In 1980, the late Eugene Fingerhut, a congregant at the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center (PJTC) and a professor of American history at California State University, Los Angeles began interviewing elderly congregants with a focus on the history of the Pasadena Jewish community prior to World War I...
Biographical Note:
Congregant of the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center.
In 1980, the late Eugene Fingerhut, a congregant at the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center (PJTC) and a professor of American history at California State University, Los Angeles began interviewing elderly congregants with a focus on the history of the Pasadena Jewish community prior to World War I...
Biographical Note:
Congregant of the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center.
This series documents community organizations and institutions that arose in the aftermath of the Watts Rebellion to address issues such as education, employment, healthcare, housing, transportation, and police harassment. The first phase of the series involved interviews with key organizers of ...
Biographical Note:
Advocate for Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center. Executive director of South Central Multipurpose Senior Citizen Center.
This series of interviews was undertaken in collaboration with the Art Directors Guild. Its aim is to document the lives and work of Guild members and staff who have made a significant contribution to film and television history. Interviews capture the work of title artists, set designers, art di...
Biographical Note:
Lead scenic artist for Warner Bros., with credits including The Perfect Storm, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Served as Art Directors Guild associate executive director.
The interviews in this series document the ideological transformation of the Chicana and Chicano generation in Los Angeles. Dissatisfied with their position in U.S. society, Chicana and Chicano activists built a civil rights movement from the ground up. Interviewees were selected based on their e...
Biographical Note:
Founding member of the Brown Berets, and key organizer of the Chicano Blowouts. Member of La Vida Nueva and the movement to establish the Chicano Studies program at East Los Angeles College.
Chemical Entanglements: Oral Histories of Environmental Illness is a collection of interviews with over seventy individuals living in the U.S. and Canada whose family history, occupation, art practice, or activism have brought them into direct contact with illness experience and disability relate...
Biographical Note:
Interviewed for the UCLA Center for the Study of Women’s Chemical Entanglements: Oral Histories of Environmental Illness series. Experiences chemical sensitivities. Domestic worker and member of the Women’s Collective and United and Active Women (MUA), two activist organizations in San Francisco.
This series documents efforts to secure quality education for Black students in the Los Angeles area in the years 1950-2000. This includes the issues of integration/desegregation, increasing the numbers of Black teachers and administrators and the struggle against discriminatory hiring practice...
Biographical Note:
Assistant superintendent, principal, and educator of all ages in Los Angeles Unified School District.
This series includes interviews with key individuals who served in Los Angeles city government during the administration of Mayor Tom Bradley. The interviews focus on each individual’s political development, activism, and role in the Bradley administration. Major urban policy issues addressed in ...
Biographical Note:
Chief administrative officer to Tom Bradley from 1971 to 1993. President of WLMoore & Associates.
The series documents environmental activism in the Los Angeles area from the 1970s through to the present day. The majority of interviews are with either founders or knowledgeable participants in major regional environmental organizations. Represented groups embody a wide range of issues, includi...
Biographical Note:
Tribal chairperson of the Gabrieleno/Tongva Tribal Council of San Gabriel. Instrumental in protecting tribal burial sites within the areas of the Ballona Wetlands in Los Angeles and the Bolsa Chica Wetlands in Huntington Beach.
Chemical Entanglements: Oral Histories of Environmental Illness is a collection of interviews with over seventy individuals living in the U.S. and Canada whose family history, occupation, art practice, or activism have brought them into direct contact with illness experience and disability relate...
Biographical Note:
Interviewed for the UCLA Center for the Study of Women’s Chemical Entanglements: Oral Histories of Environmental Illness series. Lives with chemical injury and environmental illness. Puerto Rican-Jewish poet, essayist, and podcaster. Disability and accessible housing activist. Collaborating on t...
Interviews in this series preserve the spoken memories of individuals, mainly musicians, who were raised near and/or performed on Los Angeles's Central Avenue from the late 1920s to the mid-1950s.
The Traditional Asian Arts in Southern California series focuses on both immigrants and second- or third-generation Asian Americans who have continued East Asian or Southeast Asian musical, dance, and performance traditions in Southern California. Some preserved their art form by adhering to the...
