Los Angeles & Southern California - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [95]
The building has a curious genesis. Mining mogul turned real-estate developer Lewis Bradbury picked not a famous architect but an unknown draftsman named George Wyman to come up with the design. Allegedly, Wyman consulted a Ouija board and accepted the gig after his dead brother told him it would be a success. The design was inspired by the popular 1887 Edward Bellamy novel, Looking Back, about a utopian civilization in the year 2000. The Bradbury was Wyman’s only celebrated building. Security staff hand out a free pamphlet with more details and let you go up to the 1st-floor landing. LAPD Internal Affairs has its offices on the upper floors.
Grand Central Market
On the ground floor of a 1905 beaux arts building where architect Frank Lloyd Wright once kept an office, the historic Grand Central Market (Map; 213-624-2378; 317 S Broadway; 9am-6pm) is perfect for sopping up Downtown’s mélange of ethnicities, languages and cuisines. Stroll along the sawdust-sprinkled aisles beneath old-timey ceiling fans and neon signs, past stalls piled high with mangoes, peppers and jicamas and glass bins filled with dried chilies and nuts. There’s even a small pastry factory and plenty of lunch counters for snacking on fish tacos, shwarma or chicken soup (Click here for suggestions).
Broadway Theaters
Until eclipsed by Hollywood in the mid-1920s, Broadway was LA’s entertainment hub with no fewer than a dozen theaters built in a riot of styles, from beaux arts to East Indian to Spanish Gothic. Their architectural and historic significance even earned them a spot on the National Register of Historic Places. Since they’re usually closed to the public, the best way to see them is by joining one of the excellent tours offered by the LA Conservancy, which also presents the Last Remaining Seats film series of Hollywood classics.
Million Dollar Theater (Map; 307 S Broadway) was the first theater built by Sid Grauman of Chinese Theatre and Egyptian Theatre fame. Big bands played here in the ’40s and, a decade later, it became the first Broadway venue to cater to Spanish speakers. Briefly a church, it’s now under restoration.
Next up is the most ridiculously lavish movie palace on the strip, the 1931 Los Angeles Theater (Map; 615 S Broadway). The soaring lobby is a sparkling hall of mirrors with a three-tiered fountain, crystal chandeliers and a grand central staircase leading to a lavish auditorium where Albert Einstein and other luminaries enjoyed the premiere of Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights. Restored, it presents special events and screenings.
The exterior of the 1911 Palace Theater (Map; 630 S Broadway), across the street, was inspired by a Florentine palazzo while the interior is French baroque fantasy filled with garland-draped columns and murals depicting pastoral scenes. It’s an intimate space where no seat is further than 80ft from the stage.
Broadway’s biggest entertainment complex is the 1921 State Theater (Map; 703 S Broadway), which can seat 2500 people and has a flamboyant ceiling; it’s now a Spanish-language church.
The 1913 Globe Theater (Map; 744 S Broadway) started out as a live theater but, sadly, is now a swap meet. The world’s first talkie, The Jazz Singer starring Al Jonson, premiered in 1927 at the Tower Theater (Map; 802 S Broadway) whose lavish baroque interior is often used for location shoots.
Currently the busiest venue on Broadway is the 1926 Orpheum Theater (Map; 842 S Broadway), which was built for vaudeville and has hosted such entertainers as Judy Garland, George Burns and Nat King Cole. Like the Los Angeles, it’s a truly sumptuous place rivaling European opera houses with its silk tapestries, marble