Picwood Theatre
10872 W. Pico Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90064
10872 W. Pico Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90064
22 people
favorited this theater
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QUESTION and STORY!! Have any of you members been in a theatre as an employee when a BOMB threat was phoned in? I was at the FOX HOLLYWOOD when this happened around 1975 and I was at the Mann’s Triplex in Pasadena when a bomb threat was phoned in on 2 separate occasions in the early 1980’s. I STAYED RIGHT IN THE BOOTH ALL 3 TIMES!! Now, no one ever talks about the forgotten theatre employees called JANITORS. Today we must call them Rubbish Engineers. When I was on Funky Broadway I spent about 6 months at the ARCADE. Like all theatres downtown whether they were a Palace or not they all shared one thing in common…A GREAT BIG BALCONY. One Sunday morning I came it at 9:30 for a 10am start time and every employee plus the managers were cleaning up. The theatre was filthy. You may not know that these poor guys were only guaranteed 5 hours and practically all worked 6 or 7 days a week. The manager told me they were on strike. I asked why. Historically on Broadway there were always 2 janitors. One was in the main auditorium and 1 was in the balcony. It would be physically impossible for 1 man to clean both upstairs and down in 5 hours but believe it or not management wanted to eliminate 1 man and give the remaining man a generous 37 and ½ hour 6 day work week. Unbelievable.
MERYL AND DRH: Thanks for the acknowledgement. I don’t put too many of my 150 photos on the Webshots site because I believe alot of them may be basic shots other members have seen as I did. I have found a couple of sites with really great stuff but the owner/s sent me a notice on line that we are not allowed to show shots with the name of the site I got them from. Socaldriveins.com has some great shots including the Palm Springs drive-in which my grandparents took me to during the Korean War. But, this site puts their name across the middle of the photo. Some sites put their site name at the bottom and I can remove the name. Another great theatre was the Village walk-in in Palm Springs. I will be adding the second most unbelievable shot I have ever seen next week when I get my high-speed modem. The greatest shot I have ever seen is the one I put from the Chinese in 1953 in the winter showing the Robe. When my New York contact sent that I fell off my armchair because the color is so great.
Hoppy, I love your pictures, too! -Meryl
Hoppy: Your link of old theatre pictures rocks! David.
MEMBERS:I realize Katrina has probably affected interaction on this site. I myself just applied online for a temp job in the SF Valley as a Customer Phone Rep with the Gov’t. They want education, communication skills and empathy and I am a Social Worker. One week ago Los Angeles had a power failure on Monday. I am with Adelphia Cable for tv and high-speed. I lost and never got back my high-speed so I just got AOL which has many flaws also. Mainly sending tech support to New Delhi where the connection sucks and their accents also are impossible to understand. I just got dial up and won’t have hi-speed until Saturday. I look forward to more interaction in time and hope to add some theatres to my album. My new name is HOPPY2 where it just was Hoppy before.
WHEN WILL THE 1000’S OF THEATRE PICTURES THAT HAVE BEEN SENT IN FOR YEARS EVER BE ON THIS SITE?
MEMBERS: Check out my photo of me in 2000.
hoppy: The Holiday Theatre was located at Topanga Blvd. & Roscoe Blvd. Chatsworth, it was a single screen built in the 70 style cinder block constuction. It was operated by Statewide then Loews, GCC and then operated as a independent. During the last year or so of operation. This group that leased and operated the Criterion in Santa Monica, the Meralta in Culver City and for a very short time the Warner Beverly Hills Theatre. They operated these theatres as a double feature houses for .49 cent a seat. Today the former Holiday Theatre is a hardware store.
MEMBERS: Being semi-disabled I went nowhere over Labor Day. However, a contact back East sent me a classic. This picture on my WEBSHOTS is the opening of the first Cinemascope picture. It is 1953 at the Chinese and you can see the famous RED CARS which were all over L.A. and which I rode with my Mom in the 1940’s!! We lived in a garden apartment at what is now referred to as the famous La Brea Towers. I remember my Mom taking me over to FARMER’S MARKET for lunch. I always ended a meal with a Gingerbread Man cookie. Wow!! Also, there is a new picture of my Mom at the Chinese in 1983. The organic disorder my Mom had when I grew up lessened with age but never disappeared. She looks great here!!
