Gadling

There’s a great line in the move L.A.
Story in which Steve Martin turns to his friend from England and proudly boasts that some of the buildings in
Los Angeles, “are over 60 years old!” 

Los Angeles may not have the history of other major cities on this planet, but thanks to the efforts of a wonderful
group called the Los Angeles Conservancy, more and more people are
discovering that Los Angeles does indeed have a history.  And yes, some of it is over 60 years old. 

We posted yesterday about a tour of the city’s historic downtown theaters. 
Since a couple of the theatres were unfortunately closed, we did a slight detour into the conservancy’s Art Deco
Tour.  More specifically, we visited the amazing Bradbury
Building.

Built in 1893 and nearly lost to obscurity in the last 50 years, the building is perhaps most recognizable today as
the home of toy maker J.F. Sebastian in the
Harrison Ford movie Blade Runner.  The Bradbury Building was a superb location for a movie about Los Angeles in
2019, because the architect designed it based upon an 1880 science fiction novel by Edward Bellamy, set in the year
2000, called “Looking
Backward.”

Apparently Lewis Bradbury, who commissioned the building, discovered the architect when he was walking through the
offices of another architect whose draft he had just rejected.  32-year old George Wyman, only a draftsman, had
left some sketches on his desk inspired by Looking Backward.  Bradbury was so impressed he talked the apprehensive
draftsman into taking on the project.  The masterpiece which resulted would be the one and only project Wyman ever
created.  Now that’s the stuff of legends. 

The fantastically ornate, Art Deco building was smaller than I expected and far more beautiful.  The exterior
is nothing too special, but inside the main courtyard, visitors are treated to a cascade of ornate wrought iron, rich
wooden hues, pale brick walls, and angular staircases.  An enormous skylight, five stories high, basks the
courtyard in soothingly natural light.  Those of you who may have images from Blade Runner stuck in your head,
forget about it.  The building has since been renovated and literally shines with warmth and exuberance. 

The only tragedy here is that most of its office space is rented out to the LAPD.  I can only hope that there
are some art aficionados within their ranks. 

As mentioned in yesterday’s post,
I joined a Los Angeles Conservancy walking tour this weekend in downtown
LA.  The Conservancy offers a number of fascinating tours; my girlfriend and I opted for one which covered the
historic theatre district on Broadway. 

Unbeknownst to most Los Angelinos, downtown LA, although a mostly sad place today, was once the cultural center of
Los Angeles.  Starting in the late 1800s, a series of theatre houses began rising along a wide
boulevard in downtown that was quickly renamed Broadway to pay homage
to the East Coast street of the same name.  By 1931, more than a dozen major theaters graced this West Coast
Broadway, transforming the street into a glamorous, celebrity-filled seven blocks that outshined anything New York had
to offer.  

These just weren’t your average theatres either.  They were extraordinarily lavish.  The tour
reveals their immaculate, tastefully sumptuous interiors bedecked with marble, terra-cotta, statuary, ornate pilasters,
fluted columns, tiled floors, enormous chandeliers, ornamented ceilings, spiral staircases, and much much more. 
Unfortunately, the most elaborate, the Los Angeles and the Orpheum were both closed due to movies being
filmed inside—a very common occurrence which thankfully provides enough cash flow to help maintain the
buildings.  

Today, far removed from their glory days, the theatres remain in various conditions.  A few have been
renovated and remain in pristine conditions but others have fallen apart, been converted to churches or, most
tragically, turned into retail space.  There were at least four theatres we entered through the narrow storefront
of an electronics or jewelry store.  It seemed almost impossible that by merely passing through the back door of
these stores, one travels back in time and emerges within a 100-year old theatre now gutted and piled high with boxes
of television, radios, and other consumer electronics. 

Tomorrow, Gadling takes you on one last amazing stop, in historic and sadly forgotten, downtown Los Angeles: The
Bradbury Building.