I saw it at the Plitt Century Plaza and Chinese near the end of summer to avoid the long lines. Of the two theatres the Chinese had the most awesome presentation in 70mm.
Currently the official Star Wars convention is now going on at the Los Angeles Convention Center to commemorate Star Wars 30th.
The one down side of mylar is that it may be too tough, now if a print jams it does not break and can cause damage to gears and other parts of a projector
True and as I remember it prints made of mylar was also made thinner than regular cellulose-acetate prints. I often had to adjust the gate pressure when I went to mylar to help keep the clattering noise down and the picture steady. Also you cannot use a cement (wet) splicer on mylar prints.
After I was trained to be a union projectionist in late 1973 I was required to take a written and practical test for a city license if I wanted to work in a booth in the city of Los Angeles. The county of Los Angeles also had a license requirement. The written part of the test had to do with rectifiers, carbon lamphouses, xenon bulbs, fuses, film composition, fire doors and a few other things I don’t remember at the moment. In the practical I had to thread up two projectors, trim the carbon, make a changeover and shut down the booth. For a time the license requirement was helping the union stay somewhat strong since one of the two examiners was a union board member who helped pass those who were getting into the union. In later years the city and county license requirement ended.
Ken, just as San Pedro and Wilmington are communities within the city of Los Angeles Harbor City is too. These areas are represented by Los Angeles city councilwoman Janice Hahn.
This is always a great way to spend an evening in Los Angeles’s downtown center. Our usual routine is as follows. My wife and I walk to subway station from our home in Hollywood and get on a Union Station bound Red Line train. We get off at either the Metro Center station or Pershing Square station and find a place to have dinner. Then after dinner we walk a few blocks to the theatre where Last Remaining Seats is held and enjoy a wonderful evening of vintage style entertainment in a grand movie palace.
I remember seeing this double bill at the Lakewood theatre in 1970 before it was twinned, The Sterile Cuckoo (Liza Minneli) and Dirty Dingus Magee (Frank Sinatra). Years later as I was attending LBCC nearby in 1985 I saw this double bill, Airport ‘75 and The Dove at the Lakewood Twin.
I taped many episodes during it’s run when it was on the two PBS channels here in Los Angeles during the mid-80’s. I had forgotten about this show until one day I was cleaning out my closets and I came across these tapes. I especially enjoyed the trailers. Debbie Reynolds will make the perfect host but what ever happened to the original host?
I remember reading that story in the same newspaper and seeing a published picture of the excavation pit. It was the concrete foundation for the Sunkist bldg where the 45 story Wells Fargo bldg was later constructed. Well’s Fargo later sold the building to Citi-Group and moved a few blocks south into the newly constructed 45 and 55 story Wells Fargo twin Towers. As far as I know there was no problem excavating the Paramount site where the International Jewelry Center bldg now stands.
Great for small towns and other areas where the profitability from running a drive-in can exceed the value of the property the drive-in sits on. Back here in California in Los Angeles and the Frisco Bay Area property is just too valuable for a drive-in as most have been demolished for condos, malls and ironically walk-in’s which generate many times more municipal taxes than a drive-in and big profits for the developers and landowners.
The Art located just a few blocks east of Downtown L.B. is the only theatre still standing where I used to go see movies during the 60’s and 70’s. The West Coast, UA, Imperial, State, and Rivoli were all demolished decades ago. The Art is truly a survivor.
If this were the 70’s I would say yes. I remember those 49 cent theatres doing booming business showing double features of played out films. But that was before DVD’s, VHS, movie channels, satellite dish, movie downloads, big screen high def TV’s, things that you would be competing against for the movie dollar. Furthermore your equipment, maintenance, utility, insurance and employee payroll costs can be prohibitly expensive and will take a large chunk out of your profits, if you can make any that is.
Besides the Loyola theatre being similar to the Crest there was another theatre, the Culver which was tri-plexed in the mid 70’s. THe Culver was also operated by Mann Theatres.
I saw many films at the Crest during the 60’s. In 1965 dad took the family there to see an evening showing of It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World. The line for that show went past Lloyd’s of L.B. furniture store all the way to the next street corner. Other films I saw there includes Mary Poppins, and HELP! also in 1965. The last times I went to the Crest was in the early 70’s to see the controversial movie Survive and later the long forgotten Oklahoma Crude in 1973.
