From bestselling author Gary Krist, the story of the metropolis that never should have been and the visionaries who dreamed it into reality Little more than a century ago, the southern coast of California--bone-dry, harbor-less, isolated by deserts and mountain ranges--seemed destined to remain scrappy farmland.
Spanning the years from 1900 to 1930, The Mirage Factory is the enthralling tale of an improbable city and the people who willed it into existence by pushing the limits of human engineering and imagination..
Yet when the dust settled, the Mirage that was LA remained.
All three would pay a steep price to realize these dreams, in a crescendo of hubris, scandal, and catastrophic failure of design that threatened to topple each of their personal empires.
The images they conjured up--of a blossoming city in the desert, of a factory of celluloid dreamworks, of a community of seekers finding personal salvation under the California sun--were like mirages liable to evaporate on closer inspection.
All were masters of their craft, but also illusionists, of a kind.
And Aimee Semple McPherson, a charismatic evangelist who founded a religion, cemented the city\'s identity as a center for spiritual exploration. its signature industry.
Griffith, who transformed the motion picture from a vaudeville-house novelty into a cornerstone of American culture, gave L.
A.
D.
W.
At the heart of Los Angeles\' meteoric rise were three flawed visionaries: William Mulholland, an immigrant ditch-digger turned self-taught engineer, designed the massive aqueduct that would make urban life here possible.
Then, as if overnight, one of the world\'s iconic cities emerged.
From bestselling author Gary Krist, the story of the metropolis that never should have been and the visionaries who dreamed it into reality Little more than a century ago, the southern coast of California--bone-dry, harbor-less, isolated by deserts and mountain ranges--seemed destined to remain scrappy farmland
