the list of 9 for september 17, 2008:
NINE NOW-CLOSED L.A. MOVIE THEATERS I USED TO GO TO
I've been thinking about the past a lot lately. Mainly because my 20-year high school reunion iscoming up, and also because I had recently put most of my old CalArts films online, which took meback to 1992. That was the year I graduated college, moved into the city of Los Angeles, and spentmany a Saturday afternoon attending matinees (while I was single). You never really think aboutmovie theaters closing, and sixteen years doesn't seem like that long a time, but a fewnights back I realized how many old cinemas I used to patronize have since closed. It's areflection both of LA's constant need to tear things down and rebuild them, and of how moviegoinghas changed in the last few years.
- The Century Plaza Cinemas. This was an odd theater, fourscreens (it began with two) in a tres-1970s space, at the bottom of a building in a weird complexof offices and performance areas. (There was also a large live theater nearby.) I saw DancesWith Wolves here, as well as Topsy-Turvy. The whole thing met the wrecking ball in 2004.
- The Mann National. Demolished in 2008, this amorphousbrown blob in Westwood was one of the last giant single-screen cinemas built in the U.S.,constructed in 1970. When Westwood Village was the place for young Angelenos to spend aSaturday night, the National was constantly filled. A gang shooting in the late '80s was the deathknell for that era, and although many local theaters still pack 'em in, the National neverrecovered, and the place that once drew lines around the block for Raiders of the Lost Arkscreened lesser films over the last decade. The only time I ever went was to see a matinee ofTeam America: World Police. My friend and I were literally the only ones in the 1,112-seattheater.
- The NuWilshire. This Santa Monica landmark is a goodexample of an old movie palace from Hollywood's golden age unceremoniously halved into atwin-screen theater in order to compete with 1970s multiplexes. Still, the facade of the buildingis charming, and will be the only thing remaining as developers gut the interior for offices,condos or whatever. I knew the NuWilshire as a place for art films, and went here several times,the last being for Hot Fuzz.
- The Fine Arts. This beautiful old 1937 theater is on theborder of Beverly Hills and LA. During the '90s, it was owned by Checchi Gori and played artfilms. I could walk to it. I remember when they played Kieslowski's entire Decalogue. Since2005 it's been used for private screenings only.
- The Beverly Connection 6. It's amazing that the horribleshoebox-style multiplex at the Beverly Center across the street is still open, while thisgenuinely great place to see a movie has been torn down (the nearby Grove shopping center, withits popular stadium-style theaters, screens all the top-drawer movies for the neighborhood;the Beverly Center now only plays second-run titles). But then, the Beverly Connection mall alwaysstruggled against its much larger competitor, and when it was renovated a couple years back, themoney-losing theaters - which I loved because they had nice big screens and THX sound (whateverhappened to THX?) and were usually deserted - had to go. I saw so many films here, I can'teven remember. The Matrix was one.
- The Hollywood Galaxy 6. Though just a block or two awayfrom the famous Chinese Theater and its handprints in the cement, this late '80s mini-mall, thoughstill standing, was never a success. Its retail spaces have changed hands multiple times, and itsfairly decent screens on the second floor have been torn out and replaced with what is currently agym. I saw Jurassic Park here, among other movies.
- The Little Tokyo Cinema. Los Angeles once had a thrivingJapanese population (most of whom have since spread out), and for decades there was a number ofmovie theaters across town that only played Japanese films, such as the Toho La Brea and theKokusai. The very last one, built relatively recently (in the late '70s or early '80s), was theLittle Tokyo Cinema, in the heart of Little Tokyo in a fairly large Japanese mall. It closed in1990 after an enormous retrospective of Akira Kurosawa's films. I was still a student then, but Idid make it to this theater a couple times.
- The Edwards Century/The Kuo Hwa. In San Gabriel, an LAsuburb now predominently Chinese, this classic theater renamed itself the Kuo Hwa in the '90s andwas the only place you could see Hong Kong movies on the big screen. But the golden age of HKcinema was over not long after the Kuo Hwa opened, and the theater was gone by 1997.
- The Westside Pavilion. This was a four-screen shoeboxtheater crammed into one corner of the middling Westside Pavilion mall. What made it unique for amall multiplex was that it only showed art films. You could always get a chuckle by looking at theridiculous seating arrangement - the first row was literally about three feet from the screen.Like many older theaters around LA (such as the AMC Century City and the Mann Chinese), it closeddown in 2007 and was reborn elsewhere in the mall as a hipper incarnation called "The Landmark," a12-screen art house wonder with both large stadium theaters and teensy "living room" theaterswhere you can sit on love seats. Modeling itself after Hollywood's revolutionary Arclight, whichengulfed the Cinerama Dome and introduced the $14 movie ticket, The Landmark lets you choose yourown seat and sells wine and gourmet goodies at the concession stand. It might, indeed, be the waveof the future. But unlike the venerable old Pavilion theaters, it doesn't accept the Landmarkdiscount pass. Bummer for me.
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