Los Angeles Examiner / USC Digital Archives [digitallibrary.usc.edu]

Los Angeles mayors Fletcher Bowron, George E. Cryer and Frank Shaw stand together at an event celebrating City Hall's 25th anniversary in 1953.

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles mayors George E. Cryer (in office 1921-1929), Frank Shaw (1933-1938) and Fletcher Bowron (1938-1953) will be the subjects of a trio of Saturday afternoon lectures at the Central Library. "Growth, Graft, Grandeur: Three Los Angeles Mayors" kicks off this weekend and runs through July.

All three lectures will be held in the library's Taper Auditorium and are free to attend. The series is put on by the Los Angeles City Historical Society and the History Department of the Central Library.

First up on Saturday, March 13, is Mayor George E. Cryer, who ran for office on the plan to build a new City Hall. During his tenure, Los Angeles first passed San Francisco in population. Author and historian James Ingram will be giving the lecture.

John Buntin, historian and author of "L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City," will present the May 15 lecture on Mayor Frank Shaw, regarded as the most corrupt mayor in Los Angeles' history. He was recalled in 1938.

In his place was elected Mayor Fletcher Bowron, who ended up serving four terms in office. Historian Tom Sitton, author of "Los Angeles Transformed: Fletcher Bowron’s Urban Reform Revival" will give the July 17 talk on Bowron, who headed up the commission to investigate Shaw.

All lectures start at 2pm.

Central Library / 630 W. 5th