Your post about the Shrine made me recall a challenge issued years ago by my college professor (of Urban Planning): He offered money to anyone who could come up with the reason why the Shrine, one of the largest buildings in LA and theater anywhere, faced a small side street (Royal) rather than the major streets of Jefferson or Figueroa.
The property doesn't extend to Figueroa, so that's basic, but it does front on Jefferson. The property seems to be slightly longer on the Jefferson side, so perhaps that made it easier to layout the lobby-house-stage-backstage areas, but it seems so strange to have a 6,000+ seat theater face what is essentially a small residential street.
Royal is now paved to be more of a pedestrian plaza which works for big award show entries, with the grandstands and red carpet, and media, etc. But clearly this was not intended in the early days of the theater!
Can you imagine if all or some of the old theaters on Broadway faced the side streets instead of the main boulevard?