New Beverly Cinema

This theatre was also known as the Capri, Riviera and the Europa theatres before it became the New Beverly theatre. It's located at 7165 Beverly Blvd. one block west of La Brea Blvd.

Was the World Premiere of THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT held at the Beverly?
I lived in LA for 10 years and attended screenings at the New Beverly regularly (until 1987). Several years ago I saw a short film of the THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT premiere on TCM and it reminded me of the New Beverly.

Two of my fondest memories of the theatre: watching double features of THE THREE MUSKETEERS/THE FOUR MUSKETEERS and THE GODFATHER/THE GODFATHER PART 2.

There used to be so many of these themed "revival" houses around, in the days before VCR, and now of course DVD. Anyone of a certain age will remember the New Beverly's monthly fliers, almost always featuring a Monty Python or Woody Allen double feature. Those fliers are still to be found at local record stores! Amen!

I attended a double feature here during a trip out to LA and saw Valley of the Dolls and Myra Brekinridge. The place was packed and the audience, including myself was having a ball. Yeah it's rundown and could use some updating, but it reminds me of all the Greenwich Village theatres we have lost like The Bleecker and The St. Charles.

Im tired,I meant St Marks Cinema LOL

The owner of the New Beverly is bleeding cash (you, thankfully, Robert, made it there on a night with a big crowd - that, regrettably, isn't always the case), but is thankfully persisting in keeping this jewel open.

That trip was actually 5 years ago, so alot can happen in that time. I am planning on flying out next month just to see "This is Cinerama" at the dome. I always wanted to see it and am glad I missed the aborted version shown in the Ziegfeld.

RobertR - Up until now I thought I was the only person in the world who admitted to having seen 'Myra Breckenridge'!

LOL ok I will tell the truth, I also saw it at the Cinema Village when I was managing it. I believe it was paired up that time though with "Something for Everyone". Didnt Myra have a big splashy premiere at the Criterion?

You're probably the person who can answer this for me, Robert - did the Cinema Village and Thalia Soho ever share operations? I remember a time around 1987 and '88 when both theatre's calendars shared a similar layout and size (i.e., those large, approximately 17" x 22" sheets) and, at one point in the late rep days for the Cinema Village (and near or at the final days of the Thalia Soho in 1989/1990), both theatres sharing the same calendar, with the Cinema Village's schedule printed on one side and the Thalia Soho's on the other...

I wasn't in New York in those days - I saw it at the Embassy Theatre in Cleveland, of all places. It was a double feature, though I can't remember what the second picture was.

Lawrence Tierney could be found in the center of the very back row whenever they'd do midnight screenings of "Reservoir Dogs" (a habit he kept until his death).

Yes for about a year and a half the Cinema Village was owned by Richard Schwartz who had the Thalia Soho (which i dont think has a listing on here). He then sold it to the current owner who I used to work for.

Thanks for responding to my query, Robert; I suspected something of the sort.

Cheers to Sherman for maintaining a rare treasure in this of all cities to not have these dinosaurs for our pleasure. The only calendar house left in LA? Amazing. I had the rare pleasure of filling in once or twice here as projectionist long ago in the early '80s - Sherman won major mojo awards with me for his knowledge of truly arcane cinematic crap.
Support this legend.

I found this picture on the web, you can see it was once a Pussycat house (or Tomcat)from the round ovals on the marquee.

www.pbase.com/image/2080942

This isn't the only calendar house left in LA, at least not anymore. You've also got the Aero and the Egyptian.

The NuArt also still prints a calendar.

PS: I not only saw "Myra Breckinridge" first run at the Stadium Drive-Ins in Orange but I now own the DVD. Think what you will of me. I am not ashamed!

By extension, all Landmark Theatres (Rialto, NuArt) print calendars, as does the Garden Cinema in Gardena.

Originally opened as a local vaudeville theatre, in around 1945 it became a night-club called Slapsie Maxies, named after boxer and B movie star Maxie Rosenblum. Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis made their West Coast debut here.

Eventually (late 1950's) it converted into a movie theatre, first known as the Capri and later the Riviera screening repertory movies in seasons of off beat independent realeases. In the early 1960's it was known as the Europa, screening many European art house movies and its next incaration was the Eros, firsrtly playing foreign movies that contain fairly explicit sex scenes, later it became a gay male porno cinema.

