National Theatre
10925 Lindbrook Drive,
Los Angeles,
CA
90024
10925 Lindbrook Drive,
Los Angeles,
CA
90024
64 people
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The National Theatre opened March of 1970 with the film “The Boys in the Band”. The opening manager was long time Fox West Coast Theatres manager Harry Francis. Harry would go on to manage many other Fox and Mann Theatres till the mid 90’s. Harry opened and managed the Crest Theatre in North Long Beach and later would manage the Fox Village and open the National and manage his last theatre the Bruin.
He worked for over 50 years in theatre management.
Westwood area in the 1970’s was a modern version of downtown with many single screen theates. Westwood always had exclusive runs at this time and would day and date with Hollywood Blvd. It was neat to go to the movies in Westwood on a Friday or Saturday Night and there would be huge lines at each of the single screen theates and they all had midnight shows. The National opened in 1970 and I saw Catch 22 there with my cousin and a few friends.Westwood always drew a very hip crowd at the time. Westwood became to popular and started to have problems with the residents in the area along with merchants in the 1980’s. The shootings and a riot at a theate helped cause the decline in this upscale area of LA along with new competition from AMC 14 in Century City and the new theatres in the newly revitalized Santa Monica area. Mann Theatres plan to build a new 5 screen Stadium theate in Westwood but if these plans fail then they plan to renovate the National into a large single stadium theatre.brucec
In the late 1980s I saw “The Untouchables” here on open night. Back then Westwood was very popular and attracted huge crowds. Therefor there was a massive line around the theater to enter. Unfortunately it started to rain. Luckily the National had Split-Leaf Philodendrons planted along its side. My friend improvised rain head gear using the large leaves from the plant and was quickly followed suit by others standing in line. It was quite the a sight.
Mann theatres is toying with the idea of making the National the largest Stadium seating screen in the country. It would cost 5 million for this renovation.Make sure you keep the huge screen. brucec
i’ve only worked here at the national for a few months and i love it. its a fun environment that makes everyone open their eyes and mouth to say “wow” as wide as you can imagine when they come in. i love to see the costumers face when they see the huge seating capacity the theatre has.
At my June visit, I could tell that the National certainly needs refurbishment – at least the seats need to look better. I like the orange color of the auditorium. News indicates light fixtures to be replaced. Why replace very pretty light fixtures that work fine?
The last I heard, the Mann National’s seating capacity was 1112.