South Bay Cinema 3 which was next to Levitz furniture never ran 70mm. In fact it didn’t even have stereo sound. The booth has two Simplex XL projectors. When I worked there in the early to mid 1970’s General Cinema operated the three theatres.
Hi, my name is Dennis Pierce and I ran films at the Whittwood from May 1976 to March 1983. When I started Gene Keene was the manager. I just want to say hi to all the employees I knew when I was there, Denise Ramirez, Marilyn Westbrook, Jean Harman (whom I later married), Aileen Kennedy, Ladonna, Alfonso, Rose, Sonia, Karen and husband Leroy, Rosemary, Richard Webber and many others I remember their faces but I don’t remember their names, it’s been so long ago.
I hope it’s near the North Hollywood subway station. I live in Los Angeles downtown and I don’t drive but I use the city’s mass transit system to get around.
Back in 1977 Paramount Pictures re-released “War of the Worlds” and “When Worlds Collide”. I saw these two classic movies with friends who were visiting from northern California at the Palace Theatre. I’ll never forget stepping outside to a late afternoon sunlit Broadway which was bustling with pedestrians and traffic life and remembering what I just saw, those same Los Angeles city streets being attacked by martians. We walked the seven blocks to the Los Angeles city hall building which only less than an hour earlier was blasted by martians. It was an awesome experience, pretty much like after seeing “Earthquake” at the Paramount theare in 1974 then walking the few blocks to Hollywood & Vine to see what was just destroyed on the big screen.
Back in 1977 Paramount Pictures re-released “War of the Worlds” and “When Worlds Collide”. I saw these two classic movies with friends who were visiting from northern California at the Palace Theatre. I’ll never forget stepping outside to a late afternoon sunlit Broadway which was bustling with pedestrians and traffic life and remembering what I just saw, those same Los Angeles city streets being attacked by martians. We walked the seven blocks to the Los Angeles city hall building which only less than an hour earlier was blasted by martians. It was an awesome experience, pretty much like after seeing “Earthquake” at the Paramount theare in 1974 then walking the few blocks to Hollywood & Vine to see what was just destroyed on the big screen.
China’s population is so dense in the metro areas that they can have several theatres showing the same film within 5 miles radius and they will still do business.
Instead of the gimmicks just present good well written, directed and acted movies inside a clean auditorium without the talkers (includes cell phones), seat kickers, aisle runners at a reasonable ticket price and I’ll come back. In the meantime I’ll be watching the old classics on my 60 inch TV in the comfort of my living room.
I may add that currently there is no movie theatre in the harbor area that shows movies on a regular basis. Most have been demolished and some are now churches. There was a plex in Downtown L.B. but I heard that it’s been closed down. Back in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s there were drive-ins and walk-ins all over the harbor and south bay areas.
The city of Coronado is my favorite place to stay when I go down to Diego County to see the zoo. It a great escape from the noise and pollution of the rest of Diego County. Has the best restaurants too.
You are so right Gary. I remember Downtown L.B. as a child back in the late 50s to mid 60s. It was a vibrant downtown with many movie theatres and shops. I attended the roller derbies at the L.B. arena and it was always packed. In the early 70s most of the classic downtown buildings were torn down and replaced with either a parking lot or generic non-descript highrise. At the time I lived on the eastern edge of downtown on Lime street and I saw what was happening everyday. I felt the loss when the Fox West Coast and State theatres were torn down, when the Cyclone Racer was demolished and in earlier years when the Pacific Electric trains stopped coming. Todays Downtown L.B. is a generic downtown with no character like it once had before the 70s.
I never felt safe in Downtown L.B. The only times I went is when I had to transfer from the Blue Line in the transit mall to the #12 bus that takes me to the Lakewood Mall and even then only in the daytime.
Are there plans to show this movie in other Los Angeles theatres after it’s showing at the Warner? I saw this movie as a 6 year old at Graumsn’s Chinese in 1958. It was shown in the original CineMiracle but I don’t remember most of the movie. I would like to see it again. I’m coming home for the holidays and it would be great if the Dome will show it then.
I can’t wait to see one of the world’s premier orchestras in HD. When I lived in Los Angeles years ago I always attended the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion to experience the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Now I will able to see their new conductor directing my favorite orchestra.
