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From Primedia Publications
The Saturday Matinee Tour
A jaunt through the Golden Age of L.A.


By Carol Glines

The Orpheum—one of L.A.'s last great, glittering movie houses.
Gordon Johnson makes a strange sight as he rushes down Los Angeles' Broadway, a group of us tagging along behind like ducklings, fighting our way through shoppers on the street. We have to move fast or we'll lose him—and miss some fascinating L.A. theater history.

It's another Saturday morning in the life of L.A. Conservancy docent Johnson, one of the many enthusiastic volunteers who lead the tours. He's been guiding groups to the movie palaces since 1980.

Johnson's tour members are out-of-staters, senior citizens who patronized the theaters years ago, and some are Angelenos who've never even seen downtown L.A. He visits 12 movie palaces and gives history lessons on other significant L.A. architecture along the way.

"Let me tell you about my two favorite people in L.A.," he says, standing before the 1927 Tower Theater and launching into the story of how eager architect S. Charles Lee persuaded entrepreneur G.L. Humbinger to let him design theaters that have become legendary.

Johnson's sense of humor makes the L.A. of the past come alive. It seems the young Jack Benny worked at the 1926 Orpheum Theater and his future wife at Hamburger's Department Store—later the May Company—next door. "He used to come and hustle her between shows," Johnson says with a laugh.

Although our guide is upbeat, he also presses for saving L.A.'s architectural heritage. Johnson deplores the conversion of many of the theaters into swap meets. At the 1913 Globe Theatre, he points up to the ceiling, above racks of shoes and jewelery for sale, to show the remnants of the proscenium arch and theater seating. "You're now standing where the Globe Theatre used to be," he says solemnly.

But Johnson has success stories. The 1921 State Theater on 7th and Broadway—once the most successful on the street—was condemned as a seismically unsafe brick building in the 1970s. Through its research, however, the L.A. Conservancy discovered the State was actually of steel frame construction that met L.A. earthquake codes, Johnson says. "The city council took off the demolition order."

The State Theater is still operating as a movie house today, but the lavish Los Angeles Theater was closed last year, and even tour groups like Johnson's can't enter. "This is one of the heartbreaks of the tour," he says. Johnson whips out a folder of black and white photographs to show tourists the glittering chandeliers, monumental mirrors, ornate staircase and crystal fountain inside.

Johnson's other prop is a flashlight he carries to better reveal beautiful details on the ceilings of the movie palaces. Some are showing films on this Saturday morning, but that doesn't stop Johnson. He leads us into the darkened State Theater and shines his flashlight above to reveal its elaborate Buddha near the screen.

Our timing is better at the Orpheum. We arrive before movies have started for the day, to see the theater in all its glory. You might get a special treat here—organists often play the theater's mighty 1928 Wurlitzer on Saturday mornings.

In these tours, the theaters become the stars. As Johnson says, shining his flashlight on a chandelier, "These are things you won't see in a multiplex."



Photo: Courtesy Grace Market Research, Inc.

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