NuWilshire Theatre
1314 Wilshire Boulevard,
Santa Monica,
CA
90403
1314 Wilshire Boulevard,
Santa Monica,
CA
90403
26 people
favorited this theater
Showing 151 - 175 of 261 comments
No problem. It is a shame as to what the NuWilshire looks now.
Nushboy7, in regard to your December 4 post, yes, THANKS to you and co-workers to photographing the theater and sharing the photos.
Well, nothing has changed with the theatre. The exterior lights of the place have been on since the last day of moving everything out. Now, the theatre has become a haven for the homeless. And I just read in the Santa Monica Daily Press that the buildings will be untouched until well into the new year. So, for those of you who want to take the pictures of the former theatre, you guys should do it as soon as you can. Because believe me, before you know it, it will be taken apart.
Courtesy of me and a few co-workers of mine.
Photo set from Oct 30, 2007, right before closure, including interior photos!
View link
Great shot! Next time get one with the window down, lol! But yeah, it’s just very odd why they kept the lights on since we moved out. Talk about wasting power…and yet Santa Monica says it’s a green city. Yeah…
Very interesting commentary about how little news coverage the NuWilshire’s closing received. I’ve lived down the street from the NuWilshire for 20 years, and I always enjoyed walking there to catch an intelligent, usually foreign, movie. I recently saw both Into the Wild and Eastern Promises, and there was no indication of imminent closure. I was shocked when, all of a sudden, the theatre’s marquis just went blank and the lights went out. Not even a sign in the window to say what happened. But then, we live in a country where the government can make a “pre-emptive” attack on a foreign nation without the slightest questioning by the news media. The closing of a classic movie house? Wouldn’t even get a mention in the back pages. The sad truth is, not only have we lost a local treasure, we’ve lost the more important safeguards once provided by responsible investigative journalism.
I wonder if they played any 007 movies there. That would have been great!
For some historical interest, here are some of the initial offerings when Landmark took over booking the theatre in 1992:
PREMIERES
Lol Creme’s THE LUNATIC
Monika Treut’s MY FATHER IS COMING
Peter Cohen’s THE ARCHITECTURE OF DOOM
Abbe Wool’s ROADSIDE PROPHETS
Sam Fuller’s WHITE DOG
Jon Jost’s ALL THE VERMEERS IN NEW YORK
Randy Thompson’s THE MONTANA RUN
Suzie Baer’s WARRIOR: THE LIFE OF LEONARD PELTIER
Murray Lerner’s JIMI HENDRIX AT THE ISLE OF WIGHT
David Byrne’s ILE AIYE: THE HOUSE OF LIFE
Philip Haas’ GIANT WOMAN AND THE LAUGHING MAN
Declan Lowney’s BOB MARLEY: TIME WILL TELL
Hutt/Elgear/Meleran’s VOICES FROM THE FRONT
Katherine Gilday’s THE FAMINE WITHIN
Norman Loftis’ SMALL TIME
Barbara Trent’s THE PANAMA DECEPTION
Francis Girod’s L’ELEGANT CRIMINEL
FESTIVALS AND TRIBUTES
Humphrey Bogart
“Japanese Animation†â€" featuring premieres of
Toyoo Ashida’s VAMPIRE HUNTER D
Mamoru Shinzaki’s BAREFOOT GEN
“Film Threat Presents†â€" series of premieres and revivals including
Leonard Kastle’s THE HONEYMOON KILLERS
Craig Baldwin’s TRIBULATION 99: ALIEN ANOMALIES UNDER AMERICA
David Van Taylor’s DREAM DECEIVERS
Shinya Tsukamoto’s TETSUO: THE IRON MAN
Henri Xhonneux’s MARQUIS
“Reemergence: Jewish Life in Eastern Europeâ€
RESTORATIONS AND REVIVALS
Terry Gilliam’s BRAZIL â€" original European version
F.W. Murnau’s TABU new print of restored version
Merian C. Cooper and Ernest P. Schoedsack’s CHANG new print of restored version
Frank Capra’s BROADWAY BILL new print
Yves Allegret’s THE PROUD ONES new print of uncut restored edition
SPECIAL EVENTS
William Osco’s ALICE IN WONDERLAND plays midnights
“Film Threat Presents†â€" series of midnight movies including premieres of
Jorg Buttgereit’s NEKROMANTIK
Jorg Buttgereit’s NEKROMANTIK 2
Jorg Buttgereit’s THE DEATH KING
For a second there, I thought you weren’t being sarcastic, lol!
