This is a simple, incomplete timeline of the mortal world of Los Angeles. The
  dates are not all precise, but it should give a sense of the stages of Los 
  Angeles' development.

1781:	Los Angeles Pueblo established with 44 settlers

1821:	Mexican Independence from Spain

1830s:	Rancheros land grants; ~29 U.S. Citizens in Los Angeles

1840:	Mortal population of Los Angeles ~ 1200

1848:	Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo; US buys California; Gold discovered
	in San Fernando

1850:	California made a state; Los Angeles incorporated

1854:	Depression from the gold bust

1860:	Mortal population of Los Angeles ~ 2300

1876:	Los Angeles receives a rail line

1900:	Mortal population of Los Angeles ~ 100,000

1910s:	Hollywood begins to develop.

1913:	Owens aqueduct opens

1914:	Panama canal completed.

1920:	Mortal population of Los Angeles ~ 1 million

1930:	Mortal population of Los Angeles ~ 2 million

1930s:	Great Depression

1942-45:	World War II rages in the Pacific Ocean; Japanese Internment

1965:	Watts Riots

1984:	Olympics held in Los Angeles

2000:	Mortal population of Los Angeles ~ 9.5 million

The Church of Empiricology is a fairly recent religious movement, known to
  attract powerful professionals and celebrities. It is based in the Los 
  Angeles area. While often in the news, it is not clear it has a substantial 
  following in terms of numbers. Dollars are another matter.
Unlike some of the flaky 'New-Age' circles common to Los Angeles,
  Empiricology has a reputation of highly educated and articulate, outspoken 
  members. Empiricology lies somewhere between a religion, an exclusive club, 
  and a political action committee.

We have chosen the In Character timeline for this MUSH to begin circa 1999,
  as the new Millennium looms with all the promise and peril it may entail. 
  However, we intend this timing to be a guideline rather than a 
  straitjacket, where you are not required to research what was and wasn't 
  happening (or in existence) several years ago. Los Angeles: A House Divided 
  exists in an alternate reality setting where many things are the same as in 
  our world, but some things are not. While it is impossible to cover every 
  aspect of this ahead of time, the following are some generalizations and 
  specifics to keep in mind: 

* You may presume, unless otherwise specified, that all recorded history up
  to modern times has occurred as it has in the real world. There may be 
  supernatural hands behind certain events, but as far as the average mortal 
  is concerned there is still a Roman Empire, a Christ, a Boxer Rebellion, a 
  Charles Lindbergh, a Hitler, a Bugsy Siegel, a Black Dahlia murder, etc. 
  etc., and it all would appear to have happened just as you'd find in 
  reputable sources on the subjects.

* Los Angeles is a city very much about the cutting edge, and inextricably
  tied to pop culture and current events. You may presume, unless otherwise 
  specified, that technology, movies, entertainers, and politics are all up 
  to date at their "real life" levels. You may gush about how cool 
  Peter Jackson's "Return of the King" movie was. You may refer to 
  the capture of Saddam Hussein. You can have your readily available color 
  PDAs, SANdisks, Digital Cable, Broadband Internet, and Lasik Eye Surgery 
  (though see +news theme/technology... it may be there, but reliability is 
  another matter). You may refer to Britney's drunken elopement in Vegas and 
  subsequent annulment. If we have to make exceptions, we will; otherwise, 
  please don't stress over possible anachronisms, especially during casual 
  RP. Saw a good episode of "The O.C." last night in real life? 
  Feel free to have your character strike up a conversation about it around 
  the ol' water cooler/blood doll. We don't expect anyone to have to stop in 
  the middle of their roleplay and search around trying to find out if the 
  catchphrase they were about to use existed five years previous.

=* You will notice that the Walt Disney Concert Hall and Our Lady of the
  Angels church are considered to exist here, despite their real life 
  openings being in 2003. The Griffith Observatory and the Angel's Flight 
  funicular railway are both closed down to the public; one for renovations, 
  the other due to the fatal accident which has indeed occurred already in 
  our Los Angeles. The Ambassador Hotel has not fallen into the hands of the 
  Los Angeles Unified School District. Perhaps most importantly, the Metro 
  Rail system in this Los Angeles was abandoned soon after construction of 
  the Red Line began, sinking the attempt at revitalizing a public 
  transportation system that had previously died with the Red Car back 
  decades ago. The Clean Air act which lifted the permanent yellow haze from 
  the civic center and stopped the need for daily smog alerts on the radio is 
  still in effect, but in a much neutered form. The smog chokes. The traffic 
  snarls. The much vaunted Southern California sun does nothing but cast a 
  baleful, bleaching eye upon expanses of weedy concrete and decaying dreams 
  of glory, while the evenings are little more than neon nightmares. Welcome 
  to our vision of Los Angeles, a city hurtling forwards into glory, 
  oblivion, or possibly even both at once.

