX team then later moved to Paramount Studios and worked in the Guest Relations office where besides answering phones I also did studio tours which I really enjoyed doing since I was able to straighten people out about what is the real Los Angeles and the unreal Los Angeles they see in the movies and on TV. Tourists always have a lot of misconceptions and questions about Los Angeles. My wife and I live just around the corner from Lawrence and his wife. We also live in an immaculate 3 story townhouse. I started this website in November of 2001 after leaving Paramount so I could continue to straighten people out about our city. Sincerely, Denny Amazing that Denny and Lawrence came from the same place and even went to the same school at the same time but never met until they both worked at Paramount Studios twenty-four years after graduating from Banning. Today best friends Denny and Lawrence live with their wives only a few blocks of each other in what is referred to as East Hollywood, a kind of no-mans-land bordered by Los Feliz, Silverlake and Koreatown. |
| ABOUT THE AUTHORS Lawrence & Denny |