Yes, that\u2019s all fine and notable, but is this city of 140,000 actually tour worthy?<\/p>\n
Debbie Hays, a resident and Torrance Historical Society docent, was up to the challenge of proving it certainly was when we met for a tour this week.<\/p>\n
History meets Hollywood<\/p>\n
We started at the Torrance Historical Society. Inside, visitors receive a quick lesson about the city\u2019s creation, from a Spanish land grant to its founding by financial broker Jared Sidney Torrance in 1912.<\/p>\n
A good portion of the talk centers on one of the city\u2019s heroes, Louis Zamperini, known as the \u201cTorrance Tornado.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Olympic and USC star, who competed in the famed 1936 Games, was a larger-than-life pillar captured in book and film, the latter the 2014 movie \u201cUnbroken.\u201d<\/a> <\/p>\n \u201cLouis was a bit of a misfit in his early days and his story is one of redemption and finding his purpose,\u201d Hays said. \u201cIt started with track and of course he\u2019s most known about his role in the war.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo other place in the world has more information and pieces of history tied to Louis than we do,\u201d Hays says.<\/p>\n (Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Zamperini was a U.S. Army Air Force bombardier<\/a> in 1943 when his B-24 Liberator went down in the Pacific on May 27 with 10 additional crew members.<\/p>\n Zamperini floated on a life raft for 47 days, battling sharks and hunger before being picked up by a Japanese patrol boat.<\/p>\n He was tortured for two years before he was finally freed.<\/p>\n Hays showed off heirlooms, trophies and files donated by the Zamperini family, including more than 60 pounds of notes and awards, used in production of the movie.<\/p>\n \u201cNo other place in the world has more information and pieces of history tied to Louis than we do,\u201d Hays said.<\/p>\n The \u2018Ramen Capital of Southern California\u2019<\/p>\n One of the more surprising details about Hays\u2019 tour was the number of excursions the city offers.<\/p>\n You can take one of several self-guided tours of the city\u2019s dozen or so microbreweries<\/a> and craft beer tasting sites that highlight a burgeoning craft industry.<\/p>\n The most delectable tour, however, may be shown on the city\u2019s Ramen Trail map<\/a>, which declares Torrance the \u201cRamen Capital of Southern California.\u201d <\/p>\n The town boasts a population of roughly 15,000 people of Japanese descent<\/a>, so I\u2019m sure they know something about good ramen.<\/p>\n As for locales, the film and television map tour denotes more than 200 locations<\/a> where movies like \u201cScarface,\u201d \u201cBoogie Nights\u201d and \u201cHorrible Bosses\u201d and television sitcoms like \u201cBeverly Hills 90210\u201d and \u201cBarry\u201d were filmed.<\/p>\n \u201cWe aren\u2019t Hollywood, but we have many spots worth visiting,\u201d Hays said. \u201cAll they\u2019re all relatively close together.\u201d<\/p>\n The Buffy home<\/p>\n One of her most popular excursions is the Fall Tour of Old Torrance, held bi-annually in October.<\/p>\n Hays offers architectural and historic showings of Tudor, Mission and Spanish Colonial revival homes often butting up against each other. Most homes are over 100 years old.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a very eclectic tour that you don\u2019t see every day in every town,\u201d Hays said. \u201cWe\u2019re not a cookie-cutter neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet, it\u2019s the No. 4 spot on that tour, a 1914 Craftsman-style home at 1313 Cota Ave., that draws a pilgrimage year round.<\/p>\n The 2,296-square-foot home is forever known as \u201cthe Buffy home,\u201d where the popular television show \u201cBuffy the Vampire Slayer\u201d was filmed.<\/p>\n The four bedroom, two bathroom home served as the home of main character Buffy Summers, played by actress Sarah Michelle Gellar.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve led private tours to the home, with sometimes as many as 80 people,\u201d Hays said. \u201cFans come to the house, they cry, they take pictures, they hug the tree. They love it.\u201d<\/p>\n Paradise cakes, ramen noodles, craft beer and Zamperini memorabilia. You don\u2019t have to love Buffy to appreciate Torrance. <\/p>\n The week\u2019s biggest stories A pedestrian braves the rain in Venice Beach.<\/p>\n (Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n SoCal\u2019s stormy weatherOlympic updatesCrime in L.A. CountyUCLA vs. the Rose BowlHomeless services in L.A.What else is going onMust readsOther meaty readsFor your downtime Cynthia Erivo, left, and Ariana Grande in the movie \u201cWicked: For Good.\u201d<\/p>\n (Giles Keyte \/ Universal Pictures)<\/p>\n Going outStaying inL.A. Timeless<\/p>\n A selection of the very best reads from The Times\u2019 143-year archive.<\/p>\n Have a great day, from the Essential California team<\/p>\n Jim Rainey, staff reporter How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com<\/a>. Check our top stories<\/a>, topics<\/a> and the latest articles<\/a> on latimes.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I was a bit skeptical when an emailer suggested touring Torrance as a way to appreciate this South…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,2299,1085,891,2300,2297,340,2303,63,2302,1086,1459,2301,2298,74,225,315,688],"class_list":{"0":"post-66285","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-headlines","10":"tag-california-news","11":"tag-civic-revolt","12":"tag-covid","13":"tag-covid-19","14":"tag-days","15":"tag-essential-california","16":"tag-israel","17":"tag-l-a","18":"tag-los-angeles-times","19":"tag-may","20":"tag-pandemic","21":"tag-part","22":"tag-president-biden","23":"tag-red-county","24":"tag-san-diego","25":"tag-state","26":"tag-time","27":"tag-years"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} <\/p>\n
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Hugo Mart\u00edn, assistant editor
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
June Hsu, editorial fellow
Andrew Campa, weekend reporter
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters<\/p>\n