Los Angeles Times Festival of Books: California Dreamin': Walter Mosley, Ron Brownstein & David L. Ulin on Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s

The 2021 Online Version of the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books was a few months back and so I'm a bit late in getting these posts out, but as always I seriously enjoyed catching various panel discussions. One such panel discussion was about California in the 1960s and 1970s called "California Dreamin': Walter Mosley, Ron Brownstein & David L. Ulin on Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s."

Here are some bios of Ron Brownstein and Walter Mosley that I took from the LA Times website:

Ronald Brownstein, a two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of presidential campaigns, is a senior editor at The Atlantic, and a senior political analyst for CNN. He also served as the national political correspondent and national affairs columnist for the Los Angeles Times and covered he White House and national politics for the National Journal . . . His newest release is Rock Me on the Water: 1974-The Year Los Angeles Transformed Movies, Music, Television, and Politics.

Walter Mosley is the author of more than 60 critically-acclaimed books of fiction, nonfiction, memoir and plays. His work has been translated into 25 languages. From the first novel he published, Devil in a Blue Dress with its protagonist Easy Rawlins, Mosley’s work has explored the lives of Black men and women in America—past, present and future—in a rich exploration of genre with his latest including the short story collection, The Awkward Black Man.

The following are my notes from the panel discussion:

Ron Brownstein

He lived in Los Angeles during the 1980s and 1990s. In the early 1970s, you had entertainment and social issues combining in a unique constellation of talent. When it came to movies, there was Chinatown and The Godfather. There was music such as Joni Mitchell and The Eagles. On TV, there was All in the Family and MASH. To him, this represented a time where social issues became part of the culture. 

One drawback of the Baby Boomer generation was that they were good at discussing social issues, but weren't able to get political candidates elected that would implement solutions to those issues. One reason is that the generation had both a conservative and liberal side. The conservative side was able to control politics while the liberal side controlled culture.

He decided to focus on 1974, because he felt this was a year where the stars aligned in Los Angeles. You had Jackson Brown and Linda Ronstadt, for example. It was a year where the social movement got picked up in popular culture. There were different attitudes about sex and family. In the 1960s, social issues were largely ignored, but the 1970s changed that as that was the interest of the Baby Boomer generation. A blind spot of the era was that it wasn't all inclusive. For example, there wasn't a sense of solidarity among women who broke though into TV. There was a sense that they had made it and wanted to remain so were more thinking about themselves versus others. But there was also growing inclusion as in 1974, 1 in 8 characters on television were minorities.

Even though the early 1970s had a liberal side to it culturally, that only lasted for so long. By the mid-70s, Jaws came out and similar blockbuster movies started to take over the landscape. There was a conservative backlash and exhaustion around the social movement.

Los Angeles isn't that different from any other major city. Cities over-all are doing well. There is no city that has resolved racial and class inequality. Inequality is a problem for blue states. One difference is that Los Angeles is a magnet for cultural talent. It is receptive to new ideas.

Walter Mosley

When writing a book, he doesn't really know where he's going until he's finished his first draft. 

The hippie movement was a multi-racial movement. People came to it for different reasons. Not everyone had the same thoughts when it came to the movement -- but if they did, they would start a commune. They want to change the world. They wanted to be free, live the life they wanted to live. 

They wanted to live a different life than those who went through the Great Depression and WWII. 

Our history isn't based on historic reality due to a lack of focus on minorities. How can you move forward if your decisions are based on something that is partially untrue? He used to watch Sgt. Bilko every week, because there was one black guy -- even though he didn't say anything. 

A deeper schism is being healed. Who has money? Who feels comfortable? Riots in 1965, Black people were protesting. Now, it is all people. There is now a feeling that we all have the same problems and that no one (left or right) is addressing the problems.

Los Angeles is different than other cities. It has grown faster than any other city. It grew so fast that it was hard to have segregated parts of the city -- specifically when it came to jobs. His parents worked with people from many cultures. 

Hippies didn't care about getting people elected. Get rich, get high, get laid.

My Thoughts

A solid discussion. Interesting note about how Ron Brownstein noted that the social movement that evaded popular culture had a rather short life-span as the movie Jaws resulted in a shift into a more blockbuster type entertainment. One has to wonder if the same will hold true today. As the pandemic fades into the background, will people want to continue pushing for social change or just have fun after being largely locked down for over a year.