According to an article in the September 11, 2008 Los Angeles Times, Barbara Stanton is spearheading a drive to bring a movie complex to Watts. She has in mind a four-screen, 1000 seat auditorium on a 1.2 scre site near 103rd St. The 20-million project is called Wattstar Cinema and Education Center. By the way, this new project is unrelated to the Largo which is long gone.
From “Los Angeles Conservancy News,†May/June 2008:
On March 20, the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission voted unanimously to recommend the Majestic Crest Theatre, located at 1262 S. Westwood Blvd., for designation as a City of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument. The nomination was submitted jointly by Friends of the UCLAN/Crest Theatre and the Westwood Homeowners Association after the theatre was listed for sale.
The theatre was originally built in 194) in a simplified Moderne style and was called the UCLAN Theatre, in reference to the nearby university. The structure underwent a complete interior and exterior remodeling in 1987-88 under the direction of interiors specialist and set de-signer Joseph Musil. Significant features of the themed Art Deco Revival makeover include the intricately stepped facade, the auditorium cyclorama depicting Los Angeles circa 1939, and an elaborate sunburst light fixture and hand-painted ceilings in the lobby.
Before completing the Majestic Crest Theatre, Musil had been an artist under contract for Disney. He would later consult on a number of theatre restoration projects, including the Alex in Glendale and the El Capitan in Hollywood. The Majestic Crest, however, is Musil’s only theatre project in Southern California that was not a restoration project, but an entire re-creation. Since very few structures built after 1960 have been locally designated, the commission’s vote on the Majestic Crest Theatre sets an important precedent for properties of the recent past by formally recognizing the significance of Musil’s 1987 modifications.
Although the owner initially objected to designation of the theatre, the Conservancy worked closely with Council District 5 and the county assessor’s office to quantify the potential economic benefits of HCM designation, including property tax relief under the Mills Act, and ultimately persuaded hint to withdraw his opposition. The nomination must still be approved by both the city’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee and the City Council.
From CBS News, January 21, 2007:
Former Adult Theater May Become Family Buffet
Instead of attracting naughty customers, this piece of property at Watt and Myrtle Avenues could soon be catering to hungry ones. With the Regency XXX Theater now out of business, potential buyers are making offers on the property. According to the Sacramento Business Journal, the Golden Corral buffet chain would like to put a family style restaurant here.
Some neighboring property owners are applauding the possibility. “They were good neighbors, but it’ll certainly be an improvement if the buffet moves in. It’d be good for North Highlands, and I think it would be good for our property,” says Jim Streng.
This neighborhood has been gradually changing over the past few years, with your typical Starbucks, Panda Express, and Jamba Juice explosion. People who live around here tell us they’re happy to see anything more family-friendly than a porn theater.
“It involves the children, and I happen to be a father myself,” says Jeffrey Thomas. “It just doesn’t make me feel too comfortable with something like that near so many youth.”
But one property owner who owns a nearby sushi establishment is not so happy about what’s going on here. The Golden Corral buffet reportedly wants this property too, which would force the sushi place to move. That restaurant owner says he’s heading to court to try and fight getting kicked out. Either way, the days of the Regency Cinema are done, but the Golden Corral may be facing a rocky road to Sacramento.
Like most here, I’m surprised that this theater was ground to dust. Although preservation wasn’t what it is today, still there was a nascent movement because of the criminal demolition of New York’s Penn Station in 1964.
But I have several questions to try to get into the heads of the Phoenix City Fathers. Not to justify their actions, but to try to see it as they saw it. What was the state of the Fox at the time it was demolished? Was it sadly in need of repair? If so, did they want to save and repair it, but felt it cost too much? Was there any movement at all, even if tiny, to try to save it? Where there other architecturally-significant buildings (not theaters) that the city also let go about this same time?
Hollywood—Residents of Tinseltown are reeling from the destruction of the famed Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in the early morning hours of of Sept. 3, 2024. Demolition experts blew up the structure and left it to bulldozers to load the debris onto waiting trucks.
A spokesman for CIM, the owner of the site since 2007 and of the building itself for the past year, said the demolition was a mistake. Richard Ressler Jr. said the company said sought a permit to demolish the theater’s box office not the theater itself. He said the box office had been stored in a warehouse since it was removed from the theater courtyard in 2004. Since it was not original to the building, CIM planned to destory it and use the warehouse space to store the old film projectors that it planned to removed from the Chinese’s projection room.
Preversationists, however aren’t so sure. They point to the fact that CIM sought and received a permit to building a parking structure at the same Hollywood Blvd. location, and that Welton Beckett & Sons had been retained to design such a structure.
