Sins of the City: The Real Los Angeles Noir (Paperback)

~ (Author) "DOWN THESE MEAN STREETS A MAN MUST GO WHO HIMSELF IS NOT MEAN, WHO IS NEITHER TARNISHED NOR AFRAID..." (more)
Key Phrases: card clubs, Los Angeles, Central Avenue, Vine Street (more...)

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 heists—plus 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 times—he 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.

So you've seen LA 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 heists-plus some sweet ol' amateur port thrown in for good measure. Perfect browsing material to keep next to the can at your swing club. -- Ray Gun

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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.com Sales Rank: #348,252 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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

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.

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

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.

2 of 2 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)

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.