Quote:
Originally Posted by ConstructDTLA
So we lost Rialto & Olympic to retail - OK, those were mostly gone already...
Now potentially Million Dollar. More than likely The Tower. Then Cameo, Roxie, Arcade will most certainly be retailed.
It just sucks. There is so much vacant retail & office space on Broadway, for the theaters to be butchered is a loss most won't realize for decades.
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I agree with you. I would think more young people would be into the restoration of these old theaters, but maybe not. They're a different generation.
I'm a 47 year-old Gen-Xer; my friends and I totally were into these old movie theaters on Broadway even when we were in our teens and 20s. My friends and I would totally go downtown and walk around; it was fun also going with my friend's grandmother who remembered what stores were where, etc.
Before The Orpheum was full restored, I actually got to see a few old movies there on special nights. It's fun to watch old films like "Casablanca" and "Gone With the Wind" in old theaters like these, on screens that are in the proper aspect ratio (4:3, just like TV screens before even TVs became widescreen), instead of cropped at the top and bottom like some movie theaters would do with old movie re-releases. As an aside, my generation seems more open to watching black-and-white films than younger people. When I was a kid, I had no concept of what was old and new, and watching black-and-white movies/TV shows didn't faze me. Also, in the 1970s, growing up, my family had a big color TV and a little black-and-white TV, so sometimes my sister and I used to have to watch "Happy Days" in black-and-white while my dad watched the Dodgers or whatever in color on the big TV.
These old theaters could totally have old film revival series or something, and could be used as performance and conference spaces.
These Broadway theaters could totally be used for the LA Film Festival, too, if restored and modern projection equipment were installed.