The great movie palaces of downtown Los Angeles are largely closed to the public, open only for events and the occasional tour. But starting this weekend, they’re opening their doors for a few special film screenings, thanks to the LA Conservancy . The nonprofit works to protect and preserve L.
A. cultural and historical sites, and for over 30 years, the program has been shining a light on some of the great, but forgotten, movie palaces of Los Angeles. Its film series, Last Remaining Seats , started in 1987 and resumes June 1 for two weeks.
Sarah Lann, the conservancy’s director of education, shares that the LRS program was born out of an effort to reactivate downtown L.A. as buildings were shuttering in the 1970s and '80s.
And that included trying to shine a spotlight on the “incredible movie palaces that line Broadway.” While the program rotates theaters and has screened all across L.A.
, including in the United Artists Theater, the Wiltern, and the Fox in Westwood, this year’s screenings will take place at three DTLA icons: the Palace, the Orpheum, and the Los Angeles Theatre. Let’s take a look at the history of these spaces before folks step back in time this weekend. Lann describes the Palace as “a jewel box of a theater on Broadway.
” At about 1,000 seats, this theater is half the size of the Orpheum and the Los Angeles Theatre, but still magnitudes larger than most movie theaters. The theater predates the film industry. It was built in 1911 as a vaudeville.
