Royal Theatre
11523 Santa Monica Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90025
11523 Santa Monica Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90025
18 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 33 comments
That played at the Picfair and century starting May 22nd, 1969
Funny tidbit from the new novelization of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood: Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt’s character) asks out the secretary of Marvin Schwarz (Al Pacino’s character) and takes her to see I AM CURIOUS (YELLOW) at the Royal Theatre. So that would’ve been March 1969ish?
Caught the exclusive 70mm engagement of Kenneth Branagh’s “Hamlet” here in December of 1996.
Please update 287 seats. Seat reduction in 2012 when it was made a triplex and stadium seating
December 19th, 2012 grand opening ad as well as the October 26th, 1967 grand opening ad in the photo section.
I was told that the Surround speakers which were removed from the Century Plaza #2(Century City) before it was closed in 2003, may have been installed at the Royal theatre. Can anyone confirm this??
Reopens Wednesday,December 19th. Tickets available December 16th at the Laemmle website.
A @LaemmleTheatres Aug 6th tweet: twitter.com/LaemmleTheatres/statuses/232516170903846913
The Royal in West LA is closed for renovation. Plan to re-open in December. Info: http://ow.ly/cLStI 1944: http://ow.ly/i/Pn0i
The first link in the tweet is to an article interviewing Greg Laemmle, and a description of the changes:
“A smaller screening room with seating for less than 50, a theater with 50-100 seats, and a larger theater with stadium seating for 175-200 will replace the existing 600-seat single screen-theater.”
And the second link is to a 1944 photo when it was called the Tivoli, with “Bathing Beauty” screening.
Boo.
Looks like this weekend is the closing weekend. The Laemmle website only has showtimes through Sunday the 5th.
In late July or early August, the Royal will close to be carved up into a three-screen. The marquee will be removed and replaced.
The story ain’t pretty, but this is the sad reality of current exhibition.
At least they plan to keep the screen size of the big auditorium…
Hopefully, they’ll run a few classics on 70 to commemorate the theater’s run.
I too used to eat at Dolores in the 80s and 90s. Earlier this year I revisited and had a tasty soy burger. The waitress was pleasant, but it was late evening and it was very quiet. Still a viable after movie option for old times sake.
One of the last of the single screen theaters in Los Angeles. Small and intimate – a great place to see a film. They do a lot of special programing. Parking though is a real drag; the meters and public lots charge $1 an hour! Ouch! One of my favourite things over the years was to have a meal at the old Dolores' Resturant up the street and then catch a film at the Royal. Sadly, the Dolores is under new owners and they have ruined the place. Bad service, over priced and, worst of all, no toast with their breakfasts! Unexcusable. Stay away from this place.
Here is a December 1973 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/ydkgcaf
The theater was called Tivoli Plaza in this October 1966 item from the Northwest Arkansas Times:
On Nov. 4, the Mary Pickford-Douglas Fairbanks version of the Shakespeare comedy “Taming of the Shrew†will be seen at the Tivoli Plaza Theater in West Los Angeles.
On a cheerier note, I saw the French film “My New Partner” at the Royal in 1985. Unfortunately I haven’t been back since, so I can’t comment on the current condition of the theater and amenities.
This is part of an article in the LA Times on 4/6/80:
LOS ANGELES-A 27-year-old Los Angeles man was charged with felony drunk driving, four hours after he plowed his car backwards into a Friday night theater crowd, injuring 16 people.
Police say Bradley Jacobs got into an argument with an attendant at a gas station across the street from the Royal Theater, 11523 Santa Monica Boulevard, shortly before 10 p.m. Friday. Witnesses told police that the attendant refused to sell gasoline to Jacobs because he thought Jacobs was drunk.
Jacobs then reportedly accelerated his car backward and then broadside into a line of about 100 people waiting to see the film “Clair de Femme”. Eight ambulances and nine fire companies were called to the scene.
In addition to the 70 mm series linked by Jonesy above, we also have a series starting Dec. 12th featuring 7 foreign films, one from each decade of the 70 year history of Laemmle Theatres.
http://www.laemmle.com/viewmovie.php?mid=4588
Box office proceeds from this series will be donated to the Los Angeles Conservancy (who have done fabulous work in preserving a number of classic theatres) as well as the Library Foundation of Los Angeles.
It looks to be a fun December at Laemmle’s Royal, what with the foreign film series running from Dec. 12th – 18th and the 70 mm series running from Dec. 19th – 23rd.
Great looking 70MM series December 2008:
http://www.laemmle.com/viewmovie.php?mid=4615
Jonesy
www.OnTheBigScreen.net
well the royale is a art house,and its competetion is the near by nuart(except on sat nights when the nuart plays rocky horor),so im sure bussiness is as usual.as far as the development of the area,dont forget to take into accout that uni hi was build in that area in 1923.hope this helps you.
I wonder how the nearby “Landmark 12” opening recently has affected the Royal’s business…
Indeed the Tivoli and Royal photos are of the same theatre. In 1977, there was still metal grillework above the marquee concealing the original facade. The facade, with its Corinthian pilasters, is now exposed, and has been for a number of years now. It looks exactly like what is shown in the photo at the top of this page, though the Royal marquee shown in the 1977 view is still there.
UCLA has changed the URLs of the photos in the Times collection,and no longer displays the very large versions they once did. The remaining version of the 1977 photo cited in ken mc’s post of May 18 is now available here.
This theatre, the Tivoli opened on March 8th, 1924. It was a very big deal. The owners took out full page adverts in the Santa Monica Evening Outlook. The photo is certainly that of the Tivoli. But the marguee is not the original.
Here is a 1977 photo from the UCLA collection:
http://tinyurl.com/27mljl