The Fox Theatre is for sale at $1,800,000. At this writing, the following is posted on the commercial real estate website www.loopnet.com
Property Use Type: Investment
Primary Type: Retail
Street Retail
Building Size: 12,090 SF
Lot Size: 0.25 Acres
Price: $1,800,000
Price/SF: $148.88
Year Built: 1949
Date Last Verified: 8/30/2007
Property ID: 14913144
Property Description:
This 12,090 square foot building stands as a historic, art deco landmark along Inglewood’s scenic downtown thoroughfare, Market St. This theater served as one of the main sites for Hollywood premiers in the 1950’s, with stars such as Marilyn Monroe and the Three Stooges gracing its plush seating and grandeous interior decoration. Situated on a larger parcel than most other buildings in the area, approximately 11,247 square feet, this vacant former movie theater provides a rare redevelopment or renovation opportunity. The property is in a redevelopment district with the flexible C1 zoning and an FAR of 6:1. This building offers a developer the opportunity to build almost any type of mixed use commercial/residential project. In addition to this offering, both buildings on either side of the Fox, including the signalized corner, are for sale through Sperry Van Ness as well. The property also benefits from having alley access at the rear of the building and public parking nearby.
Location Description:
Since 2000, the city of Inglewood has focused its efforts on revitalizing this section of its city through facade improvement programs and landscaping. The art deco buildings from the early 1900’s, landscaped medians, fountains and access to public transportation make this a desirable location for retailers. The dense population of over 48,000 people within a 1 mile radius, with an average household income of over $47,000, is expected to grow more than 5 percent over 2005-2010. The subject property is within a mile from the Forum and Hollywood park, which are at the center of redevelopment plans for the city since the 378 acre site was purchased by Bay Meadows in 2004. The Renaissance housing development, located at the NE corner of Hollywood Pak, has proved the strong demand for new housing in the area. Within close poximity are national tenants such as Walgreens, Big 5 and Vons, two major hospitals, LAX, the 405 Freeway and Inglewood City Hall.
Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, a Hollywood landmark that attracts millions of tourists each year to its outdoor courtyard where generations of movie stars left their hand and footprints, has been purchased by Hollywood’s largest commercial landlord.
CIM Group of Los Angeles says it has no plans to change the 80-year-old theater, and the purchase continues its string of acquisitions in the heart of Hollywood.
The developer already owns nearly all the property on the north side of a two-block stretch of Hollywood Boulevard between Highland and Sycamore avenues. That includes the Hollywood & Highland Center, Renaissance Hollywood Hotel, Mann Chinese 6 Theatre multiplex and the Galaxy building.
“It’s important to us that key properties like Grauman’s don’t fall into the wrong hands,” said Shaul Kuba, a principal at CIM Group. The purchase price was not disclosed.
Mann Theatres has a long-term lease on the legendary venue for movie premieres and will continue to operate it as a film house. It was sold to CIM by the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Center of New York and Barlow Respiratory Hospital of Los Angeles.
“We have been very interested in purchasing the property since we acquired Hollywood & Highland” in 2004, said John Given, another principal at CIM. “Our ownership cements the relationship between the theater and Hollywood & Highland Center.”
Built in 1927 by impresario Sid Grauman, the 1,162-seat theater is perhaps the epicenter of Hollywood and one of Southern California’s top tourist attractions. Millions of visitors every year step into the footprints of famous movie stars preserved in concrete in its forecourt. Tour buses start and end their journeys out front.
The theater itself is one of the most recognizable buildings in the world. Its signature pagoda-inspired entrance features two immense coral red columns topped by wrought iron masks that hold aloft the bronze roof.
Between the columns is a 30-foot dragon carved from stone. Guarding the theater entrance are two giant stone Heaven Dogs, original artifacts brought from China by Grauman.
Previously, Grauman built the Million Dollar Theatre in downtown Los Angeles and the lavish Egyptian Theatre a few blocks from the Chinese Theatre.
Actress Norma Talmadge turned the first shovel of dirt at the groundbreaking, and opening night was a riot of glamour as mobs of fans turned out to see celebrities attend the premiere of Cecil B. DeMille’s “The King of Kings.”
CIM does not own the parking lot west of Grauman’s, where Madame Tussauds plans to build a branch of its popular London wax museum. It also does not own an underground city parking lot or subway station below Hollywood and Highland. CIM and the city share ownership of Kodak Theater, home to the annual Academy Awards.
Landlord CIM, with all its properties, “assumes a huge responsibility in Hollywood,” said preservationist Robert Nudelman of Hollywood Heritage Inc. “They need to go several steps further because their impact on the district is tremendous. They need to maintain things at a higher level than most do.”
CIM was “the absolute logical buyer,” said Hollywood real estate broker Christopher Bonbright of Ramsey-Shilling Co., who was not involved in the sale. “It doesn’t surprise me they were the successful bidder.”
