MICHAEL LOCKE and VINCENT BROOK discuss their book SILVER LAKE CHRONICLES: EXPLORING AN URBAN OASIS IN LOS ANGELES

Silver Lake Chronicles: Exploring an Urban Oasis in Los Angeles (History Press)

Situated between Los Feliz and Echo Park a few miles from downtown Los Angeles, Silver Lake thrives as a perennially avant-garde and enchanting enclave. From mansion builders and movie stars to bohemians, visionaries and just plain folk, discover Silver Lake's illustrious past and a fantastic cast of characters sure to enrich contemporary experience and inform the past. Colorful anecdotes about early movie magnates William Selig and Mack Sennett and silent-screen idols Mabel Normand, Antonio Moreno and Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle flesh out these famous figures' lives in new and surprising ways. Other lesser-known but richly deserving stories about the area's pioneer families are shared perhaps for the first time. Authors Michael Locke and Vincent Brook present a rich tapestry of this unique urban oasis whose appeal seems only to grow.

Michael Locke is a longtime resident of Southern California. He served on the first Silver Lake Neighborhood Council, as the Region One representative and vice chair, and was founder of the Beautification Committee. Since 2003, he has edited and published The Silver Lake News, an online community newspaper. He is also a regular contributing writer and photographer for the Los Feliz Ledger, the Los Feliz Observer and the Los Angeles City Historical Society Newsletter. He lives in the Durex Model Home (Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument Number 1025) in Los Feliz with his wife, Donna Jean.  Vincent Brook has a PhD in film and television from UCLA. He teaches media studies at the University of California, Los Angeles; the University of Southern California; California State University, Los Angeles; and Pierce College. He has authored or edited five other books, most recently: Land of Smoke and Mirrors: A Cultural History of Los Angeles and Woody on Rye: Jewishness in the Films and Plays of Woody Allen (both 2013). Born in Van Nuys, he has lived in Silver Lake with his wife Karen since 1978.