Sunday, November 8th, 2009
Issue: 1   Editor: Nyxxie


State of the State - California XVI
Warm weather, crystal clear beaches, tasty wines and of course celebrities. California, god of the sun, will be the first state of nine that the Buzz will be telling about.

With a population of over 35 million, California is the most populous state in the nation. It’s located on the west coast of the United States, and is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the northeast, Arizona to the southeast and to Mexico in the south. Also, the complete west border of California is bordered by the Pacific Ocean.

California may be the most populous state right now, but that wasn’t always the case. In 1930 it only had 5 million citizens, compared to the New York state which had over 12 million already. Route 66 ends in Los Angeles, California, and that is one of the reasons their population grew so strong. When the highway between Chicago and Los Angeles finished in 1926, the people that lived on the East Coast and near the highway itself began to come to California to gain a bit of Hollywood as well.

In the 30’s, when the mafia families reached their peak in the United States, the Los Angeles crime family – also part of the Cosa Nostra – was led by Jack Dragna. In 1931, he succeeded Joseph Ardizonne as the Boss of the Los Angeles crime family, while he might be one of the plotters in the kill. Where Ardizonne mainly led the family by taking protection money and being a loan shark for many bookmakers, Dragna led the family with bootleggers during the prohibition era.

With the succession of Ardizonne, Dragna started as a very rich person leading the family. With this money, he bought himself a spot into the Commission and gained relationships to the five crime families in New York. Even then, the L.A. family wasn’t as big as the New York or Chicago families. It might be considered as the smallest family ever as well, although the family is still active these days. Current Boss is Peter John Milano and the family only acts in bookmaking and illegal gambling.

California has one of the most famous areas in the world, Hollywood. Film making in Los Angeles started early in 1900. With the Biograph Company, they had a small company which created short movies between 1906 and 1909. After people really enjoyed them, it was decided that Hollywood needed a real film studio. After this, the majority of American films were being produced in the Los Angeles area. Major film companies raised like Paramount, Warner Bros, RKO and Columbia. By 1920, Hollywood had become world famous as the center of the United States film industry.

With over 1,200 Bootleggers players in California, we may say that the state is pretty popular inside Bootleggers as well. This might be due to the first mission that involves a travel route from California to New York and backwards. However, Wine and Cognac are pretty expensive in this State. This can be taken in a positive or negative way depending. Players selling those two specific liquors can earn quite some money for traveling to California, from a state like New York, that is less. Do it perfectly and the money you spend on the mission will not cost you a lot simply because of the bootlegging prices. California train station is owned by the first crew on the statistics page, The Vanguard.