Year: 2011

The map shown above represents Westwood and UCLA in 1934. It is a component of a larger LA-area map available for manipulation at http://www.bigmapblog.com/2011/los-angeles-the-wonder-city-of-america-1934/

In earlier posts (scroll to bottom), we reproduced some UC Extension catalogs from the early 1930s from the LA area.  I have now located another catalog – this one from September 1930. The Extension operation operated out of a building on 8th and Hill Street in downtown LA with sites for courses scattered around the County and out to Ventura and Riverside.  Extension appears to have been run out of Berkeley (UCLA was still the “Southern Branch” of UC and had just moved to its Westwood location) but the UCLA provost was later represented on its controlling board.  He is…

As anyone who has been on the UCLA campus for a period of time knows, the campus is often used for movie and TV locations.  Recently, in the 2011 film “Water for Elephants,” UCLA briefly became Cornell, as the photo from the film shows.  (The plot involves a veterinary student at Cornell whose studies are interrupted by a family tragedy and joins the circus during the 1930s.)  UCLA has rules about filming on campus, reproduced in italic below. FAQs for Film and Photography Shoots at UCLA Summary: Here are the answers to your most frequently asked questions. How much notice…

Václav Havel, the former dissident playwright and president of Czechoslovakia who died yesterday, visited UCLA on October 25, 1991 when the Czech and Slovak parts of Czechoslovakia were still somewhat united.  He received the UCLA Medal.  Oddly, the LA Times made little reference to the event – at least so it appears after a significant web search.  Apparently, Havel was originally supposed to come on April 18, 1991, according to an LA Times story the previous February: See http://articles.latimes.com/1991-02-07/news/we-1183_1_czech-leader However, it seems that the April date was postponed.  I found no reference to the actual visit in the LA Times,…