Posts by Mike McPhate

Paul Newman was a perfectionist, in acting, race car driving — and salad dressing. His wife, actress Joanne Woodward, told a story about the time they went for a meal at the exclusive Chasen’s in Beverly Hills. When waiters refused to comply with his request for olive oil, vinegar, chopped celery, salt, pepper, and mustard to make his…

In November 1913, water began pouring through the Los Angeles Aqueduct, making the city of Los Angeles as we know it possible. As social critic David Ulin recounted, photographs from the dedication ceremony in Sylmar captured “the apotheosis of the city’s creation myth.” One shot shows the water gushing into the waiting San Fernando Reservoir, a…