The Brief

The historic Egyptian theater in Hollywood officially reopened its doors last weekend and people were eager to see inside the 101-year-old movie palace after a two-year closure and extensive renovation.

Last Saturday night, the theater was screening a vintage film, Jacques Tati’s Playtime on 70mm.

One moviegoer by the name of Yasmin was in her seat eagerly waiting for the show to start.

“L. A. has so many unique theaters that are, you know, outside AMC and also we're so excited to see something here and know that they have a slate of movies to show,” she said.

“I was very excited for Playtime,” her boyfriend Michael chimed in.

It was their first time at the Egyptian.

A controversial sale

Film fans and L.A. history buffs everywhere have been eyeing this reopening — some with excitement, others with trepidation. After all, it’s one of the city’s grandest movie houses, built when Hollywood was just a burgeoning industry.

An exterior view of the Egyptian Theatre and the Pig 'N' Whistle Cafe on Hollywood Blvd., circa 1933. The theater is showing "Charlie Chan in Egypt" and "The Girl from Tenth Avenue."

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Security Pacific National Bank Collection/Los Angeles Public Library Collection

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The theater hosted the film premiere of Robin Hood with Douglas Fairbanks in 1922 as well as films from Charlie Chaplin and Cecil B. DeMille throughout its first decade. In more modern times, it was films like Return of the Jedi in the 1980s that drew crowds to the Egyptian.

The theater changed hands a couple of times over the decades, but its most recent sale stirred up some controversy. In 2020, American Cinematheque sold it to the streaming service Netflix for a publicly undisclosed sum, and some critics voiced concerns about “for-profit” interests taking a stake.

American Cinematheque is a group that’s been programming theaters across L.A. with diverse repertory films since the 1980s and it has a pretty good rep among movie fans. It operated the Egyptian for more than 20 years before selling it to Netflix.

It bought the theater in 1996 from the L.A. Community Redevelopment Agency for a dollar after it was damaged in the Northridge Earthquake. The Cinematheque restored it and reopened the theater in 1998, but the Egyptian eventually became a financial struggle to run.

Enter Netflix, a controversial 'hero'

“To make this deal with Netflix and have it come back stronger than ever,” said Grant Moninger, the artistic director at the American Cinematheque, “it is a real blessing.”

Even during opening weekend, some moviegoers shared skepticism about the new owner.

“We hope Netflix doesn't sanitize and make this mainstream cinema central,” said Ryan McGurk while standing in line for popcorn. “This is the home of art house.”

But Moninger argues that regardless of who bought it, the theater has been saved and that’s a win.

“We were unsure if we were ever going to come back. It would have been a huge financial burden,” he said. The Egyptian “could have been a nightclub.”

The Egyptian Theatre Hollywood post-renovation.

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Kevin Estrada/Kevin Estrada

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NETFLIX

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Theater historian Ross Melnick agrees: “Anyone who will help reopen and restore a movie palace is gonna get hero status from me.”

Melnick teaches film and media studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Film fans can take heart in this fact: The programming slate at the Egyptian will offer more than Netflix films. As part of the deal with the streaming service, the American Cinematheque has a 100-year-lease to show films every weekend. Classic films like Aliens and Laurence of Arabia will be projected on 70mm, as well as some smaller art house movies.

The Egyptian 'consecrated the launch' of Hollywood

Real estate developer and recognized showman Sidney Patrick Grauman opened the Egyptian Theater in 1922. The neighboring Chinese Theater is also Grauman’s creation.

As historian Ross Melnick explained, Grauman had this “idea that if you could build a place for film exhibition and film production, you could essentially create almost a whole new city…for tourists, entertainment and attractions.”

The Egyptian Theater

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Courtesy of the LA Public Library Archives

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“I think one thing to remember is that Los Angeles, even though now, of course, it's the global capital of moviegoing and moviemaking, was not that in the early 1920s — it was New York,” Melnick said. “Hollywood, on the other hand, was… kind of a real estate development project.”

