Museum of Neon Art celebrates downtown LA’s Jewish history in latest tour
3 years
Walking up and down Broadway in downtown Los Angeles, it’s easy to notice the glamorous Urban Outfitter, but not the original architecture and neon signage built by the Los Angeles Jewish community at the turn of the 20th century.
The Museum of Neon Art (MONA) in conjunction with journalist and historian Edmon Rodman (who has written extensively about L.A. Jewish history for the Forward, The Jerusalem Post and the LA Times), is rectifying that with its “Lights on Broadway” tour. The two-hour night time tour covers the Broadway theater district — a little known historical corridor highlighting the Jewish immigrant experience.
The tour will take place on Dec. 19 and Jan. 16. Highlights include the Eastern Columbia building and participants will discover how Broadway-area Jewish entrepreneurs filled the city’s homes with music, fashion and pantry staples.
For 40 years, MONA has garnered a reputation for its popular “Neon Cruise,” tour of historic neon signs via the top of a double decker bus. During the pandemic, those bus tours became walking tours.
“Neon has an unparalleled way of sharing history in a manner that is accessible, fun and offers multiple narratives at once,” said MONA Executive Director Corrie Siegel. “[Rodman’s] research is an inspiring chronicle of the many immigrant narratives that are integral to the history of Los Angeles.”
A major section of the tour is made up of 12 theater houses with Jewish connections. Rodman said it’s what makes Los Angeles’s theater district unique in the country, adding that Sid Grauman, who owned both the Million Dollar Theater in 1918 and the Rialto Theater in 1919 “was a true showman in terms of building and promoting movie palaces. He knew how to dazzle the local press and public with the fine art, tapestries and murals and overall sense of design in his theaters.”
“Most of [the Jewish immigrants] came to L.A. from Russia, Bavaria, Poland [and] Turkey — places where they had limited opportunities at best,” he added. “Here their dreams and talents just blossomed to form L.A.’s premiere entertainment and shopping street — a victory not just for Jews but for the whole city.”
Learn more about the tour here.
