As mentioned in yesterday’s post,
I joined a Los Angeles Conservancy walking tour this weekend in downtown
LA. The Conservancy offers a number of fascinating tours; my girlfriend and I opted for one which covered the
historic theatre district on Broadway.
Unbeknownst to most Los Angelinos, downtown LA, although a mostly sad place today, was once the cultural center of
Los Angeles. Starting in the late 1800s, a series of theatre houses began rising along a wide
boulevard in downtown that was quickly renamed Broadway to pay homage
to the East Coast street of the same name. By 1931, more than a dozen major theaters graced this West Coast
Broadway, transforming the street into a glamorous, celebrity-filled seven blocks that outshined anything New York had
to offer.
These just weren’t your average theatres either. They were extraordinarily lavish. The tour
reveals their immaculate, tastefully sumptuous interiors bedecked with marble, terra-cotta, statuary, ornate pilasters,
fluted columns, tiled floors, enormous chandeliers, ornamented ceilings, spiral staircases, and much much more.
Unfortunately, the most elaborate, the Los Angeles and the Orpheum were both closed due to movies being
filmed inside—a very common occurrence which thankfully provides enough cash flow to help maintain the
buildings.
Today, far removed from their glory days, the theatres remain in various conditions. A few have been
renovated and remain in pristine conditions but others have fallen apart, been converted to churches or, most
tragically, turned into retail space. There were at least four theatres we entered through the narrow storefront
of an electronics or jewelry store. It seemed almost impossible that by merely passing through the back door of
these stores, one travels back in time and emerges within a 100-year old theatre now gutted and piled high with boxes
of television, radios, and other consumer electronics.
Tomorrow, Gadling takes you on one last amazing stop, in historic and sadly forgotten, downtown Los Angeles: The
Bradbury Building.