I’m sure D.C. will eventually be in line for this type of theatre. I believe Los Angeles was picked as a testing ground. If it doesn’t succeed in Los Angeles it won’t be expanded to other cities.
Hi Pat
I used to fish on the Horseshoe Pier during the mid-60’s. We used to get there 4 am when it was still dark but people were already there fishing. Great times for a kid growing up during the 1960’s.
A WS article mentions that 45,000 live in the downtown Los Angeles city center but failed to mention that hundreds of thousands more go there during the day and into the evening hours for a great night out. My wife and I ride the subway (from Hollywood) to get to the vibrant nightlife of the city center and have attended many events there day and night. A renovated United Artists theatre will be a great addition to the city life of Los Angeles’s Broadway that is downtown.
The article mentions that 45,000 live in the downtown Los Angeles city center but failed to mention that hundreds of thousands more go there during the day and into the evening hours for a great night out. My wife and I ride the subway (from Hollywood) to get to the vibrant nightlife of the city center and have attended many events there day and night. A renovated United Artists theatre will be a great addition to the city life of Los Angeles’s Broadway that is downtown.
hdtv267 Since you will be coming to Los Angeles in a few months take some time to look through these websitess first.
The Los Angeles Conservancy www.laconservancy.org for tours information
Los Angeles Visitors Guide los-angeles-world-class-city.com for the first time visitor to Los Angeles.
I’ve been on several Los Angeles Conservancy movie palace tours and they are great. I’ve taken friends from out of state on these tours and everyone always enjoy it. The most comments I get from them are that the theatres are much bigger and more lavish than they had imagined. Afterwards I would take my friends over to Broadway’s Clifton’s Cafeteria for lunch.
Not many neighbor theatres left in Los Angeles. Most are located in malls. I just read in the Los Angeles Times that the Golden Gate theatre in east Los Angeles may be demolished. So sad to see these historic neighborhood gems disappear forever.
Of course the Chinese is always the best theatre to see movies because the picture and sound are always up to presentation standards. The Dome’s pitfall is the D-150 screen that distorts the image and blurs it on the sides. Other than that the sound is great and the seating comfy.
We still have a domed theatre in Los Angeles called the Cinerama Dome which is now run by Archlight. To insure it’s survival 14 screens were added in about 2002. Today the Dome runs first run film and has been updated to run digital.
I had the pleasure of working as a vacation relief projectionist at the Paradise early 1976. What impressed me was the size of the auditorium and screen. Huge! Blackbeards Ghost was the feature movie. A door in the booth led to a part of the flat roof where a couch was set up. Sometimes I would step out to the roof and watch the big airliners land at Los Angeles Intl Airport. The regular projectionist (I never met him) must have been a weight lifter since the booth was full of weights and a bench press.
I lived in Los Angeles all my life and I seen many neighborhood theatres close or turned into a church or something else and worse yet many have been demolished. Off hand the only neighborhood theatres I can think of that are still around and regularly showing movies in Los Angeles are the Los Feliz, Vista, Nuart and Highland. I’m sure there are more (there must be) but these are the ones I can think of.
It don’t surprise me with inflation and all but sometime in the near future it’s record gross will be broken. Every few years there’s a new record blockbuster.
I sorely miss those days of the late 50’s through the late 60’s. During hot summer days while on school summer vacation we enjoyed the cool air-conditioned auditoriums of the Crest, Towne and Atlantic (just up the street) theatres. Sometimes we would even go into Downtown L.B. to see kiddie films at the State, UA and Rivoli (all of which are now long gone) then spend a few hours at the Pike. Ahhh! Yes, those were the good old days.
PS. I forgot to mention that I was a projectionist for 23 years (1973-1996) when I left the business in 1996 after seeing the direction the movie business was heading. Computerized automation made the theatre projectionist obsolete. They had become maintenance people who drove between multiplexes just to keep things in order, too busy doing that to be in the booth for a complete showing. The exhibitors just don’t give a damn about anything anymore except for the almighty dollar.
Now that I have a DVD/VHS player and new 63 inch TV I can enjoy movies in the comfort of my home without paying those high prices for a movie theatre ticket, drinks and popcorn, then putting up with rude patrons who misbehave during a movie.
To avoid the hassles of traffic and parking I’ve often taken the subway into the city from Hollywood to attend evening movies and shows at the Orpheum. The nearest subway ststion from the Orpheum is the Pershing Square station a good 4 block walk. No matter, when the show gets out I’m not alone in walking to the subway station as many who were at the show also use the subways. WIth the renovation of the Los Angeles and Palace it will be half the distance from the Pershing Square station.
I remember this theatre. For a theatre named Palace it was a damned small theatre alright.
At 700 seats this was one of the smallest in the Warner Bros chain of theatres.
At 700 seats this was one of the smallest in the Warner Bros chain of theatres.
I live near the Hollywood Forever cemetery and I been to some of those summertime scary movie shows. It’s really fright night at the movies.
