This past Tuesday afternoon I was thinking about seeing Raise Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins, a film about the late Texas newspaper columnist currently playing at Denver's Mayan Theater on South Broadway (SoBo). I decided to head over there early to walk around the neighborhood and maybe take a few photographs. Like many of Denver's neighborhoods, it has become very popular with 20 somethings, and features vintage clothing stores, bookstores, gift shops, stores selling God knows what, as well as a large number of restaurants, bars, and live music venues. The bars and restaurants range from upscale to true dive joints. There are a lot of hipsters and a lot of homeless on this street, and frankly I find it pretty damn ugly, although pretty damn interesting, too.
After touring South Broadway and taking a few photographs, I headed to the Mayan, which opened in 1930 and according to Wikipedia is one of three remaining theaters in the US designed in the Art Deco Mayan Revival Style. Just for fun, I clicked on the link for Mayan Revival Style and was taken to another Wikipedia page, which curiously lists 4 theaters as prominent examples. That's Wikipedia for you. To be honest, I am not impressed with the facade of the theater, although I do like its neon sign and marquee, a photo of which is on the right and which I took a few days later after night had fallen.
In any case, when I got to the ticket booth, I encountered the skeletons seen in the photograph on the left. I think you must be getting an idea of the theme on this street. In any case, instead of going inside to see what awaited there, I decided to continue walking, and headed into the Baker Historic District, another old Denver neighborhood with hundreds of homes from the 19th century just to the west of Broadway, which is why I am probably still alive to tell the tale.
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