Saturday Tour Rain Check & What Are They Doing to the Orpheum Theatre Marquee?

Gentle reader,

Due to the high probability that Saturday will be one of the wettest days in recent memory, we’re rescheduling Human Sacrifice: The Black Dahlia, Elisa Lam, Heidi Planck & Skid Row Slasher Cases one week, to January 21. Perhaps you’ll join us.

For those of you who enjoy a trip down the true crime speculation rabbit hole, here’s a curious lawsuit that was filed at the end of December, which touches on one of this tour’s featured crimes.

Brittany A. Stillwell, a tenant in the Hope+Flower complex from which Heidi Planck disappeared in October 2021, is suing the city, alleging political corruption has enabled Canadian developer Onni Group to establish a lawless vice district in Downtown Los Angeles, where illegal drug labs, dispensaries, gambling dens and apartments misused as unlicensed hotel rooms provide opportunities for illicit entertainment, huge profits, and the risk that should you accidentally overdose, your fellow frolickers might dispose of your body down the (smelly) trash chute. It’s some pretty wild reading, and if even of a fraction of Stillwell’s allegations are true, should be of interest to law enforcement.

Now on to this week’s breaking Los Angeles historic preservation crisis. A worrying photo appeared in a Facebook development group Tuesday afternoon, showing the backlit plastic readerboard on Broadway's Orpheum Theatre marquee partially dismantled.

The post was immediately shared among concerned preservationists. We too were worried by the photo, so we pulled up all the building permits associated with the Orpheum, and found this recently approved signage permit, to convert the 1940s-era backlit plastic readerboard to 21st century digital panels.

Shockingly, the permit states that this radical alteration is in compliance with the Broadway Historic Sign District ordinance, an initiative spearheaded by disgraced former councilman Jose Huizar, who is scheduled to stand trial in February for racketeering related to Downtown Los Angeles development.

We attended some of the informational programs related to this ordinance, and don't recall hearing anything about it being acceptable for a property owner in the National Register district to swap out a 1940s backlit plastic readerboard for brand new digital screens. This type of garish, animated signage has become a blight on Hollywood Boulevard's historic buildings and just south of Downtown, with the hideously bright Reef roof wrapping.

Our preservation pal Doug Dunn has been documenting this week's work on the Orpheum marquee, and shared these photos showing installation of the new screens.

While not a fan of digital conversion, he is also concerned about how close the scaffolding and braces are to the fragile neon tubes. Let's hope nothing breaks.

Doug adds, "In case you are wondering, the screens are Daktronics Galaxy. Looks like this model has a fairly large pixel pitch (min 15 mm) and seem to focus on brightness. Typical applications seem to be sports scores, signage for strip malls, schools, etc. Seems to be a model that focuses on weather durability and brightness over picture quality. Aside from the issues with modifying the board at all, this seems like an odd choice. If they display text on this it will definitely look pixelized."

Orpheum backlit plastic readerboard, 1946 (Billy Vera, Vintage Los Angeles)

So that's what's happening to the Orpheum Theatre's 1940s-era marquee, via what appears to be an anti-preservation loophole created by Jose Huizar's Broadway signage ordinance. Although the RICO charged councilman is still presumed innocent, it is quite clear after two successful related prosecutions and the cooperation of his co-conspirators that Huizar made public policy not for the betterment of Los Angeles, but to further enrich the property owners who enriched him.

As anyone who attended our LAVA Broadway on My Mind walking tour series, or watched them on video knows, we believe that Broadway is a precious historic landscape that must be protected from short sighted greed. It deserves better than a signage ordinance that would allow a beautiful historic marquee to be quietly modernized with city staff approval, but no public notice.

If you agree, please call in to the Cultural Heritage Commission on January 19 at 10am, raise your hand during general public comment, and ask the commissioners to hold a hearing on how something like this could happen to the Orpheum, and if the CHC believes that such alterations are truly appropriate in the National Register Broadway Historic Theatre District. 

If there are updates on the Orpheum marquee, we’ll share them on our blog.

yours for Los Angeles,

Kim & Richard

Esotouric

Psst… If you’d like to support our efforts to be the voice of places worth preserving, we have a tip jar and a subscriber edition of this newsletter, vintage Los Angeles webinars available to stream, in-person walking tours, gift certificates and a souvenir shop you can browse in. Or just share this link with other people who care.

UPCOMING WALKING TOURS

• Saturday, January 21 (note new date!) - Human Sacrifice: The Black Dahlia, Elisa Lam, Heidi Planck & Skid Row Slasher Cases • Sunday, January 29 - Miracle Mile Marvels & Madness • Saturday, February 11 - Broadway: Downtown Los Angeles’ Beautiful, Magical Mess • Saturday, February 18 - Evergreen Cemetery, 1877 • Saturday, February 25 - Westlake Park Time Travel Trip • Saturday, March 11 - Downtown Los Angeles is For Book Lovers • Saturday, March 18 - Franklin Village Old Hollywood • Saturday, March 25 - Angelino Heights & Carroll Avenue • Saturday, April 8 - John Fante’s Downtown • Saturday, April 15 - Raymond Chandler’s Downtown

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1. Or possibly already has been, even though the ink is still wet on the permit! A concerned citizen reports they went to the address looking for this house, and could not find it.