This series includes full-life histories of a number of prominent Korean Americans who represent their community’s tremendous expansion during the period after federal anti-Asian immigration laws were repealed in 1965. The series focuses on the remarkable growth of the Korean American community i...
Biographical Note:
One of the first wave of Korean adoptees to come to the U.S. Creator of the Mission to Promote Adoption, which is known for changing adoption culture in South Korea.
The interviews in this series document the ideological transformation of the Chicana and Chicano generation in Los Angeles. Dissatisfied with their position in U.S. society, Chicana and Chicano activists built a civil rights movement from the ground up. Interviewees were selected based on their e...
Biographical Note:
Los Angeles lawyer and administrative law judge with the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board. Important in the fight for a living wage ordinance and for a new high school.
The interviews in this series document the ideological transformation of the Chicana and Chicano generation in Los Angeles. Dissatisfied with their position in U.S. society, Chicana and Chicano activists built a civil rights movement from the ground up. Interviewees were selected based on their e...
Biographical Note:
Mexican American activist and co-chair of the Chicano Moratorium against the Vietnam War.
This series of interviews documents the work of costumers in the film and television industries in Los Angeles. The interviews preserve a dimension of Hollywood history and Los Angeles history that has been under-documented to date.
Biographical Note:
Co-founder of Muto-Little custom-made costume shop. Career in costuming that has included work in film, television, opera, and popular music.
This series of interviews was undertaken in collaboration with the Art Directors Guild. Its aim is to document the lives and work of Guild members and staff who have made a significant contribution to film and television history. Interviews capture the work of title artists, set designers, art di...
Biographical Note:
Production designer with expertise in animation and visual effects who worked on River's Edge, Home Alone, and Species. Professor of production design at California State University, Long Beach.
Purpose Served: An Oral History of the Exemplary Life of Arthur Ashe, 1943-1993 is an initiative of the Arthur Ashe Legacy Fund (AALF) at UCLA and is funded by AALF and by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. By launching an oral history project to document and capture the firsthand recollections of ...
Biographical Note:
Interviewed because of connection to tennis player Arthur Ashe. Teammate of Ashe on the UCLA men’s tennis team. Served as Ashe’s attorney during the early years of Ashe's amateur career.
The Many Branches, One Root series traces the histories and practices of a range of Buddhist traditions and communities in the greater Los Angeles area. Beginning in the early twentieth century, a succession of Buddhist traditions have put down roots in Los Angeles, each one providing spiritual s...
Biographical Note:
President of Koyasan Betsuin Shingon Buddhist Temple in the Little Tokyo area of Los Angeles.
The Many Branches, One Root series traces the histories and practices of a range of Buddhist traditions and communities in the greater Los Angeles area. Beginning in the early twentieth century, a succession of Buddhist traditions have put down roots in Los Angeles, each one providing spiritual s...
Biographical Note:
Zen Buddhist priest. Abbot and head teacher at the Zen Center of Los Angeles.
The South Asian Women in Los Angeles series documents the lives of a number of women who are first generation South Asian immigrants and who lived or currently live in the greater Los Angeles area. This project was generously supported by Arcadia funds.
The purpose of this series is to document the social justice activism of the Mexican American generation and to explore family and community life in war-time Los Angeles. Individuals selected for this series resided in Los Angeles during the 1930s and 1940s and began their civic participation pri...
Biographical Note:
United States Ambassador to Mexico. First Mexican American member of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education and California State University, Northridge professor of history.
The purpose of this oral history series is to document the context and early technological development of the ARPANET, the network that went online in 1969 and grew into the Internet. Interviewees include the Center’s Principal Investigator, three researchers, and the center administrator. The ...
Biographical Note:
Member of the research team at the Network Measurement Center for UCLA’s U.S. Defense Department sponsored ARPANET project which created a “wide-area packet-switched network.”
This series of interviews was undertaken in collaboration with the Art Directors Guild. Its aim is to document the lives and work of Guild members and staff who have made a significant contribution to film and television history. Interviews capture the work of title artists, set designers, art di...