I worked there as a projectionist when it was the Paramount and I saw a Disney movie there as a non-projectionist after I retired. To tell you the truth, I was never really impressed by this theatre whether working as a projectionist or as an audience member. It’s probably because Grauman’s Chinese theatre which is on the other side of Hollywood Blvd is a more historic and better place to see (and hear) films. One thing though, the El Cap sure has a better looking marquee.
When I was a kid in 1960 my grandfather bought an 8mm film camera and a projector to run home movies. For an 8 year old boy watching the projector running was a fascinating thing to see. Sure I had gone to the local movie theatres up in Los Angeles many times before but I had never seen a projector in action. Since that fateful day in 1960 I wanted to be a theatre projectionist. As a young teen I saved up my money and bought an 8mm camera and projector. In high school I joind the audio-visual class and ran 16mm films in the big school auditorium. Soon after graduating high school I got a job as a doorman in a local theatre. It was perfect timing because at the time in 1973 many projectionists were retiring and the Moving Picture Operators union needed projectionists to take their places. I was able to get my foot in the door with the help of the old projectionist in the theatre where I was a doorman and get on the job training from the union and within a few weeks after passing my city license test I was working in a theatre as a projectionist which I did for the next 22 years until I left the profession in 1996 because the projectionist was becoming extinct and more of a technician traveling from theatre to theatre and having automation take over the booth. Showman ship had disappeared.
I was in S.A. two years ago to visit my brother who moved down there and I saw this place from the outside. I would liked to gone inside. It looked good on the outside.
I hope this includes the movie palaces in the Los Angeles city center many of which were built by film stars as well as the studios during the early days of moving pictures and are much more lavish and older than the ones in Hollywood.
I hope this theatre is added to the Last Remaining Seats film series held each year. What a beautiful place to see a vintage motion picture.
South Bay Cinema 3 which was next to Levitz furniture never ran 70mm. In fact it didn’t even have stereo sound. The booth has two Simplex XL projectors. When I worked there in the early to mid 1970’s General Cinema operated the three theatres.
Hi, my name is Dennis Pierce and I ran films at the Whittwood from May 1976 to March 1983. When I started Gene Keene was the manager. I just want to say hi to all the employees I knew when I was there, Denise Ramirez, Marilyn Westbrook, Jean Harman (whom I later married), Aileen Kennedy, Ladonna, Alfonso, Rose, Sonia, Karen and husband Leroy, Rosemary, Richard Webber and many others I remember their faces but I don’t remember their names, it’s been so long ago.
This is the very best theatre in Los Angeles and the most famous theatre in the world to see movies.
I hope it’s near the North Hollywood subway station. I live in Los Angeles downtown and I don’t drive but I use the city’s mass transit system to get around.
Back in 1977 Paramount Pictures re-released “War of the Worlds” and “When Worlds Collide”. I saw these two classic movies with friends who were visiting from northern California at the Palace Theatre. I’ll never forget stepping outside to a late afternoon sunlit Broadway which was bustling with pedestrians and traffic life and remembering what I just saw, those same Los Angeles city streets being attacked by martians. We walked the seven blocks to the Los Angeles city hall building which only less than an hour earlier was blasted by martians. It was an awesome experience, pretty much like after seeing “Earthquake” at the Paramount theare in 1974 then walking the few blocks to Hollywood & Vine to see what was just destroyed on the big screen.
Back in 1977 Paramount Pictures re-released “War of the Worlds” and “When Worlds Collide”. I saw these two classic movies with friends who were visiting from northern California at the Palace Theatre. I’ll never forget stepping outside to a late afternoon sunlit Broadway which was bustling with pedestrians and traffic life and remembering what I just saw, those same Los Angeles city streets being attacked by martians. We walked the seven blocks to the Los Angeles city hall building which only less than an hour earlier was blasted by martians. It was an awesome experience, pretty much like after seeing “Earthquake” at the Paramount theare in 1974 then walking the few blocks to Hollywood & Vine to see what was just destroyed on the big screen.
China’s population is so dense in the metro areas that they can have several theatres showing the same film within 5 miles radius and they will still do business.
Instead of the gimmicks just present good well written, directed and acted movies inside a clean auditorium without the talkers (includes cell phones), seat kickers, aisle runners at a reasonable ticket price and I’ll come back. In the meantime I’ll be watching the old classics on my 60 inch TV in the comfort of my living room.
