Pop Culture Historian Preserves LA’s Past While Looking to the Future
Alison Martino calls herself a “DeLorean of the internet” comparing herself to the iconic car that serves as a time machine in the movie “Back to the Future.”
The daughter of show business royalty, Martino has made it her life’s mission to preserve the pop-culture history of Southern California by creating Vintage Los Angeles, an online community with a thriving archive dedicated to documenting L.A.’s history, architecture, and show business.
“It’s like an online history book, and it’s told by the people that contribute stories every day,” Martino told The Epoch Times. “I’m documenting history online, that’s there forever.”
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Home to Hollywood and situated at the edge of the country right up against the glistening Pacific Ocean, Los Angeles represents the promise of futurity: fortune and fame, health and beauty, sunshine and open space. But as with all things, these positive dreams mean nothing without their opposites. So if you look under the surface of all the city s lightness, you ll find darkness: decaying bulbs on what used to be a neon sign and a neglected lot where a lush lawn has wilted due to drought. The multiplicity of Los Angeles, its penchant for performance and all things macabre, is exactly what lures people in. Hotel Cecil is no exception.