Wow! Thanks for finding that picture of the Will Rogers, Brian! I had not been able to find one anywhere. It looks kind of dingy in this picture, but when I went there to see movies in the mid-60’s it felt as if it was one of the most magical places on earth. Thanks for the memory!
Took one of the official tours of the theater today and it was a good two hours of information and well worth seeing. The theater is in great shape. They have made some changes to the original auditorium: in order to expand rest rooms and provide handicapped access, they changed the rake of the main floor and in the process lost several hundred seats. Ditto for the balcony which also has been reconfigured so the total seating is about 600-700 less than the Alex’s original capacity.
The guide also told us that the Alex was supposed to be home to the pipe organ saved from San Francisco’s famous Fox theater. They had purchased the organ and had planned to put it in when they discovered it was too large for the space they had available and so they subsequently sold it to Disney where it now plays at the El Cap.
The Alex is just about the only survivor of what used to be theater row in Glendale. As late as the 1980’s they used to have “dollar Tuesdays” at all the theaters: Roxy, Glendale, Capitol, Alex, etc. At least they saved the best one.
“Valley Girl” is all we have left to remember this neighborhood theater. There is absolutely nothing left that would ever indicate a theater stood where a real estate office stands now.
You can find a picture of a Palms theater at: View link
Don’t know if its this one or the one in Fillmore. It doesn’t seem to match up to any other of the Palms theater listings. Perhaps there’s another Palms that hasn’t been listed yet. Anybody know for sure?
76 of the red Cinedome seats live on at the Lincoln Stegman Theatre in North Hollywood. They were recently rescued out of storage and will be installed in this live venue for 2006. The cupholders are clearly marked Cinedome.
Bryan’s 1964 postcard picture actually appears to have been taken around May 29th, 1963. The Paul Newman picture that opened that day was “Hud”. “Mondo Caine” had opened in the US April 3, 1963 and “Dr. No” opened May 8th, 1963. Great picture!
The Tower is in many ways a dress rehearsal for the Los Angeles Theater. There are many of the same elements on a much smaller scale, particularly in the layout of the lobby and the lounge outside the restrooms under the theater. The paint on the ceiling is chipped and peeling but there’s still plenty of glamour in the Tower. The auditiorium is very narrow and there doesn’t seem to be enough room on their stage to have a screen big enough to show today’s films. If it has a future, it would seem to be as a nightclub, for filming or for private parties.
The Tower was also stood in for a Miami nightclub in “Mambo Kings”.
The balcony is impressive here and reminiscent of the Orpheum. The church has replaced all the seats in this theater and has built a large alter on the stage. Up at upper balcony level, portions of the roof have crumbled, but most of the theater seems intact. The projectionist booth has been boarded up and the figurine that sits above the stage (I forget what kind it was) has also been covered up and not removed. You can see where the old second entrance was walled up long ago.
The El Portal must have been quite a house in the old days. It features a very large stage and what I think used to be their orchestra pit, now covered. The auditorium is a bit disappointing. Like the Egyptian theater, they basically remodeled by tearing out the interior and building two new theaters inside. Like the Egyptian, the main stage has a much steeper rake than the old seats. This allows them to build a smaller theater underneath the seats for the main stage.
If one looks around, one can still see where the original entrances to the auditorium were. This has now been sacrificed to accomodate a bar and lobby area as well as steps to the upper level of seats. Nothing remains of the original ceiling, torn down to accomodate the catwalk and the high rake of seats.
Can’t be sure, but I think Brian might be right and there may at one time have been a small balcony. Be sure to check out the forward exit doors which still have the crumbling plasterwork that looks like it may have been original.
The theater had been twinned when I went to see a double feature there back in 1980. They showed “1941” and “Love at First Bite” which was notable in that they managed to show the third reel upside down AND backwards. You could clearly SEE the soundtrack on the screen. It made for a very out of body experience. The theater was pretty run down then. I think it closed soon afterwords.
