Broadway Theater and Commercial District

Broadway Theater and Commercial District

Infobox_nrhp | name =Broadway Theater and Commercial District
nrhp_type = hd


caption = Los Angeles Theater, 2008
location= 300--849 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, California
lat_degrees = 34
lat_minutes = 2
lat_seconds = 48
lat_direction = N
long_degrees = 118
long_minutes = 15
long_seconds = 4
long_direction = W
locmapin = California
area =
architect= Multiple
architecture= Early Commercial, Late 19th And 20th Century Revivals, Art Deco
added = May 09, 1979
governing_body = Private
refnum=79000484cite web|url=http://www.nr.nps.gov/|title=National Register Information System|date=2008-04-15|work=National Register of Historic Places|publisher=National Park Service]

Broadway Theater and Commercial District in Downtown Los Angeles is the first and largest historic theater district listed on the National Register of Historic Places.cite web|author=Sandra A.B. Levis|title=Broadway Historic Theater District: A walking tour sponsored by the Los Angeles Conservancy|publisher=Los Angeles Conservancy|url=http://dbase1.lapl.org/webpics/calindex/documents/01/165986.pdf] With twelve movie palaces located along a six-block stretch of Broadway, it is the only large concentration of movie palaces left in the United States.

Highest concentration of movie palaces in the world

Stretching for six blocks from Third to Ninth Streets along South Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles, the district includes 12 movie theatres built between 1910 and 1931. By 1931, the district had the highest concentration of cinemas in the world, with seating capacity for more than 15,000 patrons. Broadway was the hub of L.A.'s entertainment scene -- a place where "screen goddesses and guys in fedoras rubbed elbows with Army nurses and aircraft pioneers." In 2006, the "Los Angeles Times" wrote:

"There was a time, long ago, when the streets of downtown Los Angeles were awash in neon -- thanks to a confluence of movie theaters the world had never seen before. Dozens of theaters screened Hollywood's latest fare, played host to star-studded premieres and were filled nightly with thousands of moviegoers. In those days, before World War II, downtown L.A. was the movie capital of the world."cite news|author=Cara Mia DiMassa|title=Movie Tradition Fading to Black; Seventy years after its neon heyday, downtown Los Angeles is struggling to keep its last cinematic venue afloat|publisher=Los Angeles Times|date=2006-02-17]

Columnist Jack Smith called it "the only large concentration of vintage movie theaters left in America."cite news|author=Jack Smith|title=Los Angeles Theater: Flashback to yesteryear ... and a Latino renaissance on Broadway|publisher=Los Angeles Times|date=1986-09-30] Smith recalled growing up a mile from Broadway and spending his Saturdays in the theaters:

"I remember walking into those opulent interiors, surrounded by the glory of the Renaissance, or the age of Baroque, and spending two or three hours in the dream world of the movies. When I came out again the sky blazed; the heat bounced off the sidewalk, traffic sounds filled the street, I was back in the hard reality of the Depression.

Revitalization by Spanish-language cinema

In the years after World War II, the district began to decline, as first-run movie-goers shifted to the movie palaces in Hollywood, in Westwood Village, and later to suburban multiplexes. After World War II, as white moviegoers moved to the suburbs, many of the Broadway movie palaces became venues for Spanish-language movies and variety shows. In 1988, the "Los Angeles Times" noted that, without the Spanish community, "Broadway would be dead." Jack Smith wrote that Broadway had been "rescued and revitalized" by "the Latino renaissance."

Preservation and renovation efforts

The district has been the subject of preservation and restoration efforts since the 1980s. In 1987, the Los Angeles Conservancy started a program called "Last Remaining Seats" in which the old movie palaces were opened each summer to show classic Hollywood movies. In 1994, the Conservancy's associate director, Gregg Davidson, noted: "When we started this, the naysayers said no one will go downtown to an old theater to see an old movie in the middle of the summer, but we get a number of people who have never seen a movie in a theater with a balcony. The older people (go) for nostalgia. And the movie people -- seeing a classic film on a big screen is a different experience."cite news|author=Robert Levine|title=Silent Screens: Encore for Carter, Old Movie District|publisher=Los Angeles Times|date=1994-06-12] After attending a Conservancy screening, one writer noted: "The other night I went to the movies and was transported to a world of powdered wigs and hoop skirts, a rococo fantasy of gilded cherubs and crystal chandeliers. And then the film started."

