Cinemas Westwood
10840 Wilshire Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90024
10840 Wilshire Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90024
36 people
favorited this theater
Showing 251 - 275 of 288 comments
While I think the Village Theater is the grandest theater in Westwood, the Avco always held the fondest place in my heart until that time of supreme butchery – an act so abhorent that nearly a decade later I still can’t think about it without getting angry.
I’m sure I saw films there before 1977 but it was my experience seeing Star Wars on opening day, May 25th, that changed my life. I became a huge movie buff and changed my dream from becoming a novelist to becoming a filmmaker.
I actually saw the second show of the day at 2:50 in the afternoon with my friend, Anthony, who’d ditched our fifth and sixth period Drama class at Uni High with me for the occasion. We loved it so, we stayed through the third show and by the time we left, the line for the film stretched down Wilshire to Glendon and up Glendon as far as I could see. I saw the film there more than 50 times over the next three months before it moved to the Plitt in Century City where it stayed for more than a year.
I saw the first shows of Empire and Jedi there as well although, since the Avco always had their first show at 10 A.M., I saw Jedi earlier at Midnight at the Egyptian in Hollywood. But I still saw it first at the Avco because I attended a 5 P.M. benefit screening there the day before it opened.
I saw the first show of Alien and then Aliens on opening night was unbelievable! I also saw the sneak preview of E.T. there although that was actually in one of the upstairs theaters. The theater shut down not long after Jurassic Park: The Lost World came out and when it re-opened, the unthinkable had happened. They’d cut our beloved first floor theater into two, thus destroying one of the three great screens of Westwood (along with the Village and the National).
With the National now closed, I suppose it’s pure fantasy to think that they might ever restore the first floor to one theater again. Westwood certainly needs another great screen but as long as they make more money with four screens than with three, I know it could never happen.
I still mourn the Avco that once was.
Best wishes,
Alan Sanborn
Don’t get me started about this once great theater. I saw Star Wars, Blue Thunder, Schindler’s List, and yes Rocky and Bulwinkle. It was Apollo 13 that I first exprienced the hack job that was done to what was one of the trully state-of-the-art movie venues. The seating was not re-sloped after the division. The seating in the original auditorium was a very subtle amphitheater contour, not just a sloped plane. Therefore it felt as though we were about to tip over on our right sides.
May 25, 1977 – it all started at AVCO Center Cinemas.
My friend and I attended UCLA, and had gone to a gathering of science fiction fans and had heard rumors of a new film coming out soon. A short clip reel of Star Wars was shown on a small screen to the fans present – the impact was dizzying. Those watching the fan reaction included Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill – unknowns at the time, able to mingle freely among the hundred or so present. The general uproar forced the Lucas people to reshow the trailer at least five times before we left. We made plans at that moment to take off work to see the first showing on the first day of release.
The AVCO was the perfect place to see Star Wars. Almost new, minimalist decor, huge screen, tremendous sound. People did not yet know how to watch that type of film – there may have been a day when people cheered, shouted, and screamed during a film, but it was before our time. We had to learn all over again that first day.
There was a small line outside – it was before word of mouth had spread, and a lot of people were curious industry insiders – not only the rabid fans we all came to know and love. The very fact that there was a line was an oddity. If I remember correctly, many people were also put off by the high ticket prices. They had the nerve to charge $3.50, when normal admission was $2.50 for a first run film.
Everthing changed after that. People camped out in lines for tickets. Strategy was required – one person went early to get tickets, or waited in the ticket line while the other waited in the line to get in. Movies became events. Repeat business was the norm. Hollywood was revived. But I will always fondly remember the AVCO Center Cinemas in Westwood.
Before Albert Szabo was at the AVCO he managed the Beverly Theatre.
I remember Al Szabo at that theatre and after him Peter Bobela.
I saw all three Star Wars flicks at the Avco. Szabo hired me as an usher during the run of Annie.
Christan, When you saw “Gorrillas in the Mist” was that a move-over or First Run. Because “Gorrillas in the Mist” opened over at the Cineplex Odeon Theatre in 70MM.
And Clarence was not that bad of a manager to work for.
What was the Avco 70MM print of Stakeout like Christan?
I atarted working at General Cinema’s AVCO Center in the summer of 1986. I was attending the freshman orientation at UCLA at the time, staying on campus. Peter Bobela was my first manager, always reminded me of Bill Daniels from “Knight Rider” and “St Elsewhere”. I had attended the third day (first weekend) of “Return of the Jedi” and was amazed at the THX sound. I felt like I was in the Ewok garden.
Anyway, the first blockbuster that I worked was “Aliens”. Talk about a cash cow! That show did business for weeks. I remember getting out of there at 4am after the Fri/Sat late shows, then riding my bicycle up the hill to the dorm. Other blockbusters I experienced there include “"Die Hard”, “Stakeout”, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”, “Dirty Dancing”, “Big”, “Ruthless People”, and others.
