Film Screening, Scholarship Support Downtown Renewal

Political leaders and entertainment figures attended a special screening of “La Bamba” Sunday to kick off a Richie Valens Music Scholarship, part of a larger effort to reinvigorate the downtown area known as the Broadway Corridor.

Metropolitan Theaters Corp. chairman Bruce Corwin, which owns the Million Dollar Theater on Broadway where the screening was held, presented a $5,000 check to Felix Castro, head of the Youth Opportunities Foundation, for the scholarship. The fund is named for the late pop musician and Los Angeles native who is the subject of the film.

Corwin said $1 from each of the 2,500 tickets sold for the Sunday screening of a Spanish-dubbed copy of “La Bamba” and a portion of future ticket sales will go to the scholarship fund.

Part of the scholarship funds also were donated by Miracle on Broadway, a community redevelopment project involving downtown merchants, including the theater corporation, to revitalize Broadway, Hill and Spring streets.

“It is our hope and expectation that through this scholarship fund many other Hispanic youngsters are going to be able to pursue their careers in music,” Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley told the audience. “May you feel that sense of inspiration.”

Also present at the screening were Assemblywoman Lucille Roybal Allard, City Councilwoman Gloria Molina, Los Angeles Unified School District board member Leticia Quezada, “La Bamba” star Lou Diamond Phillips and Valens’ mother, Connie Valenzuela.

“This is a very special day for Hollywood, too,” Phillips said between squeals from the crowd’s many teen-agers. “It takes a step out of glamour and takes a step into people’s lives and makes a difference.”

Valenzuela told the crowd in Spanish that she was glad to see people benefitting from her son’s life.

Valens was 17 when he died Feb. 3, 1959 in a plane crash that also killed rockers Buddy Holly and J.P. (The Big Bopper) Richardson.