Encore Theatre

The Encore Theatre opened as the Melvan Theatre in the early 40's and it seat 824 people. It was located at 5308 Melrose Ave.

This theatre was just west of Van Ness Avenue on the south side of Melrose Avenue, as stated in previous comments the address was 5308 Melrose Avenue. I only had contact with it during the 1940's and early to mid 1950's. At which time it went from a Movie house to the place where KTLA Television Channel 5 in Hollywood with the main office at Paramount Studios just north of the theatre. The theatre was used for their musical shows, and the last I saw from there was the Morey Amsterdam Show.

I remember patronizing the Encore in the late 70s when it was a revival house. My favorite memories of the Encore: meeting King Vidor and Peter Bogdanovich after screening of their films.

My best friend would drag his unhappy wife to see Japanese Samurai Martial Arts marathons at the Encore (and they're still married).

I believe it's been replaced by an office building supporting Raleigh Studios (which I believe is the oldest continuously operating film studio in the U.S.)

Demolished, eh. Oh well, as Raoul Walsh once wrote: "Memories are a form of immortality. Memories are young forever."

Thanks for the memories Encore!

Louis Federici (1912-2005) reopened the old Melvan in 1963 with the intention of running retro which was not all that popular at that time. Always in a friendly rivalry with Max Laemmle, Louie was offered a picture that Max turned down, "Mondo Cane" and he made a bundle! Next he brought in other pictures like "Phaedra", "Black Orpheus", and "The Gospel According to St. Matthew" - alternating with his original plans things like "King Kong", "The Mask of Fu Manchu", et al. I was his projectionist from 1975-1978 - at the beginning of 1978 he sublet to a group called Film Generations who brought in daily changes of double features - many time inviting the filmakers like Richard Brooks, Lewis Allen and many others to screenings and discussions of their pictures. They did great business, but by the end of the year Louie had lost the theatre in a dispute with the landlords - who got it, Max Laemmle! He operated for a couple a years until the entire block was bought by Raleigh Studios, and now the Encore serves as their main theatre.

So the Encore has not been demolished?

I went to the Encore a few times, between 1963-1966. Like the Oriental on Sunset Boulevard and the Clinton on Western Avenue, it was a place where you could sometimes catch foreign movies that had already made their way through the usual art house circuit. It was at the Encore that I first saw "Last Year at Marienbad." The program included a second feature which I had already seen, but I was with friends who had never seen it, so while it was playing I went out to the lobby for a snack and got drawn into a conversation about "Marienbad" that was going on between a fellow I took to be the manager and another guy. It was an interesting debate they were having over the meaning and intent of the movie. I wonder if one of them was Louis Federici?

I always liked the Encore. It was a very pleasant and well-run theatre.

Louie was rarely at the theatre until it was time to close and collect the money! The manager was Milton Kaiser who sold the tickets and candy. The Oriental and Sunset were run by the Lefton family who also had the Pan Pacific - the Sunset later becoming a Pussycat Theatre.

I lived on North Gardner Street just South of Sunset Blvd. Between 1977=78 I'd often walk up North Gardner to attend double features at the Oriental for a dollar or $1.50.

The Pan Pacific and Gordon theaters were faves of mine during those days because we could see two relatively new movies for $1.50.

Being new to LA (and young and poor)I couldn't have asked for a better value than patronizing those theatres (through the early 80s as I recall).

Hey filmbreak,

This is Rob, I was one of the partners in Film Generations, were you the projectionist then?

I am currently looking for any Old Theatres in which to lease or possibly buy in Reseda, Van Nuys, Hollywood or North Hollywood. It has been my Long life Dream to renevate and own my own Theatre/ Venue. Please e-mail me at richardwarrington@hotmail.com or call me at 310-597-9398 if you live here!! Thanks.Rick

P.S. If you also live in the areas in which I am looking and want to help please contact me as well!!