CIM had an incentive to outbid its competitors for the theater because of its importance to the Hollywood & Highland complex and its other nearby properties, Bonbright said. “It’s a strategic imperative for them.”
The company controls more than a dozen office, retail and residential properties in Hollywood, including the TV Guide building and the former Seven Seas nightclub building across from Grauman’s.
It is bringing sought-after clothing stores H&M and Zara to Hollywood Boulevard. CIM also has signed British retailer Tesco to occupy part of the former Hollywood Galaxy shopping center as part of its strategy to bring in businesses that serve local residents.
CIM, founded by Israeli immigrants Kuba and Avi Shemesh with Richard Ressler, specializes in developing and investing in urban centers. It is largely financed by pools of money raised by institutional investors including the California Public Employees' Retirement System.
From “Los Angeles Business Journal” August 6, 2007:
Final bids were submitted for the purchase of the property beneath Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. The theater itself isn’t part of the package until 2023, after the theater’s 99-year ground lease expires. Then the historic landmark will pass to the owner of the land. In the meantime, the winner of the bid will be able to collect rent from the Mann Theatres chain, which now owns the theater. Local experts say the rent is below market value because of a historical legacy that links the lease to the price of gold, providing an opportunity for profit; because of the waiting period, however, there is also considerable risk.
The marquee for the first Milwaukee Theater was contructed by the Milwaukee-based Poblocki Sign Company in 1936. The company, which is still in business today, celebrates its 75th anniversary this year.
I get it that the owner loves the Crest, but he’s not going to live forever and accidents (God forbid) do happen. Also, from the LA Times article, it seems as though he’s at the mercy of forces over which he has no control (supply of new product, the success of other theaters, a rise in electric rates, etc.) It seems like such a labor of love (given what that real estate is worth and what his expenses are) that it’s not going to make financial sense to anyone else. I guess what I have in mind is a succession plan. Does he have kids? Do they love theaters or developer money? Better than he will the theater to the Crest Historical Society. (No need to set it up now, but the plans for it, how it would work, how the theater would sustain itself, etc. should be firmly in place.) I’m going on about this using the Crest as my subject, but I think all too often we rest easy because a theater is being run as a labor of love with no thought as to what will happen when the owner is no longer around. If possible, nothing should ever been done under the pressure of a last minute deadline.
Personally, I don’t think the National is especially distinctive. But that’s just me, and I know that the goal is to save all theaters.
Typically when a classic theater sitting on expensive real estate closes or announces its intention to close the community rallies to try to save it. Meanwhile a developer already has his permits and is chafing at the bit to tear it down. Under the pressure of time, it often doesn’t work and wrecking ball does its thing.
Despite Bucksbaum’s best efforts, it seems clear to me that the Majestic Crest’s days as a single-screen movie theater are numbered. Shouldn’t someone RIGHT NOW be working with Bucksbaum to form a non-profit to buy it, or convince the City of Los Angeles to make it a performance venue, or do whatever the things a community does when a theater closes and they try to save it? Why wait? Isn’t it easier to do it now with a bit of time rather than at the last minute?
Edited from “Neighborhood Theaters: Room for Dreams, Big and Small†by Patrick Goldstein, Los Angeles Times, July 10, 2007:
The handsome old Westwood Crest Theater, a 1940-era movie house on Westwood Boulevard is a lovely theater, but saddled with a crushing disadvantage. With one screen, its fortunes fluctuate by the luck of landing a hit picture; a multiplex can book hourly showings of a popular film while relegating a fading flick to a smaller theater. The only reason the Crest still exists is that it is owned by one man, Robert Bucksbaum, who bought it in 2002 and operates it as a labor of love.
Still, business there has not been good. Bucksbaum is now in negotiations with an investment group to sell the land the theater sits on in return for a series of five-year leases that will allow him to continue operating the theater. Bucksbaum says his biggest problem has been finding a consistent flow of product. Studio distributors, more at home dealing with big chains, rarely go out of their way to support a family theater owner like Bucksbaum.
Bucksbaum originally had a deal with Disney, but that quickly dissolved. He then struck a deal with 20th Century Fox, which also went south after a series of booking disputes too complicated to detail here. Suffice to say that Bucksbaum feels that, as a one-man show, he was treated like a second-class citizen.
“My livelihood depends on this one theater — I don’t have 3,000 other theaters to fall back on,“ says Bucksbaum, who also runs ReelSource, a box-office data firm. "At first, everyone said they’d throw me a bone. But in practice, it was the complete opposite. They had the attitude — ‘You’re one little guy. What could you possibly do for us?’ "
The Crest has become essentially a second-run art house, largely playing movies that have already opened at other theaters. Bucksbaum has only one first-run commitment this summer, New Line’s “Hairspray,” which opens later this month.
