This time on Alice's Hollywood Checklist, we head to Echo Park and walk through Echo Park Lake with Stephanie Carrie, host of the Trees of L.A. walking tour.

Hop on the 2 and it'll shoot you out onto Glendale Boulevard. Drive south, through silent film history, and make a left on Montana, then a right on Lemoyne. There's lots of really good food spots so lemme know what you're thinking if you're hungry! If you park in that parking lot we could check out this cool bookstore/cafe before we walk to the lake.

It's National Library Week here in the US, where, in an ironic twist [/sarcasm], the current administration is essentially trying to erase the first amendment and rid the nation of its information and cultural centers through gigantic cuts to funding. We are not going to let that happen!

On this episode of Alice's Hollywood Checklist, we explore the magic of libraries and of words. Discussed are Bette Davis' anti-McCarthyism film Storm Center (1956), the life and work of Octavia E. Butler, the Los Angeles Public Library, censorship, librarians in cinema, and more.

Fight back against the dismantling of libraries, museums, and other cultural centers! As this episode illustrates, the censorship in the United States is connected to censorship against people across the globe, like what is happening when people in Palestine share information about history and current events, and opinions. Just as we recognize the urgency of the current moment in the US, so, too, must we support the free speech and independence of people around the globe. Free Palestine!

Check out the links below.

Press release from California State Library RE: federal funding from IMLS

Show up for our libraries - American Library Association

LAPL's website

Storm Center (1956) full movie

Octavia's Bookshelf in Pasadena

Educational Bookshop in Jerusalem

A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky: The World of Octavia Butler by Lynell George

Democracy Now!

A lot has happened in Los Angeles since the last Alice's Hollywood Checklist. Take a break. Tune in to this episode and dig in to a brief history of how Angelenos have convened in public spaces to enjoy ice cream throughout the years. Featuring commentary by Daniel Zafran of L.A. Meekly!

In this episode of Alice's Hollywood Checklist, we explore the role of celluloid monster as villainous other. Citing media throughout the decades, we look at the monster's connections to the queer community, the disability community, and the facial differences community.

Find Alice's Hollywood Checklist on Instagram and TikTok @AlicesHollywoodChecklist. Happy Halloween!

In 1947, Edythe Eyde adopted the pen name Lisa Ben - an anagram of "lesbian" - and wrote "Vice Versa: America's Gayest Magazine" from her office at RKO Radio Pictures in Hollywood.

Thank you to Loni Shibuyama, archivist at USC’s ONE Archive, and the Making Gay History podcast. Edythe Eyde audio courtesy of Making Gay History. Find the Making Gay History podcast on all major podcast platforms and at makinggayhistory.org.