Hollywood Century Theatre
5115 Hollywood Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90027
5115 Hollywood Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90027
8 people favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 50 of 51 comments
Nothing personal, friend. This is a website celebrating old theaters and where they are or used to be. Don’t you think it should be as accurate as all of us, working together, can make it? If I get something wrong, I’d like it to be corrected. It’s about the information, right?
Pardon me! for being SO incorrect. Let me take a step back and bow to the all knowing. It has been 26 years since I have laid eyes on that intersection, so pick a finger.
It wasn’t the corner, even the address shows that. The number on that corner is 5501. It was the middle of the block. For awhile after it burned there was an empty lot there, between the other buildings.
The theatre was located on the north west corner of Hollywood Blvd at Normandie. The address was 5115 Hollywood Blvd.
The Hunley was listed as seating 750 people from the FDY.
I found a pad of Century Theatre paper I had. http://www.flickr.com/photos/twistr54/115561043/
For: KJC: I’ll never forget Beehler with that scar over his eye. We were friends in the late 60’s-early 70’s. At that time he still worked for Shaun Sayles and Alex Cooperman of the Continental Theater chain. I made many movies for Monroe back in those days.
I sure would love to talk to him. We had a lot of history between us. Monroe was one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. Sure would like to hear from him or be able to contact him.
My name is Jack Gen _ .  Â
email:
The Century was a fun theatre, nicely kept, with a teensy men’s room where extracurricular activities did happen, legal or not. I remember going to a strip show once and sitting next to Dave Kopay, who was just past the first fame of having come out in print. He said he was a very visual person, and we both enjoyed the show a lot. I also appeared once on its little stage, as a member of the Gay Men’s Chorus of L.A., when we opened a gay beauty contest held there. After the theatre burned down there was an empty lot there for years.
kjc, you mentioned that Monroe Beehler is currently working on a project related to the Jaguar films. Did Mr. Beehler elaborate on what the project was about? I would like to contact him to ask if he has any plans to release the Jaguar films on DVD. Would it be all right if I request for Mr. Beehler’s e-mail address?
I am sorry to have to post this message publicly, because you do not have an e-mail address. You can contact me via e-mail, which is listed in my user profile. Thank you.
When the Century played this matinee in 1972 “The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t” was being distributed by MGM as part of their matinee series.
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I am happy to report Monroe is alive and well in Southern California. He is retired and currently working on a project related to the Jaguar films. I spoke with him after Brian’s death and he was saddened by the loss of an old friend.
This is a photo from the Bruce Torrence collection:
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Hello Folks. I worked at The Hollywood Century Theater from around 1976 until around 1978. Yes, I remember Woody sitting on his perch by the concession counter although I’m not certain he spent more time in the men’s room. He always took his Nitroglycerin pills to help himself stay alive. God, he must have died many years ago as he was probably in his 60’s even then. I don’t know the names of any of the posters to this site as I think I pre-date even them. Does anyone remember Kusuma, a (straight) Thai Woman who worked as a cashier in that little glass cage out on the boulevard? I know she left in the late 70’s as well, but wonder if she ever came back? I know I never did. I’d heard the place burned down as a result of the riots in the aftermath of the Rodney King verdicts back in the early 90’s. I’m not certain if this is rumor or fact, just what I was told through a third-party. I still have vivid memories of the place as an adult theater, before it became a private club. And the numerous, vicious beatings of the audience members by the LAPD vice-squad, from time to time!
I also fondly recall the opening of The San Francisco Century Theater even before it became the The Century, when it was still The Larkin Theater and there was a parking lot across the street which was turned into a small park. Fond memories of The San Francisco Property. Worked there from it’s inception until it’s change of hands around 1988 or 89; can’t recall the exact year it went to a new owner and venue. Still have numerous photos of the place and even some ‘home videos’ of the employees in San Francisco during a ‘regular day of business’. Those were good times.
Sad to read the above posting of the death of Brian King. I knew Brian well both in Los Angeles and in S.F. and his friend Ted. Brian was a jolly fellow who truly enjoyed life and his life’s work – film. My condolances to his friends and family.
Is Monroe dead or alive, anyone? He must have been in his 50’s in 1980 and could still be alive in Southern California but he’d be very old now.
I REMEMBER HIM COMING INTO THE THEATRE TO MEET WITH MONROE. IS MONROE STILL ALIVE? HIS MOTHER WAS A GEM :)
A Century Theatre thought. Brian King who made many of the jaguar films for Monroe Beehler passed away last week.
My first job in Hollywood in 1981.
Nice theatre, also before going porn, it had also been run by General Cinema, there was boxes and boxes of envelopes behind the screen, I still have some.
