About the Show
By bringing water to Los Angeles at the turn of 20th century, civic leaders and oligarchs give rise to one of the greatest cities in the world.
In The Water Way, the transformation of Los Angeles from humble Spanish pueblo to one of the largest metropolitan centers in the world is recounted from the perspective of its first resident, the L.A. River, along with the oligarchs and civil servants who developed and nurtured this erstwhile arid desert. Through investments and real estate speculation, businessmen such as railroad tycoons Moses Sherman, H.E. Harriman, and Henry Huntington, among others, coax a nascent Los Angeles into maturity, while L.A. Times publisher General Harrison Grey Otis and his son-in-law Harry Chandler sculpt public opinion.
Above all, the determination of Irish immigrant William Mulholland and native son Fred Eaton to bring faraway water to a parched population enable the City of the Angels to ascend.
This is their story, as well as it is ours.