A Curtain Call on Broadway? : Grand Old Theater to Keep Doors Open as Ways Are Studied to Bring Back Street

A week ago, Bruce Corwin, the exhibitor whose family has operated grand movie palaces on Broadway in downtown Los Angeles since their heydays in the 1920s and ‘30s, was seriously considering the sad thought of closing the 62-year-old Los Angeles Theatre--the most grand and glorious of them all.

There has been just no business, he said, even though the current offering is “RoboCop 3,” in English. Because the theater is in a predominantly Spanish-speaking neighborhood, the long-standing policy has been to alternate English language with Spanish-subtitled films.

Last week, Corwin told The Times: “The Los Angeles Theatre will close Dec. 1. . . . I’m very sad about downtown. It’s progressively worse and worse.” Later that day, he called back to say he was having second thoughts about closing the theater and was trying to come up with a better option.

“The theater has such a rich history. It breaks my heart. One of the reasons all of this is so hard is that I feel a real tie to my ancestors. Because my grandfather and father had particular ties to the Los Angeles and Orpheum theaters.” Corwin’s exhibition company, Metropolitan Theaters, was founded in 1923 by his grandfather, Joseph, and was later run by his father, Sherrill. Bruce Corwin became president in 1970.

This week, Corwin declared, “It’s not over till it’s over. We’re going to try a policy of reduced prices and hope that it works.”

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Under the new policy, to be instituted Nov. 24, the theater will screen four different films each day and customers can see all four for just $2.49. The current top-price admission is $6.

In recent years, the retail atmosphere on Broadway has changed. Swap meets have proliferated, even taking over two of the street’s movie palaces, the Broadway and the Globe. Two other theaters house religious groups: The Million Dollar Theater is home to the Universal Church and the United Artists Theater--commissioned by Mary Pickford--serves as a cathedral for Dr. Gene Scott.

The only other theaters downtown are Laemmle’s Sheraton Grande 4 on Figueroa Street, which often play the same movies as the Broadway theaters, but cater to English-speaking audiences.

Greg Laemmle, the assistant to the chain’s president Bob Laemmle, said that while business at their four theaters is consistently lower than averages at other houses in the small circuit, this year’s business has shown improvement. But that’s largely due to the overall improved ticket sales throughout the industry, he said.

One reason Laemmle has been able to survive downtown, he said, is that having four theaters under one roof makes operations more economical. Another is convenient parking across the street.

Neither of those “reasons” exist for the theaters on Broadway, which because of their historical architectural significance, cannot be divided into multi-plexes.

The threatened Los Angeles Theatre at 615 South Broadway was the last of the palaces built and was erected in 90 days at a cost of more than $1 million, which in Depression-scarred times was considered nearly obscene. It was designed to imitate the home of the French emperors at Versailles, the narrow lobby depicting a miniature Galerie des Glaces. A sweeping grand staircase is crowned by a four-tiered faux fountain with strings of crystal beads bubbling into a mosaic basin.

Aside from the Los Angeles Theatre, there are only three other remaining theaters on Broadway still in operation: the Orpheum, which plays first-run American movies with Spanish subtitles; the State, which plays first-run American pictures; and the Palace, where first-run Spanish-language movies are shown. In September, the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency commissioned a $150,000 study on what can be done to revitalize Broadway. The report is due in March.

Timothy Sales, project manager for Burbank-based Kosmont & Associates Inc., said the study will focus on the “core” of the district, the area between 6th and 7th streets, where the Los Angeles Theatre is located. “There are a lot of multi-uses that theaters can be put to, besides movies,” he said, suggesting them as possible sites for music and stage shows. That use would harken back to vaudeville days when the theaters booked live variety acts.

Frequently, the theaters are used as shooting locations by movie companies. Last summer, the Palace, State and Orpheum theaters were used as locations for the filming of the CBS-TV musical “Gypsy,” with Bette Midler, which will air in December. They were the actual sites of some of the vaudeville scenes depicted in the show.

“The ideal would be to have stage shows and movies,” said Corwin, who acknowledged that the current study affected his decision not to close the Los Angeles Theatre. “We have to buy time until the street comes back.”

WALKING TOUR

“Broadway Theaters” a walking tour of 12 downtown Los Angeles movie palaces, with access to the interiors of some, is offered by the Los Angeles Conservancy every Saturday morning. For information, call: (213) 623-2489, 9 p.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.