The Wiltern theatre on the corner of Wilshire Blvd and Western Avenue in Los Angeles got it’s name from the two intersecting streets.
I may add that currently there is no movie theatre in the harbor area that shows movies on a regular basis. Most have been demolished and some are now churches. There was a plex in Downtown L.B. but I heard that it’s been closed down. Back in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s there were drive-ins and walk-ins all over the harbor and south bay areas.
I was born a few miles away in 1952 but I have never been inside this theatre. I seen it on the outside many times.
The city of Coronado is my favorite place to stay when I go down to Diego County to see the zoo. It a great escape from the noise and pollution of the rest of Diego County. Has the best restaurants too.
You are so right Gary. I remember Downtown L.B. as a child back in the late 50s to mid 60s. It was a vibrant downtown with many movie theatres and shops. I attended the roller derbies at the L.B. arena and it was always packed. In the early 70s most of the classic downtown buildings were torn down and replaced with either a parking lot or generic non-descript highrise. At the time I lived on the eastern edge of downtown on Lime street and I saw what was happening everyday. I felt the loss when the Fox West Coast and State theatres were torn down, when the Cyclone Racer was demolished and in earlier years when the Pacific Electric trains stopped coming. Todays Downtown L.B. is a generic downtown with no character like it once had before the 70s.
I never felt safe in Downtown L.B. The only times I went is when I had to transfer from the Blue Line in the transit mall to the #12 bus that takes me to the Lakewood Mall and even then only in the daytime.
Are there plans to show this movie in other Los Angeles theatres after it’s showing at the Warner? I saw this movie as a 6 year old at Graumsn’s Chinese in 1958. It was shown in the original CineMiracle but I don’t remember most of the movie. I would like to see it again. I’m coming home for the holidays and it would be great if the Dome will show it then.
raysson, we ran West Side Story in 70mm in 1989 at the Cinerama Dome theatre in Los Angeles.
I can’t wait to see one of the world’s premier orchestras in HD. When I lived in Los Angeles years ago I always attended the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion to experience the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Now I will able to see their new conductor directing my favorite orchestra.
Not only the theatres but most of the Downtown L.B. buildings that were there in 1962 are also gone.
One more thing, Bruce Martin (RIP) did a good job there as the chief projectionist back in the 90’s.
I worked there as a projectionist when it was the Paramount and I saw a Disney movie there as a non-projectionist after I retired. To tell you the truth, I was never really impressed by this theatre whether working as a projectionist or as an audience member. It’s probably because Grauman’s Chinese theatre which is on the other side of Hollywood Blvd is a more historic and better place to see (and hear) films. One thing though, the El Cap sure has a better looking marquee.
Obviously they didn’t go to every theatre in the US. If they did they would have included the beautifully restored Orpheum in Los Angeles.
http://www.laorpheum.com/gallery.html
When I was a kid in 1960 my grandfather bought an 8mm film camera and a projector to run home movies. For an 8 year old boy watching the projector running was a fascinating thing to see. Sure I had gone to the local movie theatres up in Los Angeles many times before but I had never seen a projector in action. Since that fateful day in 1960 I wanted to be a theatre projectionist. As a young teen I saved up my money and bought an 8mm camera and projector. In high school I joind the audio-visual class and ran 16mm films in the big school auditorium. Soon after graduating high school I got a job as a doorman in a local theatre. It was perfect timing because at the time in 1973 many projectionists were retiring and the Moving Picture Operators union needed projectionists to take their places. I was able to get my foot in the door with the help of the old projectionist in the theatre where I was a doorman and get on the job training from the union and within a few weeks after passing my city license test I was working in a theatre as a projectionist which I did for the next 22 years until I left the profession in 1996 because the projectionist was becoming extinct and more of a technician traveling from theatre to theatre and having automation take over the booth. Showman ship had disappeared.
I was in S.A. two years ago to visit my brother who moved down there and I saw this place from the outside. I would liked to gone inside. It looked good on the outside.
I hope this includes the movie palaces in the Los Angeles city center many of which were built by film stars as well as the studios during the early days of moving pictures and are much more lavish and older than the ones in Hollywood.