The City of Angels? No burg this side of the Pearly Gates could live up to such a moniker, and L.A. isn?t even trying. You won?t see many inhabitants of that sprawling boom town sprouting downy wings or signing up for the Celestial Choir. Sure, L.A. has more than its share of evangelists, faith-healers, and political do-gooders, but when your economy is built on black gold, land speculation, the Hollywood dream factory, and the sweat of migrant workers, it attracts a lot more than just the saintly. The fresh-faced, scrubbed-clean, Midwest wholesomeness they plaster all over the real estate ads doesn?t even tell a tenth of the story.

You can?t have sunshine without casting shadows, and one thing L.A. has in spades is sunshine? 1920s Los Angeles is a fast-growing, fast-moving city encompassing all that is great and all that is rotten in America. A racial, ethnic, and religious melting pot presaging what America would become later in the century, L.A. nonetheless clings to a veneer of Wh.