Biographical Note:
Production designer, art director, set designer. Work on War of the Worlds, The Polar Express, Beowulf. Work in “motion capture” and in theme parks. Art Directors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award honoree.
The series documents environmental activism in the Los Angeles area from the 1970s through to the present day. The majority of interviews are with either founders or knowledgeable participants in major regional environmental organizations. Represented groups embody a wide range of issues, includi...
Biographical Note:
Executive director for the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice. Plaintiff in Stringfellow v. Concerned Neighbors in Action, an environmental case related to the Stringfellow Acid Pits in Jurupa Valley, California.
The Traditional Asian Arts in Southern California series focuses on both immigrants and second- or third-generation Asian Americans who have continued East Asian or Southeast Asian musical, dance, and performance traditions in Southern California. Some preserved their art form by adhering to the...
Biographical Note:
Musician, teacher of Vietnamese music, and co-founder of the Lac Hong group, which is dedicated to supporting Vietnamese cultural heritage by providing instruction and performance opportunities for young and aspiring performers of traditional Vietnamese music.
The interviews in this series document the ideological transformation of the Chicana and Chicano generation in Los Angeles. Dissatisfied with their position in U.S. society, Chicana and Chicano activists built a civil rights movement from the ground up. Interviewees were selected based on their e...
Biographical Note:
Founder of Hijas de Cuauhtemoc, Encuentro Feminil, and La Feminista, publications focused on issues relating to feminism and the Chicana community. Created a Chicana studies curriculum at California State University, Northridge, served as assistant professor in their Chicano studies department.
Chemical Entanglements: Oral Histories of Environmental Illness is a collection of interviews with over seventy individuals living in the U.S. and Canada whose family history, occupation, art practice, or activism have brought them into direct contact with illness experience and disability relate...
Biographical Note:
Interviewed for the UCLA Center for the Study of Women’s Chemical Entanglements: Oral Histories of Environmental Illness series. Lives with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS). Activist blogger who writes about nickel allergy. Her blog, Nickely Challenged, features her writing on her journey of n...
Chemical Entanglements: Oral Histories of Environmental Illness is a collection of interviews with over seventy individuals living in the U.S. and Canada whose family history, occupation, art practice, or activism have brought them into direct contact with illness experience and disability relate...
Biographical Note:
Interviewed for the UCLA Center for the Study of Women’s Chemical Entanglements: Oral Histories of Environmental Illness series. Lives with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS). College-educated, Al-Anon peer counselor with an array of pink collar and blue collar work experience. Filed lawsuit con...
Immigrant from Belize. Activist, writer, and leader in the Garifuna community. Founding member of the Garifuna American Heritage Foundation, a cultural center that offers classes and public programs that help maintain the Garifuna culture in Los Angeles.
The interviews in the series American Indian Relocation Project document the experience of American Indians who came to Los Angeles as part of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' urban relocation program in the 1950s and 1960s. The initial interviews were conducted by students in Professor Peter Nabok...
Biographical Note:
Lakota. Came to Los Angeles as part of the American Indian Relocation.
This series of interviews was undertaken in collaboration with the Art Directors Guild. Its aim is to document the lives and work of Guild members and staff who have made a significant contribution to film and television history. Interviews capture the work of title artists, set designers, art di...
Biographical Note:
Scenic artist at NBC Studios from 1958 to 1987. Began work at ABC Studios after a time as head of own company, Premiere Scenery, which did work for the Golden Globes and other productions.
This series includes interviews with key individuals who served in Los Angeles city government during the administration of Mayor Tom Bradley. The interviews focus on each individual’s political development, activism, and role in the Bradley administration. Major urban policy issues addressed in ...
Biographical Note:
In 1974 Ochi began working for Mayor Bradley administration. Executive director of the City of Los Angeles Criminal Justice Planning Office. Instrumental figure in the Manzanar Committee’s work to designate Manzanar as a National Historic site. Director of the Community Relations Service of the D...
