Los Angeles Times, CA
April 12 2008
A Million Dollar dream
Robert Voskanian has spent the legendary theater’s title sum to
restore it as a multicultural venue.
By Agustin Gurza, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
April 12, 2008
PASSERSBY were greeted to a most unusual sight this week on Broadway
in downtown Los Angeles. Unusual in recent memory, that is. The iron
gate at the entrance of the historic Million Dollar Theater was wide
open. Nobody was manning the box office, but the unshuttered
exterior, in all its Churrigueresque glory, was a sign that life is
returning to the ornate auditorium, which this year celebrates its
90th anniversary.
The other sign of revival can be found on the side of the marquee:
The Million Dollar presents Mexico’s venerable Mariachi Vargas de
Tecalitlan, appearing May 11. This marks the first major concert in
about a decade staged by the landmark theater that many worried would
never reopen. Not noted on the sign is tonight’s centennial tribute
to Mexican mariachi composer Tito Guízar, sponsored by the Cervantes
Center.
Located at Broadway and 3rd Street, the Million Dollar was once
considered the grande dame of the marvelous movie palaces that line
L.A.’s historic theater district. It was Sid Grauman’s first movie
house in town, designed by noted architect Albert C. Martin Sr. and
hailed as one of the finest in the world when it opened on Feb. 1,
1918, to a crowd of celebrities including Charlie Chaplin and Cecil
B. DeMille. For decades, it would serve as the site of glitzy
Hollywood premieres, often preceded by live vaudeville shows
featuring the likes of Buster Keaton and Gloria Swanson.
In recent decades, the theater has fallen on hard times. It had
served most recently as a church before the faithful also abandoned
it five years ago, leaving its once-gilded interior inexplicably
whitewashed. Then, it just sat empty.
Inside, the lobby is lined with large posters of some of the Latin
stars that appeared here during the 1950s and ’60s — glamorous
Mexican actress Maria Felix, Cuban singer Celia Cruz in full rumba
regalia and comedian Cantinflas with a beaming smile. The slightly
faded photos are vivid reminders of the venue’s postwar heyday as an
important Latin entertainment showcase, kept alive by the city’s new
immigrants as Angelenos fled downtown for the suburbs.
Upstairs, in a plain office behind a messy desk, sits the theater’s
new manager, Robert Voskanian, a tall and skeletal Armenian immigrant
who has dabbled in moviemaking and spent years running two big
downtown discos before taking on the theater’s renovation. The man is
either a visionary or a fool, betting on the chance of restoring the
Million Dollar to even a quarter of its past glory.
"They told me, ‘It’s not going to work. Broadway is never going to be
what it used to be,’ " Voskanian recalls with a shrug. "All your
typical stuff. Hopefully, I’ll show them wrong."
Resting on the floor is a framed photograph of the entrepreneur on
stage with local dignitaries, including Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
It was taken at an invitation-only event last month that heralded the
theater’s reopening as part of "Bringing Back Broadway," a
city-sponsored drive to spruce up the corridor. (No public funds were
used to restore the Million Dollar, Voskanian says.) On the 800
block, the Orpheum Theater has already undergone a $3.5-million
makeover and now features a busy schedule of performances.
But gone are the days when the theater can depend exclusively on
Latino audiences to stay afloat. The Million Dollar long ago lost its
monopoly as L.A.’s Latin music showcase, after other venues opened
their doors to Latino performers.
Voskanian understands the need to diversify. The day I met him, he
was checking out the website of Michael Kleitman, a Soviet-born opera
singer he’s considering presenting. The moment was a glimpse into the
multicultural future of the new downtown. At the Million Dollar, we
have an Armenian promoter who was born in Iran interested in
presenting a Russian singer who immigrated to Australia and performs
romantic pop in Italian.
People seem sensitive to the perception that downtown gentrification
means pushing Latinos out. Even without being asked, they deny it.
"Why on Earth would we want to get rid of this amazingly vital
community that already exists?" asks Cindy Olnick, spokeswoman for
the Los Angeles Conservancy, which also promotes the revitalization
of Broadway. "We want to keep the authentic resources that make the
community unique and vital. We just want to augment it."
"I’m not going to give up on the Spanish crowd," Voskanian says in
his heavily accented English. "I’m going to add an international
flavor. There’s 365 days to fill the theater, so there’s enough
nights to do everything I want to do."
With his spindly fingers, bushy mustache and long hair pulled back in
a ponytail, Voskanian looks like a character that could have come out
of the 1977 independent horror movie he directed, "The Child," which
the All Movie Guide calls an "odd little period zombie film."
Eventually, he wants to get back to making movies.
Voskanian came to the United States in 1962 as a teenage exchange
student and was later joined by his mother, a homemaker, and father,
a trucker who hauled gasoline in Iran. Armenians were a minority back
home, he recalls, but not like L.A.’s Latinos. "No, there’s a
difference, because Latinos have a lot of power here, and we didn’t,"
he says.
He studied business at Whittier College and cinema at CalArts. In
2006, joined by partners from the disco business, he signed a 20-year
lease from the Million Dollar, owned by the Yellin Co., which also
has the neighboring Grand Central Market. He says he has since
invested $1 million for renovations, an amount that coincidentally
gave the theater its name because that’s what it cost to build. "The
place was, bluntly put, in a sad shape," he says, as he tours the
interior.
The Spanish Baroque auditorium (designed by William Woollett) must
have been awe-inspiring in its day, with its massive arched
proscenium, 75-foot-high coved ceilings, filigreed organ grilles and
massive balcony, an engineering feat at the time. The tenants have
replaced the ragged carpets and painted everything from the gold
vases in the alcoves to the ornate chandeliers. But there’s a lot
left to do, judging from the water stains on the high ceiling caused
before leaks were fixed. The balcony is closed off pending repair of
a rickety exterior staircase. But the show must go on. Already
scheduled this year are a film festival, a beauty contest and two
screenings as part of Last Remaining Seats, the conservancy’s annual
film series in historic venues.
With so much on the line, you’d expect Voskanian to be a little
nervous.
"No, not really," he says, strolling through the theater with his
hands causally tucked into the pockets of his suit pants. "It’s like,
you’re already in it, so you’ve got to try to make the best of it."
Musical Tribute to Tito Guízar, featuring performances by singers
Tito Guízar Jr. (son) and Mauricio Guízar (grandson) and actress
Lilia Guízar (daughter), among others. 6 tonight, Million Dollar
Theater, 307 S. Broadway, Los Angeles. Admission is free. Info, (310)
526-1480 or go to