One note about the Crest was that this theatre had no balcony. Instead the rows of seats that were a third of the way back rose up in a stadium seating configuration.
The UA theatre building was closer to PCH back in the 70’s when I worked there. At the time there was only room for a row of parked cars facing PCH and an access lane. This picture shows two rows of parked cars so this isn’t the same building unless someone moved it a few yards north.
I worked the Roxie about April or May in 1976 for two weeks when the projectionist took a vacation. There was three movies on the program. During those two weeks I remember running Kingdom of the Spiders, Deranged, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Nightmare Honeymoon and several kung fu movies. The booth was small and narrow with three super simplex projectors and two of the simplex arclight lamphouses were converted to xenon. Even with this setup we still made change-overs on two thousand foot reels. I never went into the auditorium but only saw it through the booth ports. The auditorium had a balcony and the screen was kinda small. The decor color was crimson red. I worked the day shift.
Up until the land on the other side of Sepulveda was developed there was a small hill that had an oil derrick and an old shack. It was really spooky at night. When going to the snackbar I could hear that oil pump making a chug chug chug sound.
I began my projectionist career at this theatre in December 1973. The day shift was offered to me and I took the job. My hours were from 10 a.m. (opening) to 6 p.m. To get to the booth I had to climb up a ladder, swing open a trap doow then once I hoisted myself into the booth close the trap door so I don’t fall through the floor. That New Year’s eve the relief projectionist didn’t show up and the union couldn’t get anyone to work the shift so I ended up working the graveyard shift. That was nearly 18 hours in a small and hot booth without intermissions with noisy generators that ran the arc lamps. The only relief from all that was running the quiet 16MM film projector on a large reel. Walnut Properties which operated the Pussycat porno chain also ran the Art. I remember taking catnaps during the night only to be awakened by the sounds of Happy New Year and car horns at midnight.
I saw it at the Plitt Century Plaza and Chinese near the end of summer to avoid the long lines. Of the two theatres the Chinese had the most awesome presentation in 70mm.
Currently the official Star Wars convention is now going on at the Los Angeles Convention Center to commemorate Star Wars 30th.
The one down side of mylar is that it may be too tough, now if a print jams it does not break and can cause damage to gears and other parts of a projector
True and as I remember it prints made of mylar was also made thinner than regular cellulose-acetate prints. I often had to adjust the gate pressure when I went to mylar to help keep the clattering noise down and the picture steady. Also you cannot use a cement (wet) splicer on mylar prints.
After I was trained to be a union projectionist in late 1973 I was required to take a written and practical test for a city license if I wanted to work in a booth in the city of Los Angeles. The county of Los Angeles also had a license requirement. The written part of the test had to do with rectifiers, carbon lamphouses, xenon bulbs, fuses, film composition, fire doors and a few other things I don’t remember at the moment. In the practical I had to thread up two projectors, trim the carbon, make a changeover and shut down the booth. For a time the license requirement was helping the union stay somewhat strong since one of the two examiners was a union board member who helped pass those who were getting into the union. In later years the city and county license requirement ended.
Ken, just as San Pedro and Wilmington are communities within the city of Los Angeles Harbor City is too. These areas are represented by Los Angeles city councilwoman Janice Hahn.
This is always a great way to spend an evening in Los Angeles’s downtown center. Our usual routine is as follows. My wife and I walk to subway station from our home in Hollywood and get on a Union Station bound Red Line train. We get off at either the Metro Center station or Pershing Square station and find a place to have dinner. Then after dinner we walk a few blocks to the theatre where Last Remaining Seats is held and enjoy a wonderful evening of vintage style entertainment in a grand movie palace.
Beautiful smogless sky over Los Angeles.
I remember seeing this double bill at the Lakewood theatre in 1970 before it was twinned, The Sterile Cuckoo (Liza Minneli) and Dirty Dingus Magee (Frank Sinatra). Years later as I was attending LBCC nearby in 1985 I saw this double bill, Airport ‘75 and The Dove at the Lakewood Twin.
I taped many episodes during it’s run when it was on the two PBS channels here in Los Angeles during the mid-80’s. I had forgotten about this show until one day I was cleaning out my closets and I came across these tapes. I especially enjoyed the trailers. Debbie Reynolds will make the perfect host but what ever happened to the original host?
