I'm Peter Moruzzi, a historian living in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles who is passionate about the mid-century.

I was born in Concord, Massachusetts and raised in Hawaii, graduating from the University of California at Berkeley in 1983 and later attending the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. In 1999, I founded the Palm Springs Modern Committee (PS ModCom) an architectural preservation group. In 2006, I produced "Desert Holiday," a jaunty documentary chronicling the history of the Coachella Valley as seen through vintage postcards.

I'm also the author of "Havana Before Castro: When Cuba Was a Tropical Playground" and "Palm Springs Holiday: A Vintage Tour From Palm Springs to the Salton Sea." My latest book titled "Classic Dining: Discovering America's Finest Mid-Century Restaurants" with photography by Sven A. Kirsten will be available November 1, 2012.