Hologram USA Hollywood Theater
6656 Hollywood Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90028
6656 Hollywood Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90028
14 people
favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 50 of 87 comments
CStefanic: The most recent thing I can find about the project is on the Ritz Theatre page at Bill Counter’s web site. He has a photo of the new signage, which reads “FilmOn.TV Hologram”. They intended to launch in August, but have apparently missed their target.
We have the name Newsreel Theatre listed as an aka for this house, but it was called the News-View (hyphenated just like that) throughout its history as a newsreel house. The name Newsreel Theatre was on the marquee from the day the house opened, but was not the name of the theater, just an indication of the theater’s programming. In fact the ends of the marquee had the plural “Newsreels” rather than the singular “Newsreel” on them.
There is an aka that is missing from out list, though. When the house converted to feature films the “S” was removed from the name on the facade and the letters adjusted to read “New-View” which is what the house was called until it became the Pussycat. The “Tele-News” (the name of the chain) that had been on the marquee was removed, as was the word Newsreel, replaced by New-View. This page at Bruce Torrence’s Hollywood Photos web site shows the New-View as it looked until it was converted into the Pussycat.
Has anybody heard any word from the Ritz in the past few months?
Thanks Joe. I love the Orange Julius next door in the photo! Great one.
I was hoping the Ritz would retain it’s penchant for screening classics as well. I would wager any Movie House out here in Los Angeles would do right to employee such a prerequisite – but that’s just me. =)
This post from The First News Junkies mentions that the Ritz is being converted into a hologram theater, but doesn’t give any details about the project. It does, however, have a nice photo of the News-View that I don’t recall having seen previously.
This post from the SFGate is about Dolby Laboratories' demonstration project at the Vine Theatre. I don’t know if Dolby is involved with the Ritz project. It isn’t the only company experimenting with holographic movies.
This Mashable post says that Seoul has four competing theaters presenting holographic versions of Korean pop music concerts, and another hologram theater is opening in Singapore. Their system isn’t very advanced, though. I would hope that Dolby’s experimental system is better, and is the sort of thing that will be going into the Ritz.
The marquee has been revamped, and apparently the lobby area, redone. I happened by the construction during the Turner Classic Movie film festival. When I asked the man in charge exactly what was happening, he replied that the Ritz WILL open as a movie theatre again…operating as a Hologram Theatre…
I’m not sure I understand…
Is this the same kind of demonstration that the Vine Theatre down the street is parading?
The church moved out in late December 2015.
Bway: No, the photos David uploaded do depict this Pussycat Theatre (the New-View/Ritz.) The old Monica/Pussycat on Santa Monica Boulevard had a much plainer front.
I think the Pussycat Theater photos belong here? http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/2361
Just added 2 photos as the Pussycat. Previous links including them may have been dead.
Around 45 seconds of footage of it as the Pussycat here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLVbEJzv_vo
Typo…..I started at the Ritz June of 1990.
I was the last operator of the Ritz. I played revival from June, 1991 thru April, 1991 when Orion gave me Silence of the Lambs which I played until October when I closed the theatre. I used the profits from Lambs to help pay for a Christmas Carol set. I used portions of this set two years ago at the Kodak up the street for a Xmas Carol production that starred Christopher Lloyd and John Goodman. During rehearsals I took Lloyd to lunch at Musso and Franks across the street from the Ritz and he got a kick out of hearing how I paid for part of the set we were using.
This theater was still called the News-View as late as 1954, when the August 21 issue of Boxoffice said that operator John Wolfburg was renting the house to packagers of television shows during the morning hours. The packagers used the showings primarily to promote their offerings to advertising agencies, prospective sponsors, and TV station programming directors, and the viewing public was admitted for free to provide an audience.
I have no memory of the house as the News-View, but I’m sure it had become simply the New-View by the early 1960s. The earliest mention of it under that name I’ve found in Boxoffice is from November 28, 1966, which mentions that operator Harry Wineberg was running “Born Free” at the house.
