Fertile Ground

Los Angeles is the city of angels, where dreams are made, according to John Leland in Hip: The History, “the popular image of California as a land of sunshine and opportunity” (97). But it is also the home of pulp fiction and film noir. L.A. is the perfect setting for these dark and lurid stories and movies.

Heading West:

Many people after World War I and the Great Depression headed west to follow industrial expansion, in the hopes of finding jobs, and creating a new life. The mystic and glamour of L.A. had pulled people as far west as one could get in the hopes of eternal sunshine, economical stability, and fame. They wanted to reinvent themselves, and believed the stories of glamour and the easy life Hollywood portrayed out west.

Reality Sets In:

Once they arrived, and their dreams were shattered by the reality that not everyone makes it big in Hollywood, what was left over was not paradise, instead it was hell on earth. What they encountered was many of the things they had left, urban communities plighted by corruption and brutality. During the day there was a fare share of sun light and ocean breezes, but at night there was crime and disparity, surrounded by desert and dark ocean, entrapping them and discouraging any hopes of escape.

Birth of a Genres:

From this pulp fiction and film noir was born. The cynicism and desperation felt by the larger portion of L.A.’s population was captured by sensationalizing the dark underbelly and reality of the inhabitants. Hollywood depicted L.A. from the day, sunshine, growing suburban families, financial success, while pulp fiction and noir depicted the darkness and self-indulgence of its nights.

Los Angeles made an excellent backdrop for these two genres. And what has changed today? If a writer wants to depict characters living in excess and glamour on the surface but in reality live in disparity and violent lives, wouldn’t the city of angels still make a great setting. People today still move to Hollywood in hopes to live out their dreams of stardom, so Los Angeles continues to collect her casualties.