Sherman Theatre

Grand opening ad posted.

valley was shot i think between october and november of 1982. so these 80’s pictures are right on…

Here are some 1982 photos:
http://tinyurl.com/o52jdh
http://tinyurl.com/om4kwa
http://tinyurl.com/ommspn

Here is a September 1960 ad from the Valley News:
http://tinyurl.com/2zr23a

Here is the ad I was trying to post last October:
http://tinyurl.com/39vokf

Here is a newspaper ad from 1950:
http://tinyurl.com/ya7lfa

I saw many movies in the Sherman and always looked at the interior spaces. The interior of this theatre was very much like the Midway in Los Angeles: Built in the same era, both theaters shared a similiar layout and size. On either side of the proscenium were two large murals of one large flower – possibly a magnolia – with a beige background. I feel research may reveal one architect and/or firm was involved in the designing of both these theaters as well as the Nuart, Del Mar and a few others that escape me at this time.

By the way, I always loved seeing The Bogart movies at the Sherman.

Yes, Landmark Theatres took over the Sherman Theatre around 1977, I was the manager for Landmark’s Sherman for about a year and a half when they took it over. The programming was very eclectic, from a Sci Fi festival, a Silent Film festival, and the amusing “Golden Ladies of the Silver Screen” festival (which featured classic performances of many actresses) to specialized first run films that would be booked for one week only on the theatres movie calendar. I recall John Waters' DESPERATE LIVING had it’s L.A. premiere run here, but Sherman Oaks was a pretty conservative area to open one of Waters' films, so it did very little business. The theatre did best on repertory double bills. CLOCKWORK ORANGE always brought in a big crowd, and I remember THE WIZARD OF OZ selling out a Sunday matinee (the capacity was approx. 540 seats). Landmark Theatres also ran the Nuart Theatre in West L.A., with repertory programs which were always more popular than the Sherman ,due to it’s location near UCLA and fashionable Westwood Village. But the Sherman did it’s part to service the cult movie lovers in the San Fernando Valley. We ran ROCKY HORROR at midnight on the weekends which did well. Later it moved to the Tiffany Theatre on Sunset Strip where the cult became even more popular.
The theatre was very charming and they ran carbon arc projectors, which meant the projectionist would have to change the carbon every 20 minutes after the reel change. It had an outer lobby with lots of poster cases, a small box office set away from the lobby in it’s own space, connected to the lobby only by the door. The concession stand and lobby were small, and if we started selling tickets early for the next performance we would have patrons stand in line outside that would sometimes snake around the ice cream store and into the mini-mall area next door. The theatre was razed in the 80’s and in its place stands a bank. The Baskin/Robbins ice cream store that stood next to the theatre still remains!

My favorite memory of the Sherman: I met David Lynch and John Nance
after the screening of ERASERHEAD in 1978. Mr. Lynch was a very down to earth and humorous person (especially recounting his amazing stories of how long it took to get ERASERHEAD made).

I began working at Paramount Studios in 1979 and again met Mr. Lynch while discussing the distribution of his upcoming new picture,
THE ELEPHANT MAN.

I worked at the Sherman in the late 70’s. It was a really nice charming neighborhood moviehouse, it had about 500 seats and an small art deco lobby. We showed art films and old movies. There would be a theme for each program Sci-Fi,Film Noir,Japanese Cinema ..etc. We showed “Rocky Horror” and"Eraserhead" at midnight (David Lynch use to come in. so did Ron Howard,Charles Martin Smith, Robbie the Robot and Micheal Jackson…he lived nearby) It had a baskin robbins and mexican food place next door to it (they still exists there) They tore it down in 1984 and built a 3 story Coldwell Bank building.