Theater tour brings the house down

With the flush of Oscar fever still fresh, I got the urge to delve into L.A.’s cinematic past and figured there’s no better way to start than with a prowl through several of our historic movie palaces.

The Los Angeles Conservancy makes it fairly easy, inexpensive and extremely entertaining with its weekly walking tour of the Broadway Theater District downtown. At $10 a head ($5 if you happen to be a conservancy member), it’s one of numerous economical tours the organization offers, some weekly, some monthly, some bimonthly, some quarterly.

Any historical trek seems to engage and exercise the imagination, and there’s an element of romance in conjuring up images of the film greats whose ghosts might still haunt these places.

I love old movies and exploring L.A. locations that figured into them. My friend Barbara isn’t as gung-ho about the early films but still found the prospect of wandering through theaters that are in various stages or restoration or disrepair intriguing enough to join me.

We met a group of people who felt the same way one recent Saturday at 10 a.m. in front of the Million Dollar Theater at 3rd and Broadway.

I’ve been up and down Broadway, on foot and behind the wheel, and noticed a few old theater signs and marquees. I expected to make three or four stops -- we were both pleasantly surprised to find about a dozen old palaces on this tour.

The Million Dollar Theater is looking pretty good as restoration efforts continue. Others -- the Rialto, the Cameo (originally Clune’s), the Roxy, the Los Angeles Theatre -- are pretty much in stasis. I found it simultaneously funny, sad and somehow fitting that the Arcade Theatre -- built in 1910 for Vaudeville shows, later converted to a movie house -- now sports a discount electronics store where the lobby once stood. The theater’s damp, musty and cold interior is now a repository for big-screen TVs, DVD players and other high-tech toys that have weaned audiences from going to the movies, downtown at least.

The gleaming jewel of the tour is the fully restored Orpheum Theatre, now the site of periodic pop and rock concerts (Bright Eyes did a three-night stand there recently), theater productions (a 2003 staging of “Taming of the Shrew”), commercials, TV shows and special events (Michael Jackson staged his 46th birthday party there).

It’s goose bump inducing to take in the elegance, craft and expense once invested in movie houses: 30-foot-high drapes made of fabric that now costs $385 a yard; intricately detailed chandeliers. Getting a mini-concert on the original Wurlitzer theater organ that’s also been fully reconditioned was another treat.

To carry the historical vibe through lunch, we headed to Philippe the Original, home of the French dip sandwich and the 9-cent cup of coffee. Barbara went for the classic roast beef dip, and I ordered the turkey.

Whichever sandwich you get, be sure to smother it with Philippe’s famous hot mustard and you’ll get a free sinus cleansing to boot.

Even with Barbara’s potato salad and coffee, my coleslaw and lemonade, chips and two slices of Philippe’s killer chocolate cake, the tab came to less than $23 for the both of us.

Now that’s history.

*

The tab

Walking tour $20.00

Where: Broadway Theater District Walking Tour, www.laconservancy.org or (213) 623-2489

Lunch $22.85

Where: Philippe the Original, 1001 N. Alameda St., L.A. (213) 628-3781

Total $42.85