When They Were Palaces

With architectural detailing worthy of Chartres and seating well into the thousands, the movie palaces of Los Angeles’ golden age were everyone’s favorite local theaters, Shangri-Las in all senses of the word. Though the theaters are not all still open for business, photographers Robert Berger and Anne Conser and writer Stephen M. Silverman have provided a gorgeously photographed tour of the best of the best in Balcony Press’ just-published “The Last Remaining Seats: Movie Palaces of Tinseltown.”

Gasp at the extravagant Los Angeles, which cost $1.2 million in the heart of the Depression and boasted “one of the most formidable displays of French Baroque this side of the Seine.” Marvel at the Orpheum, whose chandeliers were $45,000 each when that was real money. Venture outside of downtown to examine Pasadena’s Rialto, San Pedro’s Warner Grand and Catalina’s Avalon. For once the cliche is true: This is the next best thing to being there.