The Mirage Factory: Illusion, Imagination, and the Invention of Los Angeles

Books

"The story of the metropolis that never should have been and the visionaries who dreamed it into reality. Little more than a century ago, the southern coast of California--bone-dry, harborless, isolated by deserts and mountain ranges--seemed destined to remain scrappy farmland. Then, as if overnight, one of the world's iconic cities emerged. At the heart of Los Angeles's meteoric rise were three flawed visionaries: William Mulholland, an immigrant ditchdigger turned self-taught engineer, who designed the massive aqueduct that would make urban life there possible; D.W. Griffith, who transformed the motion picture from a vaudeville-house novelty into a cornerstone of American culture and gave L.A. its signature industry; and Aimee Semple McPherson, a charismatic evangelist who founded a religion and cemented the city's identity as a center for spiritual exploration. All were masters of their craft, but also illusionists of a kind. The images they conjured up--of a blossoming city in the desert, of a factory ...