From the days of the Spanish ranchos well into the 20th century, for Angelenos a barbecue was a gathering of hundreds or thousands of people to eat whole shoulders and rounds of beef, even bulls' heads, that had been cooked overnight in a sealed underground pit.

Backyard grilling developed fitfully in the 1920s, from a context that involved horses and movie stars, but by 1940 it was triumphant. To join author and food scholar Charles Perry for a lecture on this culinary tradition, please email SBuehler@TorranceCA.Gov by June 17, 2022.