The 1920s were a boom time for L.A. The population was growing, surpassing San Francisco’s for the first time, and moneyed interests had traveled west to capitalize on the already powerful oil industry. Officials had greatness on their minds. They wanted a city to rival that of New York and Chicago. In 1923, the Memorial Coliseum went up. So did the Biltmore Hotel and the Hollywood Sign. The art deco marvel that is L.A.’s Central Library downtown followed a few years later.

The early 20s was still the silent film era, but the movie industry was picking up steam here. Stars like Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford had moved to L.A. and a lot of movie making was happening on the West Coast. One of those film “attractions” that Grauman spoke of became the Egyptian Theater.

“The opening of the Egyptian essentially consecrated the launch of Hollywood as an institution,” Melnick said.

Capitalizing on Egyptomania

There was already a Western fascination with Egypt, notes Melnick, as archeologists uncovered its many treasures during the early 20th century. King Tut’s tomb was discovered later in 1922 — a month after the Egyptian Theater opened.

This “Egyptian Revival” architecture inspired the theater’s design with its courtyard, hieroglyphic themed murals, and the winged scarab atop the theater’s proscenium arch.

The Egyptian Theatre's ornate proscenium post-renovation

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“It was all about the architecture of fantasy and the architecture of fantasy is no more exciting than being whisked away, if you will, 'Thief of Baghdad' style to Egypt by going into a movie theater,” Melnick said. “I think that's just something to think about. What is a movie palace in this period? It's a way to get off the street and be essentially taken into a palace of fantasy.”

And, according to Melnick, the Egyptian was heavily promoted as a place to do just that. There were movie ticket offices set up in Hollywood and downtown L.A. but also Long Beach, San Diego and Santa Barbara. There were organized bus trips that would take people to Hollywood, Musso & Frank and then the theater.

America was still coming out of World War I and the Spanish Flu pandemic. People were craving spaces to gather as the roaring 20s picked up and the Egyptian Theater created a sense of accessible opulence for people, said Melnick. It was beautiful, exotic and transportive.

“Going into a movie palace with ushers gave you that sensation… to live like a king and queen for the price of a ticket,” Melnick said.

And, said American Cinemateque’s Grant Moninger, that feeling of opulence is back. The recent renovations have restored the architecture, including the placement of the projection booth inside the theater, “back closer to 1922 than it's ever been,” he added.

So see a bit of history for yourself, catch a movie on film, and sit in what many moviegoers said last weekend are the most comfortable movie theater seats in the city.

A year and a half after the Eaton Fire, Gil Barel is still waiting to move back into the Pasadena home she has rented for nearly a decade.

Her complex did not burn down, but smoke engulfed it for days during the January 2025 fire. Barel wants to make sure it’s safe for her and her two children, one who’s college-age and one who’s 12, to move back. A test she ordered found toxic materials; now she’s waiting for the result of more testing her landlord is required to do because of a new California law.

Her landlord got the unit cleaned in March, but then Barel found various belongings under the sofa and behind other furniture, which indicated to her the cleaning was superficial. She said it was also obvious the floors and walls were not properly cleaned.

“The issue is that I have no control,” Barel said. “It really depends on the conversation between my landlord and their insurance company. If the landlord does the minimum, or if they don’t feel the need to fight or be insistent on certain things, then it’s not going to happen.”

Her story is one of many that illustrate why the health of California’s property insurance market — availability of affordable policies, and insurers that pay claims promptly and fairly — matters not just to homeowners but also to renters, who make up about 44% of the state’s residents. Insurance affects the cost of rent, housing supply and the ability of communities to recover from disaster.

In November, Californians will elect the state’s next insurance commissioner, a position that will play an important role in the recovery from last year’s Los Angeles County fires and the state of the insurance market.

Barel has her own renters insurance, for which she pays $114 a year with a multi-policy discount, she said. So far, her insurer has paid her several thousand dollars since the fire: $6,000 for loss-of-use coverage, which helps for additional living expenses when a renter is displaced, and $2,100 for some of her personal belongings.

Items are boxed up in Gil Barel’s living room and bedroom in Pasadena on Aug. 2, 2026. Barel is currently not living in her apartment because of the Eaton Fire of January 2025.