All the good movies in the world may still not save the Crest. Like the other aging one-screen theaters that populate Westwood, it’s a gas-guzzler in a neighborhood full of Priuses. All those lights on its marquee come with a cost â€" Bucksbaum complains that his electricity bill probably rivals any theater in the country.
But the Crest is an invaluable link to our past, when it didn’t take half a day to drive across town. As Bucksbaum puts it: “I think people would like to have some ties to their roots and to their neighborhood, to what this city was like 50 years ago.”
That probably makes Bucksbaum a crazy dreamer. But in many ways Cuban is a crazy dreamer too, trying to drag movie exhibition into the 21st century. Having sat in the lap of a theater owner as a boy, I like hearing about dreams and schemes. To me, it sounds like the crazy talk of people who really love movies.
Excerpts from an article that appeared in the Pittsburgh City Paper, May 9, 2007:
The Garden opened “without publicity” in 1915, according to a profile compiled as part of the Library of Congress' Historic American Building Survey. Its original owner was one David E. Park, a bank vice president. According to the NABS, the theater’s name was chosen “as a pun on the name of the owner” so it wouldn’t be confused with the Park Building Downtown.
Park passed away in 1917, and in 1924 his son sold the Garden to Bennett Amdur, who’d been managing the facility until that time. Amdur ran the Garden until his death in 1970, and left the interior essentially unchanged.
To be sure, Amdur made some concessions to the times. During the silent-film era, the auditorium was fitted out with a pipe organ â€" the first organ to be seen inside the the¬ater, but by no means the last. But the organ was later taken out, the HABS reports, and bestowed to a church. Amdur also later added amenities like central air conditioning.
But for the most part, the struc¬ture retained its 1920s-era furnish¬ings, which Amdur had copied from a New York City theater. The Garden was built with an upstairs ice-cream parlor, elaborate lighting fixtures and its distinctive landmark marquee. To varying extents, all these features survive today. (Although the marquee outside was once even more elaborate; the original collapsed under a snowfall in January 1958.)
During his lifetime, Amdur insisted on showing only the most family-friendly entertainment. In a
1970 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article published shortly after his death, the Garden’s acting manager said Amdur “kept a clean place and wouldn’t even show Frankenstein.” But three years later, the Garden was sold to “Penn-Ally Enterprises,” which rechristened the build¬ing as the “New Garden Theater” and began showing adult films.
Adult theaters like the New Garden became common in 1970s since it was the only way many urban theaters could survive in the era of the suburban multiplex. During a 1999 hearing, Garden Theater manager Robert Caplan testified that the Garden had only two choices: Go X-rated, or go out of business. “We could no longer get [enough movies] to stay in business,” the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review quoted Caplan say¬ing. But when the fare was adult films, they made money “all the time.”
In the mid-1990s the Mattress Factory, a nearby art museum, proposed a redevelopment plan in which the Garden would be used as a meeting, exhibition and community center. The city tried to seize the building through eminent domain, but in 1997, the Garden’s then-owner, George Androtsakis of New York City, fought the seizure in court. Androtsakis displayed impressive staying power: He owns numerous adult theaters in the Northeast, and he’s fought against government seizures elsewhere as well. His decade-long legal battle ended in February. The theater is now shuttered pending redevelopment.
From Downtown News, May 21, 2007: “The legendary theater at Third Street and Broadway, built by Sid Grauman, is being renovated and will reopen in June, said manager Robert Voskanian. The Million Dollar Theatre, which seats more than 2,000 people, will host film screenings, movie premieres, stage performances and concerts. Voskanian said the next phase of the renovation includes replacing the carpet, drapes and some electrical repairs. The theater has been completely repainted and is awaiting a shipment of gold tiles for the lobby, which will house an upscale concession stand. The $1 million-plus refurbishment is more than halfway complete, said Voskanian.”
From Downtown News: “Developer Gilmore Associates is still working on plans to renovate the Regent Theater at 448 S. Main St. The venue is scheduled to receive a major makeover this year with completion in 2008. Gilmore Associates signed a long-term lease for the 10,000-square-foot Historic Core property. The Regent will likely see live music and a bar, along with a restaurant. The theater has recently been open for some live music performances during the monthly Downtown Art Walk.”
I posted a reply to Simon but I see it hasn’t appeared — an explanation in case a dupe of this message subsequently appears.
I have pix of the demolition of the Imperial.
And by the way, I’m not looking for someone to post materials under my name. I just want to forward stuff to someone else. You can post it under your name or ignore what I send. No big deal. If you post, you get the credit. (Although I’d like to keep the rights to my pix.) I just don’t have a place to host pictures, or the time to transcribe or re-write stories.
According to an article in the September 11, 2008 Los Angeles Times, Barbara Stanton is spearheading a drive to bring a movie complex to Watts. She has in mind a four-screen, 1000 seat auditorium on a 1.2 scre site near 103rd St. The 20-million project is called Wattstar Cinema and Education Center. By the way, this new project is unrelated to the Largo which is long gone.
