The building to the right of the El Capitan was a Masonic Temple, and the building to the LEFT was a multi-storied office building that housed American Cinema Releasing. They distributed a lot of chop-socky in the late 70’s and early 80s.
And Fox rented out the Aquarius Theater on Sunset Blvd. (near the “world famous” Hollywood Palladium) for the short-lived Chevy Chase Show.
Hey Ed Collins, it’s Mike Lancaster. I stumbled on this site while looking up info about “Caligula” for my bad movie awards site, www.thestinkers.com
I have a few memories of the Holly, and especially that psycho projectionist Stephen Gates (originally known as John Oblinger). Is he still alive? If so, where is he now? He was so funny. He had such a bad reputation as an oddball — OK, let’s call him eccentric. I remember his solution was to no longer go by the name John Oblinger. He legally changed his name. I guess he figured that if he changed his name that would automatically change people’s opinions about him. Kind of like cleaning the slate. It didn’t and he continued to act weird. The guy was a legend.
As the assistant manager of the Paramount from 1981-1983 I remember that the Holly cross-plugged everything we ran. So we had to send them trailers that had been running for a while as “coming soon.” Gates would get really upset when he discovered that our projectionist (the ultra cool Bob Selig) would snip off those ugly green (sometimes red) bands that say, “This preview has been approved for all audiences…”. Gates would demand that they be put back on. This was an argument that erupted every time the Paramount sent the Holly a trailer.
Gates would spend a lot of his time in the projection booth typing memos on an old typewriter. He would sign his memos as being from the “Projection Department” at the Holly. Ha ha ha. What a wacko. He was on a one-man crusade to get SRO to adopt his policy that no trailer was to be shown without the green or red bands. When SRO laughed him off, he demanded that I be reprimanded because I was not adhering to HIS policy at the Holly. He would routinely refuse to accept trailers and return them to us and demand new ones. We refused to play his game. SRO sided with us and told him to run what we gave him. He then tried to get the projectionist union involved by demanding sanctions be placed against Bob for “destroying film.” When that failed, he sent mail to the M.P.A.A. about our projectionist tampering with and destroying copyrighted material. We know all of this because he made carbon copies of everything and mailed them to us! I wish now that we had kept them, but they were trashed as soon as they were read. This guy had way too much time on his hands.
I remember that one week he decided to claim that I had stolen a trailer. I’ll never forget this. It was Pia Zadora’s film “Butterfly.” Of course, I didn’t do it. And I have no knowledge of anyone who was involved, directly or otherwise. And anyone who remembers Gates knows that lack of pesky things like “proof” and “evidence” never stopped him from accusing people of wrongdoing. A few months after the movie ran at the Holly, National Screen Service was trying to bill the Holly for the lost trailer. Ed, you or whomever the manager was, brought this matter to Gates' attention and he exploded. It was a simple case of the trailer being left out with film cans at the Paramount (a weekly occurance) and the trailer somehow not being logged in at National Screen Service. I think it was probably a $10 charge. But Gates wanted blood. He accused our whole operation of being slipshod because we didn’t track the whereabouts of that trailer from the moment it came in to the building to the moment it left.
We had no problem paying for the lost item — and really, the money to pay for it came from the same SRO bank account regardless of whether the Paramount or Holly paid for it. But in Gates' warped mind, the whole episode was a sinister conspiracy plot to have the Holly pay the $10 and make him look bad. Weird.
Even though I worked down the street from him it was hard to steer clear of this clown. He had a bug up his ass 24/7. He seemed to have a vendetta against anyone that didn’t agree with him. If you crossed him, you would be subjected to what we called “Memo Wars.†Ed, I don’t know how you could stand working with him.
As for the Holly, I distinctly remember that after the year-long run of “Caligula” SRO was eager to find a new booking. They attempted to book a Disney double feature and Disney freaked! They refused to allow the booking because, in their eyes, the Holly was now “tainted” as a porno house, akin to the one across the street where you and I saw “Deep Throat” and “The Devil in Miss Jones.”
One day I’ll write a book about my movie theater experiences. “Telephone, telegraph, tell Keg Cory!” Those were awesome years.
