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THE OTHER NIGHT I went to the movies and was transported to a world of powdered wigs and hoop skirts, a rococo fantasy of gilded cherubs and crystal chandeliers. And then the film started.
Of all of L.A.'s many hidden gems, maybe none is as sparkling nor as hidden as the Broadway theater district downtown. A dozen spectacular Jazz Age cinemas decorate a grimy six-block stretch of low-end shops. Most of the movie palaces are shuttered, and all are in need of repair. But once upon a time they were the neon-lighted hub of L.A.'s entertainment scene, where screen goddesses and guys in fedoras rubbed elbows with Army nurses and aircraft pioneers.
The Los Angeles Conservancy opens these cinema paradisos to the public every year during its Last Remaining...