The Best of Ralph Story’s Los Angeles
This program is presented by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Part of the UCLA Film & Television Archive screening series Archive Television Treasures.
In person: Joe Saltzman, Alison Martino.
Premiering in 1964 on CBS affiliate KNXT (now KCBS), Ralph Story’s Los Angeles (1965–69) remains one of the most fondly remembered series in L.A. television history (and one of the most requested items in the UCLA Film & Television Archive’s collections). Created by Dan Gingold (of KNXT's historic The Big News broadcast), the locally produced Ralph Story’s Los Angeles explored the history, personalities and landmarks of L.A. in one of the first newsmagazine-styled programs on television. Foregrounding the warm, wry personality of newsman and commentator Ralph Story, the local Emmy-winning series earned high television ratings, often outperforming network programs in prime time. In later years, the innovative series inspired an entire genre of popular local TV programs covering the unique landscape of Los Angeles, including Visiting With Huell Howser. Today, the surviving episodes of Ralph Story's Los Angeles represent an invaluable moving image archival record of an evolving L.A. as it stood at mid-century.
Join us for a reprise of a specially curated best of Ralph Story’s Los Angeles omnibus, last presented a decade ago to a sold-out crowd at the Archive’s This Is the City symposium. Featuring excerpts and complete episodes documenting such iconic locales as Angels Flight, Clifton’s Cafeteria, Disneyland at night, Sunset Boulevard, the long lost landmarks Hollywood Ranch Market and Beverly Park, and more! With in-person guests Joe Saltzman, producer of Ralph Story’s Los Angeles, and historian Alison Martino of Vintage Los Angeles.
Before the screening in the lobby, UCLA Library Performing Arts Curator Miki Bulos will display a selection of archival materials from the Ralph Story papers in UCLA Library Special Collections.
Ralph Story’s Los Angeles (1965–69)
DCP, b&w and color, approx. 110 min. KNXT. Executive producer: Dan Gingold. Producer: Joe Saltzman. Director: Jim Johnson. Writer: Jere Witter, Nate Kaplan. Angels Flight segment: Executive producer: Joe Sands. Producer: Dan Gingold. Director: Dan Gingold. Writers: Jere Witter, Nate Kaplan.
The UCLA Film & Television Archive is a division of UCLA Library, and presents its public programs in the Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer, among other venues. For more information about the Archive, visit cinema.ucla.edu.
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