Ezat Delijani, savior of Downtown theaters *

Councilman Jose Huizar tweeted tonight that Ezat Delijani, a leader in L.A.'s Persian Jewish community, died yesterday. No other details are immediately available. In 1982 Delijani agreed to a request by then-Mayor Tom Bradley to purchase the Los Angeles Theatre to prevent demolition of the ornate Broadway movie palace. Delijani later took control of the Palace, the Tower and the State theaters. Major renovation of The Palace into an active entertainment venue was just announced last month. In 2009, the corner of corner of 7th Street and Broadway was named for Delijani.

* Update: After we posted the L.A. Times scrambled to get up a blog post, also citing Huizar. Time stamped 11:25 p.m.