This series includes full-life histories of a number of prominent Korean Americans who represent their community’s tremendous expansion during the period after federal anti-Asian immigration laws were repealed in 1965. The series focuses on the remarkable growth of the Korean American community i...
Biographical Note:
Lawyer, teacher, and lecturer. Member of President William J. Clinton's President's Initiative on Race.
Chemical Entanglements: Oral Histories of Environmental Illness is a collection of interviews with over seventy individuals living in the U.S. and Canada whose family history, occupation, art practice, or activism have brought them into direct contact with illness experience and disability relate...
Biographical Note:
Interviewed for the UCLA Center for the Study of Women’s Chemical Entanglements: Oral Histories of Environmental Illness series. Dr. Oliver has an MD, MPH, and MS. President of Occupational Health Initiatives, Inc. Professor in the Occupational and Environmental Health Division of the Dalla Lana ...
Chemical Entanglements: Oral Histories of Environmental Illness is a collection of interviews with over seventy individuals living in the U.S. and Canada whose family history, occupation, art practice, or activism have brought them into direct contact with illness experience and disability relate...
Biographical Note:
Interviewed for the UCLA Center for the Study of Women’s Chemical Entanglements: Oral Histories of Environmental Illness series. From Mexico, Clara Olmedo is an activist and civil engineer living in Woodland, California. She is a member of the Woodland Coalition Group. Olmedo uses the term of che...
This series documents the Justice for Janitors movement in Los Angeles from the 1980s through the early 2000s. Justice for Janitors is a labor organization of the Service Employees International Union that has historically sought to improve the working conditions and bargaining power of workers ...
Biographical Note:
Director of organizing for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and associate director of the University of California’s Institute for Labor and Employment. Involved in the Service Employees International Union’s Justice for Janitors campaign.
Chemical Entanglements: Oral Histories of Environmental Illness is a collection of interviews with over seventy individuals living in the U.S. and Canada whose family history, occupation, art practice, or activism have brought them into direct contact with illness experience and disability relate...
Biographical Note:
Interviewed for the UCLA Center for the Study of Women’s Chemical Entanglements: Oral Histories of Environmental Illness series. Experiences chemical sensitivity, but uses the term "fragrance disability" to describe their condition. Executive personal assistant and events coordinator. Describes h...
The interviews in the series the American Indian Presence in Southern California: Those Who Were Already Here survey the experiences of unrecognized tribes at one extreme and gaming tribes at the other. Southern California is the homeland of numerous tribal peoples indigenous to the region. Foll...
Biographical Note:
Member of the Tataviam tribe. Great-grandfather, Antonio Maria Ortega, was the last of the line to speak the Fernandeno dialect of the tribe.
The interviews in the series the American Indian Presence in Southern California: Those Who Were Already Here survey the experiences of unrecognized tribes at one extreme and gaming tribes at the other. Southern California is the homeland of numerous tribal peoples indigenous to the region. Foll...
Biographical Note:
Community activist and leader of the Fernandeno Tataviam Band of Mission Indians.
The interviews in the series African American Artists of Los Angeles document significant African American Artists and others in the Los Angeles metropolitan area who have worked to expand exhibition opportunities and public support for African American visual culture. The series was made possibl...
Biographical Note:
African American artist and community-activist. First director of the Watts Towers Art Center in Los Angeles.
The Craft and Folk Art Museum (CAFAM), founded in Los Angeles by Edith and Frank Wyle, grew out of The Egg and The Eye, a commercial art gallery/restaurant devoted to international contemporary craft and folk art—and (in the restaurant) omelettes. The gallery opened November 1, 1965 at 5814 Wilsh...
In 1980, the late Eugene Fingerhut, a congregant at the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center (PJTC) and a professor of American history at California State University, Los Angeles began interviewing elderly congregants with a focus on the history of the Pasadena Jewish community prior to World War I...
Biographical Note:
Congregant of the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center.
The interviews in the series African American Artists of Los Angeles document significant African American Artists and others in the Los Angeles metropolitan area who have worked to expand exhibition opportunities and public support for African American visual culture. The series was made possibl...