The nomenclature for this theater is a bit complex. Note in this ca.1950 photo (the same one linked above by ken mc, and misidentified by the web site as being in New York City) that the hyphenated name “News-View” is on the facade in large letters. At the top of the marquee is a small sign in script reading “Tele-View” and the marquee says “Newsreel Theatre.” It’s possible that the “Tele-View” signage was added only in 1941, after the Tele-View Theatre east of Vine Street was converted into the Hitching Post Theatre. The News-View and Newsreel Theatre signs were thus on the house at the same time, rather than being two different aka’s. All the old references to the house I’ve found call it the News-View Theatre (though usually without the hyphen) rather than the Newsreel Theatre.
The exterior features of the News-View building remained pretty much the same into the 1970s. The Ritz facade and marquee actually date from the mid-‘70s remodeling of the house by Pussycat Theatres. The Ritz Theatre page at Historic Hollywood Theatres has a small photo dated 1972 showing that the only significant changes from the ca.1950 photo were the removal of parts of the signage: the “S” from the name on the facade and the “Tele-View” sign, and the replacement of the marquee’s “Newsreel” with “New-View.”
Boxoffice mentions the New View frequently from 1970 through 1973, and never hyphenates the name, but I recall seeing it hyphenated in the ads and listing in the L.A. Times. It was certainly hyphenated on the theater’s signage.
Here is a photo of the Ritz which I took when on holiday from Wales in 1990, great double feature on at the time.
I once saw the British comedy “whoodunit” there, Margaret Rutherford as Miss Marple in Agatha Christie’s “Murder At The Gallop"
View link
Exterior views of the NEW VIEW (and those of the nearby VOGUE) are seen in several scenes in the 1970 Paul Mazursky film ‘Alex in Wonderland’. A horror double-bill was playing at the time.
DOCUMENTARY ON CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD CINEMAS – Lookn for interviewees, photos, videos of old hollywood
Hello,
I’m and independent filmmaker working on a documentary about old movie theatres in hollywood (Iris, Warner, Pacific, Hollywood, Vogue, Grauman’s Chinese, Egyptian etc..) that have had an impact on the hollywood community, both as a symbol of Hollywood as well as the historical and heritage effects it has had on “hollywood” as an industry. We are profiling theatres that are currently functioning as well as the obsolete. If you worked in these theatres back in the day (during their highlights) and have interesting stories to tell, photos to show, video to talk about I would like to hear from you. Many older movie houses are being demolished due to new developments and it is important to help future generation know and understand how these movie palaces have helped shaped the Hollywood we know today. If you have any photos or videos with personal stories you’d like to share, please contact me (323) 876-0975 – – You must owns the materials you are willing to share (taken the picture- recorded the videos, written the letters, etc…)
If you do have materials you’d like to send that may help in accurate information, you are welcome to send it to me.
Jorge Ameer
Classic Hollywood Cinemas
Box 3204
Hollywood, California 90028
View link
This 1951 photo is incorrectly labeled as being in NYC:
http://tinyurl.com/yc4v8jf
Here is a 1983 photo of the Pussycat:
http://tinyurl.com/qbu62o
I remember The New View back in the 60s when I lived in Hollywood They showed mainly Brit Films mostly Carry On movies, You paid at box office went through a turnstile no candy counter in lobby just a row of vending machines it was shabby and run down no Drapes covered the screen they showed a Kilidescpe during intermission
Here is a January 1974 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/ko2zwp
Photos taken last week (May ‘09):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cakeight/3574390401/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cakeight/3575176384/
Here’s a google street view of the theater:
View link
Photo taken yesterday:
http://tinyurl.com/cn8gs7
Funny no one has pointed out that the theatres name was originally the NEWS-VIEW and when they discontinued showing newsreels they droped the S from the name. I know this for a fact as I have a photo with it as the News-View.
We all had to work there at some time.