June 1, 2025 • 42 mins
Mark returns from an Alaskan adventure filled with stunning wildlife, river-spawning salmon, and a bit of history: from Russian sea otter hunters to the Gold Rush boom! He also shares a funny tale about a shopping mishap with a linen suit. Then, he dives into the serious story of animal abuse in LA shelters exposed by former GM Staycee Dains. Finally, author Kyra Davis joins to chat about her new historical novel, The Great Mann, set in the glitzy Black elite enclave of West Adams Heights during the 1940s—a world of jazz, galas, and the push-pull of cultural identity.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Mark Thompson Here, it is Sunday.
Speaker 3 (00:05):
It feels kind of like almost tropical ot It's got
like a humidity to it. The mugginess is something that
I remark on only because we're not super used to it.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
But it's a big day all across the board.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
A lot of sports going on today, as you know,
and it is Pride Day. And even if you're not
participating in Pride activities, you are affected by Pride activities
because they've blocked off a bunch of streets in West Hollywood,
streets in LA and that's going on through the afternoon.
So we'll keep you posted on all the different ways
(00:43):
in which you can get from here to there because
they have been modified because of the huge parades and
the huge events around Pride going on all around the city.
I just got back from Alaska, and I will tell
you that it is something you already know, probably a
(01:03):
terrific place to visit. I mean, even if you haven't
visited there, you've seen pictures. You've seen pictures of the whales,
the eagles, the glaciers. It's just a terrific thing to
put on your list, and to whatever extent you can
adventure into the various stops along the way. You know,
one of the ways in which you can see Alaska,
(01:24):
of course, is on a cruise ship and some kind
of boating vessel can get you from here to there,
because it's just hard to of course, very hard to
drive it, and flying it can be a challenge as well.
So the nice thing is that when you go out
on any of these excursions, which we did, you experience
(01:47):
some of this amazing wondrous wildlife and I I include
the trees and the fauna and all of that. You
walk through it, and it's just that the areas in
which all of these different things thrive, it's just green
and changing, and particularly now as the snows and ice
(02:14):
fields melt away and retreat, you are left with a
different window on nature. And now you have more in
the way of whales and eagles and bears and salmon
because the salmon run now, of course, with the melting
of the snow and rivers and streams becoming elevated, becoming
(02:37):
fed by all of that, the salmon uses those increasing
waterways to swim and spawn, and you end up with
all of the predators who depend on the salmon for survival.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Those are the bears, those are the eagles, etc.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
And so I'm just saying, the whole place comes to life,
and I recommend it for all Americans. It's crazy way
we ended up in Alaska, you know, I mean, just
I'm talking about Americans owning Alaska.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
It was Russian.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
The Russians owned Alaska, as you know, and they literally
pounded the only resource they felt Alaska was good for,
which was sea otters. They pounded that out of Alaska.
They literally hunted every last sea otter in Alaska.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
And it's an amazing thing.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
It's the thing that we've done as humans, you know,
across any number of species. But the Russians did it
when they had Alaska as part of Russia. They were
hunting the seattters for pelts. I mean, that was the
big thing. You know, you saw those guys in those
old pictures. They're walking around with shoulders full of you know, fur,
(03:56):
of dead animals who were full of Furrussians literally hunted
sea otters to extinction. There were no more in Alaska,
effectively none. So the Russians all of a sudden felt like,
well we don't see a lot more here.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Really that was their position.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
It was, I don't know, we got like the best
thing here that you can get. And so when the
Americans came along, the offer on the table looked good
to the Russians, and they sold Alaska this is you're
probably aware, for seven million bucks. So we see the Americans,
we acquire Alaska for seven million dollars, and what do
(04:38):
we find So soon after that sale, what do we
find there? Gold and gold, minerals, oil, all of that,
not to mention timber, all of it has been exploited
through the years, and you've seen an increase and a
decrease in these minor towns across Alaska. They're still there,
(05:02):
A lot of them are set up for tourists, you know,
but there's still a sense of what existed. And so
the Alaskan history, and I'm leaving out the Native peoples,
I mean the native people. They still are there in Alaska,
albeit having been bumped out by a lot of development
(05:23):
by you know, essentially bumped out all the way by
a lot of development.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
But there are still.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
I guess I would call it monuments to the Native peoples,
and they participate in the maintaining and also the increasing
of the awareness of the Native people's history. So if
you go there as a tourist, you see this everywhere
and it's very much a part of the landscape of Alaska.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Now I recommend it.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
We had a great, great time and as I say,
if you have it in you to you know, jumping
rubber raft, which is what we did, and there were
just six of us in this raft and we went.
It was a very cold day, but wow, what a
wondrous experience to be out there in it, you know.
And as I say, it's only getting in the next
(06:16):
month or so, even more crowded with wildlife because of
the salmon. So I got back then from Alaska, just
got back and I attended the birthday party. And this
is something maybe you can relate to. I'm you know,
when I relate a story to you, I always think
(06:36):
we can somebody else relate to this, Like it's not
I hope it's not too you know, self indulgent to
relate this story, but maybe you'll be able to relate
to this. I went to this seventieth birthday party of
a dear friend of mine, very talented, a comic named
Bobby Slayton. So I was. I was in Beverly Hills
(06:59):
getting my hair darkened for it. You know, they get
rid of what the gray hair. There's not a lot
of gray hair. Everybody, Okay, settle down, but it's a
little bit. Although the colorist is I guess she's called.
Said to me, Mark, would you like a maybe we
leave a little bit of gray in? Would you like
(07:20):
us to do that just to you can have it?
I said, I never want to hear you say that
ever again. If it's an open casket at my funeral,
I want you to make sure the hair is dark.
I want to be and I am the aging guy
with the hair that's too dark for him. Anyway, that
was in Beverly Hills. Now the way back to the car,
(07:43):
I pass this store called Club Monaco. It's kind of
one of these bougie stores that's on the corner, I
want to say it like Brighton and Beverly. And in
the window is a suit, kind of a linen suit.
And I thought I can wear this suit to Bobby's birthday.
(08:05):
So I go in. I try the suit on and
it really looks good, you know, and I don't normally
I'm not out there buying suits all the time.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
You know, this is like I thought.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
I thought, I want to try to look good seventieth
birthday sit down dinner. I mean, you know, so I
do the whole thing quickly. I'm not big into trying
on clothes. I just don't like the whole thing. I
don't not a good shopper that way. Just let's do it.
Does it fit great, Let's buy it. And then I
said to the guy, please cut off all of the
(08:35):
tags and stuff because I'm gonna wear it to this
dinner tonight. And he said, of course, I'm gonna take
off the the store detector thing. I said, no, no, no,
I mean all the tags please. He said, okay. So
I didn't pay any attention to it. He puts the
thing in the bag. And you know where this is coming.
You know that where this whole thing is ending up.
(08:57):
I go to the event. I put on the jacket
to the suit, which I have yet to really put on.
It was hanging on a hanger in the car. And
the first thing I see on the back of the
jacket is what the store detection device, the thing you
can't get off unless you've got you know, the store
(09:18):
detection device remover machine.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
So that's there, and then.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
I see that there are other things that he's left on.
I mean, the guy didn't The only thing I asked
him to do was take these things off. So I
can take off the other stuff before I walk into
the party. But I can't take off this store detection
machine thing, you know what I'm talking about, the thing
that they leave a fixed to every item so that
when people walk off, it sets off the alarm. So
(09:47):
now I'm really you know, I'm doing that thing where
I'm not letting people see like the back of my jacket,
because it's so embarrassing. And I vow to go back
the next day and plan and I'm I'm really angry
about this, but I'm I'm not a shower, and I'm
not a you know, it's I'm kind of a but
(10:08):
I'm I'm steaming on the inside.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
I go back and the guy isn't there.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
It's a different guy, and I said, Hi, I was
there yesterday and I bought this suit, and I'm telling
him the whole story, and he says, wow, I'm really
sorry to hear that. I can see, you know, I
can see that he's left it on there, let me
take it off for you, and I said, yeah, I
appreciate if you're taking it off for me now. But
the event I was talking about, and I indicated to
the salesperson that I was going to be going to
(10:37):
that event happened last night and it was very embarrassing,
and I wondered if you can make some kind of adjustment,
I mean store credit or something. I mean, this is
really you know And I said, it just like that,
and he said, I can see where it would frustrate you.
