For Big Parade 2011 and 2012, Bob Inman - leader of the prologue, my personal stairway guru, and author of “A Guide to the Stairways of Los Angeles” - put together these amazing before/after pix, showing the street scenes we were passing in historic context. Many of the pictures were from his own decades of Southern California shooting; many more came from his father’s collection (Clarence Inman was head photographer for the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation through the 1970s.) 

Unfortunately, some of the pictures were stolen before we got to see them, and the size of the Big Parade 2012 crowds made it difficult to properly show off those that survived. So I’ve reposted them here. If you missed them, have a look and see what you should have seen. (Click to enlarge images.)