Los Angeles History & Facts

Los Angeles, city, seat of Los Angeles county, southern California, U.S. It is the second most populous city and metropolitan area (after New York City) in the United States. The city sprawls across a broad coastal plain situated between mountains and the Pacific Ocean; the much larger Los Angeles county, which encompasses the city, contains some 90 other incorporated cities, including Beverly Hills, Pasadena, and Long Beach. The county also encompasses two of the Channel Islands, Santa Catalina and San Clemente; Mount San Antonio, familiarly known as Mount Baldy or Old Baldy, 10,046 feet (3,062 metres) high; more than 900 square miles (2,330 square km) of desert; and 75 miles (120 km) of seacoast.

Since the city and the county are interwoven geographically, culturally, and economically, any consideration of Los Angeles must, to some degree, involve both entities. Population density around the metropolitan area varies greatly—as low as one person per square mile in mountainous areas and as high as 50,000 per square mile near downtown Los Angeles. Area city, 466 square miles (1,207 square km); county, 4,070 square miles (10,540 square km). Pop. (2000) 3,694,820; Los Angeles–Long Beach–Glendale Metro Division, 9,519,338; Los Angeles–Long Beach–Santa Ana Metro Area, 12,365,627; (2010) 3,792,621; Los Angeles–Long Beach–Glendale Metro Division, 9,818,605; Los Angeles–Long Beach–Santa Ana Metro Area,12,828,837.

Southern California’s regional economy is huge, diversified, and in a perpetual state of flux. Agriculture became important after the first citrus orchards were planted by Spanish missionaries in the 1700s. Manufacturing has also been important. The county features a wide range of financial and business services, high-technology manufacturing, and craft and fashion industries such as jewelry, clothing, toys, music, and, most famously, movies. If the Los Angeles metropolis were a country, it would have a gross national product exceeding those of all but a handful of the most prosperous countries in the world.

Los Angeles entered the 20th century with the reputation of an overgrown village run by prudes and philistines. Eastern newcomers of the 1910s were aghast that no restaurant would serve a glass of wine with lunch. The later image of Los Angeles as “Tinseltown” was expressed by New Yorker Woody Allen in his 1977 film Annie Hall, “I don’t want to live in a city where the only cultural advantage is that you can make a right turn on a red light.” Nevertheless, by then the metropolis was already home to countless creative artists—including Europeans such as Aldous Huxley, Billy Wilder, and Thomas Mann—who nurtured all of the arts and created impressive cultural institutions. In the 1960s an arts renaissance was begun by Dorothy Chandler, a civic leader and mother of Otis Chandler, when she tapped into private and corporate charities and arranged a county subsidy for the Los Angeles Music Center (which included the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion). The city bolstered its own arts program by requiring builders to set aside “one percent [of construction costs] for the arts” at major building construction sites and by supporting an arts council, which, among other things, funded many of the 1,000 murals that are now a prominent part of the cityscape.

Famous Peoples From Los Angeles

Eric Bauza

Eric Adrian Bauza (born December 7, 1979) is a Filipino-Canadian voice actor, former stand-up comedian, brief late-night host, and animation artist. His roles include Stimpy on Ren and Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon", Rudolfo Rivera/White Pantera on El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera, Foop on The Fairly OddParents, Lord Stingray on Superjail!, Chairman Drek from the 2016 Ratchet & Clank game, the Beagle Boys on DuckTales, Master Frown on Unikitty! Flip Champion on Ballmastrz: 9009 and Leonardo in Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He is also one of the current voices of characters such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Marvin the Martian, Pepé Le Pew, Tweety, Barnyard Dawg, Henery Hawk, Woody Woodpecker, Boo-Boo Bear, Ranger Smith, and Dino.

Los Angeles Points of Interest

Battleship USS Iowa Museum
Universal Studios Hollywood
The Getty Center
Petersen Automotive Museum
Griffith Observatory