Historic Theaters, Disney Concert Hall

Several days after reading the latest episode in what is becoming an ill-fated effort to build Disney Concert Hall downtown, I found myself among 2,000 people attending an L.A. Conservancy event in the opulent Orpheum, a 70-year-old vaudeville and movie palace on Broadway. A thought occurred.

Instead of the Disney family tossing its money into a now questionable new concert hall, what if they donated a fraction of the amount to restore the Orpheum and several other vintage movie palaces, each of which would become an exclusive home to an arts enterprise? The Orpheum, for example, would make a splendid home for the L.A. Philharmonic. The Los Angeles, whose interior rivals that of the Paris Opera, might make a grand home for ballet. Not only would these architectural masterpieces be saved, their reincarnation would have a dramatic effect on the downtown economy.

Disney’s Orpheum. Sounds pretty good to me.

ROBERT LERNER

Valley Center

Why all the fuss about the proposed Disney Concert Hall (“L.A. Has to Get Over Its Edifice Complex,” Commentary, June 14)?

The architecture is a stunning combination of Disney cartoon culture and an earthquake in progress. As an icon structure to depict L.A. to the world it’s a real mind boggler--i.e. Krazy Kat.

The concert-hall icon will advertise L.A. to the world as a great place to visit but don’t hang around too long. Just spend your money and leave quickly so others can do likewise.

What’s wrong with that?

BARBARA BURBY

Garden Grove