Hollywood Century Theatre
5115 Hollywood Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90027
5115 Hollywood Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90027
8 people
favorited this theater
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Correction: September 22nd, 1921. Notice the typo in the ad.
Opened September 15th, 1921
Hunley’s theatre opening Fri, Aug 26, 1921 – 16 · Hollywood Citizen-News (Hollywood, California) · Newspapers.com
Started its adult policy on November 21st, 1973 with “Nights in Black Leather”. Ad posted. Cinema was with Statewide, Loew’s, General Cinema.
Now that I am retired, I can HONESTLY say that working at the HOLLYWOOD CENTURY THEATER in the 70’s was the most fun job I’ve ever had.
Hey Twistr54 I would love to purchase some of the notepads/envelopes that you mentioned you have of the glorious Century Theater. Email me, this would be a very meaningful gift for a friend who used to work there, just need it soon.
It stopped showing regular Hollywood type movies when GCC sold the house. So that was somewhere around 1972-73.
i remember this theater showing gay porn when i first visited
L.A. May of 1980. when exactly did it close as a mainstream movie
house and after that when did it start showing gay porn?
Interesting; Thanks Twistr. Supply and demand. Nickelodeons brought the public out of their homes and home movies brought them back into the homes.
The influx of home movies and early video did it, many legit houses died because of the video craze in early 80’s to now……Also suburban multi houses were the rage from 76- now and downtown houses closed because they could not compete with the free parking, mulit choice movies etc,,,after a couple years of adult entertainment they usually closed and were left abandonded such as the houses in Detroit, The UA, Michigan, Madison, Grand Circus, State Gem,Century and even the very glamourous FOX took runs at adult fare mid 70’s to try to sustain business..downtown areas became dangerous and people opted for the safer burbs.. good bye grand movie palaces of the past. At least some ran a while longer with the porn and had some extra life. Most are demolished or redone and made a legit live venue..
Why did the Century and so many other straight porn and especially gay porn theatres close in or about 1977 was it legal issues?
I worked as a manager and relief manager in So. Cal. then later district mangage in No. Cal. for Shan Sayles, Continental theatres in the late 60s to about 73. Does anyone know what happened to Shan Sayles and Continental theatres as I notice Mr. Beehler also worked for the same company.
From what I can tell the demand for straight porn declined and the demand for gay porn increased till about 1977 then everything came to a stop or near stop and I’m wondering why in that period from 77 to the present gay exibition fell to the extent that great houses such as the Century closed. VHS/DVD did not curb the desire for the Good Ole Days or did it? I notice that the demand did not decrease in Europe, in fact, it appears to have increased during the same time period.
This was in the LAT in August 1935:
http://tinyurl.com/ngp4ub
Here is a January 1977 ad:
http://tinyurl.com/klwthm
Here is a January 1974 ad from the LAT:
http://tinyurl.com/mxgtmw
Great 1980’s photos!
Here is an April 1969 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/pp7ux9
View link
This should take you to a photo of AL Parker in front of the theatre, for his premiere Flashback.
Here is a 1982 photo. For the people that were discussing Jack Wrangler, his obituary was in the paper the other day.
http://tinyurl.com/c984tr
Adult film movie posters were limited printed items for the films. The run could be as high as 1000 or as low as a few hundred posters, depending on the company releasing it. E-bay or if there is a current video version relesed of it. There the video company might have poster artwork for it.
Does anyone out there know where I might find a movie poster for The Grease Monkeys and for The Rivermen, both films made by Jaguar Films? Thank you, Grand Canyon Rob
Anybody know where Ken is now. Tommy from Texaco looking for him. That’s where they shot Grease Monkeys.
A long article in the LA Times dated 9/7/77 mentions this theater:
“Landlord Ben Mohi, who ran the operation from 1948 to 1965 as a straight movie house, claims the rental is his sole income.”
There are pages more, mostly from porn guys boohoing about the government, but I can’t reproduce all that here.
While taking summer courses at UCLA in 1984 I went over to Hollywood to see a movie at the Century Theatre. It had recently been remodeled and looked nice, lots of burnt orange tile, chrome, and orange draperies…
After purchasing a membership the cashier advised that plain clothes vice squad frequently staked out the auditorium and warned against making any type of physical contact with other patrons.
There were no dark back rooms, no gay activity inside rest rooms, and definitely no cruising inside that auditorium. Everyone seemed afraid to even look at each other, sexual tension was thick! I stuck around fifteen minutes or so, then headed toward West Hollywood
Richard, this theatre has been gone for many years now.
I am currently looking for any Old Theatres in which to lease or possibly buy in Reseda, Van Nuys, Hollywood or North Hollywood. It has been my Long life Dream to renevate and own my own Theatre/ Venue. Please e-mail me at or call me at 310-597-9398 if you live here!! Thanks.Rick
P.S. If you also live in the areas in which I am looking and want to help please contact me as well!!
I agree with mujerado. Facts must be facts. This is about theater history. It’s not horseshoes.