We just don't do that. We don't do any kind
of store credit. I said, really, I mean, you know this,
(11:00):
this seems like a real screw up. Wouldn't you want
to do something if you're the store to make it right,
I asked him. He said, yeah, yeah, I'm just not
We just don't do it. I mean maybe we should,
but we don't. He said, if you want, I'll let
you return it, which we also don't do typically, while
you guys don't.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Do a lot. But I said, well, I like the suit.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
I just feel as though you'd want to do something
to kind of keep me as a customer. He said, yeah,
I don't know. He said, I'll give you an eight
hundred number, he said, But to be honest, I don't
think they're going to do anything like all right, and
that was the end of it. So now my debut
(11:42):
appearance of my new linen suit, complete with the store
detection device on it, has passed. No store credit, no adjustment.
Maybe you can relate to this. Have you been in
a situation like that where you go go back You're thinking, Hey,
this is a perfectly reasonable thing that I'm asking you
(12:03):
to do.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
I'm asking you to make this right. Give me a.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
Twenty dollars, twenty five dollars, fifty dollars something. This is
a higher end store. Nothing, it's the new America. It's
to screw you America. Anyway, It's great to be back.
That's a little something on Alaska and that one store.
(12:26):
Be sure that they take off your tags. That's all
I would say to you. We have a great show ahead.
A best selling author, Bottom of the Hour, The Great
Man is the new book from Kira Davis Lori. It's
a it's a historical novel. It's set in Los Angeles.
That's why I think it'd be so great to talk
to her about this today. Matt Nicky and Robin All
(12:49):
on the scene. We'll get in tomorrow.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
As we continue, you're listening to KFI AM six forty
on demand.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
Mark Thompson hanging out Sunday after noon. It's a Pride
Day and their Pride activities all around LA. Mostly who
for a lot of this stuff West Hollywood rich ties
to the LGBTQ community, of course in West Hollywood. One
thing I would mention is, I'm seeing some pictures and
videos and somebody actually sent me a video of dogs
(13:23):
that were taken to the parade. There's nothing wrong with
that except for the fact that a there might be
noise that might affect them in some way I don't know.
But more to the point, as the temperature is kind
of warm, make sure that there is water along the route.
The complaint from the person who sent me the video
was you can tell these dogs are thirsty, you know,
(13:43):
tongues out, breathing heavily, and there's no provision that they
can see for them to be able to rehydrate to
get water. So that is what's happening in Pride Land.
But with that one warning that if you're going, please
be warned. Doesn't look like there's a lot of water
(14:04):
out there, of course along the parade route, and it
would be cool if you could provide some water for
your animal.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
And speaking of that, the.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Piece that ran in the La Times was really really troubling,
and there's.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Even a.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Video out of Coasta Mesa showing a volunteer at a
pet rescue dragging a dog on the street in Coasta Mesa.
The dog walker is dragging this limp dog on a
leash in front of the Priceless Pets No Kill Pet Rescue.
The Coasta Mesa police de barment was reported reportedly contacted
(14:48):
Priceless Pets that they're looking into it and they are
quote taking immediate action, but the statement goes on, this
is not who we are, this is not the standard
of care that we stand for, and the volunteer apparently
has been dismissed from the rescue. The piece that I
was talking about the La Times, though, is about the
(15:10):
shelter in LA and the animal shelters in LA that
are controlled by someone who's just left. Stacy Danes about
a month into her job overseeing the La City animal shelters,
an employee apparently defied her. In the first month, she
(15:32):
asked the employee to clean a kennel, and instead the
employee picked up a hose and sprayed a dog in
the face, according to Stacey Danes. Danes thought that the
employee should be fired, but the city's personnel department recommended
five days of leave. Now Mayor Karen Bass hired Stacy
(15:55):
Danes in June twenty twenty three, promising to make La
a national model for animal welfare. I mean, there have
been problems around the La animal shelter system. Dogs live
in these overcrowded, dirty kennels. Volunteers have been complaining animals
sometimes don't get food and water. Dogs and cats are suffering,
(16:16):
and they're suffering more as staffing issues reemerge. But this
interview with Stacy Dames in the La Times, she says
she felt powerless to solve these entrenched problems that include
severe understaffing, employees who mistreat or neglect animals completely. She
(16:40):
said she was repeatedly told by the personnel department, which
functions kind of like a human resources department, that she
couldn't fire employees. She clashed with one of the unions
that represents shelter employees. She even reached out to La
County prosecutors for help at one point, apparently so as
the overcrowding gowers, dogs and cats are euthanized in numbers
(17:04):
that just would make your skin crawl more and more,
even under her watch, as she was there to reform
the whole thing. She's saying, now, we need to tell
the unfiltered, unvarnished truth about what is happening in the
LA shelters.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
This is her speaking.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
After a little more than a year as Animal Services
general manager. She went on paid leave and then she resigned,
So she's saying the series the city just simply does
not provide enough funding to meet the basic needs of
the animals in the six shelters that the city runs,
(17:46):
and there have been real problems with money. Right during
Karen Bass's first year in office, because of a lot
of critical reporting from the La Times and others about
conditions in the shelters, the mayor offered an eighteen percent
budget increase, less than the fifty six percent increase that
(18:09):
Animal Services had asked for, But then her budget proposal
lowered in the department's final funding in the following fiscal year,
and in passing.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
A budget now.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
With a billion dollar shortfall, Animal Services doesn't get an increase,
but doesn't get any cuts. So Stacey Danes again, the
former head of these shelters, brought in by Karen Bass.
She's held these jobs running shelters in San Jose and
(18:46):
Long Beach. She says that the employees are becoming desensitized
to the suffering of the animals they witness. A day
after day, five hundred dogs have to be handled, cleaning kennels,
setting up adoptions, working with the medical team. There's a
lot to do, so she's seeing even abuse of the animals,
(19:13):
and that's perhaps one of the most disturbing things I
read in the piece. She said she witnessed some of
her employees terrorizing dogs by banging on their kennels or
spraying them with water to move them back. She told
employees to stop that behavior, but some said they'd been
trained to treat the dogs that way. She wanted to
(19:34):
start a schedule the tract when each task was done
that had to be done at the shelter, but a
union rep said that the information could be used to
punish employees and push back on it. And then she
dropped that proposal because of the opposition from the union.
And then there's gossip and then there's pushback from employees
(19:56):
supervisors with sexual relationships with subordinates. I mean, it's so
going on and more and more. You just want to
see these poor creatures that end up in these shelters
treated with some dignity. So she's beaking up. The LA
Times shared a lot of her thoughts in today's La Times,
(20:22):
and the number of dogs euthanized at city shelters from
January through September last year went up. Can you guess
how much it went up? Seventy two percent. Seventy two
percent more dogs were euthanized at city shelters than with
the same period the previous years, and the number of
(20:44):
dogs entering the shelters is going up each year, but
the number put to death far outpaced the number of
dogs entering the shelters. There's no euthanasian policy, and they
created a euthanasia policy during Stacy Danes's tenure.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
But as I say, she has resigned.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
It's a full on five alarm fire in the LA.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Shelter business.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
So the LA Animal Shelters watch this space will give
you more as it becomes available, but nothing good is
happening in that world. When we come back set in
Los Angeles. Her latest. She is a best selling author.
Her latest is called The Great Man. Man is spelled
(21:38):
m ann. We'll talk about this piece of historical fiction
set right here in Los Angeles with the author Kira
Davis Lourie. We'll do it next right here.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
Mark Thompson here, I'm so excited to have a best
selling author in the midst here with a book that
takes place in Los Angeles. It's set against the backdrop
of Los Angeles. The Library Journal already saying that her
(22:14):
nuanced and sympathetic characters and stellar writing are nearly as
brilliant as in The Great Gatsby. Wow it is. It's
pretty amazing that you got this from Bloomberg. Bloomberg chooses
your book as one of the ten best books of
(22:36):
the summer. How about it for Kira Davis LORI and
The Great Man, which is your new book, Bravo.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
Man is spelled m A n N And it's being released.
I think is it next week that it's released?
