pilot light of memory: Last Remaining Seats

LA Conservancy is one of the non-profit organizations I volunteer for (they are similar to Pasadena Heritage, where I've been helping out on home tours for years). The Conservancy runs a program each summer called "Last Remaining Seats", showing classic movies in the classic old movie houses in downtown LA. You'd be surprised at how well they are attended!

I volunteered to usher for two of them: "The Big Sleep" (1946) at the Los Angeles Theatre (b. 1931) and "Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood" (1922) at the Orpheum Theatre (b. 1926). Both of the theaters are those ornate Art Deco types (like the Pantages, if you're from LA); the Orpheum has had a multi-million dollar renovation, while the Los Angeles has not (the owners are just doing maintenance/repair work until they can find funds to renovate. It's still beautiful, but if you look closely, you can see things like peeling paint on the ceiling, etc).

For those of us nowadays who think of movie theaters as slick minimalist addendums to shopping malls, it's amazing to see these old establishments and realize that when they were built, going to the movies was an event! The Los Angeles has two subterranean levels; the first was a ballroom for dancing, the one below that had a restaurant and "saloon". People would come for dinner, see the movie, and then stay for dancing and drinks. I'm sure that lots of cities across the country still have versions of these grand dames hiding somewhere in their centers.

Today's blog photos are from the Orpheum. It still has its original Mighty Wurlitzer organ, which was used to play the accompaniment to the silent "Robin Hood" (the organist Robert Israel composed an original score). This is quite a lavish Robin Hood - the studio spent almost a million dollars producing it, which was a lot of money in 1922 - and it was very popular in its day.

Those of you who go to the movies might recognize the Orpheum - a lot of the Oscar-winning movie "The Artist" was filmed there. Enjoy :)