The building to the right of the El Capitan was a Masonic Temple, and the building to the LEFT was a multi-storied office building that housed American Cinema Releasing. They distributed a lot of chop-socky in the late 70’s and early 80s.
And Fox rented out the Aquarius Theater on Sunset Blvd. (near the “world famous” Hollywood Palladium) for the short-lived Chevy Chase Show.
e-mail me at so we can take the conversation out of the forum.
I just e-mailed him. This wouldn’t be the infamous Mr. Rogers would it? How’s the movie biz in NYC?
Hey Ed Collins, it’s Mike Lancaster. I stumbled on this site while looking up info about “Caligula” for my bad movie awards site, www.thestinkers.com
I have a few memories of the Holly, and especially that psycho projectionist Stephen Gates (originally known as John Oblinger). Is he still alive? If so, where is he now? He was so funny. He had such a bad reputation as an oddball — OK, let’s call him eccentric. I remember his solution was to no longer go by the name John Oblinger. He legally changed his name. I guess he figured that if he changed his name that would automatically change people’s opinions about him. Kind of like cleaning the slate. It didn’t and he continued to act weird. The guy was a legend.
As the assistant manager of the Paramount from 1981-1983 I remember that the Holly cross-plugged everything we ran. So we had to send them trailers that had been running for a while as “coming soon.” Gates would get really upset when he discovered that our projectionist (the ultra cool Bob Selig) would snip off those ugly green (sometimes red) bands that say, “This preview has been approved for all audiences…”. Gates would demand that they be put back on. This was an argument that erupted every time the Paramount sent the Holly a trailer.
Gates would spend a lot of his time in the projection booth typing memos on an old typewriter. He would sign his memos as being from the “Projection Department” at the Holly. Ha ha ha. What a wacko. He was on a one-man crusade to get SRO to adopt his policy that no trailer was to be shown without the green or red bands. When SRO laughed him off, he demanded that I be reprimanded because I was not adhering to HIS policy at the Holly. He would routinely refuse to accept trailers and return them to us and demand new ones. We refused to play his game. SRO sided with us and told him to run what we gave him. He then tried to get the projectionist union involved by demanding sanctions be placed against Bob for “destroying film.” When that failed, he sent mail to the M.P.A.A. about our projectionist tampering with and destroying copyrighted material. We know all of this because he made carbon copies of everything and mailed them to us! I wish now that we had kept them, but they were trashed as soon as they were read. This guy had way too much time on his hands.
I remember that one week he decided to claim that I had stolen a trailer. I’ll never forget this. It was Pia Zadora’s film “Butterfly.” Of course, I didn’t do it. And I have no knowledge of anyone who was involved, directly or otherwise. And anyone who remembers Gates knows that lack of pesky things like “proof” and “evidence” never stopped him from accusing people of wrongdoing. A few months after the movie ran at the Holly, National Screen Service was trying to bill the Holly for the lost trailer. Ed, you or whomever the manager was, brought this matter to Gates' attention and he exploded. It was a simple case of the trailer being left out with film cans at the Paramount (a weekly occurance) and the trailer somehow not being logged in at National Screen Service. I think it was probably a $10 charge. But Gates wanted blood. He accused our whole operation of being slipshod because we didn’t track the whereabouts of that trailer from the moment it came in to the building to the moment it left.
We had no problem paying for the lost item — and really, the money to pay for it came from the same SRO bank account regardless of whether the Paramount or Holly paid for it. But in Gates' warped mind, the whole episode was a sinister conspiracy plot to have the Holly pay the $10 and make him look bad. Weird.
Even though I worked down the street from him it was hard to steer clear of this clown. He had a bug up his ass 24/7. He seemed to have a vendetta against anyone that didn’t agree with him. If you crossed him, you would be subjected to what we called “Memo Wars.†Ed, I don’t know how you could stand working with him.
As for the Holly, I distinctly remember that after the year-long run of “Caligula” SRO was eager to find a new booking. They attempted to book a Disney double feature and Disney freaked! They refused to allow the booking because, in their eyes, the Holly was now “tainted” as a porno house, akin to the one across the street where you and I saw “Deep Throat” and “The Devil in Miss Jones.”
One day I’ll write a book about my movie theater experiences. “Telephone, telegraph, tell Keg Cory!” Those were awesome years.