Speaker 5 (22:53):
Tenth? Yeah, right around the corner.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
So tell me about where it's set, because in a
part of LA that is sort of very different now
than it was.
Speaker 6 (23:05):
Yeah, the area is called West Adam Heights and right
now there's the Ten Freeways right through it, but that
did not that wasn't.
Speaker 5 (23:15):
Always the case.
Speaker 6 (23:16):
So West Adam Heights was Los Angeles' Beverly Hills before
we had Beverly Hills.
Speaker 5 (23:22):
So all the la aristocracy lived there. And then the
stock market crashed.
Speaker 6 (23:28):
And as the thirties wore on, people discovered it was
actually really expensive to keep up your mansion, right, so
they had to sell. But the only people who were
able to buy at that time were the newly wealthy
African Americans. So you had African American oil tycoons, hoteliers,
(23:50):
business moguls, and then the Hollywood movie stars and they
started buying up these mansions. And Hattie McDaniel was one
of the people who lived there, and she would throw
these gala parties where her guest list would include Bing Crosby,
Clark Gable, Lena Horne, Duke Ellington was her entertainment and right,
(24:14):
I mean, so it was extraordinarily Gatsby esque, which is
why I took the framework of the Gatsby and said
it in this real world.
Speaker 5 (24:24):
That was right here in Los Angeles.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
Apparently it's amazingly successful, this narrative. So this veteran who
is your main character, arrives back in nineteen forty five
Los Angeles to this area and figuring there'd be a
fresh start, this affluent neighborhood that you describe, and then
take us through a little bit of what he encounters.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
Right.
Speaker 6 (24:45):
So, Charlie Trammel, he is he was in World War
Two and he's just come back to his home in
He came back home to his home in Virginia, in
rural Virginia where his family was sharecroppers. But as what
just was the case, as with the case in at
the end of World War One, black veterans were not
(25:06):
treated well, particularly in the South.
Speaker 5 (25:09):
There was a lot of violence and abuse.
Speaker 6 (25:10):
And he decides that's the stock going to work, and
he has a cousin who he hasn't seen forever, who's
in Los Angeles.
Speaker 5 (25:18):
He's like, yeah, come on out here. Lots of opportunity.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
This is good.
Speaker 6 (25:22):
He goes out and discovers it's not just that she's
doing okay, she's living the life. Okay, you know, she's
coming out. She's got diamonds in her ears. She's driving
like the nice car. You know, she's got clothes that
look like they were designed just for her. And you know,
when he knew her, I mean she left young, but like.
Speaker 5 (25:44):
She's his cousin.
Speaker 6 (25:45):
This was this was a sharecropping family, so he doesn't
really know the full trajectory. And she married this guy
who's living up in West Adam Heights, which had been
nicknamed at that point LA's sugar Hill. So he gets
brought into this world from the sharecropping world and as
well as the the drama and trauma of World War Two,
(26:08):
into this world of black luxury that he didn't know existed.
And he's seeing, you know again movie stars. And one
of the things really interesting for him with the black
movie stars is, like a lot of African Americans of
that period, there was a lot of mixed feelings about
their black movie stars because they were taking these roles
(26:30):
that were really stereotypic, typical, and frequently demeaning.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
Sure, the servant the exact yeah, of course.
Speaker 6 (26:40):
Right, you know, they were the they were there to
be subservient and the butther of the joke, you know.
And then he meets these people and they're the they's
so the dichonag between them and the characters they play
is gigantic, right, I mean, as he meets Louise Beaver's
who was a huge star at the time, less known
(27:01):
now by the time, she was as big as Hattie McDaniel,
and she played roles that, you know, these plaintive roles
of you know, these the the servant, the main occasionally
occasionally the slave, right you know, And and she in
reality she was.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
This.
Speaker 5 (27:24):
She has a three story house.
Speaker 6 (27:27):
She's you know, makes a point like, I don't touch
the kitchen. That's not my job. My husband's gonna have
to do that. She smokes cigars, She has poker games
every Sunday up on the third floor, right, you know,
I mean, she loves being first row at the boxing Max.
And he says, it's like it's the same She has
the same voice and the same face, but a completely
(27:48):
different spine than what I've seen on the screen.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
So it's he's just so he can't like he's trying
to reconcile these these two.
Speaker 5 (27:56):
Worlds exactly exactly.
Speaker 6 (27:57):
And what's really one of the things I found so
compelling about that that community is Charlie was not again,
he was not alone in having mixed feelings about the celebrities,
the black celebrities. In fact, the black business elite generally speaking,
(28:19):
really resented.
Speaker 5 (28:20):
The black celebrities because they felt.
Speaker 6 (28:22):
They were undermining their own social progress, that these images
that we were seeing on the screen were demeaning the
entire race, and there wasn't a lot of sympathy for
the position that.
Speaker 5 (28:38):
These actors were in.
Speaker 6 (28:39):
They were genuinely trying to open doors, right, but the
opportunities weren't there for better roles. And for instance, when
they did get better roles, those roles were frequently thanks
to the Hayes Office, which was a censorship office, the
parts that showed them, that showed their agency were taken
(29:02):
out like that was not acceptable. And so even when
they accepted roles that they thought, oh, this is the
role where I get to show my strength, then it's
literally in a movie that Louisse Beaver's was in Imitation
of Life. Someone from the Hayes Office wrote and said,
(29:23):
looking at this script, it would appear you don't seem
to see how these the black servants don't want more
than being a black servant, that they want to be independent.
Surely I know that you must be wanting to show
that they are happy with their place in society, but
(29:44):
it's not coming through, so you need to adjust the
script right exactly exactly so.
Speaker 5 (29:51):
But there wasn't sympathy for that in the black communities
or in the black business elite.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
And that's interesting.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
So even within this affluent world and Black America's flourish
in this way, and your main character is coming from
this place where he just can't believe all these black
people are doing so well. But even within that community
there is this conflict. They're the business people and then
there's show people.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
The show business.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
Hold that thought. I'm because it's interesting. You have to
research all this as a writer, you know, getting the plot,
finding your main character that's going to run through this
entire world. You have to research that world because it
is historically based your novel, right, Yeah, So I want
to talk to you a little bit about that, and
you know about what La was like it was the
(30:33):
mid nineteen forties.
Speaker 5 (30:34):
Right ninety five.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
I want to get to again the books called The
Great Man, and I do want to mention Kira if
you want to meet her. There is a series of
upcoming events June tenth, at Romans in Pasadena.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
They always have great events there. They just do such great.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
Yeah, June eleventh Diesel a bookstore Santa Monica, another great spot.
And then June nineteenth Chevaliet Books in Los Angeles. Again
the tenth, the eleventh, and the nineteenth Romans, Diesel and Chevalier's.
All that information I think is on your website is
it's kid.
Speaker 5 (31:10):
Davis Kiridavisluriy dot com.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
Ciadavislivery dot com. I knew you when you were Kira Davis.
Then you married an esteemed director.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
Rod Lurie. He's very creative, also very talented guy.
Speaker 5 (31:23):
He loses a lot of money to you in poker.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
That's that's not the way I usually live it. But
it's a lot of creativity under that roof of yours.
So that's great. Kira Davis Lourie. We continue the book
Is the Great Man and more.
Speaker 4 (31:37):
As we continue, you're listening to KFI AM six forty
on demand.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
What's it is a Pride Day.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
The traffic is being reworked and that will continue for
the next few hours. We're talking to Kurra Davis LORII.
Kira Davis Lourie is a best selling author her latest
is The Great Man m A Double n She has,
you know, book signing, and I would imagine they'll read
probably from the book as well at these events June
tenth at Romans and Pasadena, June eleventh at Diesel in
(32:07):
Santa Monica, and June nineteenth at Chevaliet's Books. It takes
place in the nineteen forties, and again it's historical novel,
and this is your first piece of historical fiction, I think, right,
it is. Yeah, And so you had to research this
period of the mid nineteen forties and this part of LA,
this affluent black community made up of, as you suggested,
(32:28):
show business performers top of their game and the business
elite top of their game. These are real people. This
is a real place existed in LA in the mid
nineteen forties. Two things, were there things that surprised you?
First of all in your research? And also was there
stuff in there that you didn't get a chance to
include in the book.
