Last Remaining Seats: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

'Bout two months ago, 'round the time I joined the Opera League of Los Angeles, I also joined the Los Angeles Conservancy, a membership-supported nonprofit dedicated to restoring and preserving old residential and commercial buildings around the city as well as the county. Among their big projects right now is Bringing Back Broadway. Yes, L.A. has a Broadway too. And yes, I know you didn't know that. A lot of Angelinos don't even know that, which I think is what bugs the Conservancy. You see, there's about a seven-or-so-block stretch of Broadway downtown, from around second street down to ninth street, that features the single largest concentration of pre-WWII movie palaces on the planet, about a dozen theaters in all. A lot of them are either empty shells or have been converted to retail space. Or a little of both. Broadway in general is mainly known these days as a Latino shopping district. That's not a bad thing. The Conservancy's not out to displace anyone, but these once stunning theaters have devolved from gems to blights on the landscape. Their ultimate goal over the next several years is to have Broadway cater to multiple demos, not just shoppers. It used to be THE magnet in L.A. for movie lovers. Why can't it be that again? Well, it can, and it will. And that'll precipitate a ripple effect, bringing in more restaurants and retail and what have you. They're even gung-ho about bringing back the old Broadway streetcar system a la Portland and Seattle.

The Conservancy helps promote the Broadway cause with a movie program every summer called Last Remaining Seats. Every Wednesday night for six weeks (late May to early July) they'll screen an old classic in one of the Broadway theaters whose restoration is complete. This year they've got three up and running, each of which will show two flicks: the Los Angeles Theatre (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Young Frankenstein), the Million Dollar Theatre (Mildred Pierce and El Rey del Barrio), and the Orpheum (Goldfinger and silent comedy classics).

Tonight was the first night, with Gentlemen Prefer Blondes at the Los Angeles. I'd only been to Broadway once. Back in April 2005 I saw Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins in concert at the Orpheum. I remember being taken with that theater's splendor and extravagance, but I had no idea that the Orpheum was one of a frickin' dozen such theaters up and down that street that are in the midst of a renaissance. What turned me on to all this--the Broadway cause and the Conservancy in general--was a cover story in the January/February issue of Westways, the free magazine for California Auto Club members. The history related in the article was fascinating, of course, but it was the photography that, well, caught my eye. The two photographers responsible for that story, Robert Berger and Anne Conser, were given free tickets to these Last Remaining Seats screenings. Conservancy head Linda Dishman pointed them out in the audience tonight. That article must've inspired a ton of people. Lin said that five out of the six screenings have already sold out. Mind you, these theaters hold something like two thousand people. Of those 12,000 movie tickets, about 11,000 have already sold.

Before anyone came out to talk last night, they showed a Betty Boop short from the thirties, which marked the first time I'd ever seen on the big screen the inspiration for what still seems a very popular Halloween costume. After that, Linda Dishman came out and gave a spiel, the gist of which was: "If you're already a member, thanks a bunch! If you're not a member, you can sign up in the lobby after the show." Lin was followed by Jose Huizar from the L.A. City Council, who's become the Conservancy's champion in City Hall. He related how on Sundays during his childhood he could hop on a bus from his East L.A. home to Broadway and catch a Bruce Lee triple feature at the Los Angeles for a dollar. And finally you had film critic Leonard Maltin come out and give us a little spiel about the Conservancy, how he and his wife are members, and about the film itself.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was released in the summer of 1953. It was adapted from a 1925 novel by Anita Loos. It was a wafer-thin little tome cobbled together from a bunch of short stories Anita wrote for Harper's. The novel was an instant hit and was made into both a film and a play early on. Eventually it was adapted into a hit Broadway musical, which was the direct inspiration for the 1953 movie version. The Broadway musical, by the way, put Carol Channing's career on the map. She played Lorelei, the character Marilyn Monroe plays in the film. For the movie version, Judy Holliday was offered the Lorelei part first, but she didn't think it was right for anyone but Carol. Marilyn had no such inhibitions. With all due respect to Carol, I think Marilyn nailed the part. At first she seems to be confirming the dumb blonde stereotype, but as the movie goes on, it becomes quite clear that her sense of comic timing is acute. Jane Russell's earthiness and no-nonsense attitude is Marilyn's perfect compliment. Before the screening, Leonard Maltin said the two of them got along famously during the shoot. And when you see the film, it's obvious that those two as well as everyone else was having a ball. It was one of those deals where going to work was a vacation.