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Ariana Drehsler

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CalMatters

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Items are boxed up in Gil Barel’s living room and bedroom in Pasadena on Aug. 2, 2026. Barel is currently not living in her apartment because of the Eaton Fire of January 2025.

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Ariana Drehsler

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CalMatters

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She just finished an inventory, which she will send to her insurer to claim more of her $35,000 maximum benefit for personal belongings.

“I was stuck for a long time,” Barel said. “It’s extremely overwhelming. There are a lot of personal things. These are our stories. This is our life.”

Her renters insurance did not cover the industrial hygienist testing that she ordered for her unit, which found high levels of lithium, chromium and other heavy metals, likely a byproduct of the smoke and fire residue, according to a report she shared with CalMatters. Because the blaze occurred in the wildland-urban interface, the “smoke frequently contains a broader and more toxic mixture of particulates and chemical by-products,” the report said. The industrial hygienist recommended additional testing and cleaning.

Now, after she got the city of Pasadena involved to help pressure her landlord to do more, she’s hoping she’ll soon be able to move out of the Altadena back house she has been living in since the fire. FEMA has paid for that, but the aid is set to expire in October so she’s getting worried. She has continued to pay rent for her apartment all this time, she said.

“It’s not a possibility for me to move elsewhere,” she said. “We have rent control. It was perfect for the kids when we moved in. It had a courtyard; it was near the schools; everything.”

Gil Barel at her apartment complex in Pasadena on Aug. 2, 2026.

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Ariana Drehsler

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CalMatters

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In Altadena, the area north of Pasadena that bore the brunt of the deadly Eaton Fire, 22% of households were tenants and more than one-third of the rental market was rent-controlled, according to research by the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute. The researchers also noted that prior to the fire, Altadena tenant households had much lower incomes than homeowner households, and were more likely to have their short-term displacement turn into long-term housing instability.

Renters insurance

California does not require renters to have insurance, but some landlords require their tenants to have their own policies.

Emily Rogan, senior program officer for United Policyholders, a consumer advocacy group, recommends renters get insurance because of situations like Barel’s.

“Renters insurance buys you a deep breath as you think about where to go next,” Rogan said, adding that people often have a lot of difficult decisions to make after a fire or other disaster.

In addition, “in the current political climate, there’s a trend where FEMA declarations are not as frequent as they used to be,” Rogan said. A FEMA declaration unlocks federal funding after a disaster, so fewer declarations could mean less help available.

Rogan also said that because of inflation, almost everything costs more to replace. So she said it’s helpful to have renters coverage “even if you fall under the camp of ‘Oh, my stuff’s not worth much.’ ”

Insurance effects on rents, housing supply

An insurance broker, an affordable-housing operator and landlords who spoke with CalMatters painted a mixed picture about insurance availability and affordability as California continues to deal with a challenging insurance market. As the state has seen increased wildfire and other risks, such as litigation, some insurers have stopped writing policies for commercial properties.

Robert Guerrero, a broker in Madera County, said Mercury is offering new policies in several California counties, though not the ones where he has clients. There are also non-admitted insurance carriers — companies not licensed and regulated by the state, and not backed by the state if they go bankrupt — offering policies, he said. The state Insurance Department keeps a list of non-admitted, a.k.a. surplus, insurers on its website. Policyholders who agree to buy a policy from a non-admitted carrier will receive and be asked to sign a disclosure form.

“It’s still very dicey out there,” said Guerrero, whose agency offers homeowner, auto, commercial property and life insurance services.

Mike Placido, a landlord in Los Angeles County who owns four units in San Gabriel and a duplex in Alhambra, first spoke with CalMatters two years ago for an article about how insurance was affecting the rental market. Since then, he said insurance rates have increased more modestly, to the point where he feels like it’s more of a “normal” insurance market.

“It’s not causing me to raise rents as dramatically as I did before,” Placido said. “I guess the market has stabilized.”

He said he has a couple of insurance policies with State Farm, while his other policies are with non-admitted carriers, which worries him.

“There’s some aspect of safety when you’re going with a big company,” Placido said. “You don’t know if a smaller insurance company will be around (long term).”

