Much of what we know about our world comes from the images of Hollywood. But what image do we have of the city of Los Angeles? It seems that it has always been regarded as an amoral void, a substitute paradise for the few. Almost forgotten is the fact that L.A. was once perhaps the most modern of all cities, which could have become a paradise for everyone. Along Sunset Boulevard, Kevin Vennemann has embarked on a quest to discover what remains of this egalitarian modernity. This led to an essay about the great film noirs, the end of modern architecture, and the efforts of such diverse figures as Sophocles, Roman Vishniac, Billy Wilder, and Raphael Soriano, not only to portray a "we" but also to include the others, the victims of history, a "they.".