Inglewood Inside Out

TO THE RESCUE: Hoping to make visitors feel safe after the 1991 film “Grand Canyon” depicted Inglewood as a dangerous place, the Forum, Hollywood Park and other members of the city’s business community kicked in more than $600,000 to start the Mobile Assistance Program. A fleet of three customized utility vehicles, equipped with cellular phones, jumper cables, gasoline, flares, maps and two-way radios rescue stranded motorists and help make visitors feel safe.

CHILI TO GO: In 1935, Art Elkinal “sold both hot dogs and chili from his pushcart in Inglewood. When someone suggested that he place the chili atop, the chili dog was created,” according to The Californians, a history magazine.

RANGE WARS: The recently opened LAX Firing Range, on the former site of a tropical fish store, offers safety and self-defense instruction, sells ammunition and range time and rents guns. The 25-yard-long range has become a local flash point in the impassioned debate over gun control.

HIGH PROFILE: At Randy’s Donuts of Inglewood, a 40-foot-tall plaster likeness of a doughnut, perched near the San Diego Freeway, is one of Inglewood’s most recognizable landmarks. The giant pastry appeared in singer Randy Newman’s video “I Love L.A.” and the movie “Breathless,” starring Richard Gere as a fugitive with a sweet tooth. It also inspired a fan club in England.

OLD HOME: The Centinela Adobe, Inglewood’s oldest residence, was built by Ignacio Machado in 1834. Since then, farmers, ranchers, a Scottish lord and Inglewood’s founding father, Daniel Freeman--who named his ranch after his birthplace in Ontario, Canada--have lived in the building on Midfield Avenue.

JUSTICE ON WHEELS: The area’s first Immediate Booking and Release System (IBARS), a program in which officers book suspects at the scene, made its debut in Inglewood in 1926.

ACTING UP: Four years ago, Remone Bradley, a 7-year-old Inglewood resident, was chosen from more than 2,000 applicants to appear in the film “Kindergarten Cop.” He played Irwin, one of the 30 screaming kindergartners who terrorized cop-turned-teacher Arnold Schwarzenegger.