Good morning. It’s Saturday, and this is your one-minute, weekly roundup of L.A. Material’s best work.
1. Looking for rare Los Angeles decor?
Head to Arcadia this weekend for the L.A. County Vintage Postcard & Paper Show, a thrice-annual bazaar of vintage postcards, posters, and photos. We’ve got a preview — and some neat photos — of the collectors’ items you can expect: from 1940s pinup posters to promotional brochures for the then-brand new city of Anaheim.
2. It’s been a no good, very bad 10 years at USC.
The school was once the rising star of higher education. But then came a series of high-profile scandals in the late 2010s — followed by a different kind of institutional dysfunction revealed for the first time by L.A. Material. We have the untold story of how USC almost ran aground, and the improbable rise of its optimistic new leader.
3. On Sept. 11, 2001, a 28-year-old was running L.A.
You’d probably recognize him: It was Senator Alex Padilla, then a baby-faced City Council member serving as acting mayor. It’s easy to forget now, but for years, Padilla’s leadership during that crisis defined his young political career. Padilla and other city leaders spoke about the harrowing week when some thought L.A. might be under attack next.
MORE MATERIAL
SPEAKING OF USC: How will the school’s recent financial troubles affect its storied football team?
A NEW BOOK blends memoir and photography to chronicle the style and party culture of 1990s East L.A. youth.
THIS WEEK on our podcast L.A. World, our hosts discussed why so many reporters got the Clippers scandal so wrong.
LINKS YOU CLICKED MOST
THE NEW YORK TIMES has a harrowing story about two friends stranded at sea after renting jet skis in Long Beach last month.
NETFLIX PAID $1 million to develop a 23-page short story, the Hollywood Reporter notes. (The original version of THR’s article, and thus our original item, incorrectly stated that the story was a mere five-pager.) The sale was a demonstration of the continued dominance of the format in Hollywood that we first reported earlier this year.
A SOUTH PASADENA radiologist has built a following by hosting Peking duck pop-ups in his backyard.
