Edwardian Ball to Bring a Crowd to the Tower Theater Saturday Night
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Organizers of the Edwardian Ball are expecting over 600 people to turn out to the Tower Theatre on Saturday night for "an elegant, turn of the century celebration of music, theatre, dance, circus arts, DJs, ballroom dance, fashion, technology, and of course, the art and stories of Edward Gorey."
Designed by S. Charles Lee -- who also did the Los Angeles Theater on Broadway -- the Tower opened in 1927 as the first movie palace in Downtown wired for sound. While recent years have seen plenty of film shoots, public events in the theatre are rare.
As a pretty big Edward Gorey fan (he was author and illustrator of The Gashleycrumb Tinies and The Doubtful Guest, among many other macabre and hilarious works), I am very excited to be on hand to take pictures of the scene and also to report back to Downtowners about what the inside of the theater actually looks like!
The Edwardian Ball, originally of San Francisco, is certainly a unique and appropriate way to put the "Spanish-Romanesque-Moorish"-designed theater back on the nightlife scene in Downtown.
You can read about the ball at www.edwardianball.com. Tickets are $25 (or $75 for a VIP status that includes a hosted absinthe bar) and will be available at the door. Doors open at 8pm.
Lucinda Michele on February 01, 2009, at 02:15AM – #1
Man, that was a helluva party. And no WAY were there only 600 people there. I'm calling it at 1000.
Dennis Smith on February 01, 2009, at 09:55AM – #2
Saturday was certainly the day for collective costumery on the streets of Downtown. Sure, I caught all the swells in their top hats and tails as they sauntered down 8th Street towards the Tower Theater. Chinatown was the scene for traditional silk dresses and synchronized step squads outfitted in matching pastel polo shirts as well as a displaced troupe of Aztec dancers forced to trudge their way through the crowds after their afternoon performance at Olvera Street. But the most eerie sight came early in the morning as hundreds of children from all over the United States, all decked out in white gis and colored belts ambled towards the Convention Center for a national Tae Kwon Do tournament. Adding to the spectacle was the slight irony that these little boys(and a few girls), many of them armed with tournament grade weapons and martial arts skills that have rendered them into veritable machines of controlled mayhem, were being fiercely protected by their accompanying parents as they left their hotels, one hand being held by each parent, as they negotiated the savage streets of South Park.