Here's the location from the air. There is a soundstage for the studio, and that looks like it could have been a theater, but it's set back from Melrose. So this should answer if the theater was demolished. Is the Soundstage the theater?
http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=ppdd2m5468q5&style=o&lvl=1&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&scene=6916000&sp=Point.ppdhrg5468zb_5308%20Melrose%20Ave%2c%20Los%20Angeles%2c%20CA%2090038-3147%2c%20United%20States___

Featured on 9/15/74 - "Animal Crackers" plus 2nd Marx Bros movie.

Sorry to see this venerable old theatre bite the dust. My first visit was in the mid '60s for Fellini's "Juliet of the Spirits" and returned often. Mr. Federici gave me the poster and I still have it.

I was struck by the arty bits hung on the walls throughout the lobby. It's was always fun. And let us not forget Milton Kaiser, the guy behind the counter. A charming old guy with plenty of stories about movies and Hollywood. One night he was mugged and savagely beaten. He returned to work sometime thereafter but was never quite the same (sigh).

Here is a 1970 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/27dke9

I think this was one incarnation of the theater:
http://tinyurl.com/28c7tb

In reply to the Oct 5, 2007 comment, Monterey Pop was released in June of 1969 and Dont Look Back was released in February of 1968.

Here is a 1941 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/3e49c5

Another copyrighted photo.

Funny thing about the photo of the Encore as the KTLA Studio Theatre. When My group took over operations for Louis, prior to the closing, I was talking to my father about the Encore. He told me that when he was doing producing live shows for KTLA that was where the shot them, shows like "Queen for a Day", and others that I wish I could remember.

Here is a January 1950 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/4ocsgt

Here is a 1951 photo from a new collection of Life Magazine images on Google:
http://tinyurl.com/6fn9ac

The link to the Life magazine photo was originally found by a new member named "misterboo" I'm sure that "misterboo" would have been very happy to post the photo had he been given the opportunity to do so. Your thanks should go to "misterboo" for the photo.

ken mc,

Thanks so much for the Life photo. Great to have a photo of the theatre from when my father was producting there.

I wonder if your father went to Nickodell's near Paramount. That was a classic old restaurant.

Yes as a matter of fact, that is where my parents met, and my dad and I would go there every so often for dinner when he was working. He had an advertising agency, and in those days you would do live commercials at channel 9, then take the clients to the bar at Nickodell's, and drink until the next station break!

Hey Rob and all,
I worked for Film Generations, managers of "The New Encore Cinema", in the late 1970's. Thanks for the job Rob! It's hard to tell from the ariel photo if the original building is still there. If it is still there it is to the right (west) of the building on the corner of Melrose and VanNess. It would be the one with the HVAC ducts visible on the roof. When we ran the theatre there was a parking lot on the corner that wrapped around the back of the building. The Adagio restaurant was across the intersection diagonally. Our biggest competition was an art house on Sunset.

The Encore was used for church services in July 1970, according to this article from Time:
http://tinyurl.com/9a79b2

Here is another 1951 photo from Life magazine:
http://tinyurl.com/amyzv6

This site has a 1984 view of the Continental:
http://tinyurl.com/culbjs

Here is an October 1968 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/r34sbn

I saw a picture at this theatre in 1983 when it was called the Laemmle. Don't remember the film title, but do remember the entire interior was red; red carpeting, red seats, red valour covered every inch of wall space, everything red, red, red.
From the LIFE Archives come these photos when this cinema was known as KTLA Studio Theatre,
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=hollywood+slump+source:life&sa=N&start=108&ndsp=18

From the early 1950s The Mel-Van Theater was used exclusively by KTLA to broadcast their musical TV productions - "Dixieland Showboat", "Bandstand Revue", "Dixieland Showboat", "The Ina Ray Hutton Show and "Western Varieties".

"Queen for a Day", a Ralph Edwards Production was televised from the Aquarius Theater, across the street from The Hollywood Palladium.

This is from the LA Times on 10/17/50:

Ina Ray Hutton's show tonight inaugurates KTLA's new studio theater. It's the old Melvan house that, although vacated, carried the slogan "Movies are Better than Ever" on its dusty marquee.