Theater to Reopen

Re “Million Dollar Theater Set to Reopen,” April 8:

I’ve always believed that the Million Dollar Theater [on Broadway at Third Street in downtown L.A.] is special. My parents met there back in 1958. They were married just three months later. Then, when I was a little girl in the late ‘60s, my parents took us to see the great Jose Alfredo Jimenez and singer Sonia Lopez perform there. Sometimes before the show, we would eat at Clifton’s, where my sister, Lupe, and I would eat the green Jello and admire the mural of the Spanish senorita.

A few months ago when I went back to L.A., I was sad to see the state the Million Dollar was in. However, you can count on me being there when the doors open, and I’ll make sure to bring Mama y Papa, too.

CLEMENTINA A. LLANES, Santa Maria

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It was the 1930s. I was a little girl and every Saturday night my father and I would “scour the town.” He took me to the Million Dollar movie theater. But first we stopped at Grand Central Market. Just inside the entrance was a stand where they sold foot-long hot dogs, and for five cents, a frosted mug of all-you-could-drink root beer. In the theater lobby, my father always bought me a Mr. Goodbar. Once inside we saw the movie and wonderful vaudeville acts. I liked the Spanish dancers with their colorful skirts, stamping heels and castanets. There were singers, ventriloquists and magicians.

I still live in the same city, but in a different world. Yet, whenever I see a Mr. Goodbar, my heart returns to the Million Dollar Theater, root beer, castanets and the world’s greatest father.

BETTY WEISS, Los Angeles