It was 2015. I was at a comic book store late one night and in strode Chris Nichols of LA Magazine. "John, Angelyne is outside and she'd give you a ride in the pink Corvette if you want." 

He had me at Angelyne, and the ride was awesome. 45 minutes later I had an audio portrait of one of the hardest working women in Hollywood who strives to live within her warm pink bubble. And later, when the Hollywood Reporter finally uncovered her backstory, it all made sense. As also told in the Peacock miniseries, Angelyne was fighting the dehumanizing legacy of the Holocaust in her family. 

This episode also features a fresh interview with LAist's Mike Roe about the miniseries, Angelyne's reaction to it, and our mutual admiration for a woman who remade herself and her life. 

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.)

(CONTENT ALERT: This piece includes frank discussion of abortion and clinical descriptions of abortion procedures.)

We're all processing the news that a draft ruling from the US Supreme Court supports overturning Roe v. Wade, which has protected a woman's right to an abortion in the US for almost 50 years. A decision to overrule Roe would lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.

On this bonus Off-Ramp episode, we meet Carol Downer, now 88. Before the 1973 Supreme Court decision, this Eagle Rock woman had made it her mission to take abortion from the back alley ... to the living room, by creating an underground network of unlicensed women who performed very early term home abortions. She wrote books on female anatomy, went to jail, and ran a women's health and abortion clinic in Hollywood which burned down in 1985.

After we hear Chris Greenspon's 2017 profile of Downer, we'll hear what Downer has to say about the latest bad news for Roe v. Wade.

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.)

He's Alive; The King of Kitsch Named Grand Marshal; Rethinking Pershing Square; Is MOCA Broke?; Pull Some Strings for Bob Baker; Song of Extinction; Long Beach Loves Video Art; Mad Santa; Sing Along

Surviving Thanksgiving

Hooray, Off-Ramp's Back!; Off-Ramp Exclusive: Dinner Party Download; Martin Eisenstadt Hoax; Food Banks in Need; The King of Hancock Park; The Immigrant's Dream; Food for All; "...Stuffing is evil ..." -- Alton Brown; My Two Left Feet; Letters: Correction

She just became a member!; Martin Eisenstadt hoax; Food Banks in Need; The Immigrant's Dream; Food for All; The King of Hancock Park; Dumpster Diving For the Working Poor

Making History; South LA Weighs In On An Obama Presidency; The Huntington: Underground; The Famous Red Head was a Red?; Kids These Days; A Mormon at the anti-Mormon March; The Obama Quest For A Puppy!; Prop 8 Results Roundtable; Murder He Wrote; Political Partying; Recession Hits LB Art Gallery; We Saw Long Lines, They Got Bathing Suits; Trombone Poetry; Hollywood Humanitarian; Victory Song

Witnesses to History; The Changeling; The Changeling on Dragnet; OCMA's Biennial; "Andy Rooney" on Ted Stevens; Hand over the Video!; Ask Me!; Law And Order TMU; Call for Obama; Prop Satire; Prop 8 Swings on Latinas; Rest In Peace Delmar Watson; Letters

Delmar Watson, L.A. Photojournalist, 82; Stick it to 'em; Dinner Party Download; Roky Erickson, Resurrected; R.I.P. Rosie the Riveter; Fiddling with Tradition; Meet Dracula, Jr.; Herbal Taste Test; High Stakes at Santa Anita; Emptying the Archives; Their Bubble Burst; Norwegian Black Metal; Don't Bite it, Lick it!; The Bible Props Up '8,' Really?

She Healed the Bay; Dinner Party Download; Silver Seduction; He Made Jazz Visual; Violin Virtuoso; Voter Registration: Now or Never; Door-to-Door Democrat; (Fire)Fighter Pilots; All the Pretty Worn-Out Horses; No TV Coverage: Take Cover!; Haute Cuisine in Hard Times?; On the Fire Lines; The Bradley Non-Effect; Letters