The Tujunga is a familiar story: a once nice local single screen theatre in the 1930’s and 1940’s, it deteriorated over the years, showing X rated fare in the early ‘70’s, then made a comeback as a second run bargain house. It finally closed up for good in the 1990’s and was replaced by an apartment building. There is no sign that a theatre was EVER in this location.
The parking was convienient, but other than that, the Topanga was a pretty ratty theatre that best remains forgotten. I saw “Son of the Pink Panther” there. Why? I don’t know.
The theatre has been beautifully restored—including working air conditioning! This has greatly enhanced the annual “Last Remaining Seats” series every June. It used to be the balcony seats would become unbearably hot during the screenings. Now audiences can sit back and really enjoy the theatre and its films!
Coming back home to shoot “Talk Soup in Chicago” at the Chicago Theatre was a terrific experience. I remember seeing “Beverly Hills Cop” there in the 1980’s when the theatre was kind of ratty and unkempt and the feeling was it was going to be torn down. Seeing it restored to its glory makes me feel anything really is possible.
The Luna used to feature free Saturday morning matinees for kids in the 1960’s sponsored by Cragin Savings. It’s where I first saw “The Ghost & Mr. Chicken” and “The Incredible Mr. Limpet”. The Luna was a small house, but made a good babysitter.
I suppose this is better than no Egyptian at all. They tore up the front of the house and made the auditorium much shorter to accommodate a larger lobby. Rather then renovate, they built a new theater within the old one. It’s disappointing at best.
The theater may be long gone, but the building remains in downtown Long Beach. I shot a film there while at CSULB and while I could tell a theater had been there, I could not tell it had been such a big house.
Wow! Thanks for finding that picture of the Will Rogers, Brian! I had not been able to find one anywhere. It looks kind of dingy in this picture, but when I went there to see movies in the mid-60’s it felt as if it was one of the most magical places on earth. Thanks for the memory!
Took one of the official tours of the theater today and it was a good two hours of information and well worth seeing. The theater is in great shape. They have made some changes to the original auditorium: in order to expand rest rooms and provide handicapped access, they changed the rake of the main floor and in the process lost several hundred seats. Ditto for the balcony which also has been reconfigured so the total seating is about 600-700 less than the Alex’s original capacity.
The guide also told us that the Alex was supposed to be home to the pipe organ saved from San Francisco’s famous Fox theater. They had purchased the organ and had planned to put it in when they discovered it was too large for the space they had available and so they subsequently sold it to Disney where it now plays at the El Cap.
The Alex is just about the only survivor of what used to be theater row in Glendale. As late as the 1980’s they used to have “dollar Tuesdays” at all the theaters: Roxy, Glendale, Capitol, Alex, etc. At least they saved the best one.
“Valley Girl” is all we have left to remember this neighborhood theater. There is absolutely nothing left that would ever indicate a theater stood where a real estate office stands now.
You can find a picture of a Palms theater at:
View link
Don’t know if its this one or the one in Fillmore. It doesn’t seem to match up to any other of the Palms theater listings. Perhaps there’s another Palms that hasn’t been listed yet. Anybody know for sure?
The marquee and exterior of this theater can be seen in the 1973 Columbo episode entitled “Double Exposure”.
The State-Lake’s marquee along with the Chicago and Loop theater marquees can all be seen in the Lee Marvin movie “Prime Cut”.
76 of the red Cinedome seats live on at the Lincoln Stegman Theatre in North Hollywood. They were recently rescued out of storage and will be installed in this live venue for 2006. The cupholders are clearly marked Cinedome.
Bryan’s 1964 postcard picture actually appears to have been taken around May 29th, 1963. The Paul Newman picture that opened that day was “Hud”. “Mondo Caine” had opened in the US April 3, 1963 and “Dr. No” opened May 8th, 1963. Great picture!
