Last Remaining Seats: a quarter-century young 1

Architecture & Design · Film

Lots of anniversaries this season at the Last Remaining Seats, the annual fun-in-the-city summer program hosted by Los Angeles Conservancy.  The Wednesday-night classic-film series generates enthusiastic audiences mixing film buffs with fans of vintage L.A. architecture.

The most significant birthday? The series itself is 25 years old!

Linda Dishman, the Conservancy’s executive director, shares her thoughts and feelings with arts·meme.

Says Linda: “It’s interesting that we started Last Remaining Seats to bring attention to the theaters [of Broadway] and now, 25 years later, we see how the neighborhood has blossomed. Where there were once empty buildings, people are now living.”

Separate to the Conservancy’s  celebration is the individual theaters who have survived, god bless ’em, in a tear down town. The Palace Theater turns 100 years old; its launch date was June 26, 1911.

“The Sunset Boulevard show [at the Palace] is special because we have three screenings, a 10 am, 2 pm, and 7pm show. We sold out the afternoon and the evening screenings within three days, and now the 10 am is sold out too.”

“What started as a great idea has become an L.A. summer tradition,” notes Dishman.

♦  ♦  ♦

LRS film sked here:

Date Featured Film Theatre
May 25
Rear Window (1954)
SOLD OUT!
Orpheum
June 1 The Music Man (1962) Los Angeles
June 8
Captain Blood (1935) Million Dollar
June 15
King Kong (1933) Los Angeles
June 22
Zoot Suit (1981)Co-presented with the Latin American Cinemateca of Los Angeles Million Dollar
June 26 Sunset Boulevard (1950) SOLD OUT! Palace
June 29 Safety Last! (1923) Orpheum

Orpheum photo:  courtesy Berger Conser Photography


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One comment on “Last Remaining Seats: a quarter-century young

  1. Gordy Grundy May 3,2011 7:55 pm

    Wow. A quarter of a century. Proudly, I can state that I attended the first one, with venues bouncing us from Santa Barbara to Avalon.

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