Uwe Karbenk, co-owner of a 33-unit apartment building in San Bernardino, said he’s not very optimistic about insurance costs. They went down last year but are back at the same level as two years ago, he said. He raised rents in 2024, kept them the same last year, and now plans to raise them again this year, he said.

He said he has made upgrades worth hundreds of thousands of dollars for the building’s electrical system and a new roof, but that hasn’t lowered his insurance premiums.

Two people survey the damage of their home that was burned to the ground in an Altadena neighborhood affected by the Eaton Fire on Jan. 8, 2025

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Jules Hotz

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CalMatters

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For fire insurance, he said insurance companies now “really check the building and they will write you up for stuff they don’t like. They call it recommendations, but it’s a stipulation. You need to do it, otherwise you risk cancellation of insurance.”

Bottom line, Karbenk said: “Repairs are so much more expensive and replacement costs are so much higher. There’s no way around paying much more for insurance.”

Insurance woes are also affecting affordable housing developments.

Little Tokyo Service Center, a Los Angeles community development group that owns and operates more than 1,000 affordable housing units across different properties in the area, has seen its insurance costs skyrocket.

Between 2023 and 2024, the group’s annual insurance costs jumped from about $800,000 to $2.7 million, according to Erich Nakano, former executive director and now director of special projects of the group. The deductibles for those policies, which ranged from $10,000 to $50,000, increased to more than $100,000, he said.

That meant tapping the group’s reserves because it’s hard to raise rents on those who live in affordable housing, as well as looking for alternatives to reduce insurance costs. Last year, the group joined a so-called insurance captive — about 40 groups, including for-profit real estate firms, from around the country that have banded together to self-insure.

“it’s an existential crisis,” Nakano said. “We can’t sustain these levels of insurance premiums.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

Topline:

 Many musical artists today go out of their way to keep politics out of their performances. But for country singer Bryan Andrews, his progressive politics define his art.

Andrews' lyrics condemn billionaire greed, stand up for undocumented immigrants and call out mainstream country. He's gathered nearly 4 million followers on TikTok, and his album Independence Day came out just in time for the nation's 250th anniversary. This fall, his "Taking My Flag Back" tour comes to the Moroccan Lounge in LA.

Andrews' backstory

Andrews is from Missouri, but he was working as a welder in Minnesota when he decided to turn to music full-time.

"My hometown radio station played the song Liquor and Pills, and I took a video of it," Andrews said. "That ended up going viral. The next week, I called my boss, and I was like, 'Hey, I'm not coming back to work.'"

Andrews said his passion for politics and policy came from his liberal parents, but he was initially hesitant to put his beliefs into his music.

"I've been a liberal in a small town my whole life," Andrews said. "I know what people in small towns think of Democrats. But I started watching all the things happen with the LA ICE raids, and then Minneapolis, and then the shooting that just happened in Maine, and I couldn't keep my mouth shut anymore."

The classic artists inspiring TikTok hits

One of Andrews' songs that's gone viral on TikTok is "Yeehaw," which features the line, "Willie, Waylon, Johnny Cash, they're gonna want their records back." Andrews said mainstream country music has forgotten the politics of its outlaw past.

"The real outlaws, The Highwaymen, Cash, Kristofferson, Nelson, Jennings, all those guys were very economically educated when it came to the government and how the government spends their money," Andrews said. "A lot of those guys were hard leftists. Country music has always been rooted in standing up for the working man. Johnny Cash wrote a song called "The Man in Black" that is basically all about him standing in solidarity with folks on welfare who have been taken advantage of by a system that's rigged against them."

Taking the show on the road

Andrews' "Taking My Flag Back" tour comes to the Moroccan Lounge for a sold-out show on December 12. In an era when many social media stars have problems converting followers into live show attendees, Andrews said he doesn't take his success for granted.

"It's just been incredible for me, especially in this economy," Andrews said. "People going out and spending 30 bucks to just come hear me play my music, they deserve it a whole lot more than I do, so I'm gonna go out there and give them the best show I possibly can."

Andrews is aware that his outspoken politics may keep him out of some corners of mainstream country music.