Please note that we also do not intend this to discourage the founding of
  original, fictional establishments in the game setting, such as 
  player-owned corporations and nightclubs, and the possibility of 
  integrating these into the history of the city as long-established 
  hotspots, or even in place of existing ones.

If you have any questions about a certain venue or event that you think might
  be controversial, please don't hesitate to ask Theme staff about it and we 
  will give you an answer as to its existence, and in what form. Generally, 
  our preference is to give the answer that makes for the best story 
  possibilities or fits best with the MUSH themes. We do not foresee too much 
  in the way of controversy, however. Does the WB series "Angel" 
  exist? Certainly. The amount of misinformation contained therein is enough 
  that the Masquerade isn't considered threatened by it. And that was one of 
  the better series/movies concerning vampires to come out of Hollywood. On 
  the other hand, does White Wolf games exist? No. Nor does Black Dog, Taupe 
  Canine, or any other cute facsimile. Although the material would have been 
  inaccurate in many of its details, it got a little too close to home to be 
  allowed. That means no Kindred: The Embraced series either, much as Aaron 
  Spelling's effort at supernatural 90210 might be arguably laughable. The 
  Elders weren't laughing. In the main, use common sense on these matters, 
  and ask if unsure, but don't let every little detail be a burden on your 
  roleplay.

_1910s_

The earliest American films were made by Thomas Edison at the end of the 19th
  century and in the early 1900s. By 1910, the industry was divided between 
  the "Edison Trust", film producers who paid royalties to Edison 
  for their use of his patented cameras and projectors, and independents, 
  which used royalty-free European equipment that they believed was not 
  covered by Edison's patents. The continuing legal scuffle between the two 
  camps forced many of the independents away from New York, then the center 
  of the film industry. One independent, Nestor, migrated to Hollywood, Los 
  Angeles. Hollywood offered cheap land, good weather, strong light 
  year-round (important for the outdoor filming that was then standard), and 
  a continent's distance from New York. Over time, more and more studios 
  migrated to Hollywood. Actors were largely anonymous until Biograph 
  Pictures' Florence Lawrence was lured to another studio with the promise of 
  billing. Carefully leaked (false) rumors about her death then publicized 
  her new studio's films. The star and studio systems would feed on each 
  other for another fifty years.

Few movies from this period have survived to the present day.

A useful site for more details of this early period is [birthmov
  ies.html.]

_1920s_

"Movie palaces" were opening up throughout the country, and over
  twenty studios were producing films, including many of the great silent 
  film comedies. The film star had become a sex symbol, with actors such as 
  Rudolph Valentino and Clara Bow setting hearts aflutter nationwide. By the 
  end of this decade, the "Big Five" major studios (Fox, MGM, 
  Paramount, RKO, and Warner Brothers) produced ninety percent of America's 
  movies. Each owned chains of movie theaters and manipulated the 
  distribution process; actors who wanted to appear in studio films largely 
  signed their careers over to studio control. Lesser studios that did not 
  own theaters included Disney, United Artists, Universal, and Columbia. A 
  number of even smaller studios churned out cheaper or more specialized 
  films. Republic Pictures, for instance, focused on serial Westerns. In 
  1927, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences began awarding prizes 
  (not yet called Oscars). The "talkies" arrived late in the 
  decade, and a number of silent movie stars, including Bow, were unable to 
  make a smooth transition to talking roles.

_1930s_

The movie industry survived the Depression handily. Genre films flourished.
  James Whale directed Boris Karloff in "Frankenstein"; Carol 
  Lombard gave magnificent screwball comedy performances; Edward G. Robinson, 
  James Cagney, and Paul Muni defined the role of gangster. The studios began 
  exhibiting ever more control over not just the artistic product they made 
  but the lives of the people involved in making it; the lives of teenage 
  stars like Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney were scripted by studio publicity 
  men. The studios had reason to be concerned about their stars images; 
  scandals had seriously damaged Hollywood's moral reputation, and pressured 
  by declining attendance, the studios had agreed to the "Production 
  Code" that defined what would and would not be allowed in film. 
  (Profanity was banned, for instance, although special dispensation was 
  given to "Gone With the Wind"'s most famous line.)

