Gator Haven: LA’s Alligator Farm 1927

This 1927 silent film, Trip To The California Alligator Farm, explores the Los Angeles Alligator Farm in Lincoln Heights, a popular attraction since 1907. It showcases alligators as “living suitcases,” highlighting a 98-year-old patriarch snapping his jaws—likely Billy, a star gator—and weeks-old hatchlings paddling in their first swimming lessons. Produced by William Horsley Film Labs for the Prelinger Archive, this reel offers a charming peek at the farm’s 1,000-plus reptiles, blending education with spectacle in 1920s Hollywood’s backyard.