Skip to main content
Home› Item #730757
1961 Bel Air fire... Los Angeles...
10 photographs · click to enlarge ⤢ Open zoom view

1961 Bel Air fire... Los Angeles...

Item # 730757 ·

THE DETROIT NEWS, Nov. 7, 1961

  • Bel Air, Los Angeles fire disaster
  • Hollywood elite - Santa Ana winds

The front page has a banner headline: "Nixon, Film Stars Flee as L.A. Fires Spreads" with subheads and two photos showing actress Kim Novak and Richard Nixon trying to save their homes. (see images) More related photos are on the back page.
Complete with all 46 pages, small library stamp within the masthead, some small binding holes along the spine, good condition.

Background: The 1961 Bel-Air fire swept through the affluent Santa Monica Mountains neighborhoods of Los Angeles between November 5 and November 8, fueled by 60 mph Santa Ana winds that rapidly drove the brush fire across 6,090 acres and destroyed 484 homes. The blaze famously devastated the residences of high-profile Hollywood figures and cultural icons—including actor Burt Lancaster, author Aldous Huxley (who lost the manuscript for his final novel, Island), and socialite Zsa Zsa Gabor—while former Vice President Richard Nixon famously took to his roof with a garden hose to protect his rented property. Miraculously resulting in zero fatalities, the disaster exposed severe structural vulnerabilities in suburban-wildland communities, directly sparking landmark California safety reforms that included banning flammable wood-shingle roofing, mandating defensive brush clearance around hillside homes, and upgrading mountain fire-road infrastructure and municipal water supply networks.

Category: The 20th Century
Price
$52
100% Authentic: Original printing, never a reproduction.