Interesting Facts About Los Angeles

When you think about Los Angeles, California, you’d automatically think of Hollywood, Beverly Hills and the Tinseltown. But is it all there is to LA? Nope! Although Los Angeles has become the hub of the world’s film industry (and not to mention the place for star-gazing and premium properties of course) there is something more to this city that many people probably never knew. So it’s time to gratify your curiosities and take a tour in this gallery to find out more about Los Angeles.

The school must be really lucky to have the “liquid gold” situated under its campus! The oil rig is owned and operated by Venoco Inc., a private company that explores, acquires, exploits and develops oil and natural gas properties in all of California. Because of the “riches” underneath, the school is rewarded with leasing royalties from Venoco. The school then puts the money into its general fund; there are rumors circulating that most of the teachers’ salaries there come from that fund.

The Angels Flight is a funicular (incline) railway in the Bunker Hill district in downtown LA. It was built in 1901 by an engineer and lawyer J.W. Eddy, who also happened to be one of President Lincoln’s friends.

The Angels Flight has a three-rail configuration and two orange-and-black cars named Sinai and Olivet. The total travel time? Only about 2 to 3 minutes the most.

The Zoot Suit riots are a series of riots that broke out in 1943, and it was rooted on racial tensions between white and Latino (or Mexican-American in particular) youths in Los Angeles. Although there were also some African-Americans and Asian-Americans involved in the riots. The Latinos were already aware that the whites took a dim view of them, and started to challenge the established authority by wearing these baggy pants or “zoot suits.” Their manner of dressing was the Latinos’ way of provoking the already apprehensive white community.

The Getty Museum hires about 60 goats to munch on grass in the hills of Getty Center. It also hires a goat herder and two dogs to watch over the flock.

Sounds fake, but it’s true: It’s illegal to drive more than 2,000 sheep down Hollywood Boulevard. This is considered one of the world’s weirdest laws — but a law is a law!

You wouldn’t believe that the home to many Hollywood celebrities and A-listers had quite humble beginnings. Beverly Hills was originally a Spanish ranch where lima beans were cultivated. During the early 20th century a group of investors came to what is known today as Beverly Hills, in search for oil. However, they failed to find it and instead decided to establish a town there.

From February 9 to 11 in 1978, a great storm and torrential rains pummeled Los Angeles, causing a massive landslide from the San Gabriel Mountains. The immense floods even unearthed the corpses from the Verdugo Hills Cemetery and carried them away throughout the area.

By 1923 alone one of every five barrels of oil produced in the US was extracted in Los Angeles. This made the city and its state California the most oil-rich region in the country, and also become one of the world’s major oil producers at that time.

Edward L. Doheny, a gold prospector, struck a “liquid gold” near present-day Dodger Stadium, while he was drilling into tar seeps. This discovery eventually made Doheny very rich and he became one of earliest-known oil tycoons.

You’d think that it sounds like a sacrilege, but in Los Angeles it’s perfectly legal for a person to be christened “Jesus Christ.”

When the sign “Hollywoodland” was first erected in 1923, it was originally an advertisement for a new real estate development with a great potential. Intended to stand for only 18 months, the sign stayed but the “LAND” was eventually removed to promote Los Angeles’ thriving film industry.

Charlie Sheen paid a total of $6,537.50 to buy that many seats! Sheen and his three buddies sat alone there, twenty rows above. But unfortunately for him, the game saw no home runs that day so he came out empty-handed.