Between 1968 and 1977 it changed it's name to Beverley Cinema and began showing XXX rated adult movies and included nude dancers on stage.

In May 1978, it became the New Beverley Cinema and since then has become the main revival house cinema in Los Angeles.

"Calendar house" means a theatre that pubilshes and distributes a day-by-day calendar of movies and showtimes, one or more months in advance.

The Nuart is a calendar house, but most other Landmark theatres are not.

Having edited much of the copy on Landmark Theatre calendars, I respectfully beg to differ.

But really now - a calendar house is/was a daily-changing venue theater, not just a house that issues calendars. This ain't just semantics, is it?

The difference of opinion here seems to be that;
Ron is talking about theatres who publish their programmes (usually monthy) on give-away sheets where the daily changes of programme are usually laid out in the form of a daily calendar for the period covered.

MagicLantern; I presume you are talking about the 2005 Landmark Theatres Calendar that was on sale at their theatres, which showed photo's of various Landmark Theatres month by month for the year.

To answer RobertR question no this was not a Pussycat Theatre, it did show adult movies. I think that marquee dates from when it was the Europa Theatre.

Ken - no, I mean a schedule of films printed a month or two in advance; this includes regular flyers for midnight film showings at various theatres in the Landmark chain.

I remember attending this theater to see a double feature of "Once Upon a Time in the West" and "One-Eyed Jacks". This was quite a few years ago. At that time, "West" had not yet been restored and they gave the audience the choice of which print to see: a 35mm edited scope print or a 16mm full length flat print. The edited scope print was shown.

Pics here:

http://www.cinematour.com/tour.php?db=us&id=20091

I think I may have a couple of monthly calendars from the Rialto in South Pasadena, dating from the early 1980s. I recall packing them when I moved from Los Angeles in 1986. A few of my boxes are still unopened after all these years.

I'm trying to remember if I went to the Beverly in the 1960s. I attended at least two theaters on Beverly Boulevard at that time, but can't remember the names, though "Riviera" rings a bell.

KEN ROE: Are you sure the New Beverly was once, in its early days, SLAPSIE MAXIES? Wasn't Slapsies located on Wilshire Blvd. or somewhere else?

Scoop,
I took the infomation from the New Beverly Cinema's own website. http://www.michaelwilliams.com/beverlycinema/ click on 'info'

During its XXX days, Bill Osco(related to the Osco family who owned the Osco Drugstore chain) and Howard Ziehm had owned the theater. Osco/Ziehm made the first 35mm XXX narrative feature, "Mona"(1970) and are best known for the 1973 cult classic "Flesh Gordon". Ziehm later ran the theater on his own after dissolving his partnership with Osco. (Well told by Ziehm on the DVD audio commentary of Flesh Gordon.)

Saw Elem Klimov’s Come and See here earlier tonight. The theatre looked slightly cleaner and brighter as I walked inside. Only in a few moments did I notice the cause - new (for the New Beverly, at least) SEATS! Wow. Not the whole auditorium, mind you, but only the middle section. The whole “stage left” section of the auditorium, row one, and the last few rows are still the old school New Beverly seats. As much as the news seats seem comfortable, I somehow felt the theatre lost a little bit of its charm.

I caught a Fellini double bill here way back on July 18, 1986: La Strada with Ginger and Fred. I remember the dumpy seats that was the price you paid for first rate repertory programming.

Here is a night view of the Beverly Cinema.

The New Beverly Cinema was indeed the original location of Slapsie Maxies. The club later moved to Wilshire Blvd., but it was the Beverly Blvd. location where Martin and Lewis made their L.A. debut.

This is interesting. I don't see that anyone mentioned a previous incarnation as the Fairfax Theater. If you look at this picture from the LAPL database, the theater takes up about half the block on Fairfax heading up towards Canter's. If you walk south from Canter's (today) on the west side of Fairfax, you can see a painted sign advertising an unidentified theater on the side of the building, somewhat below where the free-standing sign is in the picture.

http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015285.jpg

ken mc:

The Fairfax is a different theatre, also still open, and operating as a multiplex, several blocks west of the New Beverly Cinema.

OK, thanks.