Speaker 6 (32:45):
Yeah, so, so much of it was surprising. For one thing,
you have to think of how people's feelings and their
view and the lens they saw Los Angeles through was
so different in good and bad ways.
Speaker 5 (33:02):
One of my characters John Alexander Somerville.
Speaker 6 (33:05):
He was the first African American to graduate from USC.
He had a dentistry degree and the top of his
class and opened up a huge luxury hotel and YadA YadA.
But he wrote not a biography, and in it he
talks about how Los Angeles, yes there's racial problems, but
(33:27):
we're so much more enlightened than the majority of the country.
For instance, you don't see the race riots in Los
Angeles that you see in other parts of the country,
and which was true when he wrote that book.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
But like, but if you can always take around a
little bit right.
Speaker 6 (33:46):
Exactly, it's like, oh wow, this is like such a
different kind of viewpoint of of what LA is right.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
What was schene by the way, and just in general
in California, there's a change of open of an acceptance.
I don't know to what extent. That's just sort of
a brand that we have in California. How much of
it is really true, Yeah, but it's interesting that there
was real, his real sense, palpable sense of it back
in the mid nineteen forties.
Speaker 6 (34:14):
He was I mean, he well, he was a very
he was a very optimistic man, and he definitely saw
he saw the opportunity. He felt like if you just
talked to people, were reasonable with them, things would progress.
And that was frequently his experience. Now, it is also
true that Los Angeles, a California in general, but definitely
(34:36):
particularly Los Angeles, had a lot of what they called
racial covenants. About eighty percent of Los Angeles, the apercent
of the homes of Los Angeles had a covenant on
them saying that the only people who were allowed to
live in those homes were white people. Yeah, and the
only and if you were black, the only way that
(34:59):
you were allowed to live in the those homes was
if you were a servant to white people and so,
and that included the homes in West Adam Heights. So
there was actually in the book at details there was
a lawsuit from the white neighbors who were trying to
get these people kicked out of their homes because of
the racial covenants on there.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
So wow, Yeah, in battle to their own neighborhoods.
Speaker 6 (35:21):
Exactly, exactly, And that's and it's sort of an interest
again talk about economies. You have these people in Minx
who are on the verge of being homeless because of
people trying to kick them out of their homes. So
it's it's based on race and nothing else. And at
that time, the racial covenants were considered legal, so it
(35:42):
was it was a real battle and that really started
to be honest, not with African Americans. It was a
push against the Chinese residence of the turn of the
twentieth century in California, and then it just sort of
moved ethnic group.
Speaker 5 (35:59):
Yes, exactly, exactly exactly.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
What and what's what?
Speaker 3 (36:03):
What part of this world that your researched in that
mid nineteen forties world, in that neighborhood that you described,
that's the backdrop for this book, The Great Man? What
what would you have liked to include that you couldn't Okay, So.
Speaker 6 (36:18):
The Hattie McDaniel, she was mammy and gone with the wind.
They had the premiere in a Georgia Atlanta theater. It
was a segregated theater, so she was not allowed to
attend the premiere.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
Yeah, there's so many of those kinds of stories exactly.
Speaker 6 (36:36):
So they had this big premiere and just to put
an exclamation point on the whole thing, they brought in
a kid's choir that they kind of dressed up in
rags and they were it was a black kids choir
and they were going to sing and it was supposed
to be like the slaves of the plantation South for
(36:56):
this white audience and like to entertain them before in
that choir. One of the kids in that choir was
Martin Luther King Jr.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
Wow. Yeah, what a fact?
Speaker 3 (37:08):
Right?
Speaker 2 (37:09):
What a fact?
Speaker 5 (37:09):
Right?
Speaker 2 (37:10):
How did you discover that that was?
Speaker 5 (37:12):
I mean when I was so that's again, it's document.
Speaker 6 (37:14):
When I was researching Hattie McDaniel looking through all the
materials of that premiere, I mean, that was in there,
and I'm like, but but nobody in nineteen forty five
knows who Martin Luther King Jr.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
Is.
Speaker 5 (37:25):
I can't include it. I can't include it.
Speaker 6 (37:27):
It's like, so it doesn't But but how much did
I want to?
Speaker 2 (37:32):
Right? Somehow?
Speaker 5 (37:34):
Exactly?
Speaker 2 (37:35):
That's wild.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
That's so true though, when you immerse yourself in a
time period, you can't just jump out and go, hey,
by the way.
Speaker 6 (37:42):
Right, it's nice j MLK and the yeah, and they're
going to be like, I'm sorry who So yeah, it's
and there was so much like that, and it was
really it was really a challenge for me choosing what
to include and what just was ended up sounding like
(38:02):
a lecture.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
You know.
Speaker 6 (38:03):
It's like I want you need to just be entertainment
and so but there was like all of this extra
stuff that I learned. I wish I could just sort
of pack in there, and you can't.
Speaker 5 (38:15):
Yeah, exactly. And by the way, you know, it's like
there's no but.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
It's got to be a good ride for your reader,
That's what I mean. Obviously you're a best selling author.
That's what you've been true to and that ride for
the reader. The great Man. So your character in the
last couple of moments that we have, your character does
get into this world and again after military service, and
I think falls in with I was just reading about
(38:41):
the book I have to get into the book falls
into with some not so savory characters.
Speaker 6 (38:49):
Yeah, well, okay, so I do have a gas b
esque character, right, So James quote unquote reaper Man, right,
Reaper is his mo like her that nobody uses to
his face, right, and it's he clearly has extraordinary wealth.
He is like Hattie throwing huge gala events, except even bigger.
Speaker 5 (39:12):
The neighborhood.
Speaker 6 (39:13):
Both the business moguls and the Hollywood elite are a
little nervous about this guy, because they don't really know
where he came from or where his money came from.
And they're already battling for their homes, so they don't
really need any extra controversy that he may be bringing in.
But Charlie is really drawn to him, and he's very
(39:34):
kind to Charlie, and the parties are amazing, and so
he sort of gets wrapped up in his world too, of.
Speaker 5 (39:43):
Just a little bit of like.
Speaker 6 (39:46):
Mystery, the hint of maybe something nefarious, but you don't
really know, right And and of course, as in Gatsby,
it turns out that he is truly in love with
Charlie's cousin, who the one who brought him out.
Speaker 5 (40:01):
So that's yeah, so so yeah.
Speaker 6 (40:04):
So you know we got and she is married, so
you know, there's the love triangle, there's like the who
is this guy? And there is also the clash of
the two communities and the court case and everything going on.
Speaker 3 (40:15):
Oh that's terrific. There sounds like there's so much in
this book. The great Man Kira Davis LORII, Hey listen again.
I encourage you to meet Kira and participate in one
of three events. June tenth at Romans, They do great
stuff in Pasadena. You can meet Kira, she'll sign your book.
Speaker 5 (40:36):
Yeah, and that's at seven, by the way, seven pm,
so come after work.
Speaker 3 (40:39):
Oh great, Okay, good, it's a nice evening event June
eleventh at Diesel a bookstore that's at sixth that's at
six in Santa Monica and Chevalier's Books in LA on
the nineteenth.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
What time is that?
Speaker 5 (40:52):
Six six thirty? I think six thirty.
Speaker 3 (40:54):
Okay, Well, you can check the website. Kira is k
y R Kira Davis, l u r E. Kiradavisluri dot
com has all the information again Romans, Diesel and Chevalier's
The book is out June tenth, The Great Man. It
takes place right here in La. There's a Hollywood connection
and La as most of us had not seen it,
(41:17):
I mean in the mid nineteen forties. You know, I've
learned more about La in the nineteen forties in this
conversation with you than I ever knew. So you're so
cool to stop to the studio.
Speaker 5 (41:27):
Thank you, Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 3 (41:29):
Give my best to your your husband. I absolutely it
was also a very talented guy filmmaker. I hope his
next work comes out soon and we can talk to
him as well.
Speaker 5 (41:39):
It's going to be amazing.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
Yeah, thanks Kira.
Speaker 3 (41:42):
When we come back, we have everything on the docket
and it includes and this is something we're going to
want your input on, a pet bereavement counselor you know
this is true. There's a new book out about essentially
(42:03):
getting you through the pain, the literal pain you can
feel emotionally when you lose a pet, a companion animal,
And we'll talk a little bit about that and with
her about her new book.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
That'll be at the bottom of the next hour.
