You're right. At least they're not "tearing down paradise and putting up a parking lot." The pictures remind me quite a bit of The Pantages in Hollywood on Sunset and Vine. The neighborhood (Sunset &Vine), however, leaves a lot to be desired. Four of us gals went to see Phantom of the Opera there. We had a limo and we all dressed in black. One of the gals said as we were getting out "Wonder what these people are thinking? 'Who are these rich *****es?' " LOL Everybody else was dressed casually... or in drag! And I thought I'd been around the block some! LOL I guess I stared at this couple long enough until they caught me. Both of them kept winking at me! I was embarrassed to get caught but I just couldn't keep my eyes off them. When we were going home, the limo driver pulled to the side of the street to open our bottle of champagne. There was a homeless man sitting on an embankment. My "evil twin" asked the limo driver to pop the cork and scare the guy. The driver said "What do you want to do, get me shot?!?" Damn! What a party pooper! He wouldn't even open up the moon roof and let us stand up and wave to people!! teehee I think my friends thought I'd lost it that night.

Back to theaters... your description reminds me of a theater in my home town done a la Spanish architecture. It had/has a huge lobby with a wide, spiral strair case to the mezzenine... or would that be the loge? ... and another one to the balcony, curtains that opened for the main feature, etc. It was a grand place! (sigh!) I did a quick search on the internet but didn't find anything yet. I sure hope they didn't tear it down in the last 40 yrs that I've been gone!

Is "home" where you've spent the last 40+ years, or is home where you grew up? I feel like Neil Diamond right now, "torn between two shores."




<font color=blue>"Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt" --Shakespeare</font color=blue>