New Bev Cinema rocks! It's still cheap at $7 (or less, see their site) and you get a double feature like "Goodfellas & Casino" or my favorite "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" and "Mommy Dearest" on New Years Day 1998. Oh, and yes, El Coyote is a MUST. Excellent food and great margaritas :)

1983:
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics18/00028702.jpg

2006:

Here is a recent photo of the New Beverly Cinema at night.

From Jan. 2007:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k79/hollywood90038/hwdBeverlyjan262007001.jpg
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k79/hollywood90038/hwdBeverlyjan262007004.jpg

This is the rare cinema treasure. In addition to showing old films, they show original trailers for upcoming films. Loved going here in "95-'97 when I was in College. My favorites were "Shaft"/"Shaft's Big Score" and "The Exorcist" and "The Shining." love their bi- monthly scedule advertisements.

Featured on 9/15/72 - "Teenage Slaves" (world premiere). "Young girls beware - you may become a teenage slave!" Rated X. Free refreshments - Coke, candy & popcorn.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3i4e5cfeef7081c5c8a1e03c7ecd1f0462

New Beverly founder Sherman Torgan dies

By Tony Gieske

July 20, 2007
Sherman Torgan, who founded and ran the last remaining full-time revival cinema in Los Angeles, died Wednesday of a heart attack while bicycling in Santa Monica. He was 63.

His New Beverly Cinema at 7165 Beverly Blvd. in Los Angeles has been screening repertory double bills continuously since it opened in 1978. Past, present and future filmmakers, actors and movie lovers have been drawn to the house, whose attractions run the gamut from old Hollywood classics, recent independent film and European and Asian favorites, to the occasional silent or animated feature.

Torgan opened the doors of the New Beverly on May 5, 1978, with a Marlon Brando double bill -- "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "Last Tango in Paris," which was just then helping to bridge the gap between X-rated and mainstream entertainment.

On its recent 25th anniversary, the theater held no celebration. "Hooray! The Beverly Cinema has reached a milestone" read a notice in agate type on the theater's calendar. "This month marks 25 years of continuous repertory programming. . . . The struggle goes on."

Here's their web site.

http://www.newbevcinema.com/index.cfm

Posted last night by Michael Torgan, Sherman's son, on the New Beverly website:

Due to the sudden and completely unexpected passing of my father Sherman, the New Beverly's programming will be cancelled until further notice.

Sherman was my father and my best friend, and his passing has left me and my family completely devastated. He was the main force behind the New Beverly from May 5, 1978 until the present. I simply do not known when I will be able to fill his shoes. My pain and sorrow are truly too much to bear right now. He was still so young and full of life, and was doing what he loved so much, riding his bike on the Santa Monica bike path, when he died. My mom and I am in utter shock.

Thank you to everyone for their support during this difficult time.

Please check this website for any updates on public memorials and the future of the New Beverly Cinema.

With love,
Michael Torgan

Hello Michael and Mary,
I was shocked to read the news about Sherman's untimely death.
I met Sherman in summer school-1965. I was struck by how fearlessly he communicated - he was open, frank and had a unique sense of humor.
We went on to be friend for many years. I also remember his telling me about meeting Mary, who he described as having a truly loving character with great patience and resilience. Qualities which can surely help you now. Later, he became equally devoted to Micheal. The apple of his eye. I share in your grief and send my love,
Jane Serlin (Oakland, CA)

Has the theatre reopened? They have a full August schedule listed on their web site.

They reopened last Wednesday:
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=54856712&blogID=291889027

This theater was once known as the New Yorker, per an ad in the LA Times dated 11/23/63.

http://blogs.laweekly.com/foundas/sherman-torgan-owner-of-the-ne/

Someone earlier mentioned they saw Ginger and Fred at New Beverly in July of 86 -- so did I!

I think the last thing I saw there was Killing of a Chinese Bookie in 1993.

First double-bill I saw was Parallax View and Conversation in September 1980 (I had just moved to LA to attend USC). I had just arrived in LA, checked listings in LA Times, and decided to go see this double-bill. Unfortunately, I didn't have a map, so I just drove all over, somehow found Beverly Drive and ended up in Beverly Hills. I finally made a u-turn, drove a few more miles, and found the New Bev. I subsequently discovered Thomas Bros. maps. What a great theater. A few nights later, I caught a midnight show of Andy Warhol's Bad. I saw so many movies there, it was like film school.

