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

About this book

From bestselling author Gary Krist 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 Californiabone-dry harbor-less isolated by deserts and mountain rangesseemed destined to remain scrappy farmland. Then as if overnight one of the worlds iconic cities emerged. At the heart of Los Angeles meteoric rise were three flawed visionaries: William Mulholland an immigrant ditch-digger turned self-taught engineer designed the massive aqueduct that would make urban life here possible. D.W. Griffith who transformed the motion picture from a vaudeville-house novelty into a cornerstone of American culture gave L.A. its signature industry. And Aimee Semple McPherson a charismatic evangelist who founded a religion cemented the citys identity as a center for spiritual exploration. All were masters of their craft but also illusionists of a kind. The images they conjured upof a blossoming city in the desert of a factory of celluloid dreamworks of a community of seekers finding personal salvation under the California sunwere like mirages liable to evaporate on closer inspection. All three would pay a steep price to realize these dreams in a crescendo of hubris scandal and catastrophic failure of design that threatened to topple each of their personal empires. Yet when the dust settled the mirage that was LA remained. Spanning the years from 1900 to 1930 The Mirage Factory is the enthralling tale of an improbable city and the people who willed it into existence by pushing the limits of human engineering and imagination.