WILLIAM: IN THE 1970’S DALE GILLUM THE A.B.A. CALLED AND SENT ME ON ONE OF MANY 1 NITE STANDS IN CANOGA PARK. THE FILM WAS JAWS AND THE NICE LITTLE THEATRE WAS NAMED THE HOLIDAY. CAN U TELL ME ANYTHING ABOUT IT? THANKS, HOPPY
“All in the Family” theme plays … those were the days….
Now about ANGEL’S FLIGHT which along with BROADWAY THEATRES was all that would bring a normal person downtown by 1970. The committee to preserve the Angel’s Flight Railway and Broadway Theatres kept as much as they could of the Railway and vowed to re-open the Landmark. I think they only managed to preserve 3 theatres overall. Finally, in 1995 it re-opened but 1 block away. In 2000 L.A. got it’s first subway!!!It goes from where I live in No. Hollywood all the way downtown to City Hall. It makes 12 stops along the way. My ladyfriend said let’s ride the subway downtown, then ride up and down Angel’s Flight and finally eat lunch at the famous Grand market. There were no theatres left for us to really see just swap meets where all those famous houses once showed classic films!!! HORRIBLE!!! Well, this turned out to be my last hurrah. In 2001 an elderly couple literally fell out of the ANGEL’s Flight ride and the husband died. The wife recovered and ANGEL’S FLIGHT was closed again after only 5 years and never has re-opened! I became semi-disabled 2 weeks prior to 9/11 due to an inoperable disk between L3-L4 and nowadays I use a quad cane or a walker according to terrain and distance. I have put another picture on my Webshots of the Angel’s Flight Ride when Rose and I went there in 2000. It is a beautiful restoration job! I still drive downtown once a year at XMAS and cruise FUNKY BROADWAY hoping to see all my old theatre haunts but I never go near Main Street!!!
My one war story from the MAIN ST. BANNER WINE GRIND: When I came down at 11pm to work one Friday nite I had to crawl over drunks, garbage and RIPPLE WINE BOTTLES. 49 cents a pint!!! I worked 11:30pm-5am. At 2am 2 police officers come into the booth and tell me: When we go back down into the auditorium we will flash our lites. STOP THE SHOW and turn the lites on!! Unheard of!! As instructed when I did here were 2 guys in handcuffs both a bloody mess. One is yelling at the other: YOU…DON’T YOU EVER SIT IN THAT… SEAT AGAIN! YOU…I HAVE BEEN SLEEPING IN THAT… SEAT EVERY NITE FOR 12…YEARS!! I could not believe this diatribe and mentality. They went to knuckle city over a seat!!! The next nite I called the regular man and told him what happened. He only replied: Now you know why MAIN ST. operators all carry a hogleg!! And this was 1969!!
How come the chain still says Unknown? The chain was Pacific Theatres….
The large single screen houses, the big ones, were grand. The Picwood, with over 950 seats, with a balcony with rocking seats, with two staircases leading upstairs, and an open lobby made going to the movies more of an event. The pace and tempo was different than the rush-them-in rush-them out type multiplexes, where crowds were dumping out and going in on top of each other. Customer service was better, because you dealt with the rush and then you had ample time to restock, prepare more food, and give employees breaks. For making money, the multiplex is the way to go, to maximize staff productivity and to provide the convenience of multiple showtimes to the public – but I grew up on the single screens in Westwood and West L.A. For me, when I go locally, I now go to The Bridge, where I pay extra to reserve my seats so I don’t have to worry about sold-outs shows or long lines, and arrive just in time to see the previews and watch the show (there’s enough on-screen advertising on TV – now movie theatres are knee-deep in it).