Speaker 3 (42:20):
Also, it's goodbye to Inside the NBA their last night.
We'll play the mic Drop moment for you next
Speaker 1 (42:29):
KFI AM six forty on demand
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Mark Thompson Here, it is Sunday.
Speaker 3 (00:05):
It feels kind of like almost tropical ot It's got
like a humidity to it. The mugginess is something that
I remark on only because we're not super used to it.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
But it's a big day all across the board.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
A lot of sports going on today, as you know,
and it is Pride Day. And even if you're not
participating in Pride activities, you are affected by Pride activities
because they've blocked off a bunch of streets in West Hollywood,
streets in LA and that's going on through the afternoon.
So we'll keep you posted on all the different ways
(00:43):
in which you can get from here to there because
they have been modified because of the huge parades and
the huge events around Pride going on all around the city.
I just got back from Alaska, and I will tell
you that it is something you already know, probably a
(01:03):
terrific place to visit. I mean, even if you haven't
visited there, you've seen pictures. You've seen pictures of the whales,
the eagles, the glaciers. It's just a terrific thing to
put on your list, and to whatever extent you can
adventure into the various stops along the way. You know,
one of the ways in which you can see Alaska,
(01:24):
of course, is on a cruise ship and some kind
of boating vessel can get you from here to there,
because it's just hard to of course, very hard to
drive it, and flying it can be a challenge as well.
So the nice thing is that when you go out
on any of these excursions, which we did, you experience
(01:47):
some of this amazing wondrous wildlife and I I include
the trees and the fauna and all of that. You
walk through it, and it's just that the areas in
which all of these different things thrive, it's just green
and changing, and particularly now as the snows and ice
(02:14):
fields melt away and retreat, you are left with a
different window on nature. And now you have more in
the way of whales and eagles and bears and salmon
because the salmon run now, of course, with the melting
of the snow and rivers and streams becoming elevated, becoming
(02:37):
fed by all of that, the salmon uses those increasing
waterways to swim and spawn, and you end up with
all of the predators who depend on the salmon for survival.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Those are the bears, those are the eagles, etc.
Speaker 3 (02:55):
And so I'm just saying, the whole place comes to life,
and I recommend it for all Americans. It's crazy way
we ended up in Alaska, you know, I mean, just
I'm talking about Americans owning Alaska.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
It was Russian.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
The Russians owned Alaska, as you know, and they literally
pounded the only resource they felt Alaska was good for,
which was sea otters. They pounded that out of Alaska.
They literally hunted every last sea otter in Alaska.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
And it's an amazing thing.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
It's the thing that we've done as humans, you know,
across any number of species. But the Russians did it
when they had Alaska as part of Russia. They were
hunting the seattters for pelts. I mean, that was the
big thing. You know, you saw those guys in those
old pictures. They're walking around with shoulders full of you know, fur,
(03:56):
of dead animals who were full of Furrussians literally hunted
sea otters to extinction. There were no more in Alaska,
effectively none. So the Russians all of a sudden felt like,
well we don't see a lot more here.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Really that was their position.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
It was, I don't know, we got like the best
thing here that you can get. And so when the
Americans came along, the offer on the table looked good
to the Russians, and they sold Alaska this is you're
probably aware, for seven million bucks. So we see the Americans,
we acquire Alaska for seven million dollars, and what do
(04:38):
we find So soon after that sale, what do we
find there? Gold and gold, minerals, oil, all of that,
not to mention timber, all of it has been exploited
through the years, and you've seen an increase and a
decrease in these minor towns across Alaska. They're still there,
(05:02):
A lot of them are set up for tourists, you know,
but there's still a sense of what existed. And so
the Alaskan history, and I'm leaving out the Native peoples,
I mean the native people. They still are there in Alaska,
albeit having been bumped out by a lot of development
(05:23):
by you know, essentially bumped out all the way by
a lot of development.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
But there are still.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
I guess I would call it monuments to the Native peoples,
and they participate in the maintaining and also the increasing
of the awareness of the Native people's history. So if
you go there as a tourist, you see this everywhere
and it's very much a part of the landscape of Alaska.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Now I recommend it.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
We had a great, great time and as I say,
if you have it in you to you know, jumping
rubber raft, which is what we did, and there were
just six of us in this raft and we went.
It was a very cold day, but wow, what a
wondrous experience to be out there in it, you know.
And as I say, it's only getting in the next
(06:16):
month or so, even more crowded with wildlife because of
the salmon. So I got back then from Alaska, just
got back and I attended the birthday party. And this
is something maybe you can relate to. I'm you know,
when I relate a story to you, I always think
(06:36):
we can somebody else relate to this, Like it's not
I hope it's not too you know, self indulgent to
relate this story, but maybe you'll be able to relate
to this. I went to this seventieth birthday party of
a dear friend of mine, very talented, a comic named
Bobby Slayton. So I was. I was in Beverly Hills
(06:59):
getting my hair darkened for it. You know, they get
rid of what the gray hair. There's not a lot
of gray hair. Everybody, Okay, settle down, but it's a
little bit. Although the colorist is I guess she's called.
Said to me, Mark, would you like a maybe we
leave a little bit of gray in? Would you like
(07:20):
us to do that just to you can have it?
I said, I never want to hear you say that
ever again. If it's an open casket at my funeral,
I want you to make sure the hair is dark.
I want to be and I am the aging guy
with the hair that's too dark for him. Anyway, that
was in Beverly Hills. Now the way back to the car,
(07:43):
I pass this store called Club Monaco. It's kind of
one of these bougie stores that's on the corner, I
want to say it like Brighton and Beverly. And in
the window is a suit, kind of a linen suit.
And I thought I can wear this suit to Bobby's birthday.
(08:05):
So I go in. I try the suit on and
it really looks good, you know, and I don't normally
I'm not out there buying suits all the time.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
You know, this is like I thought.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
I thought, I want to try to look good seventieth
birthday sit down dinner. I mean, you know, so I
do the whole thing quickly. I'm not big into trying
on clothes. I just don't like the whole thing. I
don't not a good shopper that way. Just let's do it.
Does it fit great, Let's buy it. And then I
said to the guy, please cut off all of the
(08:35):
tags and stuff because I'm gonna wear it to this
dinner tonight. And he said, of course, I'm gonna take
off the the store detector thing. I said, no, no, no,
I mean all the tags please. He said, okay. So
I didn't pay any attention to it. He puts the
thing in the bag. And you know where this is coming.
You know that where this whole thing is ending up.
(08:57):
I go to the event. I put on the jacket
to the suit, which I have yet to really put on.
It was hanging on a hanger in the car. And
the first thing I see on the back of the
jacket is what the store detection device, the thing you
can't get off unless you've got you know, the store
(09:18):
detection device remover machine.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
So that's there, and then.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
I see that there are other things that he's left on.
I mean, the guy didn't The only thing I asked
him to do was take these things off. So I
can take off the other stuff before I walk into
the party. But I can't take off this store detection
machine thing, you know what I'm talking about, the thing
that they leave a fixed to every item so that
when people walk off, it sets off the alarm. So
(09:47):
now I'm really you know, I'm doing that thing where
I'm not letting people see like the back of my jacket,
because it's so embarrassing. And I vow to go back
the next day and plan and I'm I'm really angry
about this, but I'm I'm not a shower, and I'm
not a you know, it's I'm kind of a but
(10:08):
I'm I'm steaming on the inside.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
I go back and the guy isn't there.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
It's a different guy, and I said, Hi, I was
there yesterday and I bought this suit, and I'm telling
him the whole story, and he says, wow, I'm really
sorry to hear that. I can see, you know, I
can see that he's left it on there, let me
take it off for you, and I said, yeah, I
appreciate if you're taking it off for me now. But
the event I was talking about, and I indicated to
the salesperson that I was going to be going to
(10:37):
that event happened last night and it was very embarrassing,
and I wondered if you can make some kind of adjustment,
I mean store credit or something. I mean, this is
really you know And I said, it just like that,
and he said, I can see where it would frustrate you.
