Los Feliz 3 Cinemas

I managed the Los Feliz for Max and Bob Laemmle for five years, beginning in 1970. During that period, we were, indeed, the primary art house in the Los Angeles area. Patrons would drive all the way from Long Beach, to line up around the block, say, for the latest first-run Truffaut film, or whatever. The Los Feliz was also celebrity city: Ray Bradbury came to see “King Kong” (the original) for, he told me, his 500th viewing, and Fritz Lang was a fairly regular customer. And, our Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin festivals were sell-outs, as well. The experience is vivid in my memory, so much so that I literally dream about it quite frequently. It was a wonderfully funky neighborhood, and I miss it. (I cannot imagine it as a triplex!)

In thelate 50’s through the 60’s,70’s,80’s up until about 1989 it was operated by Laemmle Theatres and was considered their flagship for many years. It was triplexed after they lost the lease.

I think I visited this theatre just once, when it was a single-screener. On April 21, 1981 I saw Claude Berri’s One Wild Moment.

Barton, that was the American Film Theatre series, funded in part by American Express, in which various directors were commissioned to make films of important plays. Among the others were Brecht’s “Galileo” directed by Joseph Losey, Harold Pinter’s “Butley” directed by the playwright, Maxwell Anderson’s “Lost in the Stars” directed by Daniel Mann, Pinter’s “The Homecoming” directed by Peter Hall, John Osborne’s “Luther” directed by Guy Green, Jean Genet’s “The Maids” directed by Christopher Miles, Eugene Ionesco’s “Rhinoceros” directed by Tom O'Horgan, and “Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris” directed by Denis Heroux. The series did not go into wide release but usually played one theatre in the larger metropolitan areas. The two you mentioned, Albee’s “A Delicate Balance” and O'Neill’s “The Iceman Cometh” were directed respectively by Tony Richardson and John Frankenheimer. They were among the best of the bunch.

When I first moved to the area I went to see a movie at the Los Feliz 3. I won’t make that mistake again. There are literally about 8 rows in the theater that I was in, and with inverse stadium seating (each row gets higher and higher as you go toward the screen) there is always someone blocking your view. No matter what is playing there I will not go.

Although the auditoriums may be small in comparison to the movie palaces of yesteryear and many of the multiplexes of today, this theater is a true gem. It is quite accessible in a true neighbor in a city, Los Angeles, that has often had a shortage of traditional neighborhoods. The stretch of Vermont Avenue where the Los Feliz 3 Cinemas is located is very pedestrian friendly and in recent years has seen numerous restaurants and other businesses open up. Having a theater in the area is a great asset.

I too enjoyed visiting this theater in the 1960s, where I saw Ingmar Bergman’s “Wild Strawberries” and Federico Fellini’s “Juliet of the Spirits”, my first exposure also to European cinema. Love that Deco Neon facade!

According to my late father, former Disney animator Ed Parks, the Los Feliz was used a number of times for special screenings by the Disney Studio. Thus, it often was reequipped with the very latest in screen and sound presentation technology. These screenings would have taken place during the timeframe of the 40s and 50s, the time when my father worked for Disney.