Comments from vpescado

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vpescado
vpescado commented about Variety Playhouse on Apr 16, 2008 at 12:48 am

The theater was renamed the Ellis theater in the mid eighties or earlier. I encountered the theater in the summer of 86 and it was well established as an indie theater. (it was running 28-Up)

I don’t think at this point it was run by Mr. Ellis. IIRC it was run by a couple who had made a bit of money as the husband was an early employee of Hayes (the modem company) and took on the theater as a labor of love.

L5P was a magical place at the time (especially for a college sophomore) it was gentrified just enough not to be too dangerous a place, yet not so yuppified that all of the quirky flavor was driven out by high rents and excessive enforcement.

It went out of business in the late eighties/early nineties and was reborn as the variety playhouse.