What to Know
- Sierra Madre Playhouse's 100th Anniversary
- The playhouse will celebrate with a two-day silent film festival on Feb. 3 and 4
- $19.24 per screening (in honor of the theater's founding year); $77 for all five films; $100 for The Bees Knees, the weekend's dress-up gala
The size of a town can be measured in miles, density, or even population, but pondering the size of a town's spirit often requires a different approach.
Take enchanting, mountain-close, quaint-as-quaint-can-be Sierra Madre, a San Gabriel Valley hamlet that often makes headlines when a curious bear trundles into town.
We're not going to call the burg "bite-sized," because it is not, but when it comes to measuring Sierra Madre against other Los Angeles County cities, it is, yes, on the smaller side.
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But the petite-and-picturesque place easily lives up to its mountain-inspired name: It's a giant when it comes to joy-bringing delights, from homespun festivals to famous film locations to, yes, the colossal wistaria vine that is the city's springtime superstar.
The Sierra Madre Playhouse is another joyful staple, a city-center sight that speaks to the area's cultural flair and curious character.
The beloved theater is turning 100 — yet another sign of Sierra Madre's mighty moxie — with a Two-Day Silent Film Festival.
The dates? The festival is flowering, like an early wistaria bud, over the first weekend in February.
The cost of a single screening ticket is $19.24, an ode to the year that saw the playhouse's debut, but you can watch all five films for $77.
There's a free event to start it all, a program of shorts, so that is sweet.
A flapper-fun festivity will also shimmy during the sparkling affair. Film preservationist Suzanne Lloyd, the granddaughter of silent film star Harold Lloyd, will stop by the Roaring '20s-inspired gala, a party that has a name that suits the spunkiness of the centennial: The Bees Knees.
Ms. Lloyd will also join a roundtable discussion diving into two of her grandfather's iconic comedies.
The five films on the schedule? Take a seat for "Safety Last!," "Hot Water," "Girl Shy," "Helen's Babies," and "Sherlock, Jr.," as well as thrilling live piano and in-depth introductions to each movie.
Happy 100 years to a joyful gem of a theater, a venue where music, drama, comedy, poetry, and cultural finds aplenty have flowered, much like a wistaria vine, for several vibrant decades.