Did you you read Caitlin Hernandez's LAist longread about the history of LAX and how to keep it from driving you totally around the bend? This time on Off-Ramp we're digging into one of the most surprising and weirdest aspects of the airport's history ... when the airport created a ghost-town that today resembles what LA will look like a few months after the apocalypse. We'll drive there with author Denise Hamilton, who set a novel there, and a former resident.

Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live; and bythe Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

Off-Ramp theme music by Fesliyan Studios.

When the Grammy Museum honored Big Jay McNeely in 2017, when he was 90, they said:

McNeely is a true original and the last of a generation of blues/R&B musicians who inspired the early rock pioneers, and are still around to remind us where popular music came from.

As Off-Ramp jazz correspondent Sean J. O'Connell put it when he interviewed him for the show: 

"Big Jay McNeely was etched into pop music immortality in 1951. Photographer Bob Willoughby captured McNeely at a concert at Los Angeles's Olympic Auditorium 1951. In the photo, the Watts native is blasting his tenor sax on his back, the camera capturing the raised fists of post-war teenage hysteria seething in undershirts and pompadours at the foot of the stage. From Central Avenue with Charlie Parker and Art Tatum in the 1940s to the R&B circuit of the '50s and '60s, McNeely was there through a roller coaster of musical evolutions and had a good time along the way. His showmanship and soul are both youthful and timeless. He is rock & roll history, alive and well."

Big Jay died a year later, but not before our listeners got to hear his story, and now you do, too.

Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live; and bythe Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

Off-Ramp theme music by Fesliyan Studios.

Bob Willoughby photo used with permission from his estate.

Clint Eastwood Exclusive!; Eastwood on Directing; Eastwood on the Magic of Music; The Inner Life of Miranda July; The Big Cheese in Food; Trailblazing in The 'Bu; Skunk Be Gone; Invasive Recipes; A June Wedding; The Rock Fish Files; Music on Off-Ramp - Priscilla Ahn's "I Don't Think So"

Stay-At-Home Dad; MYOB; Dad's in Jail; Dad's in Jail - Part II; It's A Good Day to Be a Songwriter in L.A.; Retro Surf Photos; Alice in Puppetland; Father's Day Traditions; Decoding the Graduation Garb

This week we hit some of Southern California's most historic sites: Rancho Los Alamitos in Long Beach, Los Encinos State Historic Park, and the Palomares Adobe in Pomona (pictured).

The Voice of an Angel; Angel Gets her Wings; My Teacher Alma; Singin' on the Bus; Mateo Stoneman, White Mariachi; Mid-Century Chimes; From Face Paint To Real Paint; Throat Singing, Inuit Style; Art Tatum Rises...Again

Garrison Keilor Loves LA; Song: "California" by Joni Mitchell; A Way With Words; Song: "You and Onions" (Hidden Track) by Meiko; Straight Story; Creating Vintage Photos; Something Fishy; Song: "Frank's Wild Years" by Tom Waits; Bunker Hill Revisited; Sad Life, Great Writer; Tarzan of Tarzana; My Way on the Highway

Gay About Marriage!; Jazzing up the Classics; A Late Composer's Early Birthday Bash; Bike to Work Day; Aesthetes, Bohemians, and Craftsmen; Auctioning Art for AIDS Research; Ode To Teacher; Grade A Investigator; Gotcha!; Crime Buster; To Catch a Thief; Before Pimlico; 2008 Youth Film Fest; Letters

Emergency is Hottest Ticket; Tango the Night Away ...; Last Mother's Day?; New York Times adds to Off-Ramp story; Bus To Mom; Singin' on the Bus; Shining Hollywood Stars; Hep (Web) Cat ...; All Grown Up; Reservoir Memories; Bonaduce v Buddha?; Garden of Flowing Fragrance; Listener Sleuth; Classical Variations

Congratulations to John Rabe; Silver-No-Lake; In Search of Water; Sign of Life; A Map of LA; Fire Season Starts in Sierra Madre; Taco Trucks; A Family Affair; Pacific Islander Art; "Grandpa," the Revolutionary; The Dresser's Answer; Fight Fire with Lemonade; The LAPD unveils a new device for crowd control