It's one of the distinct memories from my childhood.

Sure, I remember things like summers at the city pool, or the way my neighbor's buck

eye tree dropped those spiky gems every year.

But on the less romantic end of the spectrum, I remember the first time I discovered what

Veneer was. It was an eye-opener for sure that the desk I believed to be solid mahogany

turned out to be something else, something cheaper. Sure, the surface looked luxurious,

but inside it was common. A lie.

Veneer as a craft has been around for thousands of years. Some of the objects pulled from the

tomb of King Tut were made with that technique, and right down through the ages, culture after

culture has adopted and refined it. By the time of the Industrial Revolution, it was more engineering

than art. Which is why today we can order a bookcase from a big box store and put it together,

and from a distance, get the feeling that it's a lovely thing crafted from walnut or some rare

exotic wood. And if we're honest, there are a lot of things in life that share that concept,

that approach. In the end, Veneer is all about appearances. It represents the unusual

– the expensive – and often the unattainable, without letting us see what's really beneath

at all. And it's just as true for people as it is for bookshelves. Even places have a Veneer.

But few locations have such a dark past hidden beneath its glittering surface than the place

that pumps out visions of our wildest dreams. It might seem like everything there is picture

perfect, but if you look close enough, the truth is more than a little frightening.

So pack your bags, grab your coat, and put on your walking shoes, because I want to take you on

a trip into the shadows behind the sunshine. We're going to Hollywood. I'm Aaron Manke, and this

is lore. Like a lot of things, it all began with Thomas Edison. Not just because of his inventions,

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