So, yes, I miss the Picwood. :)
For theatre historians the 4 theatres on MAIN ST. in 1969 when I pulled a few shifts at 2 of the 4 WINE GRIND HOUSES were the: BANNER, REGENT, OPTIC and the BURBANK which was also known as the 3rd and MAIN FOLLIES. My very first job after I left the VISTA 16MM THEATRE was 2 shifts at the Broadway and 2 at the EL PORTAL where I learned projection summer of 1968. These shifts encompassed Sat.– Mon. Also, I might add all the downtown theatres were owned by Bruce Corwin’s Metropolitan Chain and half the theatres were already Spanish which showed plenty of T&A and violence. I may not have liked Broadway overall because of the change in film policy and deterioration but compared to Main St. it was Heaven. I might add this was a time when the famous MILLION DOLLAR still had bands and dancers and singers and was a big hoopla!! Also, the original and famous Angel’s Flight Railway would be torn down late in 1969. It opened around 1900. I went and looked at it because one of Lon Chaney Jr.’s last coherent films INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN was shot around it and has more scenes of the railway in motion than any other film made. It is a great little film to rent!! I own it!! I will put a picture of ANGEL’S FLIGHT on my WEBSHOTS taken in the 1960’s. I would think alot about the Picwood, Palms and Culver whenever I was sent downtown. It eased the pain!! After 1972 I had enough seniority to never return to Main or Broadway which in the 20’s, 30’s and 40’s was the theatre capital of Los Angeles.
Hi Hoppy, We had something funny that happened with a 16mm print at the theatre that I managed in NY—(Bleecker Street Cinema)
In the middle of ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS, customers came to the lobby, and said that something funny was going on with the sound. When I went into the theatre, there was an all male bar scene, with Cary Grant & other men— but Jean Arthur’s voice was on the soundtrack!
It turned out that the 2nd reel had reel 3’s sound. I turned off the projector, and asked the 20 or so people in the audience if they wanted a refund; or skip the bad reel. Then someone said: “Why don’t you just run the reel without sound— I know this movie really well, and I can fill in the story as it’s playing.” The other people in the audience agreed.
It was a unique experience, listening to a story being told, while the film played silently.
We were all sad when we switched back to sound with the next reel.
We got a lot of compliments as people left after the show, and didn’t get asked for a single refund!
Dwodeyla: I fear if I tell too many booth stories it will be entertaining only for a while. However, soon as I reach my friend Jay Lee B. in Az. where he retired I will get the name of 2 theatres I forget where Jay and I worked on Main St. not Broadway.
When I tell you my tale of working what we called the WINE GRIND on Main St. in 1969 you will die laughing. There were 4 houses that ran from 9:30am-5am with only 4 hours off to meet legal requirements for janitorial cleanup. There was no such thing as an intermission. Furthermore, every 150 man carried a hogleg on his inside belt. I am not BSing you…A HOGLEG!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Jay and I worked from midnite until closing at 5am.
The print booking problem that hoppy posted never happened when I worked the Picwood. The film bookers had us playing a lot of 70MM engagements during the 1980-1982 time frame. And during that time First Run theatres in the Westwood/West Los Angeles/ Hollywood areas also got back-up prints. That might have happened when the Picwood in the later years played opposite the Studio Drive-In in Culver City.
hoppy: “Volunteers” was not the last thing To grace the marquee at the Picwood. The last thing on the marquee was a banner that the Cleveland Wrecking Company placed on it. When the company was razing the theatre I took a few rolls of film of the theatre. I spent alittle over two weeks shooting the Warner Beverly Hills Theatre being razed.
“RETURN ENGAGEMENT” Cleveland Wrecking “BRING DOWN THE HOUSE”
Where I worked, the Distributor would have sent an extra print by taxi to the theatre
missing a print.
Do any of you former theatre employees remember something that has never been mentioned on this site not even by WILLIAM who is very knowledgeable. That was an issue where FILM BOOKERS made a serious oversight. A film would be booked into 2 theatres in the same area but only one print was available?????? I do!! It was a mad house. I was in the booths when this happened twice. They staggered the presentations by about 30 minutes and someone drove like hell with 2 reels from 1 theatre to the second. Then the final 3 reels would be driven over about 45 minutes later. This is basing most films on 5 reels. Rarely did reels 3,4, and 5 get to the second house on time and after reel 2 I played music and the manager who was a nervous wreck would make an announcement over the mike in my booth and the audience would start booing!!
Great album Hoppy. That picture of the Picwood sure does bring back memories.
That’s the Picwood I knew, and the bowling alley – one-time Picwood manager Woody Brunson used to get a supersweet strawberry shake and a tuna melt there EVERY time he worked.
Thanks for the excellent work, hope you’ll show more in the near future. I’m enjoying
reading your messages too. It’s nice to have an old-timer telling his stories.