MovieChat Forums > Los Angeles Plays Itself Discussion > 'Los Angeles' vs. 'L.A.'

'Los Angeles' vs. 'L.A.'

posted 15 years ago by fiestasandsiestas
5 replies | jump to latest

As a lover of Los Angeles, I had a great time watching this movie - even if I found some of the filmmaker's assertions a bit over the top.

I was wondering if anyone had found any interviews where Mr. Andersen might have expounded further on his great exception to people abbreviating "Los Angeles" as "L.A." I just found this running theme - and Andersen's vitriol - funny, considering his narrator's pronounciation of the city's name is incorrect - or at least in keeping with the same kind of oppressive whitewashing that he spends so much time deriding throughout the movie. (Did you know that, before the U.S. Geographic Board decided to anglicize the name to make it easier for non-Spanish speakers to pronounce, even the Los Angeles Times printed “Los Angeles (Loce Ahng hail ais)” below the masthead on the editorial page?)

Anyway - I did have such a good time watching the film, and loved seeing some of my own favorite Los Angeles landmarks highlighted (I still dream of getting inside the Chemosphere someday to take a look around...)

I hope it gets the wide release it deserves someday.

[–] gayspiritwarrior 10 years ago

Former L.A. (yes!) Mayor, Sam Yorty, always pronounced it Loss Angle-ess, which is somewhere between the original Spanish and the Americanized versions. He was taken to task for it a number of times, but maintained that he was closer to the correct pronunciation, which of course he was.

"The value of an idea has nothing whatsoever to do with the sincerity of the man who expresses it."

[–] lakurfiss 9 years ago

I really enjoyed this monumental, Loonnngggg, documentary, even though I disagreed with the main premise: that Los Angeles, the city, is forever disrespected and done wrong in cinematic depictions by "Hollywood." In some cases, perhaps, but mostly, it's just a set, a backdrop. Long time residents and lovers of the Big Mess, like me, always get a kick out of recognizing familiar locales, some of them long gone. The original "Angel's Flight" funicular railway on Bunker Hill is fondly remembered from my childhood. It, and the old beat-up Bunker Hill neighborhood, now a faceless office district, has appeared in many films.

Calling the city "L.A.", instead of mispronouncing it as "Loss AN-j'lliss" seems to gall the narrator/writer, a point he returns to repeatedly. Check out interviews by long-time legendary L.A. police chief William Parker, and hear him call it Lawss-Anng-gliss, similarly to the way Yorty did it. Parker was originally from Deadwood, SD. The only publicly prominent non-Hispanic citizen who ever pronounced it correctly in the Spanish way was Jimmy Lennon, the ring announcer/emcee at the Olympic Auditorium boxing matches.

As for the documentary being full of "spoilers", most IMDB film addicts will have seen these films long ago. Who doesn't know how "Sunset Boulevard" ends? C'mon.

Andersen has a monotonic voice, and he keeps making the same points over and over, some of which are worthy of consideration. It's just a thrill ride watching the clips, and remembering those films, and making a list of ones not yet seen.

8-1/2 // 10

[–] Local Hero 9 years ago

Just two bits to add to this conversation:

1. As someone who grew up in Los Angeles, my experience was always that Angelenos themselves use the names "L.A." and "Los Angeles" at the rate of about 10 to 1. To my ear, "L.A." was and is, of course, a less formal way of referring to the city, but it is at best affectionate and at worst neutral -- never pejorative in tone.

2. I disagree with others in this thread who seem to think that the closer one is to a Spanish-language pronunciation of "Los Angeles," the more correct one is. Yes, the original name -- "La Ciudad de Los Angeles" -- is obviously Spanish in origin, but as it became the name of a United States megalopolis, the name was Anglicized and established by the majority of its residents, just as is the case for cities all over the world. No one would insist that the only correct way to say "Brooklyn" is to pronounce it in a Dutch manner -- that would be absurd. No, "Loss - ANN-j'liss" is fully the correct and most established way to pronounce the city's name, and unless one is speaking in Spanish, I would suggest that pronouncing the name in the manner of the original Spanish would be the height of misguided pretension.

(And no, I am not some sort of English-Only advocate or anything remotely resembling that.)

[–] benft 8 years ago

high-five to that point...I've always though NPR reporters cutting away to the foreigh pronunciation (especially if Spanish) was silly. ( they never would say "Paree, France"...)

[–] gortx 8 years ago

I also found it annoying that Anderson seems to think that Los Angeles is the only city that is shortened to its initials in conversations - as "L.A."

Guess he's never heard of KC, NYC or DC.