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.
Get top local stories in Southern California delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC LA's News Headlines newsletter.
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.