I’m sure D.C. will eventually be in line for this type of theatre. I believe Los Angeles was picked as a testing ground. If it doesn’t succeed in Los Angeles it won’t be expanded to other cities.
The Pantages ranks up there with many of the Broadway theatres.
The Cameo Theatre, 528 South Broadway in Los Angeles is still there. Here’s the link from Cinema Treasures /theaters/1157/
Hi Pat
I used to fish on the Horseshoe Pier during the mid-60’s. We used to get there 4 am when it was still dark but people were already there fishing. Great times for a kid growing up during the 1960’s.
A WS article mentions that 45,000 live in the downtown Los Angeles city center but failed to mention that hundreds of thousands more go there during the day and into the evening hours for a great night out. My wife and I ride the subway (from Hollywood) to get to the vibrant nightlife of the city center and have attended many events there day and night. A renovated United Artists theatre will be a great addition to the city life of Los Angeles’s Broadway that is downtown.
The article mentions that 45,000 live in the downtown Los Angeles city center but failed to mention that hundreds of thousands more go there during the day and into the evening hours for a great night out. My wife and I ride the subway (from Hollywood) to get to the vibrant nightlife of the city center and have attended many events there day and night. A renovated United Artists theatre will be a great addition to the city life of Los Angeles’s Broadway that is downtown.
During the 70’s in Los Angeles us projectionists used to call these ‘revival houses’. Anyone remember?
I remember seeing it from the bus that ran on Ocean Boulevard back in the 60’s. It had such a simple but classic looking marquee.
Anything to help bring back business to Downtown Frisco I’m all for it.
hdtv267 Since you will be coming to Los Angeles in a few months take some time to look through these websitess first.
The Los Angeles Conservancy www.laconservancy.org for tours information
Los Angeles Visitors Guide los-angeles-world-class-city.com for the first time visitor to Los Angeles.
I’ve been on several Los Angeles Conservancy movie palace tours and they are great. I’ve taken friends from out of state on these tours and everyone always enjoy it. The most comments I get from them are that the theatres are much bigger and more lavish than they had imagined. Afterwards I would take my friends over to Broadway’s Clifton’s Cafeteria for lunch.
Not many neighbor theatres left in Los Angeles. Most are located in malls. I just read in the Los Angeles Times that the Golden Gate theatre in east Los Angeles may be demolished. So sad to see these historic neighborhood gems disappear forever.
Of course the Chinese is always the best theatre to see movies because the picture and sound are always up to presentation standards. The Dome’s pitfall is the D-150 screen that distorts the image and blurs it on the sides. Other than that the sound is great and the seating comfy.
We still have a domed theatre in Los Angeles called the Cinerama Dome which is now run by Archlight. To insure it’s survival 14 screens were added in about 2002. Today the Dome runs first run film and has been updated to run digital.
I had the pleasure of working as a vacation relief projectionist at the Paradise early 1976. What impressed me was the size of the auditorium and screen. Huge! Blackbeards Ghost was the feature movie. A door in the booth led to a part of the flat roof where a couch was set up. Sometimes I would step out to the roof and watch the big airliners land at Los Angeles Intl Airport. The regular projectionist (I never met him) must have been a weight lifter since the booth was full of weights and a bench press.
I lived in Los Angeles all my life and I seen many neighborhood theatres close or turned into a church or something else and worse yet many have been demolished. Off hand the only neighborhood theatres I can think of that are still around and regularly showing movies in Los Angeles are the Los Feliz, Vista, Nuart and Highland. I’m sure there are more (there must be) but these are the ones I can think of.
It don’t surprise me with inflation and all but sometime in the near future it’s record gross will be broken. Every few years there’s a new record blockbuster.
I sorely miss those days of the late 50’s through the late 60’s. During hot summer days while on school summer vacation we enjoyed the cool air-conditioned auditoriums of the Crest, Towne and Atlantic (just up the street) theatres. Sometimes we would even go into Downtown L.B. to see kiddie films at the State, UA and Rivoli (all of which are now long gone) then spend a few hours at the Pike. Ahhh! Yes, those were the good old days.
PS. I forgot to mention that I was a projectionist for 23 years (1973-1996) when I left the business in 1996 after seeing the direction the movie business was heading. Computerized automation made the theatre projectionist obsolete. They had become maintenance people who drove between multiplexes just to keep things in order, too busy doing that to be in the booth for a complete showing. The exhibitors just don’t give a damn about anything anymore except for the almighty dollar.
Now that I have a DVD/VHS player and new 63 inch TV I can enjoy movies in the comfort of my home without paying those high prices for a movie theatre ticket, drinks and popcorn, then putting up with rude patrons who misbehave during a movie.
To avoid the hassles of traffic and parking I’ve often taken the subway into the city from Hollywood to attend evening movies and shows at the Orpheum. The nearest subway ststion from the Orpheum is the Pershing Square station a good 4 block walk. No matter, when the show gets out I’m not alone in walking to the subway station as many who were at the show also use the subways. WIth the renovation of the Los Angeles and Palace it will be half the distance from the Pershing Square station.