The L.A. Conservancy’s fifth annual holiday film matinee will offer “Scrooge” (1970), the all-color version of Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol” starring Albert Finney as the classic curmudgeon and Alec Guinness as Jacob Marley’s ghost. It is the chance to see a historic Broadway theater’s screen filled with song, dance, and Victorian London. Now who could say “Bah Humbug,” to that??

Sunday, Dec. 5, at 2 p.m. at the Million Dollar Theatre.
Screening at 648 S. Broadway, (213) 623-2489 or laconservancy.org.

The Million Dollar Theater was the first movie palace commissioned by legendary impresario Sid Grauman, and opened Feb. 1, 1918.  Built at a reputed cost of more than $1 million, the theater interior was designed in the ornate Churrigueresque style (very ornate Spanish Baroque) by movie house luminary William Woolett and  while the building itself was designed by Downtown architect Albert C. Martin, with ornate terra-cotta sculptures by Jo Mora.

Though most of Broadway’s theaters were shuttered and fell into disrepair over the decades, the Million Dollar continued to go strong. From about the 1950s to the mid-’70s, the theater became the premier venue for Spanish-language films as well as music and variety shows, packing the house for big-name acts such as Maria Felix, Jose Alfredo Jimenez, Vicente Fernandez and Celia Cruz.

With the Million Dollar’s opening, three theaters now operate on Broadway with concerts and special events. The Orpheum Theater at 850 S. Broadway underwent a $3.5 million renovation and reopened six years ago with a regular slate of concerts, while the owner of the Los Angeles Theatre at 615 S. Broadway has pumped several million dollars into the elaborate interior and facade (it hosts a more limited schedule of events).