Downtown's historic Broadway Theater District could soon be getting a boost from the City. The Downtown News is reporting that a press conference on the area is planned for tomorrow morning, and that City Coucilman José Huizar (14th district) and Mayor Villaraigosa will be on hand to share with local business and land owners their goals and intentions. As revitalization takes place throughout LA's downtown area, many are seeking to extend the developments and improvements......

It's the end of another year and LA has lost yet another handful of important buildings. LA Weekly has the goods on the "big ones" that were lost this year including the Ambassador Hotel and Cocoanut Grove, Trader Vic's, Johnie's Broiler, Mann National Theatre and our personal vote for deepest loss of the year, Tail o' the Pup. It seems we're not the only ones who mourn the loss of our favorite hot dog......

Did you know today is the 226th birthday of El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora La Reina de Los Angeles -- aka L.A.? The old bitch is looking pretty good for her age! Although the city did not incorporate until 1850, September 4th, 1781 is the date that 44 Mexican pobladores set out from San Gabriel with a military escort to settle alongside a great river -- then called the Rio de Porciuncula, later to......

How does the idea of hilltop vistas, the quiet charm of tree-lined streets, and a quick and easy one mile trip on public transit to Downtown grab you? Well, it certainly proved an effective lure for the fresh-off-the-train Midwesterners settling in Los Angeles who flocked to our city's first suburb in the late 1880s. A real estate boom in 1887 saw the construction of numerous majestic Victorian homes in the new neighborhood, but a......

There is just something about seeing old black and white films on the big screen that gets our motor ticking. Put them in old theaters and you have a winning combination. This year's series of the LA Conservancy's, Last Remaining Seats, has been a hit and selling out. There are two nights left. Tonight you can make your way over to the John Anson Ford Ampitheater to see La Balandra Isabel llegó esta tarde,......

In the swashbuckling 1940 Zorro movie, called The Mark of Zorro, the handsome Tyrone Power plays the hero; he was so impressive, even the actor playing his nemesis swooned. Basil Rathbone said, "Power was the most agile man with a sword I’ve ever faced before a camera. Tyrone could have fenced Errol Flynn into a cocked hat." We've never seen Power's Zorro, and now we think we really should. On the big screen. And......

This is what the papparazzi look like (bored, packing up) when you walk down the red carpet after the big celeb of the evening. In this case that was Diane Keaton, and the event was Thursday night's Ambassador Wake at The Bounty. Michael from Franklin Avenue doesn't take nearly enough credit for making it happen, with the LA Conservancy, and he has a great writeup of the evening. Mack does too. A pile of......

January 18, 1921: The Ambassador Hotel opens with a ball, with LA's top society figures and Hollywood elite dancing at the Cocoanut Grove. January 16, 2006: The Ambassador Hotel's destruction is complete. The Cocoanut Grove remains, to be retooled by the LAUSD, which will build a school on the site. February 2, 2006: The Ambassador Hotel wake. The brainchild of the people behind the Ambassador's Last Stand, folks at the LA Conservancy and the......

As the Ambassador Hotel has been ignominiously knocked down, we've been following its last days on Ambassador's Last Stand. Well, it's over, kids. Yesterday, as we were overtaken by Golden Globe Fever, ALS announced that the rest of the hotel was gone. Only the Cocoanut Grove remains: the LAUSD has plans for it — it's going to be an atrium or a library. (We can't find the current plan online, but we admit, our......

Earlier this week when we were hurting from the evils of drink, we got this advice over and over: exercise. Realizing you may have had a bit of liquor last night -- and keeping in mind that weather may soon make this impossible -- we suggest a series of walking/hiking resources. Because the air might do you good. The new book Walking LA by Erin Mahoney has a great set of walking tours that......

Like many Angelenos, Karie Bible came to Los Angeles to follow her passion for movies and filmmaking. She did the Hollywood thing, working as an assistant in various studios and agencies, but was disappointed to find so many people in the Industry who did not share her love and passion for film history. Luckily, she didn't keep her enthusiasms to herself. Instead, she founded FilmRadar, a weekly e-newsletter and website that alerts readers to......

Both despite and because of many intense past, current and future battles to retain it, Angelenos are increasingly aware of our city’s architectural heritage. This category ranges from the missions to faux Norman castles to austere minimalist spaces. We’re presently living a renaissance era for modernism – a critical mass is more than ever enthralled with the work of largely émigré architects for whom Los Angeles was an ideal environment in which to experiment......

You may have heard that the owners of the Los Feliz haunt The Derby are hoping to sell the place. Instead of an icon of the swing dance world, instead of a cheapish but not unpleasant Louise's Trattoria, instead of a nice one-story restaurant with parking, the lot at the corner of Hillhurst and Los Feliz would house 88 condos piled into a claustrophobic 5-story monstrosity. Built in 1928, The Derby didn't become an......

While we are madly in love with LA, we do have a little crush on New York. So when this week’s copy of the New Yorker arrived, we were thrilled to find a piece by Dana Goodyear on LA’s own Ambassador Hotel and one of its pioneering architects, Paul R.Williams. The hotel, which closed in 1989, has been the subject of a massive financial, cultural and ethical tug-of-war between the LAUSD, who own the......