Liz Goldwyn — author, filmmaker and former New York editor of French Vogue — and New Yorker feature writer Susan Orlean discuss L.A.’s 1890s Red Light Era of legal prostitution and rampant morphine addiction, on Tuesday, Oct. 13, 7:30 p.m. at the UCLA Hammer Museum’s Billy Wilder Theater.
Goldwyn’s new book “Sporting Guide: Los Angeles, 1897” (Regan Arts, 2015) is a collection of stories based on original research in the libraries and archives of Los Angeles. In a series of haunting, interlinked stories set in the period, she recreates a “sporting guide” — a secret diary and guidebook of the best brothels and prostitutes in the city. The stories are inspired by real historical characters such as laudanum-addicted Cora Phillips, Italian immigrant slumlord Bartolo Ballerino and 13-year-old Frances, who dreams of a world beyond the Children's Orphan Asylum.
Orlean, bestselling author of “The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Possession: (Ballatine Books, 2000, 13th edition), is currently working on a book that will chronicle the history of the L.A. Public Library and, in particular, the fire set by an arsonist that nearly consumed the library in 1986. She has been conducting research at the historic building on Flower Street in downtown L.A. as well as conducting interviews of past and current librarians.
A book signing with both authors and complimentary coffee and tea will follow the discussion.
For more information about the event, which is free and open to the public, visit Hammer Museum.