I won't spill too much of the plot. Actually, come to think of it, there isn't much plot to speak of, but somehow that doesn't matter. I mean, there is a plot. It's very simple, and it's just enough. Indeed, this film is a perfect example of how less really can be more, story-wise. You've got these two hotties from Little Rock, Lorelei Lee and Dorothy Shaw, who go on a cruise ship to Paris. Lorelei's sort of already engaged to this wealthy goofball whose father is dead set against the union. Dorothy, meanwhile, is happily single and takes great advantage of her bachelorette status with the men's Olympic team, who also happen to be passengers on the same ship. Things get a little hairy when Lorelei meets this elderly diamond magnate named...wait for it...Piggy. The way MM says that word "Piggy", man, I don't think I've ever heard anyone in my life sound so sexy and hot and yet so God damned hilarious in my entire life. Anywho, so there they all are, on their way to Paris. By the time they get there, Marilyn's got to go to court for trying to pilfer Piggy's wife's diamond-encrusted tiara. There's a lot more in the way of shenanigans, not to speak of hilarious repartees and one-liners, but I'll leave you to enjoy them for yourself. Speaking of diamonds, you know that song "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend?" This is where it originated. Well, more specifically, it originated with the Broadway musical.

This was the first time I'd seen this flick, and I'm glad I got to do it in a packed house of two thousand other peeps. I don't think I've ever seen a flick with so many people before. It was a really cool vibe. Everyone was ready to laugh. Now and again there'd be a scene or some dialogue (usually something from Marilyn if it wasn't one of Jane's needle-sharp retorts) that had us rolling on our two thousand asses so much we wouldn't hear the subsequent dialogue.

The only gripe I have is that there wasn't a snack counter. I abstained from dinner so that I'd be starving for a granddaddy-sized popcorn...only to discover that not only do they not serve snacks, they don't allow food in the theater at all. I guess it makes sense. I certainly hope that if and when this palace becomes a regular first-run theater again, all of that will change. So all I could do was sustain myself on their $2 bottled waters (all proceeds supporting the Broadway revival, of course). Suffice it to say that by the time I got home a few minutes ago, I was about ready to devour a buffalo.

Here's a few more tidbits about the Los Angeles. It was the last of the twelve theaters to open. Construction was completed in January 1931. Its design style is French Baroque. The first movie shown there was Charlie Chaplin's City Lights. Among the celebrities in attendance that night was Albert Einstein. No, that's not a joke. E=MC squared himself. In addition to the umpteen levels of seating, the Los Angeles also features a couple levels below. You've got a ballroom, a lounge, a chunk of space that was originally a restaurant. That basement lounge, by the way, has a periscope with prisms and whatnot that projects the movie on a screen so that people can relax downstairs and not miss any of the movie. Meanwhile, back up top, you've got a soundproof crying room above the loge for parents to take their wailing little dumplings. And there's an electronic gizmo that the ushers use to keep track of which seats are available. All of these amenities, by the way, were here when the theater opened in '31. Did I mention that they don't make them like they used to? Now you know what I mean.

Here are some photos of the joint I snapped with my Blackjack II. One of these days I need to get a real honest-to-God digital camera so I can get better pics.

This was the view from my seat (first balcony, front row, left side).

I caught a pre-show cocktail at the Broadway Bar. Cool joint. To the right you can see part of the Orpheum, where the Last Remaining Seats series will show Goldfinger on June 11 and silent comedy classics on July 2.