_1940s_

The early Forties saw the filming of two of the most iconic films in
  Hollywood's history, Michael Curtiz's "Casablanca" and Orson 
  Welles' "Citizen Kane". Throughout the decade, a number of 
  Hollywood's early great directors -- Welles, Howard Hawks, Billy Wilder, 
  John Ford -- made what many consider to be their best work. The movies were 
  soon turning their attention to the war, with a number of stars enlisting 
  to fight the Axis powers and many more working to raise money or entertain 
  the troops. The studios split their attention between patriotic 
  entertainment and instructional films made for the military. In 1948, 
  Howard Hughes, the aviation millionaire and independent filmmaker, acquired 
  Big Five studio RKO. That same year, an antitrust verdict forced the 
  studios to sell their theater chains. This would eventually lead to the 
  demise of the studio system.

_1950s_

Television slowly strengthened throughout the 1950s, chipping away at film
  audiences. The studios responded in two ways. First, they turned to the 
  baby boom youth market, churning out cheap, teen-oriented films. 
  Independent producers such as Roger Corman sprung up to feed the drive-in 
  movie theaters that appeared throughout most of the country. Second, the 
  studios got involved in television in a big way. The film studios, which 
  owned film lots and had unparalleled expertise, started producing 
  television shows and selling the broadcast rights to their film libraries. 
  "The Wizard of Oz" was the first film to debut on television in 
  prime time (in 1956, the same year the studios lifted their ban on movie 
  stars appearing on television).

_1960s_

By the 1960s, the studio system had broken down entirely. Unable to guarantee
  a return on investment through control of the theaters, studios were 
  increasingly at financial risk when they made movies themselves. 20th 
  Century Fox's 1963 epic "Cleopatra" was the largest money-loser 
  in the history of Hollywood to date. The rise of the American suburbs was 
  putting the movie palaces out of business. Some groundbreaking work was 
  being done by a wave of talented young directors, including Roman Polanski 
  ("Rosemary's Baby"), Stanley Kubrick ("Dr. 
  Strangelove", "2001"), and Sam Peckinpah ("The Wild 
  Bunch"). Peckinpah had originally been a director of television 
  Westerns; television was beginning to polinate Hollywood. In 1966, the 
  Production Code was radically loosened; in 1968 it was replaced entirely 
  with the modern ratings system.

_1970s_

The 1970s were Hollywood's Silver Age. Film schools and refined film
  criticism (most famously that of Pauline Kael) helped contribute to a 
  growing sense of the movies as an important American art form; many films 
  were made independently and released by studios. "The Godfather", 
  one of the first movies released in hundreds of theaters simultaneously, 
  was a massive commercial success (and is widely regarded as one of the best 
  American movies ever). "Jaws"'s television ad campaign helped 
  make it the first huge summer blockbuster. And "Star Wars" set 
  records, becoming the biggest money-maker in Hollywood history. Young 
  directors were given much more license than in the past, often by young 
  film executives committed to the directors' vision of the films. Sometimes 
  this produced wonderful movies; sometimes it was a recipe for disaster.

_1980s and 1990s_

The widespread adoption of cable television, VCRs, and later DVDs radically
  changed the economics of Hollywood. Back libraries had become more valuable 
  even as a shrinking proportion of films were actually made in Hollywood. 
  More and more filming took place on location or overseas. Major studio 
  films became more and more formula-driven. Buddy movies and action films 
  became increasingly popular; the Western slowly vanished. Special effects 
  technology (first miniatures, then computer-generated imagery) increased 
  sharply in quality and was used more and more frequently. Small studios 
  like Miramax and New Line appeared to do low-budget teenage movies and 
  later more sophisticated "art house" movies. Few, if any, films 
  were now made "in house" by the studios, which largely served to 
  finance and distribute independently made films; fewer and fewer films were 
  made in Hollywood itself, as production increasingly occured in on location 
  or in cheaper locales overseas (or within Los Angeles; by the mid-Nineties, 
  every studio but Paramount had moved to Burbank or Culver City).

(Much thanks to Screenplays for putting this together.)

