Note: This is an encore post from 2005 and originally appeared on the 1947project.
Los Angeles mounted a festive reenactment of its founding, with people taking the roles of padres, soldiers and settlers. On the gaily decorated steps of City Hall, officials told tales of the city’s past: Mrs. Leiland Atherton Irish on the Mexican-Spanish period; Marshall Stimson on life from 1850 to 1900; former Mayor George E. Cryer on 1900 to 1947; and Mayor Fletcher Bowron on the city’s future.
A Times editorial said: “Speakers, if they are in a boastful mood, truthfully may say that no community in the history of the world has shown progress and development comparable to Los Angeles and Southern California, particularly in the last generation…