The Brief

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.

A crowd watches "Rebecca" at the Orpheum Theater.

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Mike Hume

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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.

The Palace

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.

Looking down at the ornate theater of the Palace.

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Mike Hume

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The theater predates the film industry. It was built in 1911 as a vaudeville house, and is the oldest theater on Broadway. “It’s like walking into a Faberge egg,” says Lann. Since it was originally built for live performances, there’s “an intimacy that you don’t see in some of the other theaters,” Lann describes, almost as if someone could jump on stage at any moment. And like any movie palace, it’s lavish, with “all the bells and whistles that you would expect — murals and curlicues and all the rest.”

The Orpheum

“The big sister to the Palace,” says Lann, the Orpheum was built in 1926 as the final home of the Orpheum Vaudeville circuit. In 1928, a Wurlizter organ was installed, which will be heavily featured in a screening this weekend. Lann says, “when you see something like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,” a film from the 1920s, “with a live accompanist on the Wurlitzer organ and the lights go down and those first chords strike up and you're surrounded by just this unbelievable opulence,” there’s nothing that can quite compare.

The interior of the Orpheum Theater.

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And while you may not have attended a film, concert, or improv show at the Orpheum, you’ve probably seen it on screen. The theater’s been featured in everything from Taylor Swift music videos to episodes of Murder, She Wrote to films like Dreamgirls and Whiplash. 

A line outside the Orpheum Theater.

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The Los Angeles Theatre

Built in 1931, The Los Angeles Theatre was the last great movie palace on Broadway. But it opened during the height of the Depression, “and it failed almost as quickly as it was built,” Lann says.

The theater opened with the Charlie Chaplin film City Lights — Chaplin was an investor, and attended the premiere with guest of honor, Albert Einstein.

A line of people wait to enter the Los Angeles Theatre in January 1931 for the Charlie Chaplin film, "City Lights."

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Los Angeles Public Library Legacy Collection

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“There's a photo of them in the front lobby when you first walk in,” Lann says, before adding, “it's like all the theaters on steroids in a lot of ways.” Modeled in part after Versailles by architect S. Charles Lee, Lann starts to talk about the gold, the chandeliers, and the motifs in the building before saying “it’s more lavish than I can describe.”

So while “it's certainly not uncommon to be able to go see a classic film in a cool space across L.A.,” it is a distinct experience to catch a film in such opulent, historic spaces. “Suddenly there's this richer, more layered context that wasn't there before,” says Lann, “and it really does feel like you've stepped back in time for a moment.”

The grand, Versailles inspired interior of the Los Angeles Theatre.

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Mike Hume

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The films

And there is, of course, a great lineup of movies. Chosen by a volunteer committee of film lovers who have been routinely meeting since last September, Lann says the slate is “as strong as it can be.”

Conversations begin with questions about what might make a film relevant, and this year, the series is screening The Seven Year Itch on opening night. That’s June 1, celebrating Marilyn Monroe’s birthday, and according to Lann, hopefully bringing awareness to the current threat against Monroe’s historic residence.

Other screenings include Bullit, Gaslight, From Russia With Love, and Mi Vida Loca. “Mi Vida Loca will be celebrating its 30th anniversary this year,” says Lann, describing it as “such a Los Angeles film.” The director, Allison Anders, and some of the cast will be at the screening to discuss the movie, a film about “homegirls” surviving gang life in Echo Park. LRS has partnered with a lowrider club to cruise Broadway as cars from the film will be stationed outside the Palace.

An opulent experience

What Lann loves most about sharing these theaters with audiences is that “people … don't always understand that at one point in time, public spaces were … incredible places that anybody could go to.” Moviegoing is a casual pastime now, but once, for a few cents you could be “surrounded by this really extreme beauty and this extremely detailed architecture … that I don't think we ever expect anymore from our public spaces,” says Lann.

The lobby of the Los Angeles Theatre swarms with patrons at a Last Remaining Seats screening.

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Lann hopes that the Last Remaining Seats program reminds people that that existed in Los Angeles, even if today “they're a little bit like best kept secrets, and when people get to kind of share in that secret, I think that's really cool.”

Getting involved

Lann says, “we're always looking for good people who want to share their love of historic spaces and classic film.”

You can get involved with either Los Angeles Conservancy as a whole or the Last Remaining Seats film committee. Check out their website here for information on membership and volunteering.

Andy Pages drove in two runs with a bases-loaded single in the seventh inning to give Los Angeles the lead, and the Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 4-1 on Wednesday night to clinch their NL Division Series.

The Dodgers won back-to-back games in Atlanta to take the best-of-five matchup 3-1 and advance to the National League Championship Series as they seek to become the first NL team to win three straight World Series.

Pages lined a 3-2 pitch from Robert Suarez up the middle to drive in Teoscar Hernández, who singled off starter Tyler Mahle, and pinch-runner Tommy Edman for a 3-1 lead. Didier Fuentes walked pinch-hitter Josue De Paula and Kyle Tucker to load the bases. Edman ran for De Paula.

Max Muncy’s solo shot off Raisel Iglesias in the ninth padded the lead and gave the slugger 19 postseason homers with the Dodgers, extending his franchise record.

Dodgers right-hander Tyler Glasnow, making his first start since Sept. 24, allowed only one hit but walked five batters in 4 2/3 innings. After he issued two walks in the fifth, left-hander Alex Vesia ended the inning on Matt Olson’s groundout to second base.

The missed opportunity left the Braves with 18 walks in the series, and none scored.

