Those who didn't live through the early 1970s tend to romanticize those years. I suppose we all do that about periods that precede our birth. I certainly do it with the 1940s and early '50s. Guilty! But today, many who were too young to experience the early '70s view the period as a hippie, trippy period, and in some ways it was. But there also were plenty of strange-looking cars thanks to American Motors, strange colors such as deep purple, burnt orange and kelp green, and strange people in the news, including cult murderers, acid-crazed assassins and heiresses turned terrorists.
In short, those years were a mutant extension of the 1960s without the whole-earth optimism or the home-made clothes. The chill was gone, reality had set in and the news seemed to grow crazier by the day (if you think today is nuts, dig the major headlines back then). Everything seemed to be rusting, clunky technology began emerging in strange places, and many young people who had tuned-out and turned-on returned home to find themselves without prospects or income.
What was Los Angeles like back then? How did a city that started so many trends in the '60s, including a passion for the future, seem to a smart stranger from another country? You're in luck. To really get a feel for the very early '70s—I mean really experience the smoggy decay and greasy seediness—here's a BBC documentary on British architecture professor Reyner Banham (above) during one of his visits to the City of Angels in 1971...
