The star of the show may be the Warner Grand itself.

Lights! Camera! Action!

The Warner Grand Theater--the last motion picture palace in the South Bay--will have top billing Saturday when the Los Angeles Conservancy puts the spotlight on San Pedro.

The conservancy, an organization dedicated to historic preservation, is highlighting this seaside community as part of the San Pedro centennial celebration. Although an afternoon walking tour is already sold out, there are still plenty of seats left for what could be the highlight of the day: the historic Warner Grand’s vintage film program, featuring veteran theater organist Gaylord Carter and the 1936 RKO musical “Follow the Fleet,” starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

Carter, 81 and a San Pedro resident, has been playing music to accompany silent films since the 1920s. Saturday, his chords will accompany the 16-minute silent short, “Never Weaken,” starring Harold Lloyd. Astaire and Rogers, joined on the big screen by Lucille Ball and Betty Grable, will follow.

But the star of the show may be the Warner Grand itself, an Art Deco delight, with its grand balcony, stenciled ceilings, glass chandeliers and ornate geometric interior in metallic hues of copper, silver and gold.

The theater opened in 1931 with the nickname “Castle of Your Dreams”--a reference, says owner Raymond Howell, to “something that the normal, everyday person doesn’t have an opportunity to enjoy. . . . The whole idea was to take you up and away out of the doldrums and your own life and put you in this dream world.”

The Warner Grand originally served as a showcase for Warner Bros. studios, as did its two sister picture palaces--one in Beverly Hills and the other in Huntington Park--built at about the same time. Howell said the Beverly Hills theater is about to be demolished, and the Huntington Park theater has been split into three theaters, leaving only the 1,500-seat Warner Grand intact.

The theater has changed hands several times since it was built, and had been boarded up for several years before Howell, former manager of Mann’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood, bought and reopened it in 1984.

Howell has done some renovation work and hopes to restore the theater to its original design, including checked carpeting that mimicked the Art Deco trim, and brocade floral seat coverings patterned after floral designs in the auditorium.

Programming at the Warner Grand is varied. “We have presented everyone from Doug Henning to Chaka Kahn to the Blasters,” Howell said. In addition to first-run movies and classic films, the theater has presented live musicals, ballet, and once ran a small Equity Waiver theater in the basement.

Although first-run movies make up a good portion of the Warner Grand’s fare, Howell said he expects that to end when a new six-theater complex opens on Western Avenue in Rancho Palos Verdes. When those theaters open, Howell said the Warner Grand will focus more on live entertainment and classic, foreign and art films.

In addition to Saturday’s vintage film program, for which about 700 tickets have already been sold, the theater will be featured on the conservancy’s sold-out walking tour. For those who want to take their own tour, the conservancy is printing guide pamphlets, which will be sold for $3 through the mail from their offices, 433 S. Spring St., Suite 1024, Los Angeles, 90013.

Gregg Davidson, assistant to the conservancy’s director, said Saturday’s event is intended to showcase the preservation of the Warner Grand and to remind people that some grand old movie palaces of yesteryear still exist.

“A lot of movie theaters throughout Southern California have been threatened lately,” he said. “Whether it’s going to be turned into a swap meet or whether it’s going to be leveled for, as we say, another historic parking lot . . . a lot of these older single theaters are really feeling the crunch.”

What: Vintage film program, featuring organist Gaylord Carter.

Where: The Warner Grand Theater, 478 W. 6th St., San Pedro.

When: Saturday. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., program begins at 7.

Admission: $10.