Tour John Fante's Bunker Hill this Saturday

[Kim Cooper]

WHAT: Esotouric's "John Fante's Dreams from Bunker Hill" bus and
walking tour
JUST ADDED: Dan Fante, acclaimed author, joins his sister Vickie Fante
Cohen on the bus to share fascinating family stories and read poems
inspired by his father.
WHEN: Saturday July 25, 12pm-4pm, departs from Lincoln Heights/
Cypress Gold Line Metro station
COST: $58/person.
MORE INFO: visit http://www.esotouric.com or call 323-223-2767

LOS ANGELES- On July 25, the eclectic bus adventure company Esotouric
rolls out its very occasional literary bus and walking tour, JOHN
FANTE'S DREAMS FROM BUNKER HILL. Public interest is high, as John
Fante's 100th birthday in April was the occasion of a sold-out Zocolo
panel discussion at the Hammer Museum and one of the more eclectic and
lively gatherings ever seen at the last Skid Row bar, the King Edward
Saloon.

This tour is a chance to discover a great writer and the lost Downtown
he celebrated, through the narration of Esotouric's Richard Schave,
the L.A. historian who is the new Director of the Downtown L.A. Art
Walk, with his special guests Vickie Fante Cohen, the author's
daughter (and bratty teenage heroine of his late short stories) and
Dan Fante, the author's son (and author of "Chump Change," "Short
Dog," and "Kissed By A Fat Waitress").

SPECIAL GUESTS DAN FANTE AND VICKIE FANTE COHEN:
Newly added to the July 25 tour lineup is Dan Fante, himself an
acclaimed author currently working on a memoir about his relationship
with father, who will be on the bus reading poems about John Fante.
Dan joins his sister Vickie Fante Cohen on the bus to follow in their
father's footsteps and answer questions from his fans.

John Fante was cult hero Charles Bukowski's favorite writer, his "Ask
the Dust" was the film Robert Towne wanted to make after
"Chinatown" (it finally was made in 2006 starring Colin Farrell, Salma
Hayek, and Donald Sutherland) and he is honored with an annual
festival in Italy—but in 21st Century Los Angeles, his name often gets
a shrug. That's too bad, because Fante might be the funniest, most
heartwarming, honest and appealing writer to ever take this city as
his subject.

Downtown Los Angeles is a neighborhood to watch, with huge crowds
attending the monthly Art Walk, and some of the hottest bars and
restaurants in the city. But the New Downtown exists on the footprint
of a fascinating old neighborhood whose stories are in danger of being
lost.

Many of Esotouric's tours are devoted to revealing this lost downtown,
from the crimes of Hotel Horrors to the burlesque and freak show
delights of Main Street Vice, the secret post war woman's history of
The Real Black Dahlia to the architectural anthropology of The Many
Downtowns. On JOHN FANTE'S DREAMS OF BUNKER HILL, passengers walk and
ride in the footsteps of Fante and his anti-hero Arturo Bandini, from
the lost Bunker Hill Victorian rooming houses where Fante starved and
dreamed of fame, the main library where he roamed the stacks (and
later, where Bukowski discovered "Ask the Dust"), the Skid Row bars
where b-girls pocketed his royalty payments, the Grand Central Market
where kindly Japanese farmers gave the poor writer free oranges, to
the retirement home Angelus Plaza to see Kay Martin's stunning
paintings of Bunker Hill's mansions just before the city condemned
them

Get on the bus to bask in the spirit of the weird old L.A. that's not
there anymore, where a poor Italian-American Colorado kid could sell a
novel, become a screenwriter, and inspire a new generation of writers
just by telling the raw and funny truth.

To learn more about Esotouric's forthcoming tour of John Fante's
Bunker Hill, visit
http://www.esotouric.com/fante

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour schedule
Sat July 25 – John Fante's Dreams from Bunker Hill
Sat Aug 1 - The Real Black Dahlia Saturday
Sat Aug 8 - Pasadena Confidential
Thurs Aug 13 - The Hippodrome (Downtown Art Walk Shuttle, free)
Sat Aug 15 - Blood & Dumplings
Sat Aug 22 - Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice
Sat Aug 29 - Reyner Banham Loves LA: The Lowdown on Downtown-The
Secret History of LA
Thurs Sept 10 - The Hippodrome (Downtown Art Walk Shuttle, free)
Sat Sept 12 - The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain's Southern California
Nightmare
Sat Sept 19 - John Buntin's L.A. Noir (debut)
Thurs Oct 8- The Hippodrome (Downtown Art Walk Shuttle, free)
Sat Oct 10 - Wild Wild West Side
Sat Oct 17 – Raymond Chandler's Bay City
Sat Oct 31 - Save the date for a Halloween surprise tour!
Sun Nov 1 – Reyner Banham Loves LA: South LA
Sat Nov 7 - Charles Bukowski's LA
Thurs Nov 12 - The Hippodrome (Downtown Art Walk Shuttle, free)
Sat Nov 14 - The Real Black Dahlia
Sat December 5 – Pasadena Confidential
Thurs Dec 10 - The Hippodrome (Downtown Art Walk Shuttle, free)
Sat December 12 – Blood & Dumplings

For more info on Esotouric, visit http://www.esotouric.com