We just don't do that. We don't do any kind
of store credit. I said, really, I mean, you know this,
(11:00):
this seems like a real screw up. Wouldn't you want
to do something if you're the store to make it right,
I asked him. He said, yeah, yeah, I'm just not
We just don't do it. I mean maybe we should,
but we don't. He said, if you want, I'll let
you return it, which we also don't do typically, while
you guys don't.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Do a lot. But I said, well, I like the suit.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
I just feel as though you'd want to do something
to kind of keep me as a customer. He said, yeah,
I don't know. He said, I'll give you an eight
hundred number, he said, But to be honest, I don't
think they're going to do anything like all right, and
that was the end of it. So now my debut
(11:42):
appearance of my new linen suit, complete with the store
detection device on it, has passed. No store credit, no adjustment.
Maybe you can relate to this. Have you been in
a situation like that where you go go back You're thinking, Hey,
this is a perfectly reasonable thing that I'm asking you
(12:03):
to do.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
I'm asking you to make this right. Give me a.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
Twenty dollars, twenty five dollars, fifty dollars something. This is
a higher end store. Nothing, it's the new America. It's
to screw you America. Anyway, It's great to be back.
That's a little something on Alaska and that one store.
(12:26):
Be sure that they take off your tags. That's all
I would say to you. We have a great show ahead.
A best selling author, Bottom of the Hour, The Great
Man is the new book from Kira Davis Lori. It's
a it's a historical novel. It's set in Los Angeles.
That's why I think it'd be so great to talk
to her about this today. Matt Nicky and Robin All
(12:49):
on the scene. We'll get in tomorrow.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
As we continue, you're listening to KFI AM six forty
on demand.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
Mark Thompson hanging out Sunday after noon. It's a Pride
Day and their Pride activities all around LA. Mostly who
for a lot of this stuff West Hollywood rich ties
to the LGBTQ community, of course in West Hollywood. One
thing I would mention is, I'm seeing some pictures and
videos and somebody actually sent me a video of dogs
(13:23):
that were taken to the parade. There's nothing wrong with
that except for the fact that a there might be
noise that might affect them in some way I don't know.
But more to the point, as the temperature is kind
of warm, make sure that there is water along the route.
The complaint from the person who sent me the video
was you can tell these dogs are thirsty, you know,
(13:43):
tongues out, breathing heavily, and there's no provision that they
can see for them to be able to rehydrate to
get water. So that is what's happening in Pride Land.
But with that one warning that if you're going, please
be warned. Doesn't look like there's a lot of water
(14:04):
out there, of course along the parade route, and it
would be cool if you could provide some water for
your animal.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
And speaking of that, the.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Piece that ran in the La Times was really really troubling,
and there's.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Even a.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Video out of Coasta Mesa showing a volunteer at a
pet rescue dragging a dog on the street in Coasta Mesa.
The dog walker is dragging this limp dog on a
leash in front of the Priceless Pets No Kill Pet Rescue.
The Coasta Mesa police de barment was reported reportedly contacted
(14:48):
Priceless Pets that they're looking into it and they are
quote taking immediate action, but the statement goes on, this
is not who we are, this is not the standard
of care that we stand for, and the volunteer apparently
has been dismissed from the rescue. The piece that I
was talking about the La Times, though, is about the
(15:10):
shelter in LA and the animal shelters in LA that
are controlled by someone who's just left. Stacy Danes about
a month into her job overseeing the La City animal shelters,
an employee apparently defied her. In the first month, she
(15:32):
asked the employee to clean a kennel, and instead the
employee picked up a hose and sprayed a dog in
the face, according to Stacey Danes. Danes thought that the
employee should be fired, but the city's personnel department recommended
five days of leave. Now Mayor Karen Bass hired Stacy
(15:55):
Danes in June twenty twenty three, promising to make La
a national model for animal welfare. I mean, there have
been problems around the La animal shelter system. Dogs live
in these overcrowded, dirty kennels. Volunteers have been complaining animals
sometimes don't get food and water. Dogs and cats are suffering,
(16:16):
and they're suffering more as staffing issues reemerge. But this
interview with Stacy Dames in the La Times, she says
she felt powerless to solve these entrenched problems that include
severe understaffing, employees who mistreat or neglect animals completely. She
(16:40):
said she was repeatedly told by the personnel department, which
functions kind of like a human resources department, that she
couldn't fire employees. She clashed with one of the unions
that represents shelter employees. She even reached out to La
County prosecutors for help at one point, apparently so as
the overcrowding gowers, dogs and cats are euthanized in numbers
(17:04):
that just would make your skin crawl more and more,
even under her watch, as she was there to reform
the whole thing. She's saying, now, we need to tell
the unfiltered, unvarnished truth about what is happening in the
LA shelters.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
This is her speaking.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
After a little more than a year as Animal Services
general manager. She went on paid leave and then she resigned,
So she's saying the series the city just simply does
not provide enough funding to meet the basic needs of
the animals in the six shelters that the city runs,
(17:46):
and there have been real problems with money. Right during
Karen Bass's first year in office, because of a lot
of critical reporting from the La Times and others about
conditions in the shelters, the mayor offered an eighteen percent
budget increase, less than the fifty six percent increase that
(18:09):
Animal Services had asked for, But then her budget proposal
lowered in the department's final funding in the following fiscal year,
and in passing.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
A budget now.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
With a billion dollar shortfall, Animal Services doesn't get an increase,
but doesn't get any cuts. So Stacey Danes again, the
former head of these shelters, brought in by Karen Bass.
She's held these jobs running shelters in San Jose and
(18:46):
Long Beach. She says that the employees are becoming desensitized
to the suffering of the animals they witness. A day
after day, five hundred dogs have to be handled, cleaning kennels,
setting up adoptions, working with the medical team. There's a
lot to do, so she's seeing even abuse of the animals,
(19:13):
and that's perhaps one of the most disturbing things I
read in the piece. She said she witnessed some of
her employees terrorizing dogs by banging on their kennels or
spraying them with water to move them back. She told
employees to stop that behavior, but some said they'd been
trained to treat the dogs that way. She wanted to
(19:34):
start a schedule the tract when each task was done
that had to be done at the shelter, but a
union rep said that the information could be used to
punish employees and push back on it. And then she
dropped that proposal because of the opposition from the union.
And then there's gossip and then there's pushback from employees
(19:56):
supervisors with sexual relationships with subordinates. I mean, it's so
going on and more and more. You just want to
see these poor creatures that end up in these shelters
treated with some dignity. So she's beaking up. The LA
Times shared a lot of her thoughts in today's La Times,
(20:22):
and the number of dogs euthanized at city shelters from
January through September last year went up. Can you guess
how much it went up? Seventy two percent. Seventy two
percent more dogs were euthanized at city shelters than with
the same period the previous years, and the number of
(20:44):
dogs entering the shelters is going up each year, but
the number put to death far outpaced the number of
dogs entering the shelters. There's no euthanasian policy, and they
created a euthanasia policy during Stacy Danes's tenure.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
But as I say, she has resigned.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
It's a full on five alarm fire in the LA.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Shelter business.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
So the LA Animal Shelters watch this space will give
you more as it becomes available, but nothing good is
happening in that world. When we come back set in
Los Angeles. Her latest. She is a best selling author.
Her latest is called The Great Man. Man is spelled
(21:38):
m ann. We'll talk about this piece of historical fiction
set right here in Los Angeles with the author Kira
Davis Lourie. We'll do it next right here.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
Mark Thompson here, I'm so excited to have a best
selling author in the midst here with a book that
takes place in Los Angeles. It's set against the backdrop
of Los Angeles. The Library Journal already saying that her
(22:14):
nuanced and sympathetic characters and stellar writing are nearly as
brilliant as in The Great Gatsby. Wow it is. It's
pretty amazing that you got this from Bloomberg. Bloomberg chooses
your book as one of the ten best books of
(22:36):
the summer. How about it for Kira Davis LORI and
The Great Man, which is your new book, Bravo.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
Man is spelled m A n N And it's being released.
I think is it next week that it's released?
Speaker 5 (22:53):
Tenth? Yeah, right around the corner.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
So tell me about where it's set, because in a
part of LA that is sort of very different now
than it was.
Speaker 6 (23:05):
Yeah, the area is called West Adam Heights and right
now there's the Ten Freeways right through it, but that
did not that wasn't.
Speaker 5 (23:15):
Always the case.
