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Jonathan Kirsch reviews "A Windfall of Musicians: Hitler's Émigrés and Exiles in Southern California," Dorothy Lamb Crawford's study of the 1930s emigres to Los Angeles such as Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schoenberg and Otto Klemperer. Excerpt from the LAT:
To spare themselves from a culture war that soon turned into a shooting war, artists, writers and composers -- both Jews and non-Jews -- began to flee the continent in search of a safe haven. Because the movie industry had started making "talkies" a few years earlier, Southern California turned out to be such a place....Crawford's book will have the greatest appeal for readers with a special interest in music, but it is also an important contribution to the history of Southern California. Indeed, the legacy of these survivors transcends their life stories and continues to shape the cultural landscape to this day.
Book note: Richard Rayner will talk about "A Bright and Guilty Place: Murder, Corruption, and L.A.'s Scandalous Coming of Age" on Which Way, L.A.? at 7:30 p.m. on KCRW.