You can see a photo of this when it was the Hermosa at: http://www.moviepalaces.net/
The Tower is in many ways a dress rehearsal for the Los Angeles Theater. There are many of the same elements on a much smaller scale, particularly in the layout of the lobby and the lounge outside the restrooms under the theater. The paint on the ceiling is chipped and peeling but there’s still plenty of glamour in the Tower. The auditiorium is very narrow and there doesn’t seem to be enough room on their stage to have a screen big enough to show today’s films. If it has a future, it would seem to be as a nightclub, for filming or for private parties.
The Tower was also stood in for a Miami nightclub in “Mambo Kings”.
The balcony is impressive here and reminiscent of the Orpheum. The church has replaced all the seats in this theater and has built a large alter on the stage. Up at upper balcony level, portions of the roof have crumbled, but most of the theater seems intact. The projectionist booth has been boarded up and the figurine that sits above the stage (I forget what kind it was) has also been covered up and not removed. You can see where the old second entrance was walled up long ago.
The El Portal must have been quite a house in the old days. It features a very large stage and what I think used to be their orchestra pit, now covered. The auditorium is a bit disappointing. Like the Egyptian theater, they basically remodeled by tearing out the interior and building two new theaters inside. Like the Egyptian, the main stage has a much steeper rake than the old seats. This allows them to build a smaller theater underneath the seats for the main stage.
If one looks around, one can still see where the original entrances to the auditorium were. This has now been sacrificed to accomodate a bar and lobby area as well as steps to the upper level of seats. Nothing remains of the original ceiling, torn down to accomodate the catwalk and the high rake of seats.
Can’t be sure, but I think Brian might be right and there may at one time have been a small balcony. Be sure to check out the forward exit doors which still have the crumbling plasterwork that looks like it may have been original.
Pictures of the theater, lobby cards and more information on this lost California theater can be found at:
View link
Try this link to the photos of the Lakewood, both interior and exterior:
http://digital.library.ucla.edu/sclee/
The theater had been twinned when I went to see a double feature there back in 1980. They showed “1941” and “Love at First Bite” which was notable in that they managed to show the third reel upside down AND backwards. You could clearly SEE the soundtrack on the screen. It made for a very out of body experience. The theater was pretty run down then. I think it closed soon afterwords.
The Tujunga is a familiar story: a once nice local single screen theatre in the 1930’s and 1940’s, it deteriorated over the years, showing X rated fare in the early ‘70’s, then made a comeback as a second run bargain house. It finally closed up for good in the 1990’s and was replaced by an apartment building. There is no sign that a theatre was EVER in this location.
The parking was convienient, but other than that, the Topanga was a pretty ratty theatre that best remains forgotten. I saw “Son of the Pink Panther” there. Why? I don’t know.
The theatre has been beautifully restored—including working air conditioning! This has greatly enhanced the annual “Last Remaining Seats” series every June. It used to be the balcony seats would become unbearably hot during the screenings. Now audiences can sit back and really enjoy the theatre and its films!
Coming back home to shoot “Talk Soup in Chicago” at the Chicago Theatre was a terrific experience. I remember seeing “Beverly Hills Cop” there in the 1980’s when the theatre was kind of ratty and unkempt and the feeling was it was going to be torn down. Seeing it restored to its glory makes me feel anything really is possible.
The Luna used to feature free Saturday morning matinees for kids in the 1960’s sponsored by Cragin Savings. It’s where I first saw “The Ghost & Mr. Chicken” and “The Incredible Mr. Limpet”. The Luna was a small house, but made a good babysitter.
I stand corrected. This theatre is now a big hole in the ground.
I suppose this is better than no Egyptian at all. They tore up the front of the house and made the auditorium much shorter to accommodate a larger lobby. Rather then renovate, they built a new theater within the old one. It’s disappointing at best.
The theater may be long gone, but the building remains in downtown Long Beach. I shot a film there while at CSULB and while I could tell a theater had been there, I could not tell it had been such a big house.