Saturday, April 6, 2024

Join Esotouric for an immersive time travel trip in the footsteps of novelist and screenwriter John Fante (1909-1983) through Downtown Los Angeles and Bunker Hill, On this special edition of the tour hosted on John Fante’s birthday, we’ll be joined by Fante’s family and Bunker Hill native son Gordon Pattison, and end the walk with birthday cake.

Before Jack Kerouac, before Charles Bukowski, there was John Fante, author of the classic comic novel Ask the Dust (1939) and four more books featuring his alter-ego Arturo Bandini, an outspoken, down-and-out Mr. Hyde to Fante’s Dr. Jekyll. As Bunker Hill’s prodigal son, Fante chronicles a colorful Los Angeles neighborhood teeming with immigrants, criminals and dreamers like himself, until redevelopment forces swept the people, the buildings and much of Bunker Hill itself away. But Arturo Bandini’s voice remains as strong and relevant today as it was in 1939. So please join us as we follow in his footsteps, to the hidden speakeasy beneath the King Eddy Saloon, Central Library and John Fante Square, for a ride on his beloved Angels Flight Railway and across the new, corporate Bunker Hill in search of echoes of the lost neighborhood.

Visit the link to purchase tickets:

JOHN FANTE’S DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES TOUR & BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION | Esotouric