Bay Twin Theatres
15140 W. Sunset Boulevard,
Pacific Palisades,
CA
90272
15140 W. Sunset Boulevard,
Pacific Palisades,
CA
90272
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Showing 25 comments
I just added a current photo of Norris Hardware, ©Google Maps.
fisk_street… love your story about winning the slot car set!!! thanks for sharing!
Not quite the same as reopening at the original site but… http://www.latimes.com/local/westside/la-me-caruso-palisades-20141208-story.html
Elvira use to be used to introduce horror movies. It was wonderful experienced for us teenagers at the time to have such a beautiful seductress moderate the movies.
In 1973, my parents took me to see Slither and Ten From Your Show Of Shows. What a weird double feature!
Never had the chance to sit in the balcony in the original Bay Theater. They allways had an usher guarding the staircase and by the time i became an adult it was gone :(
It was 1968 i think! I was 8 years old and my grandfather convinced my grandmother to LET THE KID GO ! On my own to the Movie down the street , Actually only a block down fisk St and turn left and past the fire dept station on sunset. Cross Sunset and there i was at the Bay Theater.
The movie that night was Bambi. Bought my ticket and the man said ! Save your ticket for the drawing. Well At the intermission they held a raffle, with 3 winners with last number called as First Prize . First number # Not Mine! Second Number # Not Mine! Third Number UNBELIEVABLE , WoW I WIN , I won the first prize , A Brand new $15 slot car set . I Ran home as fast as i could and my grandpa even called the theater to verify my story . I will never forget that night.
I grew up in Santa Monica and remember going to this theatre once in a while. The last time I was there was in 1977 for a Double Feature of Islands in the Stream and Fun with Dick and Jane, both of which I remember seeing First Run at the National Westwood.
I grew up in the Bay Theater. Every saturday there was a kid’s matinee. It was a wonderful time. What a shame that it’s closed.
I was an assistant manager at the Bay in the late 50’s/early 60’s and remember it well. The projectionist was Sam Shanley and he lived not far from the theater and had been there forever. I recall that Ronald and Nancy Reagan were customers, as were several Hollywood notables. Because of its location, it was also a favorite site for sneak previews which drew many of the actors, directors, producers and the like, On more than one occasion, we did not know the name of the film to be previewed until hours before it screened. The popular hangout was the Hotdog Show, across Sunset from the theater.
BTW, Lisa Weho and others: Did anyone happen to attend the midnight fright show hosted by TV horror host Seymour (actor Larry Vincent) in early ‘72? He showed Corman’s “Premature Burial.” I got to sit in the front row, a few seats away from Mr. Vincent, and it was a blast. My first midnight movie! During his opening remarks he said he’d invite selected attendees to come onstage (for what purpose, I can’t imagine) but it didn’t happen. At least he stayed to watch the film (quite raptly, as I recall) and signed autographs in the lobby after the screening. Fond memory: a few greedy kids kept cutting in line, wanting multiple signings, but Mr. Vincent was thoughtful enough to make sure every kid got one. And it was damn near 2 a.m. Now there’s a class act.
Great photos posted by Ken Mc 11-20-05.
The Bay Theater closed its doors for the last time on September 10, 1978. The last films to play were “Saturday Night Fever” and “The One and Only” in theater 1, with “Freaky Friday” and “Hot Lead, Cold Feet” in theater 2. I think I saw every movie at the Bay that you mentioned in the post above, Larry
Back in the mid-‘70s, whoever booked films into the Bay came up with some great double bills, terrific mixes of old and new flicks. So with “Old Dracula” you got Corman’s “Pit and the Pendelum.” With “Rollerball” came “Barbarella.” Aldrich’s “Flight of the Phoenix” was shown too, tho I can’t remember with what. And two years after I missed its initial release, the Vincent Price chiller “Theatre of Blood” screened with “Young Frankenstein.” (The booker must’ve liked “Blood” because the previous summer it played with AIP’s reissue of “Born Losers”!) Other memorable bills before and after the twinning: a screaming kid-filled matinee of the nature opus “Toklat,” “Planet” and “Beneath the Planet of the Apes,” “Tales from the Crypt” and “The Ra Expeditions” (!), “Marathon Man” and “The Enforcer,” “King Kong” ('76) and “Two-Minute Warning” and, on my last visit, “The Driver” and “High Ballin’”. So, a much- belated hats-off to the programmer at this modest but very-missed neighborhood hardtop…
It had – from 1954 thru 1956 – attended many a Saturday afternoon
matinee at the Pay Theater. 25 cents was all I needed!
