Echo Park
Echo Park is a district of Los Angeles located northwest of downtown. It is east and southeast of Silver Lake, north of Westlake/Mac Arthur Park and southwest of Elysian Park.
Echo Park was named Edendale before the construction of the park itself; the local U.S. Post Office and a public library branch are still named Edendale.
History
Echo Park was the original center of the film industry in Los Angeles, before the studios moved to Hollywood just before World War I. Mack Sennett's studio was located in Echo Park until the end of the silent era, and a large number of silent comedies were shot in the neighborhood. Tom Mix also built his studio here, just over the hill in the Silverlake area, and many Westerns were shot in hills of Echo Park, East Silverlake and the Elysian Hills. Some of the earliest screen performers, including Gloria Swanson and Tom Mix bought homes in the Angelino Heights and surrounding neighborhoods before also moving to Hollywood and other areas. The area has continued to be used as a location for films such as Farewell, My Lovely, Echo Park, Mi Vida Loca and Quinceanera. The 1960s television series Gilligan's Island was shot in the area as well as scenes in Michael Jackson's 1982 music video Thriller. The Manor, a house in the television series Charmed, is also located here. The area is popular with modern filmmakers for the pre-World War II look of some districts.
Before World War II Echo Park was a middle class neighborhood, nicknamed "Red Hill" for a concentration of political radicals living there. Postwar flight to the suburbs resulted in Echo Park becoming overwhelmingly Latino; although other ethnic groups have always had a presence in the neighborhood. Many working-class Chinese immigrants have settled in Echo Park due to its proximity to Chinatown, Los Angeles, California, and the area overlaps the Lttle Manila distict of Los Angeles, home to thousands of Filipinos, and a small enclave of African-Americans has existed there, east of Alvarado Blvd. and west of Bonnie Brae Street, since the 1920s. Renowned 70s beauty queen and model, Veronica Porsche, second wife of boxer Muhammed Ali, came from this neighborhood. The area , even today , has been known to attract the creative, underground, independant, and iconoclastic elements of society. Famous artist residents have included such luminaries as writers Leo Politi and Carey McWilliams, painters Carlos Almaraz, and Philip Dike, famed muralist Kent Twitchell, actors Anthony Quinn and Jack Webb, architect Harwell Hamilton Harris, book seller and art dealer Jake Zeitlin, famed wood engraver Paul Landacre, opera singer Marilyn Horne, conductor Henry Lewis, jazz great Art Pepper, film director John Huston, African-American playwright , poet and screenwriter, Lemar Randle Fooks, as well as Edward Middleton Manigault, who exhibited the nation's first exhibtion of modern art. The painter Jackson Pollock, also made his home here as a child. Echo Park was also home to Art Ingals, who in 1956 built the first Go-Kart in history out of a store front on the 1900 block of Echo Park Blvd , and who started an industry that counts over 1 million competitive racers world wide, and numbers in the several million in just weekend enthusiasts. Professional baseball player, Luis Gomez, who played for the Twins, The Blue Jays, and the Braves during the 70s and 80s, also resided there. Baseball god Babe Ruth himself, maintained an apartment at the Crown Hill apartments in South Echo Park for much of the 20s and 30s.
The commercial district along Sunset Boulevard suffered greatly in the 1950s from the condemnation of the residences in nearby Chavez Ravine to build Dodger Stadium. The area in the immediate vicinity of the park itself became seriously beset by problems with drugs and gangs in the 1970s and 1980s. During the 1960s and 70s, the area became known as a hippy enclave, and attracted many young musicians, artists, and craftspeople. Some residents during that era included J.D Souther & Glenn Fry of the Eagles , Tom Waits, Jackson Browne, and Frank Zappa. The writer and poet Charles Bukowski was known to frequent the local dives, as did actor,"Resevoir Dog" and movie tough-guy, Lawrence Tierney. The hilly northern part of the district that is adjacent to Elysian Park is called "Elysian Heights" and has always maintained a genteel character. In recent years the lower areas closer to Sunset Boulevard have become popular with young musicians, artists , young Yuppie poseurs and entertainment industry workers.
Attractions
Local attractions include the eponymous Echo Park, with a small lake. Given its large amount of lotus leaves in the lake, the park is the site of the annual Lotus Festival, a pan-Asian celebration complete with Chinese dragon boat races. The event has been held since the late 1970s and it showcases a different Asian ethnicity (such as Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Filipino, Bangladeshi, and so on) every year. It attracts Asian Americans as well as other local residents. The festival itself came under criticism by locals in 1979, when festival directors refused to let the local garage band , The Alleyheads, which comprised of Asians, latinos, and whites, play at the festival, yet let several tame white and asian "pop" groups approved by the city, perform. The community was angered , especialy since the guitar player for the band , Nathan Mercado, was the son of the leader of one of the greatest Asian singing groups of the 50s, Doy Mercado and the Orientones, and who had performed on Ed Sullivan Show during their heyday. The members of the band, lead guitar Alfred Corpuz, drummer Michael Miller, bass player Ralph Gonzales, manager and renowned 70s poster maker, Rudy Zappa Martinez and of course, rhythm guitar, Nathan Mercado, reflected the diverse nature of the community, yet festival directors did not let them play in favor of out-of-town performers. The Alleyheads persisted for three more years , but each time were refused by the festival committee. Complaints mounted, and the city and the festival committee dropped their ban on rock bands in the middle 80s, but ironically hired only white rock bands at first, none which were indigenous to Echo Park itself.
There is also a Cuban festival held on the birthday of Cuban poet and patriot José Martí, who has a statue in the park.
Bordering the park are the cathedral of the Episcopalian diocese of Los Angeles and the famous Angelus Temple, a large Foursquare Gospel church built by Canadian-born Pentacostal evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson in 1923.
Currently, Echo Park is home to many unique businesses, boutiques and art galleries.