From “Los Angeles Conservancy News,†May/June 2008:
On March 20, the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission voted unanimously to recommend the Majestic Crest Theatre, located at 1262 S. Westwood Blvd., for designation as a City of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument. The nomination was submitted jointly by Friends of the UCLAN/Crest Theatre and the Westwood Homeowners Association after the theatre was listed for sale.
The theatre was originally built in 194) in a simplified Moderne style and was called the UCLAN Theatre, in reference to the nearby university. The structure underwent a complete interior and exterior remodeling in 1987-88 under the direction of interiors specialist and set de-signer Joseph Musil. Significant features of the themed Art Deco Revival makeover include the intricately stepped facade, the auditorium cyclorama depicting Los Angeles circa 1939, and an elaborate sunburst light fixture and hand-painted ceilings in the lobby.
Before completing the Majestic Crest Theatre, Musil had been an artist under contract for Disney. He would later consult on a number of theatre restoration projects, including the Alex in Glendale and the El Capitan in Hollywood. The Majestic Crest, however, is Musil’s only theatre project in Southern California that was not a restoration project, but an entire re-creation. Since very few structures built after 1960 have been locally designated, the commission’s vote on the Majestic Crest Theatre sets an important precedent for properties of the recent past by formally recognizing the significance of Musil’s 1987 modifications.
Although the owner initially objected to designation of the theatre, the Conservancy worked closely with Council District 5 and the county assessor’s office to quantify the potential economic benefits of HCM designation, including property tax relief under the Mills Act, and ultimately persuaded hint to withdraw his opposition. The nomination must still be approved by both the city’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee and the City Council.
From CBS News, January 21, 2007:
Former Adult Theater May Become Family Buffet
Instead of attracting naughty customers, this piece of property at Watt and Myrtle Avenues could soon be catering to hungry ones. With the Regency XXX Theater now out of business, potential buyers are making offers on the property. According to the Sacramento Business Journal, the Golden Corral buffet chain would like to put a family style restaurant here.
Some neighboring property owners are applauding the possibility. “They were good neighbors, but it’ll certainly be an improvement if the buffet moves in. It’d be good for North Highlands, and I think it would be good for our property,” says Jim Streng.
This neighborhood has been gradually changing over the past few years, with your typical Starbucks, Panda Express, and Jamba Juice explosion. People who live around here tell us they’re happy to see anything more family-friendly than a porn theater.
“It involves the children, and I happen to be a father myself,” says Jeffrey Thomas. “It just doesn’t make me feel too comfortable with something like that near so many youth.”
But one property owner who owns a nearby sushi establishment is not so happy about what’s going on here. The Golden Corral buffet reportedly wants this property too, which would force the sushi place to move. That restaurant owner says he’s heading to court to try and fight getting kicked out. Either way, the days of the Regency Cinema are done, but the Golden Corral may be facing a rocky road to Sacramento.
Like most here, I’m surprised that this theater was ground to dust. Although preservation wasn’t what it is today, still there was a nascent movement because of the criminal demolition of New York’s Penn Station in 1964.
But I have several questions to try to get into the heads of the Phoenix City Fathers. Not to justify their actions, but to try to see it as they saw it. What was the state of the Fox at the time it was demolished? Was it sadly in need of repair? If so, did they want to save and repair it, but felt it cost too much? Was there any movement at all, even if tiny, to try to save it? Where there other architecturally-significant buildings (not theaters) that the city also let go about this same time?
The Vine is no longer showing films. A recording says the theater is holding church services and is available for rent for private screenings.
Newspaper story Sept. 4, 2024:
Chinese Now Rubble, Developer Claims Error
Hollywood—Residents of Tinseltown are reeling from the destruction of the famed Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in the early morning hours of of Sept. 3, 2024. Demolition experts blew up the structure and left it to bulldozers to load the debris onto waiting trucks.
A spokesman for CIM, the owner of the site since 2007 and of the building itself for the past year, said the demolition was a mistake. Richard Ressler Jr. said the company said sought a permit to demolish the theater’s box office not the theater itself. He said the box office had been stored in a warehouse since it was removed from the theater courtyard in 2004. Since it was not original to the building, CIM planned to destory it and use the warehouse space to store the old film projectors that it planned to removed from the Chinese’s projection room.
Preversationists, however aren’t so sure. They point to the fact that CIM sought and received a permit to building a parking structure at the same Hollywood Blvd. location, and that Welton Beckett & Sons had been retained to design such a structure.
