More than 200 people attended the Conservancy's July 13th screening at the historic Aero Theatre and participated in a follow-up discussion with Academy Award-winning film director Sydney Pollack and Pulitzer-Prize winning film critic Joe Morgenstern.

The screening featured the 1969 film “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” The movie, directed by Pollack, centers on a marathon dance contest at a ballroom on the Santa Monica Pier in the 1930s. Pollack meticulously recreated the historic ballroom for the movie. In the dark days of the depression, dance marathons became of way for desperate people to compete for prize money. Egged on by baying crowds, these events could last for days.

The Aero event was a fundraiser for the Conservancy and helped raise awareness of the Aero Theatre, one of the last remaining single screen movie houses in the Los Angeles area.

Please click here for an image montage from the evening photographed and assembled by Conservancy volunteer Dick Orton.