Premiered Pacific Coast Highway / Class of 84. Wanted with the God of porn, Al Parker. He was present got to meet him, he was such a great guy. Met some other stars too. Big spot lights just like a big Hollywood premiere, only for a gay porn film. :)
Monroe Beehler was the owner, and old man Woody( manager if you can say that) sat at the concession stand puffing on packs and packs of Marlboro lights. I was the cashier and had a stand alone box office out on the sidewalk under the marquee. Later i was day manager concession and projectionest. It at this time was run under King theatres, a private ownership. They also had a theatre in SFO.
The theatre ran films in 16mm, but were scoped out to fill a wide screen, so imagine seeing a hot, steamy, sexy porn in a wide- screen format. pretty wild !!!!!
I often think of the people I worked with, Greg Cervantez, Bruce, James, and sometimes fill in, Rob Alexander, and Steve Koppe. It has been over 20 years now, I’m still standing, and I hope they are too. They have never been forgotten, the laughs, the fun, the buzz, always in my heart, Century Theatre.
I think i have a few pictures of the marquee, ill look for them and post them here.
Be Supreme>>>>>>>>>>>>
I can remember very clearly, well, mostly clearly the Statewide/Century/Lowes Ownership of the Century. I worked for Loews in 1972 when they decided to get out of the California market and sold out to General Cinema (Bought out by AMC in late 2001 or early 2002). At the time I was assistant manager of the Holly theatre (AKA Studio, Music Hall, etc.) at the time. When GCC bought Loews, I can remember the district manager (of GCC) making snide comments about the new owners of the Century (a theatre that they did not want, and they sold seperately), saying he hopes he doesn’t have to kiss the guy to close the deal for the sale (It became a gay male movie theatre). I moved out of the Hollywood area in 1976 and did not realize that it did no longer exist, but then again, we will never see a day like we had at that time when a theatre meant ONE theatre, not 30 under one roof.
The last few chains to operate the Century Theatre were Statewide Theatres, Century Theatres, Loews. Loews at that time had three theatres on Hollywood Blvd., the Loews (aka: Paramount, El Capitan), Holly (aka: Studio, Music Hall, Academy) and the Century (aka: Hunley).
Monroe Beehler. Someone needs to do some research and write a book on this whole period of gayaciousness pre-pandemic. For whatever anyone says about “fooling around” in this venue, it was regarded as something not to happen, period. Fascinating.
5115 Hollywood Blvd WAS the Century Theater to which I am referring. It was near the corner of Hollywood and Normandie. I lived around the corner from the theater on Normandie when I worked there in 84-85 with 3 other gents who also worked at the Century. The theater burned a couple years later. Somewhere I still have membership cards which were used there as well as photos of myself with friends inside the theater. The theater is gone but the memory of it is still with me.
I have noticed countless abandoned theaters on Hollywood Blvd, I am trying to figure out which one was which. Does this building still exsist, and what’s in it now if it does. There were a number of theaters that were completely abandoned, another that were sort of “performing arts”-like centers, one that had gay porn, a few that were stores, and then of course the famous ones that are still open, like the Chinese, El Captitan, Pantages, etc.
I wish I had time to photograph them while I was there, but didn’t get the time because I was too busy while in the area.
Jaguar Productions produced a number of male homesexual XXX films in the 1970’s and 1980’s.
The Century theater was in fact a King theater. When I was employed there, my boss was Mr Beehler, who also had the Century Theater (also King) in San Francisco. Both places were kept in prestine condition.
The original owner of this theater was Otis Hunley. It was designed by Meyer and Holler and erected by the Milwaukee Building Company in 1921-22. The April 21st, 1922, issue of the Hollywood Citizen said that the pipe organ of the Hunley Theater was being enlarged, and named the organist as a Mrs. Gleason.
I was employed by the Century Theater from June of ‘84 until April '85. I had just moved to L.A. from my hometown in nowhere TX and a friend of mine was the accountant for the theater. I have very fond memories of that place and at the age of 19 I thought I had arrived when I put on the tux (the dress code at the time). I met many people at that theater and to this day I still have links with several of them. I did not care for the films themselved but this grand old theater had much more history than anyone imagined. There was back room with old creeky steps to offices which evidently had not been used in decades. These offices, which contained posters and marquee letters from heydays past, I was lucky to have been let in to have a look around. I also remember seeing old locked doors on either side of the back of the theater as well as up in the projection room(s). There again, was another life of this theater probably left untouched for many years before. It seems to me the theater was burned some years after I left it. Today I am sad to read that it has been completely demolished.