I’ve spoken with both the shoe repair guy and the jewelry guy on the other side. They’re both nice people and it’s a shame to see them get kicked out. The shoe guy says his rent is presently a little under $900, and the other locations he has looked at are all in the $3-4,000 range. The jewelry guy says the places he’s looked at are even higher.
But hey, it’s progress. The city will make more money in taxes, the landlord will clean up. And we’ll get more minimum wage retail jobs. Hooray!
Fox West Coast Theatres did many theatre modernizings in the late 1930’s. Alot of the Southern California houses were done in 1937-39 period.
Does anyone have any information on when the current marquee was put in place?
Well it’s not just that little shoe repairman’s business. It’s also the many families that live in apartments in the city and the landlord raises their rents. The rents in the city have gone skyhigh over the last 10 years. The landlord have found ways to take rent controled apartments off the market and when new lower income apartments become available it’s like a feeding ground in those lines. The times have changed in that city. The landlord feel it’s their turn to make more money off the public for their properties. It’s not going to get any better in that city. Santa Monica is a great city to live in, if you have the money.
Man, how shocked I was walking home yesterday, to see the empty and disheveled NuWilshire. I really appreciate this discussion page – it is the only place anywhere to find real information. Only one of the S.M. papers had the most obscure vague blurb on the story. Sigh – it’s another generic retail blob in place of community.
I think this whole sad drama, including yet another could-care-less property owner, would make for great print. I wish the papers were on it, or L.A. Weekly or something. I feel terrible for the shoe repair people — that little messy shop is obviously their lives. Just boils me up that the landlord feels nothing other than little money orgasms. Too much of this kind of cruely in America rationalized by libertarian values. It’s really just lawful sociopathy. Ugly. I digress — but hey, isn’t this how most of us secretly feel about so much of what we see around us these days? No? :\
Anyway, I’ll keep watching this space – thanks people!
I don’t remember but he was behind the lawyer and next to the architect.
W
Dang bigtime, what a ruthless owner…Hey, was he (the owner) wearing a pink shirt? lol
Ron, Wilshire Blvd. is the Prime city street in Santa Monica, so the cost of the property is out of this world. By what I said above about Pico is that. The price of the property along Pico Blvd. in Santa Monica is far less than Wilshire. So if that theatre was built along Pico Blvd. back then. It is a a fair chance the theatre might still be a theatre. There has not been a movie theatre operating along Pico Blvd. in Santa Monica since the early 60’s.
The next problem if the Landmarks Commission grants Landmark status is if a new theatre chain can not change the theatre’s features. So they only have two screens to work with. With the rent for that location being Very High, the cost to operate the theatre would be at a loss. To make it work as a theatre the chain would have to cut up and add screens to the building. Well the next problem the commission would have to deal with if they add more screens is the parking in the area. (lots and street parking) Since Santa Monica has permit parking nearby the other property owners would have a large say so. Most likely they might save the building and facade, but as a operating movie theatre thats going tobe the hardest to find a chain.
I went to the Landmarks Commission meeting this evening. They seem like they will be granting the landmark status but they decided to continue the item for a future meeting to work out which of the criteria the building qualifies under. The owner had his lawyer there to speak and he said they hired a consultant of their own who said to many changes have been to the building to consider it for status. I think everyone on the commission dismissed that though. In the course of the meeting we learned that the owner plans on extending the second story over the entire building and because of that added square footage has to add 20 parking spots below the building. They also wanted to uliminate the lobby and move the front doors to the property line. This idea will not be allowed if the landmark is granted and it specifies that the lobby is part of the significant features. The sad side show was the owners of the shoe repair in the building that are getting the boot. The building owner threatened the fella who runs the shop saying that he’ll never beat him and that he would win. The negative feeling this theatre shutting down and changing to a jeans store might keep the store from finding success. I hope there is enough theatre left to interest a willing theatre chain operator and perhaps another investor to buy the building back and bring back the movies!
Why do you say that?
If the theatre was located over on the south side of the city on Pico Blvd., it might have had a chance to stay operating as a theatre.
I haven’t had a chance to go to the meeting. Did anyone else go?
Hmm, yeah I figured it would just be about the exterior of the building. I guess we can all forget the possibility of it being a theatre again…At least for many years to come.
I think it’s not up to the city hall meeting as to the property remaining a theatre. They can recommend the owner save the facade of the theatre on the new building. So if he did not want or like Landmark as a tenant. He would make it very hard for any other chain to lease the house. I enjoyed going to the Wilshire may times when I lived in Santa Monica, but the original Criterion was my favorite of the two. If you look at what that theatre looked like from it’s thread. That theatre remained a 1200 seat single for the longest time.
Is that the Landmarks Commision meeting? Is anyone going?