Remember seeing “20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA”, “ROMAN HOLIDAY”,
“THE ATOMIC KID”, “TOBOR THE GREAT”, “THE CREEPING UNKNOWN”, “BAD
DAY AT BLACK ROCK”, “THE PONY SOLDIER” plus many more. To start
everything going, four LOONEY TUNES. Butter popcorn & a coke was
just 25 cents. Great memories as a baby boomer. I really miss that
theater! Regards,
Bob Sides E-mail
Here are some photos taken today:
http://tinyurl.com/ybhm9uy
http://tinyurl.com/y9sdlul
http://tinyurl.com/y8pclj5
The twinning of the Bay Theatre took place in 1972. The house reopened as the Bay Twin on August 24, according to Boxoffice Magazine’s September 18 issue that year. The owners had the theater’s interior entirely stripped and rebuilt, rather than merely splitting the original 1100 seat auditorium with a wall. The new twin auditoriums each had 400 seats.
The Bay twin theatre closed in 1978. My top intro comment should change to late 1978 now.
The Bay was an Electrovision theater in July 1960:
http://tinyurl.com/3cm8h8
I moved to the Palisades in 1980, and by then it was already Norris Hardware/Bay Pharmacy. I remember hearing rumors from old-timers that it had been a movie theater, so I’d put the closing date closer to the mid-1970s.
This is my neighborhood pharmacy and hardware store now. The building has 2 stores in it. From the photos, it looks like the main entrance was on the side that has the hardware store. The structure for the big “Bay” sign still stands, it is emblazoned with the name of the hardware store. The pharmacy was a venerable old neighborhood independant store named “Bay” although in the last couple of years it has been bought by a national chain and renamed.
There appears to be no remaining trace of the theatre in the public portions of the stores. The pharmacy has undergone an extensive remodeling since its recent purchase, so I imagine any remaining artifacts of the theatre have been purged. The only sign that indicates there once was a theatre here is the vestiges of a terrazo sidewalk at the corner where the entry once was.
Next time I go shopping I will look at the place with new eyes….
From the UCLA Collection:
http://sclee.library.ucla.edu/001/13/i0011308.jpg
http://sclee.library.ucla.edu/001/13/i0011303.jpg
http://sclee.library.ucla.edu/001/13/i0011306.jpg
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http://sclee.library.ucla.edu/001/13/i0011301.jpg
http://sclee.library.ucla.edu/001/13/i0011304.jpg
http://sclee.library.ucla.edu/001/13/i0011305.jpg
http://sclee.library.ucla.edu/001/13/i0011307.jpg
I was the projectioinist here from 1969-1970 – it was still in very good condition and did pretty good business. I remember we ran “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” for THREE WEEKS! very rare for a neighborhood theatre that changed programs (Double Features) once a week. The booth was a standard booth with Simplex E-7’s, SH1000 soundheads, and magnarc (Peerless) lamps. The original proscenium was behind the screen and still had the original curtains up. Last time I went by there it was a hardware store – oh well.
The Bay Theatre was situated in an exclusive residential community of Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles. It was designed by famed architect S. Charles Lee. He left no stone unturned to make the Bay a first class picture house, both within and without. the convention type of marquee and entrance have been done away with in favor of a roofed outer lobby, separated from the interior by a porcelain enamel wall with glass doors. An overhanging canopy protects patrons in bad weather while the driver proceeds to a 500 car adjoining parking lot invaluable in modern management. The luxurious foyer has been embellished with lavish murals done in a tropical motif, and a modern candy stand. Doors lead from either side of a dominating mural into the 1100 seat auditorium. A stairway at one side of the candy stand leads up to the mezzanine floor, which includes the projection booth, 80 loge seats, the ladies room and mens room. The auditorium proper is done in soft rose tones with two murals on eight side of the proscenium providing decorative accents to the ornamentation.
The Bay Theatre was located at 15140 Sunset Blvd.