Japanese immigration to the United States first began to boom in the 1880s, following the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. The absence of Chinese laborers created tremendous opportunities for other low-wage workers, although Japanese immigration would be curtailed in the early twentieth century due to an agreement between the U.S. and Japan. […]

Interested in digging deeper into the history of the Eastside? Check out the resources below! Acuña, Rudolfo. A Community under Siege: A Chronicle of Chicanos East of the Los Angeles River, 1945-1975. Los Angeles: UCLA Chicano Studies Center, 1980. De León, Arnoldo and Richard Griswold del Castillo. North to Aztlán: A History of Mexican Americans […]

My father, Bill Phillips, operated Phillips Music Company on Brooklyn Ave. from 1935-1992.  USC historian, George Sanchez, described the store as follows: “But as we did more interviews, we kept hearing different stories from other people about Bill Phillips, who owned this music store on Brooklyn Avenue.” We started to interview Latino musicians who came […]

CBS' Television City was one of the first and largest complexes built expressly for television production and broadcasting, and clearly signified L.A.'s intent to become the capital of television broadcasting.