"If they don't want to accept me into their spaces, then that's OK. I'll make my own space," Andrews says. "We've built this whole thing organically anyways. If I gotta build this road myself with all these fans, then we can do that. We're up for the challenge."

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Gustavo Dudamel’s final performance as music and artistic director of the LA Phil will strike a bittersweet note, marking the end of his remarkable tenure here while at the same time serving his home country. The Hollywood Bowl concert will serve as a farewell and a fundraiser, bringing together musicians to support earthquake recovery efforts in his native Venezuela after a disaster that killed thousands and displaced residents across the country.

Dudamel — the legendary, curly-haired Venezuelan wunderkind from El Sistema — took over the Los Angeles Philharmonic 17 years ago and turned L.A.’s classical music scene into an absolute fiesta, becoming the rockstar maestro Angelenos proudly claimed as their own. Sadly for us, Dudamel is leaving Los Angeles to lead the New York Philharmonic in September. 

Gustavo Dudamel is introduced as the New York Philharmonic’s 27th music and artistic director, Monday, Feb. 20, 2023.

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John Minchillo

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In honor of Dudamel’s remarkable legacy with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which includes marquee performances at the Super Bowl and Coachella, he will be honored with a week of concerts in late August. His final performance, A Concert for Venezuela, is slated for Sunday, August 23.

The special benefit concert is in response to the two catastrophic earthquakes that struck northern Venezuela on June 24, 2026, killing more than 6,000 people, injuring more than 16,000 others — including civilians trapped beneath the rubble of collapsed buildings — and displacing thousands from their homes. 

“Venezuela will always be my home, and every moment, my thoughts are with the families whose lives have been forever changed by this tragedy. The suffering is immense, but so is the strength and resilience of our people,” Dudamel said in a statement.

Gustavo Dudamel conducts musicians from the LA Phil, Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA) outside the Walt Disney Concert Hall downtown Los Angeles on Sept. 30, 2018.

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Damian Dovarganes

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Dudamel will lead the full program, which will also include the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles and a stellar lineup of guest artists: eight-time Grammy winner Beck, Venezuelan harpist Eduardo Betancourt, Café Tacvba co-founder Meme del Real, Venezuelan cuatro virtuoso Jorge Glem, Latin Grammy powerhouse Natalia Lafourcade, Venezuelan pop singer-songwriter Lasso, bandola player Moisés Torrealba and vallenato pioneer Carlos Vives. More special guests are expected to be announced ahead of the show.

All donations raised by the concert will help affected communities in Venezuela and will be directed to Dudamel’s Earthquake Recovery, the United Nations Development Programme to support relief efforts, and the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF) fund, which supports  El Sistema students, staff members, families and facilities affected by the earthquakes.

“Every person who joins us and every contribution made is a reminder to the people of Venezuela that they are not alone. Together, through music, generosity, and hope, we will help our country heal and rebuild,” Dudamel said.

Gustavo Dudamel at work.

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Ryan Hunter

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The LA Phil

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Dudamel has championed multiple charities and fundraisers throughout the years, dedicating his time to producing programs such as Icons on Inspiration, a recorded virtual gala he presented during the pandemic that featured performers including actress Julie Andrews, actor and rapper Common, singer-songwriter Katy Perry and pianist Yuja Wang. He also led Gustavo’s Fiesta Gala, which marked his final gala at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, to raise funds for the orchestra’s learning and community initiatives.

Throughout his career, Dudamel has used music as a way to bring people together in moments of need. His final LA Phil summer concert continues that tradition — turning a farewell performance into an act of support for the country that shaped him.

For most Californians, the milestone of buying a “starter home” is increasingly happening long after the start of adult life.

A new analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data by the Public Policy Institute of California finds that the age at which a majority of Californians turn from renters to homeowners is 47. In the rest of the country, a majority of people are homeowners by 36.

“It's quite staggering,” said Chris Duff, president of the Greater Los Angeles Association of Realtors. “The age does seem to be climbing every year, especially here in California.”

