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Million Dollar Theater facade

Last weekend, we took in a Robert Altman double-feature—Nashville and McCabe and Mrs. Miller—at the 104-year-old Million Dollar Theater in downtown L.A. This was the first time we'd been to the theater district—one of our favorite haunts—since the shutdown and so strolled triumphantly down Broadway. I forgot how much I missed the city.

Not as grand as some of the other movie palaces downtown, the Million Dollar was Sid Grauman's first venture before building the Egyptian and Chinese theaters on Hollywood Blvd. In the 1950s/60s, the Million Dollar showed Spanish-language films, which I fondly remember seeing with my gramma. Not much renovation has been done in recent years. Still, it remains an active movie house, showing films for the Secret Movie Club and other special occasions. A fun place to spend a nostalgic afternoon or evening.

Window treatment, front facade

Tin lobby ceiling

Box seats, stage right

Ground floor lighting fixtures above our seats

At intermission, we walked five blocks south to pay a quick visit to the new Apple store recently opened inside the beautifully-refurbished nearly 100-year-old Tower Theatre. Tim distracted himself with new Apple products, while I went crazy taking photos of all the breath-taking renovations. 

Exterior

Main shopping area, looking toward 

former stage

Stage detail

Side walls

Foyer ceiling detail

Main room ceiling, faux skylight

Chandelier and stained-glass window

above lobby

Stairwell columns

Stairwell ceiling

Ground floor, looking up at Genius Bar in former balcony

Globe Theater marquee welcoming Apple to the neighborhood

Guillermo del Toro @ LACMA

 

I do not enjoy horror genre, but I am a big supporter of Hispanic filmmakers, so Tim, Karen and I went to see the Guillermo del Toro exhibit at the L.A. County Museum of Art (LACMA), on Tuesday, while waiting for the election returns. The mastermind behind such fantastical films as Pan's Labyrinth and Hellboy, del Toro has been fascinated by macabre images since he was a child in Guadalajara. Indeed, his overly zealous grandmother was so concerned about his nightmarish obsession that she had him exorcised at an early age! Obviously the exorcism didn't work. 

Today del Toro is an uber collector of all things horror, which he displays in a home he calls "Bleak House." Many of his more prized possessions are being exhibited at LACMA as part of "At Home with Monsters," now showing through November 27. (Click on images to enlarge.)

 

Angel (of death?) greets exhibit visitors

 

Artist rendering from Pan's Labyrinth

  

Monster from Pan's Labyrinth 

(depicted above)  

 

Painting: "The Evil Eye" (Chet Zar, 2010)

  

 

Life-size sculpture of Frankenstein's monster

and his bride (Mike Hill, 1996)

 

Life-size sculpture: "Creation" (Mike Hill, 2009) 

 

Enormous mask: "Monster" (Mike Hill, 2011)

  

Monster magazines del Toro collected as a child—at one point,

he apparently had the biggest collection of comicbooks and 

magazines in Mexico

  

Props from the movie Hellboy

  

Tim taking it all in

 

del Toro also loves the dark side of Disney:

Marc Davis's "Medusa" (1969) from Disneyland's

Haunted Mansion

 

Eyvind Earle scary landscape

 

Mary Blair concept art for Disney's Adventures of Ichabod

and Mr. Toad (1949)

  

Eyvind Earle's concept art for Disney's Sleeping Beauty (1959)

 

Nosferatu marionette

 

Life-size sculpture of Edgar Allen Poe

 

Tim admiring del Toro's collection 

Tower Records

Grammy Museum theater

On Wednesday night, Tim and I attended a special screening of the documentary All Things Must Pass at the Grammy Museum. Directed by Colin Hanks, the film chronicles the rise of the mega-record-store-chain, Tower Records, from a small phonograph collection at the back of a Sacramento drugstore, to its sad demise in 2006. A Q&A panel followed afterward with Hanks and store founder Russ Solomon.

As a kid, I bought all my LPs and 45s at local discount stores (does anyone else remember Zodys? ) and a small record shop on Burbank’s “golden mall.” But once I became a young adult, I started shopping at the legendary Tower Records on Sunset Blvd., where I often stopped on my way home from classes at UCLA. The store was enormous. Even though I only ever bought pop and rock albums, the inventory was tremendous: everything from movie soundtracks to jazz to Top 40 to classical to world music. The staff wasn’t the friendliest bunch on the planet, but they certainly knew their music.

Favorite memory: Not knowing what else to do, I drove up to the Sunset Tower the day after John Lennon was killed. I guess I just needed to be with other people who loved John. His music was playing overhead and someone had pulled together an exhibit of his albums. Otherwise, it was business as usual--which in its own way was comforting. It was good to know the entire world hadn’t gone as crazy as I was feeling.

The film is fabulous--completely evocative of the period and the Tower Records experience. Still, Hanks hasn’t yet found a distributor and so is showing the doc at festivals and small venues, like the Grammy Museum. If you’ve ever bought anything at Tower Records—hell, if you listened music, any kind of music, during the 1960s, ‘70s or ‘80s—you must see this movie.

