El Capitan Theatre

I don’t know how I am getting replies for a comment I never made, but maybe you Californians can help me anyway. Maybe if some of you could go to the Cinema Treasures page on the Loew’s Kings. We are trying to restore this Brooklyn, NY, landmark. If some of you could give some suggestions so that the theater could be restored like the El Capitan.

Does anyone remember what theatre it was Fox bought and converted into the studio for ‘The Chevy Chase Show’ (which was on the air for about as long as it’s taking me to type these words in the fall of ‘93)?

What did the building located to the right of the El Capitan house, prior to serving currently as the studio from which ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ is broadcast and, previous to that, display space for interactive exhibits tied into films being shown next door?

At Loews we had a ‘Code of Conduct’ poster that was posted near the entrance and ticket taker, but we only put it up when we had a picture that attracted a particularly raucus crowd.

Wow they get $15 for the movie alone?

I recalled a story a friend told me about this organ that used to be in the San Francisco Fox when I saw a piece done on it in a PBS series called “California Gold”. A couple of her brother-in-laws were into electronics and had a repair shop in Dixon, CA and when they heard the San Francisco Fox was being closed, they got permission to go in and record the musicians who came to play the Wurlitzer “one last time”. She had so enjoyed hearing these performers and this marvelous instrument. I hope the nephews and nieces have preserved these recordings and that they are played so others can enjoy the experience as much as she did. I was please to learn that the instrument had not only been “saved” but was played in a setting much like its original home.

Ed, another reason many theatres didn’t open their balconies was that their insurnace carriers forced them to pay a higher premium for the time the balcony was open, and often also added terms such as a specified minimum of ushers up there, guaranteed working aisle lights, repaired seats, etc. Also, many fire codes specified a certain minimum number of working lights —usually set by the building inspector during an inspection —and many theatres did NOT maintain any more lights than they were forced to! Yes, they were cheap about it, but then the owner was only interested in profits, not beauty of theatre!

One more comment, if I may:

When I worked at the Paramount Theatre, I never understood why we didn’t open the balcony. It was a beautiful balcony, which few theatres could boast of, and the only time we EVER opened it was on Friday and Saturday evenings when we expected the lower section to fill up.

Payroll, or course, was the reason. If we OPEN the balcony each day then we have to CLEAN the balcony… which costs money. By keeping the balcony closed we save money.

Hogwash. We should have allowed patrons to view the movie from the balcony if the wished for each and every performance. So WHAT if we spend a few dollars more cleaning it each night! Big deal. Instead, what do we do? We keep it closed and thus rob countless people of a wonderful movie experience by not allowing them to watch the movie from there. Were we not in the ENTERTAINMENT business?

If we HAD opened it, we probably would have sold a few more tickets each night, which right there would have paid for the additional time our janitor needed to clean it. How many Hollywood theatres at that time had such balconys? Very few, I know that.

SRO was a WONDERFUL company to work for and throughout its organization were MANY bright and hard-working individuals. But like many other companies, we often went overboard trying to save pennies.

My hat is off to Disney for their glorius restoration.

I have very many fond memories of this theatre. I worked here as an assistant manager in 1982 or 1983. It was known as the Paramount Theatre then, operated by SRO.

I can recall many sellouts. Even before the recent 1990s renovation, it was an abolute beautiful house, and was considered one of SRO’s flagship theatres.

A couple of films that I vividly remember showing are Death Wish III (parts of this movie were filmed directly across the street!) and Prince of the City.

Movie stars attending the theatre was a common occurance. For it was here that I met Chuck Norris and got his autograph.

In the 1920s and 1930s, the Paramount was a live play theatre. As an assistant manager, I had access to all of the wonderful rooms behind the movie screen. These rooms, 50 years ago, were the dressing rooms, bathrooms, etc. from those early vaudeville days. We used some of them for storage but most weren’t used at all. I remember there were several floors and all were dirty, filthy, broken down and downright scary to be in at night. (I suppose 30+ years of neglect can do that.) But at the same time, it was wonderful to go back there, get lost, and explore that section of the theatre. Even all of the neglect and disrepair could not erase the history and nostalgia that I knew existed within the walls.

I have only been in the theater once, and it was to see the 101 Dalmatians – the one with actors, not the animated version.
It was a beautiful place indeed, although I preferred the Chinese Theater across the street.

Brucec – That’s a good idea, but one problem with that plan was during the 80’s and 90’s. When every major theatre was showing First Run movies. The best business was always at the Chinese Theatre and the ones that were near. During that time Hollywood Boulevard and the movie business was changing. Because if you booked the same type of film (Drama, Comedy etc…) into the Chinese and the Hollywood
Pacific Theatres. The Chinese Theatre would have better grosses. During the 60’s-70’s, you could play anything on the Boulevard and do well. When I was in Los Angeles, I projected at many of those theatres along the Boulevard. The Chinese could play anything and make money. But during that time the Hollywood Pacific and the near by theatres, did well with action, horror features. When during the 80’s when SRO Theatres were still in the Los Angeles market. They did well with the Paramount and the Crest Theatres. But when Pacific Theatres took over the Paramount, they booked lesser type features on to that screen (“Superman IV”, “Caddyshack 2”, etc..) One of the Best things I remember about the Paramount Theatre. Was they had the Best Theatre Hot Dogs on Hollywood Boulevard.
Over the years each chain showcased different studios on their screens. And that sometimes would change very fast from year to year.
Like during the 50’s-70’s the Pantages Theatre, Pix Theatre Warner Theatre were booked with alot of Warner Bros. product. During the 50’s -60’s the Egyptian Theatre played many MGM features. During the early days the Chinese Theatre play Fox and UA feature, since both companies owned the theatre.

In the otherwise excellent book, “The Last Remaining Seats: Movie Palaces of Tinseltown” by Berger and Conser (1997), there is on page 85 a color photo of the proscenium of the EL CAPITAN showing a giant ‘beam’ or ‘track’ directly in front of the grand drapery. There is no mention of it in the caption, as though no one would notice such an ugly thing was there! It does not appear in the two (sadly, not enlargeable) photos on the theatre’s web site (http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/el_capitan/about.html), so does anyone know what that ugly thing is and why it was there during prime professional photography for the book?