The numbers that explain why so many Californians are locked out 

High home prices, unyielding mortgage interest rates, sluggish construction of new homes and lackluster wage growth are all conspiring to keep many younger adults locked out of homeownership, real estate experts said.

Those factors exist across the country, but they’re especially acute in Southern California. According to recent data from the California Association of Realtors:

• The median home price in L.A. County was $879,900 in the second quarter of 2026. That was more than double the national median home price of $434,900.

• Only about 17% of L.A. households earn the $219,200 minimum income needed to afford a typical $5,480 monthly payment.

Younger buyers need to get creative — or get help from mom and dad

Larissa Rubijevsky, a realtor focused on L.A.’s South Bay neighborhoods, told LAist that when she began working in Southern California in the early 2000s, her first-time buyer clients tended to be in their early 30s.

Homes were already expensive back then, but Census data shows that first-time buyers were indeed younger. In 2009, a majority of Californians had become homeowners by age 41, according to the Public Policy Institute analysis.

These days, Rubijevsky said she sees millennial and Gen Z buyers making sacrifices just to try to enter the market.

“Sometimes they have to move in with their parents for a certain amount of time and save money,” she said. “Some of them are trying to buy property with their peers, with their friends, and then share the title 50-50.”

Others are hitting up their parents for down payment gifts, Rubijevsky said.

She said she saw her clients get noticeably older after the buying frenzy of the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. In those days, homes cost less and interest rates were low. Today’s prices and monthly payments are simply out of reach for most younger buyers, she said.

“People would like to have the American Dream,” Rubijevsky said. “When people can't do that, they're forced to leave the state… That's not a happy decision for them, but they just don't have any choice anymore.”

Why the trend toward older homebuyers matters for California

Between 2015 and 2025, California’s net migration included a loss of 884,000 people who cited high housing costs as their primary reason for leaving the state.

Marisol Cuellar Mejia — a senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California who co-authored the recent homebuying analysis — said home ownership continues to be the main way for most families to build the kind of wealth they can pass on to the next generation.

“Younger adults in California are missing out on long-term wealth building,” Cuellar Mejia said.

She said the trend will have “a cascade effect that has a lot of implications” for lawmakers and individual families. Californians who need to wait until their 40s to buy a home could decide to delay marriage, have fewer children and keep working beyond a traditional retirement age.

Across Southern California, typical homebuying ages vary widely by location, education level, immigration status and ethnicity. In L.A. County, where most residents are renters, homeowners only begin to outnumber renters at age 59. In Riverside County, where homes are cheaper, that age is 39.

White and Asian Californians tend to become homeowners younger than Black Californians, according to the analysis. So do college graduates when compared with those without a college degree. California’s Latino immigrants are more likely to rent than own a home in every age bracket.

Vivian Chen, a mortgage lender with Southern California-based Exceed Lending, said some buyers are still able to secure their first home in their 20s and 30s by participating in government-funded down payment assistance programs, such as the California Dream For All Shared Appreciation Loan and various other county and city-funded programs.

“We are doing quite a few every month,” Chen said. “Those programs are actually helping a lot of first-time buyers.”

Is more government help on the way? 

California voters will be asked to approve new homebuying assistance funds in the upcoming November general election. Proposition 37 seeks to create a “middle class” down payment assistance program funded by revenue bonds of up to $25 billion.

Under the proposed program, homebuyers earning up to 200% of their area’s median income could apply for state funding to cover down payments of up to 17% for newly-built homes. That assistance would come in the form of a loan, not a grant, with recipients likely needing to pay back the money in monthly installments.

Republican California State Assemblymember Carl DeMaio has opposed Prop. 37, saying it would turn the state into one of the nation’s largest mortgage lenders and leave taxpayers on the hook for potential financial losses.

Supporters — including the California Association of Realtors — argue the measure would incentivize developers to build new for-sale housing rather than rental units, something that has been increasingly rare in Southern California.

“We've really closed the revolving door when it comes to that first-time homebuyer getting a small one-bedroom or two-bedroom condo and then moving up as their life circumstances change,” said Duff, the Greater L.A. Association of Realtors president. “Since we're not building that construction, we don't have that inventory.”