Colin Hanks (second from left) and

Russ Solomon (right)

Oscar Noms!

We're such movie geeks that we actually set the alarm 15 minutes early, this morning, so we could watch the Oscar nominations announced live before Tim headed to work. I'm thrilled my favorite film of the year, The Grand Budapest Hotel, was nominated for Best Picture (in addition to a slew of other categories) and was happy to see that two other faves, the brilliant Birdman and amazing Boyhood, were also recognized. Fingers crossed that Michael Keaton wins Best Actor. 

Now we need to catchup on the handful of nominated movies we haven't watched yet. I bet Tim is sorry he didn't see Whiplash with me when he had the chance. You know where you can find us on February 22: glued to our TV set, watching the Academy Awards ceremony and cheering.

Happy New Year!

Grease is the Word

It’s almost too embarrassing to admit, but I had never seen the movie Grease until last night’s 4^th annual sing-along event at the Hollywood Bowl. Judging by the crowd, I was one of the last people in L.A. to see the film. At least a third of the nearly 18,000 attendees dressed as characters from the movie. My favorites were the pink-haired ladies at the end of our row and a trio of fans, who arrived just before the show started, dressed as John Travolta and two beauty salon gals with hair-curlers piled high. They were fun, but made no sense to me until the musical number “Beauty School Dropout,” during which the hair-curler gals—actually a man and a woman—stood-up and danced, much to the delight of everyone in our section.

 Pink-haired ladies a la "Frenchie"

The backside of the faux Travolta and hair-curler gals

I must say I was dubious when Tim picked Grease as one of our Hollywood Bowl concerts this year. But like everyone else there, I ended up having a blast. Retro rockers Sha Na Na, who also appear in the film, got the audience in the mood by playing tunes from the ‘50s, while we waited for the sun to set. Didi Conn (“Frenchie”) was the M.C. As soon as it was dark enough, the movie began to roll and everyone around me started to sing, including my husband, who sang even the “girl” parts! I was surprised to find that I, too, knew a lot of the songs. 

Plus the event was highly interactive, even if you didn’t know the story. We were each given a bag of goodies to wave during certain parts of the film: pom-poms for the football pep rally scene, a yellow hankie during the car race, a comb to slick back our greasy hair, etc. Two guys behind us had memorized the dialogue and so yelled out key lines. It was a hoot.

I certainly don’t need to see Grease again, but last night was lots of fun. Highly recommended for anyone who loves John Travolta, Olivia Newton John or 1950s-style teen musicals.

L.A. Film Festival 2014

We don’t attend the L.A. Film Festival every year, but did manage to find time to see four movies this year. All of them were excellent—which is not always the case—so it was worth the schlep downtown during the week, when we’d normally be vegging out in front of the TV. Here are my quick reviews:

Last Days in Vietnam 

Tim served in the Navy during the war. My family and I watched daily coverage on the nightly news. I doubt either one of us will ever get over Vietnam. Directed by Rory Kennedy, the film effectively uses archival footage to chronicle the fall of Saigon in April 1975, while also honoring the unsung military as well as non-military heroes who stayed in-country till the bitter end. This is a very moving and edge-of-seat story, even though we already knew the ending. Rory, who was the creative force behind the outstanding documentary Ethel, about her mother Ethel Kennedy, introduced the film and took questions afterward. Watch for Last Days in Vietnam later this year as an American Experience episode on PBS.

The Battered Bastards of Baseball 

I’ve loved Kurt Russell since he appeared in the Disney film The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes in 1969, but I never knew his father was famous, too. Not only did Bing Russell play the deputy on the long-running TV show Bonanza, he also owned an independent baseball team, which ended up making sports history in the mid-1970s. Directed by his grandsons Chapman and Maclain Way, this wonderful documentary captures the incredible story of Bing Russell’s unconventional Portland Mavericks. Seems like the entire Russell clan was in the audience, including Kurt’s mother, but unfortunately no Kurt. The movie was bought by Netflix and will be shown in July. Highly entertaining!

Cut Bank 

Unless you are completely plugged into the movie scene, which we are not, sometimes it’s risky buying tickets for films listed only by title, actors, director, and a brief description in the festival program. We’ve been burned before. But this movie was great. Made very much in the quirky flavor of A Simple Plan and everything by the Coen Brothers, Cut Bank is a terrific example of a small town caper gone horribly wrong. It is, of course, also very violent and darkly funny and has an incredible cast that includes John Malkovich, as the sheriff who suddenly has to investigate his town’s first murder, and an hilarious Bruce Dern as the victim. A Q&A with the filmmaker and cast members Teresa Palmer and Oliver Platt followed the screening.

The Two Faces of January 

Based on the Patricia Highsmith novel of the same name, the story is set in 1962 Greece, where a rich American couple (Viggo Mortensen and a luminous Kirsten Dunst) meet a young ex-pat con man, named Rydel Keener (Oscar Isaac). As in The Talented Mr. Ripley, also based on an Highsmith novel, it quickly becomes apparent that things are not as they seem, making for a good old-fashioned yet exciting thriller. Plus the scenery is gorgeous. Due to be released in theaters later this year.