Art Deco

Mae Brunken wanted a home with a past. And in a plot with an only-in-Hollywood ending, the interior designer and set decorator found her period piece -- one with a film noir pedigree. Perched high in the hills of Hollywood, her 1927 Spanish Colonial Revival appeared prominently in "Double Indemnity," starring Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray and Edward G. Robinson. A black-and-white still from the Billy Wilder-directed classic hung in the house when Brunken first visited in 2000.

Tonight, somewhere in L.A., they are partying like it's 1929. Whether it's the spirit of the Roaring '20s or the Great Depression that followed the Crash of '29 -- or, oddly, both at once -- the trend of vintage bars in Southern California has reached a fever pitch. Even state-of-the-art modern clubs can't resist throwing in thematic elements to appeal to clubbers thirsty for a more rebellious and dressed-up era. "It conjures deep cinematic fantasies from that period," says Julian Leuthold, astudent at USC who goes to the retro Edison bar downtown.

One of the oldest buildings in Hermosa Beach has closed, and residents and city officials are scrambling to find a way to reopen the 73-year-old Bijou Cinemas. The Art Deco theater, which opened in 1923 as a vaudeville playhouse, closed Sunday because the three-story building that houses the theater needs a seismic overhaul. The state had set a Jan. 1 deadline for the work, but none of the $1 million in repairs has been made. Owner Joe Naughton says he is exploring ways to save the theater.

One of the oldest buildings in Hermosa Beach has closed, and residents and city officials are scrambling to find a way to reopen the 73-year-old Bijou Cinemas. The Art Deco theater, which opened in 1923 as a vaudeville playhouse, closed Sunday because the three-story building that houses the theater needs a seismic overhaul. The state had set a Jan. 1 deadline for the work, but none of the $1 million in repairs has been made. Owner Joe Naughton says he is exploring ways to save the theater.

Two titans did a duet after the Grammys when the Most Beautiful Department Store in Los Angeles was the celebration venue for the World's Largest Record Company. Call it the Big Meets the Beautiful. The scene was the empty 1928 Art Deco jewel on Wilshire Boulevard that once housed Bullocks Wilshire.

WITH a nod to Biba, the London shop that revived Art Nouveau and Deco styles in the 1970s, the new restaurant-lounge Foxtail cuts a dark, dashing Old Hollywood figure. "It plays to the idea of the rich bohemian traveler of the 1930s," says designer Frank X. Medrano. Patterned pink-and-black marble floors, copper-and-wood moldings and coffered ceilings set a luxurious stage, below, for octagonal marble tables and lights.

Bullocks Wilshire, the erstwhile grande dame of Los Angeles department stores, was the fitting venue last week for a celebration of the Los Angeles Conservancy's 30th anniversary. The Art Deco landmark -- owned by Southwestern Law School, honored for its meticulous $29-million restoration -- welcomed more than 250 guests, including gala co-chairs Diane Keaton and Linda Bruckheimer (attending with her husband, producer Jerry).

RORY CUNNINGHAM, president of the Art Deco Society of L.A., called it one of the premier Deco buildings in the country. Revered historian Robert Winter said it's a shining example of Southern California's golden age of architecture. Times critic Christopher Hawthorne recently declared it "one of the most beautiful pieces of architecture in the city, a building that would be world-famous if it were located in Manhattan or San Francisco."

Thank you for the coverage of the Griffith Observatory reopening ["Home of the Real Stars," Nov. 2]. The following should be added to the list of movies filmed at the observatory: the cliffhanger serial "The Phantom Empire." It was produced by Mascot Pictures in 1935, right after the observatory was completed. It featured Gene Autry in his first starring role. It was the only western/science fiction serial ever made. The observatory stood in for the underground city of Murania. The observatory's copper roof and Art Deco wall were used for background.