In a place known for dark alleys, dream factories and California sunshine, there are a few bars and hotels that hold the secret to how one city captured the world's imagination. Take a stroll through those surviving landmarks, the places where a handful of writers watched Los Angeles rumble to life between Prohibition and the 1950s: They were hard-drinking personalities who changed the face of the West Coast – and their typewriters were blazing as they challenged the censors, crystalized the city and worked under the shadow of an ever-entrancing murder.