The Fox Theatre is for sale at $1,800,000. At this writing, the following is posted on the commercial real estate website www.loopnet.com
Property Use Type: Investment
Primary Type: Retail
Street Retail
Building Size: 12,090 SF
Lot Size: 0.25 Acres
Price: $1,800,000
Price/SF: $148.88
Year Built: 1949
Date Last Verified: 8/30/2007
Property ID: 14913144
Property Description:
This 12,090 square foot building stands as a historic, art deco landmark along Inglewood’s scenic downtown thoroughfare, Market St. This theater served as one of the main sites for Hollywood premiers in the 1950’s, with stars such as Marilyn Monroe and the Three Stooges gracing its plush seating and grandeous interior decoration. Situated on a larger parcel than most other buildings in the area, approximately 11,247 square feet, this vacant former movie theater provides a rare redevelopment or renovation opportunity. The property is in a redevelopment district with the flexible C1 zoning and an FAR of 6:1. This building offers a developer the opportunity to build almost any type of mixed use commercial/residential project. In addition to this offering, both buildings on either side of the Fox, including the signalized corner, are for sale through Sperry Van Ness as well. The property also benefits from having alley access at the rear of the building and public parking nearby.
Location Description:
Since 2000, the city of Inglewood has focused its efforts on revitalizing this section of its city through facade improvement programs and landscaping. The art deco buildings from the early 1900’s, landscaped medians, fountains and access to public transportation make this a desirable location for retailers. The dense population of over 48,000 people within a 1 mile radius, with an average household income of over $47,000, is expected to grow more than 5 percent over 2005-2010. The subject property is within a mile from the Forum and Hollywood park, which are at the center of redevelopment plans for the city since the 378 acre site was purchased by Bay Meadows in 2004. The Renaissance housing development, located at the NE corner of Hollywood Pak, has proved the strong demand for new housing in the area. Within close poximity are national tenants such as Walgreens, Big 5 and Vons, two major hospitals, LAX, the 405 Freeway and Inglewood City Hall.
From “los Angeles Times,” September 3, 2007
Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, a Hollywood landmark that attracts millions of tourists each year to its outdoor courtyard where generations of movie stars left their hand and footprints, has been purchased by Hollywood’s largest commercial landlord.
CIM Group of Los Angeles says it has no plans to change the 80-year-old theater, and the purchase continues its string of acquisitions in the heart of Hollywood.
The developer already owns nearly all the property on the north side of a two-block stretch of Hollywood Boulevard between Highland and Sycamore avenues. That includes the Hollywood & Highland Center, Renaissance Hollywood Hotel, Mann Chinese 6 Theatre multiplex and the Galaxy building.
“It’s important to us that key properties like Grauman’s don’t fall into the wrong hands,” said Shaul Kuba, a principal at CIM Group. The purchase price was not disclosed.
Mann Theatres has a long-term lease on the legendary venue for movie premieres and will continue to operate it as a film house. It was sold to CIM by the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Center of New York and Barlow Respiratory Hospital of Los Angeles.
“We have been very interested in purchasing the property since we acquired Hollywood & Highland” in 2004, said John Given, another principal at CIM. “Our ownership cements the relationship between the theater and Hollywood & Highland Center.”
Built in 1927 by impresario Sid Grauman, the 1,162-seat theater is perhaps the epicenter of Hollywood and one of Southern California’s top tourist attractions. Millions of visitors every year step into the footprints of famous movie stars preserved in concrete in its forecourt. Tour buses start and end their journeys out front.
The theater itself is one of the most recognizable buildings in the world. Its signature pagoda-inspired entrance features two immense coral red columns topped by wrought iron masks that hold aloft the bronze roof.
Between the columns is a 30-foot dragon carved from stone. Guarding the theater entrance are two giant stone Heaven Dogs, original artifacts brought from China by Grauman.
Previously, Grauman built the Million Dollar Theatre in downtown Los Angeles and the lavish Egyptian Theatre a few blocks from the Chinese Theatre.
Actress Norma Talmadge turned the first shovel of dirt at the groundbreaking, and opening night was a riot of glamour as mobs of fans turned out to see celebrities attend the premiere of Cecil B. DeMille’s “The King of Kings.”
CIM does not own the parking lot west of Grauman’s, where Madame Tussauds plans to build a branch of its popular London wax museum. It also does not own an underground city parking lot or subway station below Hollywood and Highland. CIM and the city share ownership of Kodak Theater, home to the annual Academy Awards.
Landlord CIM, with all its properties, “assumes a huge responsibility in Hollywood,” said preservationist Robert Nudelman of Hollywood Heritage Inc. “They need to go several steps further because their impact on the district is tremendous. They need to maintain things at a higher level than most do.”
CIM was “the absolute logical buyer,” said Hollywood real estate broker Christopher Bonbright of Ramsey-Shilling Co., who was not involved in the sale. “It doesn’t surprise me they were the successful bidder.”
