Starting This Weekend, Go See A Classic Film At One Of Downtown LA's Grand Movie Palaces

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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Mike Hume

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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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Mike Hume

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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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Mike Hume

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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.