Speaker 6 (23:16):
So West Adam Heights was Los Angeles' Beverly Hills before
we had Beverly Hills.
Speaker 5 (23:22):
So all the la aristocracy lived there. And then the
stock market crashed.
Speaker 6 (23:28):
And as the thirties wore on, people discovered it was
actually really expensive to keep up your mansion, right, so
they had to sell. But the only people who were
able to buy at that time were the newly wealthy
African Americans. So you had African American oil tycoons, hoteliers,
(23:50):
business moguls, and then the Hollywood movie stars and they
started buying up these mansions. And Hattie McDaniel was one
of the people who lived there, and she would throw
these gala parties where her guest list would include Bing Crosby,
Clark Gable, Lena Horne, Duke Ellington was her entertainment and right,
(24:14):
I mean, so it was extraordinarily Gatsby esque, which is
why I took the framework of the Gatsby and said
it in this real world.
Speaker 5 (24:24):
That was right here in Los Angeles.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
Apparently it's amazingly successful, this narrative. So this veteran who
is your main character, arrives back in nineteen forty five
Los Angeles to this area and figuring there'd be a
fresh start, this affluent neighborhood that you describe, and then
take us through a little bit of what he encounters.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
Right.
Speaker 6 (24:45):
So, Charlie Trammel, he is he was in World War
Two and he's just come back to his home in
He came back home to his home in Virginia, in
rural Virginia where his family was sharecroppers. But as what
just was the case, as with the case in at
the end of World War One, black veterans were not
(25:06):
treated well, particularly in the South.
Speaker 5 (25:09):
There was a lot of violence and abuse.
Speaker 6 (25:10):
And he decides that's the stock going to work, and
he has a cousin who he hasn't seen forever, who's
in Los Angeles.
Speaker 5 (25:18):
He's like, yeah, come on out here. Lots of opportunity.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
This is good.
Speaker 6 (25:22):
He goes out and discovers it's not just that she's
doing okay, she's living the life. Okay, you know, she's
coming out. She's got diamonds in her ears. She's driving
like the nice car. You know, she's got clothes that
look like they were designed just for her. And you know,
when he knew her, I mean she left young, but like.
Speaker 5 (25:44):
She's his cousin.
Speaker 6 (25:45):
This was this was a sharecropping family, so he doesn't
really know the full trajectory. And she married this guy
who's living up in West Adam Heights, which had been
nicknamed at that point LA's sugar Hill. So he gets
brought into this world from the sharecropping world and as
well as the the drama and trauma of World War Two,
(26:08):
into this world of black luxury that he didn't know existed.
And he's seeing, you know again movie stars. And one
of the things really interesting for him with the black
movie stars is, like a lot of African Americans of
that period, there was a lot of mixed feelings about
their black movie stars because they were taking these roles
(26:30):
that were really stereotypic, typical, and frequently demeaning.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
Sure, the servant the exact yeah, of course.
Speaker 6 (26:40):
Right, you know, they were the they were there to
be subservient and the butther of the joke, you know.
And then he meets these people and they're the they's
so the dichonag between them and the characters they play
is gigantic, right, I mean, as he meets Louise Beaver's
who was a huge star at the time, less known
(27:01):
now by the time, she was as big as Hattie McDaniel,
and she played roles that, you know, these plaintive roles
of you know, these the the servant, the main occasionally
occasionally the slave, right you know, And and she in
reality she was.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
This.
Speaker 5 (27:24):
She has a three story house.
Speaker 6 (27:27):
She's you know, makes a point like, I don't touch
the kitchen. That's not my job. My husband's gonna have
to do that. She smokes cigars, She has poker games
every Sunday up on the third floor, right, you know,
I mean, she loves being first row at the boxing Max.
And he says, it's like it's the same She has
the same voice and the same face, but a completely
(27:48):
different spine than what I've seen on the screen.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
So it's he's just so he can't like he's trying
to reconcile these these two.
Speaker 5 (27:56):
Worlds exactly exactly.
Speaker 6 (27:57):
And what's really one of the things I found so
compelling about that that community is Charlie was not again,
he was not alone in having mixed feelings about the celebrities,
the black celebrities. In fact, the black business elite generally speaking,
(28:19):
really resented.
Speaker 5 (28:20):
The black celebrities because they felt.
Speaker 6 (28:22):
They were undermining their own social progress, that these images
that we were seeing on the screen were demeaning the
entire race, and there wasn't a lot of sympathy for
the position that.
Speaker 5 (28:38):
These actors were in.
Speaker 6 (28:39):
They were genuinely trying to open doors, right, but the
opportunities weren't there for better roles. And for instance, when
they did get better roles, those roles were frequently thanks
to the Hayes Office, which was a censorship office, the
parts that showed them, that showed their agency were taken
(29:02):
out like that was not acceptable. And so even when
they accepted roles that they thought, oh, this is the
role where I get to show my strength, then it's
literally in a movie that Louisse Beaver's was in Imitation
of Life. Someone from the Hayes Office wrote and said,
(29:23):
looking at this script, it would appear you don't seem
to see how these the black servants don't want more
than being a black servant, that they want to be independent.
Surely I know that you must be wanting to show
that they are happy with their place in society, but
(29:44):
it's not coming through, so you need to adjust the
script right exactly exactly so.
Speaker 5 (29:51):
But there wasn't sympathy for that in the black communities
or in the black business elite.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
And that's interesting.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
So even within this affluent world and Black America's flourish
in this way, and your main character is coming from
this place where he just can't believe all these black
people are doing so well. But even within that community
there is this conflict. They're the business people and then
there's show people.
Speaker 2 (30:11):
The show business.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
Hold that thought. I'm because it's interesting. You have to
research all this as a writer, you know, getting the plot,
finding your main character that's going to run through this
entire world. You have to research that world because it
is historically based your novel, right, Yeah, So I want
to talk to you a little bit about that, and
you know about what La was like it was the
(30:33):
mid nineteen forties.
Speaker 5 (30:34):
Right ninety five.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
I want to get to again the books called The
Great Man, and I do want to mention Kira if
you want to meet her. There is a series of
upcoming events June tenth, at Romans in Pasadena.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
They always have great events there. They just do such great.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
Yeah, June eleventh Diesel a bookstore Santa Monica, another great spot.
And then June nineteenth Chevaliet Books in Los Angeles. Again
the tenth, the eleventh, and the nineteenth Romans, Diesel and Chevalier's.
All that information I think is on your website is
it's kid.
Speaker 5 (31:10):
Davis Kiridavisluriy dot com.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
Ciadavislivery dot com. I knew you when you were Kira Davis.
Then you married an esteemed director.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
Rod Lurie. He's very creative, also very talented guy.
Speaker 5 (31:23):
He loses a lot of money to you in poker.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
That's that's not the way I usually live it. But
it's a lot of creativity under that roof of yours.
So that's great. Kira Davis Lourie. We continue the book
Is the Great Man and more.
Speaker 4 (31:37):
As we continue, you're listening to KFI AM six forty
on demand.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
What's it is a Pride Day.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
The traffic is being reworked and that will continue for
the next few hours. We're talking to Kurra Davis LORII.
Kira Davis Lourie is a best selling author her latest
is The Great Man m A Double n She has,
you know, book signing, and I would imagine they'll read
probably from the book as well at these events June
tenth at Romans and Pasadena, June eleventh at Diesel in
(32:07):
Santa Monica, and June nineteenth at Chevaliet's Books. It takes
place in the nineteen forties, and again it's historical novel,
and this is your first piece of historical fiction, I think, right,
it is. Yeah, And so you had to research this
period of the mid nineteen forties and this part of LA,
this affluent black community made up of, as you suggested,
(32:28):
show business performers top of their game and the business
elite top of their game. These are real people. This
is a real place existed in LA in the mid
nineteen forties. Two things, were there things that surprised you?
First of all in your research? And also was there
stuff in there that you didn't get a chance to
include in the book.
Speaker 6 (32:45):
Yeah, so, so much of it was surprising. For one thing,
you have to think of how people's feelings and their
view and the lens they saw Los Angeles through was
so different in good and bad ways.
Speaker 5 (33:02):
One of my characters John Alexander Somerville.
Speaker 6 (33:05):
He was the first African American to graduate from USC.