Talk about a star magnet – the AVCO was certainly that. We would always have premieres there. I remember Penny Marshall at the “Big” premiere, Susanna Hoffs (when the Bangles were popular) for her stupid movie, “The Allnighterâ€. Glenn Close was pregnant when I saw her there. Christopher Reeve stopped by, Sonny Landham (“Predatorâ€, “48 Hrsâ€, “Action Jacksonâ€), many of the Lakers (Riley, Magic, Byron Scott), Angela Lansbury, Gene Wilder and wife Gilda Radner (not long before she died). It was hard not to be wild-eyed, as a teenager.
I was there for three years, before I decided that it was time to make some real money. The last time I was there to see a movie was in 1988, when Sigourney Weaver’s “Gorrillas in the Mist†was there. They had some jerk manager there that fancied himself as the black equivalent of Mr. Rourke from Fantasy Island (I am black, and I don’t like the term “African Americanâ€â€¦but I digress). It was some kind of experience, working there. Strange, that it has been 20 years since I started there. I’ll always remember it as the one large downstairs theater (and how long it took to clean it!)
Memories…like the corners of my mind…
I only made it to the pre-split main auditorium at Avco Center once for a matinee show of “Sleeping With The Enemy” in 1991. That was a HUGE auditorium and I remember the THX trailer being loud and booming. Later on, after the split, I saw a (PATHETIC!) 70MM presentation of Vertigo in about 1997 or so. To say that some “mojo” was missing would be the understatement of the century! I haven’t been back since.
The Avco Center complex opened on May 24th, 1972. The opening attractions were “Play It Again Sam”, “Arruza” and “The Possession of Joel Delaney”.
The Avco Center complex opened on May 24th, 1972 with “Play It Again Sam”, “Arruza”, “The Possession of Joel Delaney”.
The Avco Center complex opened on May 24th, 1972 with “Play It Again Sam”, “Arruza”, “The Possession of Joel Delaney”.
The funny thing about the sound in the former main house. Was that the theatre did not have the power that those Mann Theatres listed in the above comment have. During those days of turning up the THX logo during the opening of the feature presentation, met with a few problems for the theatre. The manager at the time wanted to show that the Avco #1 was just as powerful as the others. But the theatre blew out 3 full sets of surround speakers in that house. That the company that GCC used to service the theatre’s projection equipment would not cover anymore blown speakers, in the race to hear who’s THX is bigger. The two upstairs theatres were the right size that could make a profit for them and the theatre was govern by the area parking to seat ratio in city zoning.
Why couldn’t they have split one of the upper theatres. Such a shame…
Wow, I’ve seen SO many movies here, especially in the main bottom theatre (before they cut it in half which totally blew). The sound in the main theatre was insane, as good if not better than the National, Village, or Chinese.
Nobody has mentioned the fact that you can go to a movie at the Avco and then walk around the block and see a lot of dead stars at the Westwood Memorial cemetery, including Marilyn Monroe, of course. Also Natalie Wood, Richard Conte (who has a question mark after the date of death on his tombstone) and Heather O'Rourke, the little girl from Poltergeist. I think Dominique Dunne is there too, to complete the Poltergeist connection.
The Avco was among the handful of theaters that was equipped with Cinema Digital Sound (CDS), the 1990-1991 precursor to the contemporary digital sound formats.
The Avco was among the theatres included in the original limited-market launch of “Star Wars.” The Avco’s 5/25/77 opening-day gross, according to Daily Variety, was a house record $12,816.
Some fleeting research says that Avco was initially some sort of aviation science/manufacturing concern (AV – aviation, CO – company, something like that) that broadened their reach into financial interests like insurance and credit, and then of course the decade or so they operated Avco Embassy Pictures and the radio/TV production bloc that included the mighty WLW in Cincinnati. The TV stations were sold to Multimedia, who also took over production of then-locally produced syndicated shows like PHIL DONAHUE, SALLY JESSY RAPHAEL and JERRY SPRINGER. The radio stations were spun off into a local company called Jacor, which of course now has become the ginormous Clear Channel company.
Urban legend has it that while they were essentially a hands-off corporate parent, Avco may have had a hand in the initial failure of the controversial political satire WINTER KILLS, since its plot involved the ever-popular “military-industrial complex” and Avco would have had fat government contracts for jet technology.
In the 1980s Westwood was the place to go see movies. Even for someone living, like myself, in the San Fernando Valley. The Avco supplemented the theaters in Westwood Village. It was a short walk down Wilshire Boulevard to the Avco from Westwood Village but it still always managed to be busy. I remember seeing “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” in 1988 at the Avco and it was extremely crowded. The line for the film stretched down Wilshire Boulevard. However by the 1990s the massive crowds that had flocked to Westwood for the movies had gone elsewhere.
Do any pictures exist of the Avco’s big screen before it was split?
In the 1960s and 70s, AVCO owned Cincinnati’s WLW radio and a regional network of Ohio and Indiana TV stations, all of whose call letters began with WLW.
The AVCO Company (I used to know what AVCO meant, but I have forgotten) was some kind of conglomerate and owned that finance company, among other things. Around the late 60s they bought Embassy Pictures, so there was a loose connection between the name of the property and the film operation.
For John, did you manage the theatre when the first three ‘Star Wars’ films played?