Despite preservation efforts, many of the theaters have been converted to other uses, including flea markets and churches. The Broadway movie palaces fell victim to a number of circumstances, including changing demographics and tastes, a downtown location that was perceived as dangerous at night, and high maintenance costs for aging facilities. With the closure of the Loew's State Theater in 1998, the Orpheum and the Palace were the only two still screening films.

In 2006, the "Los Angeles Times" wrote: "Of all of L.A.'s many hidden gems, maybe none is as sparkling nor as hidden as the Broadway theater district downtown."cite news|author=Dan Turner|title=Our So-Cal Life: Faded glory on Broadway|publisher=Los Angeles Times|date=2006-06-11] Bemoaning the possible loss of such gems, the same writer noted: "L.A. gave birth to the movies. To lose the astonishing nurseries where the medium grew up would be tragic."

In 2008, the City of Los Angeles launched a $40-million campaign to revitalize the Broadway district, known as the "Bringing Back Broadway" campaign. Some Latino merchants in the district expressed concern that the campaign was an effort to spread the largely Anglo gentrification taking hold in other parts of downtown to an area that has become the city's leading Latino shopping district.cite news|author=Cara DiMassa|title=L.A. plans Broadway face-lift|publisher=Los Angeles Times|date=2008-01-28|url=http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-broadway28jan28,1,1421189.story?ctrack=5&cset=true] A worker at one of the district's bridal shops noted, "On one side, I like the idea. The only thing is that I don't think they want our types of businesses."

