I get a kick from seeing the County Museum mentioned here because my grandfather Herman T. Beck (an immigrant from Bremen, Germany) was an employee there and created the animal statues on the grounds. Happily they're all still there and in fairly good condition.
Here's an article from the March 1944
Popular Science that talks about him and his work. I may have some old family photos of the museum and have been meaning to look. And I've been trying to convince my mom, an occasional lurker here, to post a few of her many reminiscences of life in L.A. back then.
