Introducing “Greetings from Los Angeles,” my latest pictorial history from publisher Gibbs Smith.

Following the format of my other books, “Greetings” is a comprehensive, humorous, historical tour of Greater Los Angeles told through vintage images (postcards, photographs, brochures, matchbooks and other dazzling ephemera).

This is the amazon link if you’d like to purchase a copy, or come to my book launch/slide talk at Soap Plant Wacko in Los Feliz on August 19th where there will be a special surprise (more on that in a few days).

Featured are over 250 rare glimpses of the city, starting with its early years as a dusty pueblo; Chinatown’s evolution; the miraculous orange empire; backyard oil wells; Venice of America; roaring 1920s and corrupt 1930s; colorful evangelists; glamorous Wilshire Boulevard; fabulous nightclubs; movie studios and lavish stars’ estates; and theme parks such as Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm, and Marineland of the Pacific.

Witness the birth of midcentury modernism, futuristic Googie coffee shops, and space-age LAX.  Recall a postwar suburban paradise of drive-ins, bowling palaces, beach parties, Dodgers baseball, hotrod culture, and mushrooming tract developments.