California Pop: The Evolution of Mid-Century, Sub-Cultural, Southern California

California Pop chronicles Southern California’s pop-cultural development from the very beginning, in 1496, when a Spanish author invented the myth of the Island of California that sent scores of adventures out looking for it, to the pop-cultural peak, in 1959, when a young girl’s diary was turned into the popular book and hit movie that drew a whole generation to the beach, to the slow fade, in 1969, when the world turned away from California and the counter-culture after the tragedies at Cielo Drive and Altamont, to the nostalgic re-birth of the myth of the golden state, in 1972, when George Lucas released his heartfelt homage, American Graffiti.