The Britons who made their mark on LA
Expat James Aldous has become fascinated by the impact of British
migrants on Los Angeles. Here, he rounds up some of the most
important.
Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles is named after William Mulholland, a
British expat who helped to bring water to the city Photo: Richard
Wong / Alamy
11 Sep 2011
Since arriving in Los Angeles a little over five months ago, I’ve been
amazed at the wide array of diverse communities from differing
cultures who call LA their home, adding vibrancy to this place often
referred to as “culturally flat”.
Beyond the more obvious Chinatown and Koreatown, there is the Armenian
community in Glendale, and the Russians in West Hollywood (the most
concentrated single Russian-speaking region in the US outside of New
York), all adding to a rich tapestry of culture and style that imbues
this sprawling metropolis.
Each community brings diverse cultures, customs and – in some cases –
leave indelible marks of their contribution to this city. None more so
than individuals arriving here from the UK, who have made significant
additions, not just creatively in the entertainment industry in the
studios of Hollywood and beyond, but contributions that have shaped
the very fabric and physical manifestation of this city.
William Mulholland (1855-1935)
Many will be familiar with Mulholland Drive – the scenic road of
twisting turns and hairpin bends that runs through the hills of
Hollywood, Beverly Hills and beyond, providing breath-taking views of
the city on a clear day. Mulholland’s name was given to this road
after his role in bringing much-needed water to the city along this
pass in the form of The Los Angeles Aqueduct, completed in 1913.
Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Mulholland arrived in Los Angeles
in 1877 after a period with the British Merchant Navy. Settling here,
his career never ventured far from water and on his way to find work
on a ship, he took a job digging a well.
>From there, he rose to become the head of the Los Angeles Department
of Water and Power, where his work in acquiring water for the city was
not without controversy. The water was sourced from the Owens Valley –
both the lake and the river – creating anger amongst the farmers who
depended on it, and triggering the “California Water Wars”.
His career ended abruptly in 1928 after the collapse of the St.
Francis Dam, which killed hundreds and is often cited as the worst US
civil engineering disaster of the 20th Century. Those that have seen
the iconic Roman Polanski film Chinatown will recognize the
familiarity of Mulholland’s history in the character of Henry Mulray,
which was based loosely upon him.
Griffith J. Griffith (1850-1919)
Born in Bettws, South Wales, Griffith settled in Los Angeles in 1882
after living in Pennsylvania and San Francisco. After a career as the
mining correspondent for a San Francisco newspaper, Griffith earned
his money though employment by various mining companies, keen to
acquire his knowledge of the industry.
Shortly after arriving in Los Angeles he purchased 4,000 acres of the
Rancho Los Feliz Mexican land grant, and later donated over 3,000
acres to the city of Los Angeles for use as a public park in 1896. To
honour the donation, the park took the name “Griffith Park”. It is a
space five times that of New York’s Central Park, and where the
Hollywood sign resides.
His good name was tainted in 1903 when he shot his wife at the Arcadia
Hotel in Santa Monica, leaving her alive but disfigured after the loss
of an eye. A heavy drinker – and subject to paranoid delusions – the
reason for his attempt on her life was due to his belief that his wife
and the Pope were conspiring to poison him.
After two years in prison, Griffith returned to Los Angeles and,
attempting to make good again his name, offered money to build a
theatre and hall of science within Griffith Park. Although initially
rejected, the city eventually took the bulk of the $1.5 million estate
bequeathed in his will, using it to build the Greek Theater (1929) and
the Griffith Observatory (1935), which remain popular facilities to
this day.
John Parkinson (1861-1935)
A celebrated architect who created the iconic Los Angeles City Hall
and Central Station, Parkinson was born in Scorton, Lancashire and
began his life as a builder in Bolton, before coming to North America
at the age of 21. Settling in Los Angeles in 1894, he established his
architectural practise in Downtown Los Angeles.
Parkinson brought the first skyscraper to Los Angeles – the Braly
Block at 408 South Spring Street, standing some 175 feet high and
completed in 1904.
However it was City Hall that dominated the Downtown landscape from
its completion in 1928 (co-designed with Albert C. Martin and John C.
Austin), until the law stipulating it should the tallest building in
Los Angeles was changed in 1956, making way for the high risers that
now occupy the area.
David Hockney (1937 to present)
Hockney’s visuals are as typically LA as the Hollywood sign or Sunset
Boulevard. The ability to capture the area’s unique colours, the
bright blissful blues of the sky and swimming pools especially, are
what have helped define this enfant terrible of 1960s pop art culture.
He sometimes refers to himself as an “English Los Angelino”, saying of
LA:
`There’s a quite sophisticated city out there, yet you can live
privately in it.’
Born and schooled in Bradford, he has lived in the Hollywood Hills
since 1978. He now spends a lot of his time in Yorkshire, as he
prepares for an exhibition at the Royal Academy, due to open in
January 2012.
Christopher Isherwood (1904- 1986)
Isherwood, born in Cheshire and settling in Los Angeles in 1939,
remarked in his diary that it was `perhaps the ugliest city on earth’
and that he was `amazed at the size of the city and its lack of
shape’.
Isherwood came to love the place eventually through the interesting
characters he met and socialized with there – Tennessee Williams,
Bertholt Brecht, Charlie Chaplin and Greta Garbo amongst them. He
would later say that he felt there was no point justifying the allure
of the city to people: `either they understand it’s the only place or
they don’t’.
Although his observations of California don’t feature in the early
works for which he is most known, he did create some of his finest
material here including A Single Man, a semi-autobiographical work.
Aldous Huxley
Similarly taking an immediate dislike to the city on first arrival,
Huxley called Los Angeles the `city of dreadful joy’, where `thought
is barred’ and `conversation is unknown’, in his essay Los Angeles. A
Rhapsody. He also talked of the strange religions and assembly-line
movie making which permeated the city.
However, he was amused by all the differences and interests, `There is
everything in Los Angele…like Venice in 17th century – where East
and West would meet and everything would happen here.’
James Aldous, who works in communications, recently moved to Los
Angeles. You can follow him on Twitter here.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatlife/8751943/The-Britons-who-made-their-mark-on-LA.html