CIM had an incentive to outbid its competitors for the theater because of its importance to the Hollywood & Highland complex and its other nearby properties, Bonbright said. “It’s a strategic imperative for them.”
The company controls more than a dozen office, retail and residential properties in Hollywood, including the TV Guide building and the former Seven Seas nightclub building across from Grauman’s.
It is bringing sought-after clothing stores H&M and Zara to Hollywood Boulevard. CIM also has signed British retailer Tesco to occupy part of the former Hollywood Galaxy shopping center as part of its strategy to bring in businesses that serve local residents.
CIM, founded by Israeli immigrants Kuba and Avi Shemesh with Richard Ressler, specializes in developing and investing in urban centers. It is largely financed by pools of money raised by institutional investors including the California Public Employees' Retirement System.
From “Los Angeles Business Journal” August 6, 2007:
Final bids were submitted for the purchase of the property beneath Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. The theater itself isn’t part of the package until 2023, after the theater’s 99-year ground lease expires. Then the historic landmark will pass to the owner of the land. In the meantime, the winner of the bid will be able to collect rent from the Mann Theatres chain, which now owns the theater. Local experts say the rent is below market value because of a historical legacy that links the lease to the price of gold, providing an opportunity for profit; because of the waiting period, however, there is also considerable risk.
Or $850 for 1000 people. I’d kick in $850 to own a piece of a theater. Anyone want to set this up?
The marquee for the first Milwaukee Theater was contructed by the Milwaukee-based Poblocki Sign Company in 1936. The company, which is still in business today, celebrates its 75th anniversary this year.
I get it that the owner loves the Crest, but he’s not going to live forever and accidents (God forbid) do happen. Also, from the LA Times article, it seems as though he’s at the mercy of forces over which he has no control (supply of new product, the success of other theaters, a rise in electric rates, etc.) It seems like such a labor of love (given what that real estate is worth and what his expenses are) that it’s not going to make financial sense to anyone else. I guess what I have in mind is a succession plan. Does he have kids? Do they love theaters or developer money? Better than he will the theater to the Crest Historical Society. (No need to set it up now, but the plans for it, how it would work, how the theater would sustain itself, etc. should be firmly in place.) I’m going on about this using the Crest as my subject, but I think all too often we rest easy because a theater is being run as a labor of love with no thought as to what will happen when the owner is no longer around. If possible, nothing should ever been done under the pressure of a last minute deadline.
Personally, I don’t think the National is especially distinctive. But that’s just me, and I know that the goal is to save all theaters.
Typically when a classic theater sitting on expensive real estate closes or announces its intention to close the community rallies to try to save it. Meanwhile a developer already has his permits and is chafing at the bit to tear it down. Under the pressure of time, it often doesn’t work and wrecking ball does its thing.
Despite Bucksbaum’s best efforts, it seems clear to me that the Majestic Crest’s days as a single-screen movie theater are numbered. Shouldn’t someone RIGHT NOW be working with Bucksbaum to form a non-profit to buy it, or convince the City of Los Angeles to make it a performance venue, or do whatever the things a community does when a theater closes and they try to save it? Why wait? Isn’t it easier to do it now with a bit of time rather than at the last minute?
Edited from “Neighborhood Theaters: Room for Dreams, Big and Small†by Patrick Goldstein, Los Angeles Times, July 10, 2007:
The handsome old Westwood Crest Theater, a 1940-era movie house on Westwood Boulevard is a lovely theater, but saddled with a crushing disadvantage. With one screen, its fortunes fluctuate by the luck of landing a hit picture; a multiplex can book hourly showings of a popular film while relegating a fading flick to a smaller theater. The only reason the Crest still exists is that it is owned by one man, Robert Bucksbaum, who bought it in 2002 and operates it as a labor of love.
Still, business there has not been good. Bucksbaum is now in negotiations with an investment group to sell the land the theater sits on in return for a series of five-year leases that will allow him to continue operating the theater. Bucksbaum says his biggest problem has been finding a consistent flow of product. Studio distributors, more at home dealing with big chains, rarely go out of their way to support a family theater owner like Bucksbaum.
Bucksbaum originally had a deal with Disney, but that quickly dissolved. He then struck a deal with 20th Century Fox, which also went south after a series of booking disputes too complicated to detail here. Suffice to say that Bucksbaum feels that, as a one-man show, he was treated like a second-class citizen.
“My livelihood depends on this one theater — I don’t have 3,000 other theaters to fall back on,“ says Bucksbaum, who also runs ReelSource, a box-office data firm. "At first, everyone said they’d throw me a bone. But in practice, it was the complete opposite. They had the attitude — ‘You’re one little guy. What could you possibly do for us?’ "
The Crest has become essentially a second-run art house, largely playing movies that have already opened at other theaters. Bucksbaum has only one first-run commitment this summer, New Line’s “Hairspray,” which opens later this month.