Los Angeles is one of the most religiously diverse cities in the world, as
  befits a city of immigrants. There are dozens of places of worship for 
  Sikhs, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims; there are hundreds of synagogues (the 
  cornerstone of the first synagogue was laid in 1872), Baptist churches, and 
  Mormon temples. Roman Catholics, however, represent the most populous faith 
  in the region. Over three and a half million Catholics, mostly Latino, live 
  in Los Angeles County, and there are more than 250 Roman Catholic churches. 
  Catholic missions organized by Junipero Serra, the "Apostle of 
  California", were among the first Western settlements in the area. The 
  Cathedral of St. Vibiana was built in 1876, but now has been replaced as 
  the mother church of the Archbishop of Los Angeles by the Cathedral of Our 
  Lady of the Angels.

Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, white Los Angeles,
  particularly upper- and middle-class Angelenos, was largely mainline 
  Protestant: Lutherans, Baptists, Congregationalists, Methodists, 
  Episcopalians. Founding a church was easy in California, however, and Los 
  Angeles' often rootless population proved receptive to joining 
  congregations of other faiths.

In 1906, African-American preacher William Seymour was rejected by a church
  because of his emphasis on speaking in tongues; he began preaching at the 
  Apostolic Faith Mission, a converted warehouse on Azusa Street, and the 
  "Azusa Street Revival" became one of the seminal events in the 
  modern Pentecostal movement. Seymour attracted thousands of converts of all 
  races (and not a few con men and mysticism-oriented frauds), many of whom 
  set off to start congregations of their own. Aimee Semple McPherson, a 
  white Pentecostal evangelist, founded the Foursquare Gospel church in 
  Oakland, California; in 1923 she moved to Los Angeles, built a gigantic 
  church, founded a radio network to broadcast her preaching, and led H. L. 
  Mencken to declare that "there were more morons collected in Los 
  Angeles than in any other place on earth." (Today the International 
  Four Square Gospel retains a significant presence in Los Angeles, with two 
  hundred churches and some fifty thousand practitioners in the area.)

Los Angeles has been the base for less mainstream religious movements as
  well, and it's these that have cemented the city's reputation as a center 
  of New Age flakiness. A chapter of Aleister Crowley's OTO was established 
  in Los Angeles in 1935. A member of the chapter later founded the most 
  famous new religious movement to spring up from the area, the Church of 
  Empiricology. Axelrod Helmut, a science fiction writer and author of the 
  hugely successful self-analysis book "Psionautics", founded 
  Empiricology in 1954; the church's opponents have accused it of exploiting 
  members, and its strict control over church documents and willingness to 
  sue critics have attracted controversy, but the church remains both 
  successful and prominent (a number of Hollywood stars are vocal members). 
  Southern California was a center for religious and quasi-religious 
  movements brought about by contact with space aliens, such as Allen 
  Michael's Universal Industrial Church and Ruth Norman's Unarius movement, 
  both started in the 1950s. The heyday of new religions in Los Angeles, 
  however, was the Sixties.

The "Jesus Movement" of the 1960s was founded by Chuck Smith,
  pastor of Calvary Chapel in Orange County's Costa Mesa (although it was 
  strongly associated with San Francisco). The movement, which spawned 
  several even less mainstream groups, such as the Children of God, attempted 
  to merge a naturalistic hippie aesthetic with Biblical teachings. The 
  International Society for Krishna Consciousness (better known as the Hare 
  Krishnas) founded their Los Angeles temple in 1970; today it is their world 
  headquarters. A charismatic ex-con and would be rock star named Charles 
  Manson claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus and settled on a ranch 
  north of the city; members of his doomsday cult murdered actress Sharon 
  Tate in 1969 in one of the most notorious cases in California's history.

The backlash to the Manson killings, along with a greater awareness of
  abusive leaders among some of the new religious movements and a reaction to 
  the religiously-inspired mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana, slowly curbed 
  the growth of new religions in Los Angeles (and the United States in 
  general) throughout the late 1970s and 1980s, but southern California held 
  its reputation for religious weirdness; the last great religious upsurge 
  from Los Angeles was the "New Age" movement, with a belief in 
  reincarnation, the power of crystals, and a hodgepodge of Eastern beliefs. 
  Actress Shirley MacLaine was one of the most prominent New Age believers. 
  Among established religions, practice of Buddhism -- fueled by immigrants 
  and Western converts -- has been growing, as has that of Pentecostal and 
  evangelical Christianity.

See also: +news mortal/empiricology