come to me the way I came to you

The founders of The 1947 Project have turned their tour gaze on John Fante.

Saturday's tour, which will include walking and a bus ride to Hollywood and to Fante's now-condemned apartment in Koreatown, will look at the places where Fante and his protagonist lived, ate and drank. It includes old-school L.A. sights such as Angels Flight, as well as places like Little Italy, where Union Station now stands, that exist only in memory. "This was where it all happened!" Schave says, pointing at Pershing Square, with its mix of fountains, corporate plazas and homeless people. "Pershing Square was the bellybutton of the world — it's where everybody went. Arturo Bandini would go to the library to read a book of poetry, and then hit Bookseller's Row on 6th Street. This is so ugly; it used to be such a great place!" Though other Southland writers — including Raymond Chandler and Charles Bukowski, who will also be tour subjects this year — are better known, Fante may be, to the faithful at least, the most beloved.