I remember reading that story in the same newspaper and seeing a published picture of the excavation pit. It was the concrete foundation for the Sunkist bldg where the 45 story Wells Fargo bldg was later constructed. Well’s Fargo later sold the building to Citi-Group and moved a few blocks south into the newly constructed 45 and 55 story Wells Fargo twin Towers. As far as I know there was no problem excavating the Paramount site where the International Jewelry Center bldg now stands.
Great for small towns and other areas where the profitability from running a drive-in can exceed the value of the property the drive-in sits on. Back here in California in Los Angeles and the Frisco Bay Area property is just too valuable for a drive-in as most have been demolished for condos, malls and ironically walk-in’s which generate many times more municipal taxes than a drive-in and big profits for the developers and landowners.
The Art located just a few blocks east of Downtown L.B. is the only theatre still standing where I used to go see movies during the 60’s and 70’s. The West Coast, UA, Imperial, State, and Rivoli were all demolished decades ago. The Art is truly a survivor.
Last summer I went to the Chinese to see the WAR OF THE WORLDS remake. The film stunk but the THX sound was just awesome.
If this were the 70’s I would say yes. I remember those 49 cent theatres doing booming business showing double features of played out films. But that was before DVD’s, VHS, movie channels, satellite dish, movie downloads, big screen high def TV’s, things that you would be competing against for the movie dollar. Furthermore your equipment, maintenance, utility, insurance and employee payroll costs can be prohibitly expensive and will take a large chunk out of your profits, if you can make any that is.
My mom and dad used to go there on dates before I was born.
Besides the Loyola theatre being similar to the Crest there was another theatre, the Culver which was tri-plexed in the mid 70’s. THe Culver was also operated by Mann Theatres.
That part of Atlantic Boulevard had three movie theatres, Crest, Towne a few blocks north and Atlantic which was just past the railroad bridge.
I saw many films at the Crest during the 60’s. In 1965 dad took the family there to see an evening showing of It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World. The line for that show went past Lloyd’s of L.B. furniture store all the way to the next street corner. Other films I saw there includes Mary Poppins, and HELP! also in 1965. The last times I went to the Crest was in the early 70’s to see the controversial movie Survive and later the long forgotten Oklahoma Crude in 1973.
One note about the Crest was that this theatre had no balcony. Instead the rows of seats that were a third of the way back rose up in a stadium seating configuration.
The UA theatre building was closer to PCH back in the 70’s when I worked there. At the time there was only room for a row of parked cars facing PCH and an access lane. This picture shows two rows of parked cars so this isn’t the same building unless someone moved it a few yards north.
I worked the Roxie about April or May in 1976 for two weeks when the projectionist took a vacation. There was three movies on the program. During those two weeks I remember running Kingdom of the Spiders, Deranged, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Nightmare Honeymoon and several kung fu movies. The booth was small and narrow with three super simplex projectors and two of the simplex arclight lamphouses were converted to xenon. Even with this setup we still made change-overs on two thousand foot reels. I never went into the auditorium but only saw it through the booth ports. The auditorium had a balcony and the screen was kinda small. The decor color was crimson red. I worked the day shift.
Up until the land on the other side of Sepulveda was developed there was a small hill that had an oil derrick and an old shack. It was really spooky at night. When going to the snackbar I could hear that oil pump making a chug chug chug sound.
I’m a fan of old theatres. On my next trip out to the east coast I’ll take a look at this magnificient theatre.
The Dome is the most unique theatre in Los Angeles.
I began my projectionist career at this theatre in December 1973. The day shift was offered to me and I took the job. My hours were from 10 a.m. (opening) to 6 p.m. To get to the booth I had to climb up a ladder, swing open a trap doow then once I hoisted myself into the booth close the trap door so I don’t fall through the floor. That New Year’s eve the relief projectionist didn’t show up and the union couldn’t get anyone to work the shift so I ended up working the graveyard shift. That was nearly 18 hours in a small and hot booth without intermissions with noisy generators that ran the arc lamps. The only relief from all that was running the quiet 16MM film projector on a large reel. Walnut Properties which operated the Pussycat porno chain also ran the Art. I remember taking catnaps during the night only to be awakened by the sounds of Happy New Year and car horns at midnight.
Disney films played there in the 60’s. Ironic that it was turned into a porno house.
I came across a Motiograph only twice in my nearly 22 year career (1974-1996).