Twelve surviving movie palaces

The twelve movie palaces in the Broadway Theater and Commercial District from north to south are:
* Million Dollar Theater - Located at 307 S. Broadway, the Million Dollar Theater was built by Sid Grauman and opened in 1918. The theater was designed by architects Albert C. Martin and William Lee Woollett with a fanciful facade in the Churrigueresque style. After more than 30 years as one of the city's most prestigious first-run movie palaces, the Million Dollar Theater presented Spanish-language films and variedades from 1950 until the late 1980s. The theater had a seating capacity of 2,345 when it opened in 1918. In 1925, "Ben-Hur" played for six months at the Million Dollar Theater.
* Roxie Theater - Located at 518 S. Broadway, the Roxie was built in 1932 -- the last of the movie palaces built on Broadway.The Roxie had a seating capacity of 1,600 when it opened and was noted for its Art Deco or Zigzag Moderne style, including its stepped roofline, angular grillwork, chevron ornament, and terrazzo sunburst in the sidewalk. The theater's sleek Streamline Moderne ticket booth was removed when the theater was converted to retail use.
* Cameo Theater - Located at 528 S. Broadway, the Cameo opened in 1910 with a seating capacity of 775. Designed by Alfred F. Rosenheim in a Renaissance Revival style, the Cameo was originally known as Clune's Broadway. Until it closed in 1991, it was the oldest continuously operating movie theater in California. The Cameo has been converted into a swap meet-type market.
* Arcade Theater -- Located at 534 S. Broadway, the Arcade opened in 1910 as a vaudeville house that was part of the Pantages vaudeville circuit. The Arcade was designed by Morgan & Wells in the Beaux Arts style with tripartite vertical division of the facade.
* Los Angeles Theater - Located at 615 S. Brodway, the Los Angeles opened in 1931 for the premiere of Charlie Chaplin's "City Lights". It had a seating capacity just short of 2,000. The theater was designed by S. Charles Lee and S. Tilden Norton in the French Baroque style, and was modeled on San Francisco's Fox Theater. The Los Angeles included the latest technological features when it opened, including an electric monitor of available seats, blue neon floor lights, a restaurant, a children's playroom, soundproof crying rooms, smoking room with built-in cigarette lighters, a walnut-panelled lounge with a secondary screen on which a periscope-like system of prisms relayed the film. The ladies' powder room was lined with mirrors and dressers, and the toilet stalls were each done in a different kind of mable and each toilet bowl of a different pastel shade. In 1988, the "Los Angeles Times" called it "a movie house for the gods, even in its present dusty state."cite news|Dan Sullivan|title=L.A.'s Grand Old Broadway Theaters|publisher=Los Angeles Times|date=1988-08-21] Columnist Jack Smith wrote that the Los Angeles Theater was "palatial beyond the dreams of a prince" with a lobby that suggested "nothing less than the glory of Versailles."
* Palace Theater - Located at 620 S. Broadway, the Palace opened in 1911 with a seating capacity of 2,200. The Palace was an Orpheum vaudeville theater from 1911-1926 and is the oldest remaining Orpheum theater in the United States. The structure was designed by G. Albert Lansburgh based on a Florentine early Renaissance palazzo. The brick facade includes multi-colored terra-cotta swags and four panels depicting the muses of vaudeville sculpted by Domingo Mora.
* Loew's State Theatre - Located at 703 S. Broadway, Loew's State opened in 1921 with a seating capacity of 2,450. The theater offered both film and vaudeville when it opened. Judy Garland performed at the theater as part of the Gumm Sisters in 1929. Designed by Charles Weeks and William Day, the 12-story Loew's State is said to be the largest brick-clade structure in Los Angeles. The theater is also noted for the seated Buddha located in a niche above the proscenium arch. In 1998, Metropolitan Theaters stopped showing movies at the State and leased the space to the Universal Church.cite news|author=John Regardie|title=State of Darkness: Another Movie Palace Quits Screening Films|publisher=Los Angeles Downtown News|date=1998-11-02] As of 2008, the State was being operated as a Spanish-language church.
* Globe Theater - Located at 744 S. Broadway, the Globe opened in 1913 with a seating capacity of 782. Originally known as the Morosco, it was used for full-scale live dramatic theater. It was converted into a movie theater during the Great Depression and later served as a Spanish-language movie theater. The building was converted into a swap meet in 1987.
* Tower Theater - Located at 802 S. Broadway, the Tower opened in 1927 with a seating capacity of 900. It was the first of more than 70 theaters designed by S. Charles Lee, who described the Tower as a "modified French Renaissance" design. It was the first movie theater in Downtown Los Angeles equipped to accommodate talking pictures.
* Rialto Theater - Located at 812 S. Broadway, the Rialto opened in 1917.
* Orpheum Theater - Located at 842 S. Broadway, the Orpheum opened in 1926 as the fourth Los Angeles home for the Orpheum vaudeville circuit. Architect G. Albert Lansburgh designed the interior in the French Grand Manner, said to be modeled on the Paris Opera House. The Orpheum has hosted performances by Jack Benny, Eddie Cantor, Sophie Tucker, Will Rogers, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, the Marx Brothers, and Lena Horne. In the 1990s, Tom Hanks used the Orpheum as a substitute for the Orpheum in Pittsburgh for his film "That Thing You Do".cite news|author=Kathleen Craughwell|title=Movies: Broadway West; Bringing the Classics Back Home|publisher=Los Angeles Times|date=1996-05-26] The Orpheum has also been featured in the Guns 'N Roses video, "November Rain," and in the Sean Penn-directed video for Jewel's "You Were Meant for Me." In 2006, the film "Dreamgirls" was shot at the Orpheum.
* United Artists Theater - Located at 933 S. Broadway, the United Artists opened in 1927 with a seating capacity of 2,214. It was the showcase for movies from the United Artists group created in 1919 by Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith. The theater was designed by Walker & Eisen in a Gothic style inspired by a church in Segovia, Spain, with grotesques incorprated in the capitals of applied columns. The interior includes a series of frescos and murals by the firm of Anthony Heinsbergen. In 1990, the United Artists Theater was restored by Gene Scott's L.A. University Church; Scott called on his television flock to come to Los Angeles to help with the restoration. [cite news|author=Steven Wolf|title=Televangelist Scott Sets Up Shop On Broadway: United Artists Renovation Complete|publisher=Downtown News|date=1990-04-30|url=http://dbase1.lapl.org/webpics/calindex/documents/03/167132.pdf] Scott's famous "Jesus Saves" sign was placed on the back side of the building to avoid interfering with the original facade.

ee also

* List of Registered Historic Places in Los Angeles

References

External links

* [http://www.gmrnet.com/theaters.html The Broadway Theatre Tour]
* [http://www.bringingbackbroadway.com Bringing Back Broadway Plan]


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