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When a Los Angeles dad noticed his son constantly immersed in TikTok videos, he made the decision to elevate his child’s social media feed by posting educational videos about the city.
Evan Lovett’s “LA in a Minute” TikTok videos have gone viral. Lovett joined Lisa McRee on “LA Times Today” to talk about bringing educational content to his audience.
“I would take the actual LA Times, paraphrase two or three stories every day and put them in interesting soundbites,” said Lovett regarding the origins of his series. “So, it’s appealing enough for an eight-year-old at the time. But also, many people need to be informed. They want their LA news quickly. And the TikTok algorithm sort of did the rest and catapulted me into people’s feeds.”
Lovett’s first viral video was about LA’s fast food. One of the places he talked about was the iconic Bob’s Big Boy in Toluca Lake.
“The founder of Bob’s Big Boy was voted ‘most likely to not succeed’ at Glendale High School, and he used that as motivation to save money,” said Lovett. “He ended up saving enough money, as well as selling his car to get a little bit more money to purchase a hamburger stand that ended up becoming Bob’s Hamburgers. Then, when he invented the double hamburger with three buns and two patties, that became the actual ‘Big Boy’… Bob’s Big Boy was sort of the model that fast food restaurants used from that point forward and spearheaded the whole Los Angeles fast food movement.”
From the origins of LA’s water supply to the stories behind famous landmarks, Lovett has big plans for "LA in a Minute."
"Something coming soon is a long form where I’m going to get into the water wars and the history of William Mulholland, who’s probably the most important person in Los Angeles because he’s responsible for the water and thus the inception of the metropolis that’s known as Los Angeles," said Lovett. "But he’s also responsible for the San Francisquito Canyon disaster that’s the largest manmade disaster in Los Angeles history… It’s going to be a 20-minute-long form episode on my YouTube channel."
Lovett said his son still watches his videos and especially loves one about the Chicano rock and roll movement.
You can find “LA in a Minute” videos @EvanLovett on TikTok.
Click the arrow above to watch the full interview.
Watch "LA Times Today" at 7 and 10 p.m. Monday through Friday on Spectrum News 1 and the Spectrum News app.