Sins of the City: The Real Los Angeles Noir [Paperback]

Jim Heimann (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1999

New in town, huh? Look around, kidpalm trees, movie stars, glittering promises of fame and fortune....Now look closer, and you'll see the real action in the City of Angels: goons and thugs, backroom dice clubs, motel room cheesecake shots, crusading cops, and a few unlucky saps who didn't make it out alive. Sins of the City is a daring photographic compendium of vintage vice in Los Angeles from the '20s to the '50s, the true-life pictures of a milieu immortalized in the hard-bitten novels of Raymond Chandler, Walter Mosley, and James Ellroy, and such films as Criss Cross, Double Indemnity, Chinatown, and LA Confidential. Pore over 200 shots of the people, places, and events that only tabloids such as Hush-Hush, Confidential, and Whisper dared publish. Witness the LAPD bust a floating casino, see a dapper Bugsy Siegel "before" (living) and "after" (deeply deceased), and marvel at the criminal excess of marijuana-stuffed suitcases. Author Jim Heimann has scoured archives and newspaper morgues for prime examples of Southland's inglorious past, presenting a compelling history of its notorious corruption. Sure, it's a tough city, but thankfully someone was there to record it all.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In the first half of the 20th century, Los Angeles was as well known for its lurid nightlife and criminal underground as it was for the Hollywood film empire. Often, of course, the two sides of L.A. met, as when Robert Mitchum was busted for marijuana possession in 1949; among the photos collected in Sins of the City you'll find a snapshot of Mitchum in prison gear during his 50-day incarceration. You'll also find several pictures of local crime boss Mickey Cohen and his gang, usually after somebody's made an attempt to rub them out. Several of the crime scene photos are not for the squeamish, including the shooting death of mobster Bugsy Siegel and the discovery of both halves of the body of Elizabeth Short, better remembered as the "Black Dahlia." (Actually, the two pictures of Short's bisected corpse are taken from a distance, compared to more gruesome photos of that scene found in other sources.)

Jim Heimann's introduction provides some historical context, but it's the photos themselves that are the real attraction here. From them you'll get a sense of what the gambling parlors, speakeasies, and drag balls of the period looked like--as well as Beverly Hills movie premieres, the back alleys of Chinatown, and the exteriors of such swank nightclubs as La Conga and the Mocambo. Sins of the City is fascinating reference material for readers of classic L.A. noir (it includes quotes from several authors, among them Raymond Chandler and John Fante), as well as anyone interested in studying or writing about this period.

Review

Reviews from: Ray Gun

Los Angeles Times

So you've seen L.A. Confidential more than a few times and you're itching to know more about the City of Angels' seedy side? In Sins of the City, Jim Heimann collects tabloid shots taken at morgues, mafia murder scenes and marijuana heistsplus some sweet ol' amateur porn thrown in for good measure. Perfect browsing material to keep next to the can at your swing club.

By Jonathan Kirsch

Jim Heimann is the man to see in Hollywood if you are making a movie that is set in Southern California in bygone timeshe combines the skills of an archivist, a cultural anthropologist, a designer and a historian, and he knows where to look for a dusty photographic relic that shows what any corner of byway of Los Angeles looked like on a particular day in the past.

Heimann's remarkable skill set is put to good use in Sins of the City: The Real Los Angeles Noir, a beguiling collection of black-and-white photographs that depict the demimonde of Los Angeles from the '20s to the '50s. What the photographer Weegee did for New York in his classic Naked City, Heimann now does for Los Angeles.

Sins of the City proves that the depiction of Los Angeles in countless-noir movies and hard-boiled detective stories was not merely the work of an overheated imagination. Her are real-life cops and robbers, gangsters and gambler, strippers and hookers, clairvoyants and charlatans, starlets and the occasional authentic star, all of them captured by a corps of photographers who roamed the meaner streets of Los Angeles with Speed Graphic cameras in hand.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (May 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811823199
• ISBN-13: 978-0811823197
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #263,071 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jim Heimann is a resident of Los Angeles, a graphic designer, writer, historian, and instructor at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. He is the author of numerous books on architecture, popular culture, and Hollywood history, and serves as a consultant to the entertainment industry.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sins Of The Author, December 18, 1999

By 

Bob Colleary (The City of Angels) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sins of the City: The Real Los Angeles Noir (Paperback)

First of all, this is largely a fun read. And a quick one, because this book is 75% photos, 15% captions, and 10% introduction. Personally, I was disappointed there was not more text; what IS here is deliciously noir (it was tough to read without hearing Bogie's voice). But this is more a concept than a book, and it seems the author spent more time researching photos than writing and that was an unfortunate decision. But if you're looking for the seedy underbelly of L.A., you won't be disappointed.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating slice of real LA life but not enough specifics, September 14, 1999

By 

Martin P. Turnbull (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sins of the City: The Real Los Angeles Noir (Paperback)

I too bought this book after hearing Larry Mantle's interview with the author. As a newly arrived local, I have become very interested in LA's history and this book is a worthy addition to anyone's library of books on LA. However I was a little disappointed that Mr Heinmann didn't give us specific addresses of places shown in the wonderful photographs he miraculously uncovered. I especially like to drive around LA and see what these sites look like thesedays. However Heinmann thought to give us very little in the way of specifics of address. This is fair enough when we're looking at anonymous bartenders caught in the crossfire of mafia killing sprees. But when were looking at nightclubs on Sunset in the 1940s or 50s, it would have been great to know where exactly there were.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great photos, but lacks the stories, December 9, 2000

By 

Robert Gonzalez (SoCal) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sins of the City: The Real Los Angeles Noir (Paperback)

Sins of the City is a great picture book, with awesome images of pre and postwar Los Angeles noir. But it does lack the stories behind these images except for a few captions. I was expecting to find more text on L.A. noir and was a bit dissapointed. This is a great book to look at after reading "The Big Sleep" and "Farewell My Lovely" by Raymond Chandler. 3 stars for the great photos.