All the good movies in the world may still not save the Crest. Like the other aging one-screen theaters that populate Westwood, it’s a gas-guzzler in a neighborhood full of Priuses. All those lights on its marquee come with a cost â€" Bucksbaum complains that his electricity bill probably rivals any theater in the country.
But the Crest is an invaluable link to our past, when it didn’t take half a day to drive across town. As Bucksbaum puts it: “I think people would like to have some ties to their roots and to their neighborhood, to what this city was like 50 years ago.”
That probably makes Bucksbaum a crazy dreamer. But in many ways Cuban is a crazy dreamer too, trying to drag movie exhibition into the 21st century. Having sat in the lap of a theater owner as a boy, I like hearing about dreams and schemes. To me, it sounds like the crazy talk of people who really love movies.
Excerpts from an article that appeared in the Pittsburgh City Paper, May 9, 2007:
The Garden opened “without publicity” in 1915, according to a profile compiled as part of the Library of Congress' Historic American Building Survey. Its original owner was one David E. Park, a bank vice president. According to the NABS, the theater’s name was chosen “as a pun on the name of the owner” so it wouldn’t be confused with the Park Building Downtown.
Park passed away in 1917, and in 1924 his son sold the Garden to Bennett Amdur, who’d been managing the facility until that time. Amdur ran the Garden until his death in 1970, and left the interior essentially unchanged.
To be sure, Amdur made some concessions to the times. During the silent-film era, the auditorium was fitted out with a pipe organ â€" the first organ to be seen inside the the¬ater, but by no means the last. But the organ was later taken out, the HABS reports, and bestowed to a church. Amdur also later added amenities like central air conditioning.
But for the most part, the struc¬ture retained its 1920s-era furnish¬ings, which Amdur had copied from a New York City theater. The Garden was built with an upstairs ice-cream parlor, elaborate lighting fixtures and its distinctive landmark marquee. To varying extents, all these features survive today. (Although the marquee outside was once even more elaborate; the original collapsed under a snowfall in January 1958.)
During his lifetime, Amdur insisted on showing only the most family-friendly entertainment. In a
1970 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article published shortly after his death, the Garden’s acting manager said Amdur “kept a clean place and wouldn’t even show Frankenstein.” But three years later, the Garden was sold to “Penn-Ally Enterprises,” which rechristened the build¬ing as the “New Garden Theater” and began showing adult films.
Adult theaters like the New Garden became common in 1970s since it was the only way many urban theaters could survive in the era of the suburban multiplex. During a 1999 hearing, Garden Theater manager Robert Caplan testified that the Garden had only two choices: Go X-rated, or go out of business. “We could no longer get [enough movies] to stay in business,” the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review quoted Caplan say¬ing. But when the fare was adult films, they made money “all the time.”
In the mid-1990s the Mattress Factory, a nearby art museum, proposed a redevelopment plan in which the Garden would be used as a meeting, exhibition and community center. The city tried to seize the building through eminent domain, but in 1997, the Garden’s then-owner, George Androtsakis of New York City, fought the seizure in court. Androtsakis displayed impressive staying power: He owns numerous adult theaters in the Northeast, and he’s fought against government seizures elsewhere as well. His decade-long legal battle ended in February. The theater is now shuttered pending redevelopment.
From Downtown News, May 21, 2007: “The legendary theater at Third Street and Broadway, built by Sid Grauman, is being renovated and will reopen in June, said manager Robert Voskanian. The Million Dollar Theatre, which seats more than 2,000 people, will host film screenings, movie premieres, stage performances and concerts. Voskanian said the next phase of the renovation includes replacing the carpet, drapes and some electrical repairs. The theater has been completely repainted and is awaiting a shipment of gold tiles for the lobby, which will house an upscale concession stand. The $1 million-plus refurbishment is more than halfway complete, said Voskanian.”
From Downtown News: “Developer Gilmore Associates is still working on plans to renovate the Regent Theater at 448 S. Main St. The venue is scheduled to receive a major makeover this year with completion in 2008. Gilmore Associates signed a long-term lease for the 10,000-square-foot Historic Core property. The Regent will likely see live music and a bar, along with a restaurant. The theater has recently been open for some live music performances during the monthly Downtown Art Walk.”
I posted a reply to Simon but I see it hasn’t appeared — an explanation in case a dupe of this message subsequently appears.
I have pix of the demolition of the Imperial.
And by the way, I’m not looking for someone to post materials under my name. I just want to forward stuff to someone else. You can post it under your name or ignore what I send. No big deal. If you post, you get the credit. (Although I’d like to keep the rights to my pix.) I just don’t have a place to host pictures, or the time to transcribe or re-write stories.
There appears to be a defunct theater in the building right next to the Michigan. What is it?