ISBN []-312-15A51-7 >$1E.T5 CHAltDLERTOUfll The Los Angeles ef Philip marloue Edward Thorpe “The law was something to be mani­ pulated for profit and power. The streets were dark with something more than night.” —Raymond Chandler Here is Los Angeles through the eyes of Philip Marlowe, the hard-boiled private eye featured in such renowned Raymond Chandler novels as The Big Sleep and Farewell My Lovely. Colorful, corrupt, glamorous, and dangerous—that was L. A. during the thirties and forties, and in Chandlertown Edward Thorpe recreates its vivid landscape. Marlowe was obsessed with gangsters, cars, guns, and a certain kind of woman, and he saw it all on the lush boulevards as well as on the seedy down­ town streets. Thorpe cleverly contrasts Marlowe’s L.A. with its contemporary counterpart, illuminating how much has changed—and how much remains the same. Today, as yesterday, glitter and glamour coexist with a shadowy subculture—organized crime, cops on the take, blackmail in high places— and it is that deadly combination that makes L.A. so exciting. Photographs throughout the text illustrate the land­ marks cited by Chandler in his novels. (continued on back flap) CHAHDLER10UII1 By the same author The Night I Caught the Santa Fe Chief CHANDLERTOWN The Los Ang eles of Philip Marlowe E d w a r d T h o r p e St. Martin’s Press New York chandlertown. Copyright © 1983 by Edward Thorpe. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Thorpe, Edward. Chandlertown: the Los Angeles of Philip Marlowe. 1. Chandler, Raymond, 1888-1959—Settings. 2. Los Angeles (Calif.)—Description. 3. Chandler, Raymond, 1888-1959—Characters—Philip Marlowe. I. Title. PS3505. H3224Z87 1984 813'.52 83-24413 ISBN 0-312-12851-7 First Published in Great Britain in 1983 by Vermilion & Company First U.S. Edition 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ( oiiehis Author’s Note 9 1 All colours of the spectrum 11 2 A world gone wrong 13 3 Because they are phoney 18 4 Everything else was junk 32 5 A faint smell of ocean 40 6 One-man death watch 48 7 Erotic as a stallion 54 8 Punch drunk by this time 62 9 Women make me sick 68 10 A flesh-pink Mercedes-Benz 75 11 I’ll take the big, sordid, dirty city 81 12 An agonizing experience 90 13 The chimpanzee who played the violin 98 For Arlen and Shel Stuart