He had a dentistry degree and the top of his
class and opened up a huge luxury hotel and YadA YadA.
But he wrote not a biography, and in it he
talks about how Los Angeles, yes there's racial problems, but
(33:27):
we're so much more enlightened than the majority of the country.
For instance, you don't see the race riots in Los
Angeles that you see in other parts of the country,
and which was true when he wrote that book.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
But like, but if you can always take around a
little bit right.
Speaker 6 (33:46):
Exactly, it's like, oh wow, this is like such a
different kind of viewpoint of of what LA is right.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
What was schene by the way, and just in general
in California, there's a change of open of an acceptance.
I don't know to what extent. That's just sort of
a brand that we have in California. How much of
it is really true, Yeah, but it's interesting that there
was real, his real sense, palpable sense of it back
in the mid nineteen forties.
Speaker 6 (34:14):
He was I mean, he well, he was a very
he was a very optimistic man, and he definitely saw
he saw the opportunity. He felt like if you just
talked to people, were reasonable with them, things would progress.
And that was frequently his experience. Now, it is also
true that Los Angeles, a California in general, but definitely
(34:36):
particularly Los Angeles, had a lot of what they called
racial covenants. About eighty percent of Los Angeles, the apercent
of the homes of Los Angeles had a covenant on
them saying that the only people who were allowed to
live in those homes were white people. Yeah, and the
only and if you were black, the only way that
(34:59):
you were allowed to live in the those homes was
if you were a servant to white people and so,
and that included the homes in West Adam Heights. So
there was actually in the book at details there was
a lawsuit from the white neighbors who were trying to
get these people kicked out of their homes because of
the racial covenants on there.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
So wow, Yeah, in battle to their own neighborhoods.
Speaker 6 (35:21):
Exactly, exactly, And that's and it's sort of an interest
again talk about economies. You have these people in Minx
who are on the verge of being homeless because of
people trying to kick them out of their homes. So
it's it's based on race and nothing else. And at
that time, the racial covenants were considered legal, so it
(35:42):
was it was a real battle and that really started
to be honest, not with African Americans. It was a
push against the Chinese residence of the turn of the
twentieth century in California, and then it just sort of
moved ethnic group.
Speaker 5 (35:59):
Yes, exactly, exactly exactly.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
What and what's what?
Speaker 3 (36:03):
What part of this world that your researched in that
mid nineteen forties world, in that neighborhood that you described,
that's the backdrop for this book, The Great Man? What
what would you have liked to include that you couldn't Okay, So.
Speaker 6 (36:18):
The Hattie McDaniel, she was mammy and gone with the wind.
They had the premiere in a Georgia Atlanta theater. It
was a segregated theater, so she was not allowed to
attend the premiere.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
Yeah, there's so many of those kinds of stories exactly.
Speaker 6 (36:36):
So they had this big premiere and just to put
an exclamation point on the whole thing, they brought in
a kid's choir that they kind of dressed up in
rags and they were it was a black kids choir
and they were going to sing and it was supposed
to be like the slaves of the plantation South for
(36:56):
this white audience and like to entertain them before in
that choir. One of the kids in that choir was
Martin Luther King Jr.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
Wow. Yeah, what a fact?
Speaker 3 (37:08):
Right?
Speaker 2 (37:09):
What a fact?
Speaker 5 (37:09):
Right?
Speaker 2 (37:10):
How did you discover that that was?
Speaker 5 (37:12):
I mean when I was so that's again, it's document.
Speaker 6 (37:14):
When I was researching Hattie McDaniel looking through all the
materials of that premiere, I mean, that was in there,
and I'm like, but but nobody in nineteen forty five
knows who Martin Luther King Jr.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
Is.
Speaker 5 (37:25):
I can't include it. I can't include it.
Speaker 6 (37:27):
It's like, so it doesn't But but how much did
I want to?
Speaker 2 (37:32):
Right? Somehow?
Speaker 5 (37:34):
Exactly?
Speaker 2 (37:35):
That's wild.
Speaker 3 (37:36):
That's so true though, when you immerse yourself in a
time period, you can't just jump out and go, hey,
by the way.
Speaker 6 (37:42):
Right, it's nice j MLK and the yeah, and they're
going to be like, I'm sorry who So yeah, it's
and there was so much like that, and it was
really it was really a challenge for me choosing what
to include and what just was ended up sounding like
(38:02):
a lecture.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
You know.
Speaker 6 (38:03):
It's like I want you need to just be entertainment
and so but there was like all of this extra
stuff that I learned. I wish I could just sort
of pack in there, and you can't.
Speaker 5 (38:15):
Yeah, exactly. And by the way, you know, it's like
there's no but.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
It's got to be a good ride for your reader,
That's what I mean. Obviously you're a best selling author.
That's what you've been true to and that ride for
the reader. The great Man. So your character in the
last couple of moments that we have, your character does
get into this world and again after military service, and
I think falls in with I was just reading about
(38:41):
the book I have to get into the book falls
into with some not so savory characters.
Speaker 6 (38:49):
Yeah, well, okay, so I do have a gas b
esque character, right, So James quote unquote reaper Man, right,
Reaper is his mo like her that nobody uses to
his face, right, and it's he clearly has extraordinary wealth.
He is like Hattie throwing huge gala events, except even bigger.
Speaker 5 (39:12):
The neighborhood.
Speaker 6 (39:13):
Both the business moguls and the Hollywood elite are a
little nervous about this guy, because they don't really know
where he came from or where his money came from.
And they're already battling for their homes, so they don't
really need any extra controversy that he may be bringing in.
But Charlie is really drawn to him, and he's very
(39:34):
kind to Charlie, and the parties are amazing, and so
he sort of gets wrapped up in his world too, of.
Speaker 5 (39:43):
Just a little bit of like.
Speaker 6 (39:46):
Mystery, the hint of maybe something nefarious, but you don't
really know, right And and of course, as in Gatsby,
it turns out that he is truly in love with
Charlie's cousin, who the one who brought him out.
Speaker 5 (40:01):
So that's yeah, so so yeah.
Speaker 6 (40:04):
So you know we got and she is married, so
you know, there's the love triangle, there's like the who
is this guy? And there is also the clash of
the two communities and the court case and everything going on.
Speaker 3 (40:15):
Oh that's terrific. There sounds like there's so much in
this book. The great Man Kira Davis LORII, Hey listen again.
I encourage you to meet Kira and participate in one
of three events. June tenth at Romans, They do great
stuff in Pasadena. You can meet Kira, she'll sign your book.
Speaker 5 (40:36):
Yeah, and that's at seven, by the way, seven pm,
so come after work.
Speaker 3 (40:39):
Oh great, Okay, good, it's a nice evening event June
eleventh at Diesel a bookstore that's at sixth that's at
six in Santa Monica and Chevalier's Books in LA on
the nineteenth.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
What time is that?
Speaker 5 (40:52):
Six six thirty? I think six thirty.
Speaker 3 (40:54):
Okay, Well, you can check the website. Kira is k
y R Kira Davis, l u r E. Kiradavisluri dot
com has all the information again Romans, Diesel and Chevalier's
The book is out June tenth, The Great Man. It
takes place right here in La. There's a Hollywood connection
and La as most of us had not seen it,
(41:17):
I mean in the mid nineteen forties. You know, I've
learned more about La in the nineteen forties in this
conversation with you than I ever knew. So you're so
cool to stop to the studio.
Speaker 5 (41:27):
Thank you, Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 3 (41:29):
Give my best to your your husband. I absolutely it
was also a very talented guy filmmaker. I hope his
next work comes out soon and we can talk to
him as well.
Speaker 5 (41:39):
It's going to be amazing.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
Yeah, thanks Kira.
Speaker 3 (41:42):
When we come back, we have everything on the docket
and it includes and this is something we're going to
want your input on, a pet bereavement counselor you know
this is true. There's a new book out about essentially
(42:03):
getting you through the pain, the literal pain you can
feel emotionally when you lose a pet, a companion animal,
And we'll talk a little bit about that and with
her about her new book.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
That'll be at the bottom of the next hour.
Speaker 3 (42:20):
Also, it's goodbye to Inside the NBA their last night.
We'll play the mic Drop moment for you next
Speaker 1 (42:29):
KFI AM six forty on demand
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