Glasnow and four relievers combined to give up just three hits. Tanner Scott pitched a perfect eighth before Edwin Díaz got three quick outs for the save.

Mahle, a native of Newport Beach, California, who grew up a Dodgers fan, allowed two runs — one earned — in 6 1/3 innings.

Michael Harris II hit Glasnow’s first pitch for a single before stealing second and eventually scoring from third on a wild pitch that bounced off catcher Will Smith’s chest protector.

The Dodgers pulled even in the second with the help of two Atlanta errors. Shohei Ohtani walked, stole second and advanced to third on catcher Sean Murphy’s errant throw into center field. Muncy’s pop fly into shallow left field was dropped by shortstop Mauricio Dubón for another error, allowing Ohtani to score.

Hernández crashed into the wall while attempting to catch Ozzie Albies’ double off Vesia leading off the sixth. Hernández pointed to his head and neck when talking to an athletic trainer but remained in the game.

Edgardo Henriquez stranded Albies at second. Henriquez allowed one hit in 1 2/3 scoreless innings for the win.

Injury report

Dodgers second baseman Miguel Rojas was held out after leaving Tuesday night’s 3-1 win during an at-bat in the eighth inning with lower back soreness. Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts said Rojas would not be available off the bench.

Ronald Acuña Jr. started in right field for Atlanta one day after being moved to designated hitter in a late lineup change due to right knee soreness.

Up next

The Dodgers will face Milwaukee or San Diego in Game 1 of the NLCS on Sunday.

The Democratic National Committee on Wednesday sued President Donald Trump’s administration for recent television advertisements that promoted his political message while costing taxpayers millions of dollars.

The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleges that the ads are illegal government-sponsored propaganda and accuses Trump of personally directing them. It asks the court to declare the ads illegal and stop the use of federal funds to pay for them.

Trump has faced bipartisan backlash for the ads, which glorify him and echo his campaign pitch as voters cast early ballots with the midterm elections less than a month away.

The spots, which began airing in September, already have cost more than $12 million to run, according to the media tracking firm AdImpact, and a total of $20 million in Homeland Security Department funding has been tapped to pay for them.

Responding Monday to the criticism, Trump defended the ads as “positive promotion for our Great U.S.A.” but said he’d pay for them using his MAGA Inc. super PAC going forward.

But on Tuesday, the fifth ad in the campaign began airing with the notice “paid for by the U.S. Government,” promoting Trump’s military actions in Venezuela earlier this year. The same day, Trump made it clear he hasn’t committed to reimbursing any money that has already been spent, telling reporters “we’ll decide.”

DNC Chair Ken Martin said in a statement that Trump is misusing taxpayer dollars in “a last-ditch attempt to save Republicans in November.”

“Americans deserve better than to have their hard-earned tax dollars used for Trump’s illegal schemes,” he added.

Legal experts have suggested the ads run afoul of a federal statute against congressionally appropriated money being used for “publicity or propaganda,” and potentially other federal laws. The Homeland Security money tapped for the ads comes from a $175 million package Congress gave to the department as part of Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda.

The White House has defended the ads as public service announcements akin to what past administrations have done to promote various policies. Legal experts have said the recent ads differ from many past public service announcements because they aren’t aimed at helping members of the public benefit from specific government programs.

The defendants in the lawsuit — Trump, the White House, DHS and the Office of Management and Budget — didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Fall has only just begun, but it's already time to start thinking about the quintessential winter bug: the flu.

The annual flu season usually starts in October or November. But this year, it looks like the flu started to pick up in early September.

"There are enough signs pointing in the same direction to make me think, 'OK, yes. This is the start of flu season,'" says Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

The percentage of people testing positive for the flu in the West has been rising steadily since around the beginning of September, she says. And the number of people showing up in emergency departments because of the flu has also been rising for weeks, she adds.

"It's very uncommon to see flu activity rising this early. It's activity that we might normally see more like November or December," she says.

The timing of the flu season isn't the only thing that's odd. It's also unusual that flu activity seems to have started in Western states, such as California, Washington, Hawaii and Alaska.

"It typically starts in the South and then expands from there," Rivers says. "So two uncommon developments there."

Rivers stresses that the amount of flu activity is still very low in most parts of the country. But that's starting to change as the flu picks up nationwide.

It's unclear why flu activity would have started so early, and in such an unusual part of the country. But one clue might be a new variant that evolved a mutation, which appears to make it better at evading existing immunity, especially among teenagers.

"That's our best argument for what's going on right now in terms of this early flu season," says Dr. Alex Greninger, a virologist who heads infectious disease diagnostics at the University of Washington. Doctors there are seeing as much flu right now as they usually would around Christmas, and the mutated variant appears to be common, he says.

So Greninger, Rivers and others are urging people to think about getting their flu shot earlier than usual.

"It's crucial that people get an influenza vaccine," says Scott Hensley, a virologist at the University of Pennsylvania. "And this might be a year that people might want to get a vaccine early."

But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hasn't been promoting flu shots as it usually does. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who oversees the CDC, is a long-time vaccine skeptic.

"It is disappointing that CDC is quiet given that flu kills of hundreds of kids a year and can result in tens of thousands of hospitalizations and tens of thousands of deaths," says Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, who resigned last year as the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to protest what he called political interference at the agency.

The CDC declined to make an official available to NPR for this story. In a statement, a CDC spokesperson said, "CDC is developing a communications strategy to provide clear, accessible information about influenza vaccination and other critical steps people can take to protect themselves during respiratory virus season. This includes information about the benefits and risks of vaccination to support informed decision-making."
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