I remember seeing Inserts around that time, and there were old guys in raincoats in the audience who probably used to haunt the theater when it showed X-rated movies.

Other fun memories: A fight broke out during a Godard film, one guy jumped over another row of seats to get at someone else. During a screening of Salo, a woman got up and screamed that Pasolini deserved to die and then she stormed out.

This movie title looks interesting. :)

A Christian porn film?

I was trying to get over to a theater on the West Side once when I was new to LA. The directions indicated that I should take Beverly Boulevard. I consulted my trusty Thomas Guide, and it told me to take the 60 east and get off on Atlantic Boulevard, which of course put me on E. Beverly Boulevard in East Los Angeles. If you're trying to get to the New Beverly, this is not the way to go.

Twice a month Eric Caiden and Brian Quinn host The Grindhouse Film Fest at the New Beverly Cinema

http://www.myspace.com/grindhouse

They are fixing up the place. New carpet, new sound system. Same seats but I hear a new screen is going in soon.

This place is a treasure, we never get to see the films they run here at the Film Forum or Thalia

The New Beverly is celebrating their 30 year anniversary this month. Godspeed and here's to another 30 years! In celebration, they are reproducing the May 1978 schedule film for film. It is truly a wonder that this theater is still with us and all credit goes to the late Sherman Torgan and his son Michael for continuing the tradition his father began way back in 1978. For me, it's hard to believe that I have been going to the New Beverly since 1980 and it has been a constant in my life for the last 28 years. It is now the last of it's kind, so come out and support the last great revival theater in Los Angeles! The New Beverly is indeed a treasure! Thank you Sherman (RIP) and thank you Michael for keeping the New Beverly going and for all the new and comfortable improvements you have made to the theater recently.

I heard a rumor that Tarantino bought the New Beverly recently. Does anyone know if there's any truth to this? They haven't listed their programming past tonight...

I'm going to the Reservoir Dogs showing tonight, so I can ask about Tarantino. I wouldn't put it past him, though, I just saw him a few weeks ago at the Piranha showing.

Here is a May 1972 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/43qwhj

B/W photo

There is an ad for the Europa at the bottom of this LA Times page, dated September 1969:
http://tinyurl.com/pvdsp6

Here is a January 1975 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/rdny97

Spring 2009:
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff204/hollywood90038/BeverlyCinema.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff204/hollywood90038/BeverlyCinema3.jpg

Here is a February 1973 ad from the LAT:
http://tinyurl.com/qku26f

What is the purpose of all of these adult ads?

Quentin Tarantino was interviewed on a recent CBS Sunday Morning show, and he confirmed that he had indeed purchased this theater. He and the reporter did some shots outside under the marquee, then went inside to continue the interview in the auditorium.

The world premiere of "That's Entertainment" was held at the Beverly in Beverly Hills. That was back when Beverly Hills still had theates. Oh well times change.

This page is for the former Beverly Theatre in Los Angeles. The Beverly Theatre in Beverly Hills is on this page.

Tarantino bought the New Beverly? Can anybody else confirm this?

It makes sense that Tarantino might purchase this as he has hosted a series here and the owner recently passed away. Maybe he can pick up the Chinese while he's in the mood?

By purchasing the property, Quentin Tarantino has saved the New Beverly Cinema from facing the same fate as the NuWilshire and so many other single screen theaters - conversion into retail space. Shortly after my dad Sherman's sudden death in 2007, our then landlord decided to sell the building to a real estate investor, and the property's future as a single use movie theater was uncertain. There was the possibility the property would be divided into two separate retail spaces. Mr. Tarantino's heroic purchase assures that the building will remain a movie theater for many years to come.

The business known as the "New Beverly Cinema" has been a tenant of the building since 1978, and I continue to run the business my dad and some other partners started 31 years ago. Had another landlord purchased the building, the New Beverly would have likely closed due to either a major rent increase or the conversion of the space into another use.
- Michael from the New Beverly Cinema

Thank you Michael for the confirmation for that is more then I could have expected. I see you at the theater when I attend as I did your father for many, many years. He was a good man and is very much missed. So, thank you again for that good news and also to Quentin Tatantino - a big thank you as well - for stepping in and saving this Los Angeles treasure. For those of us who remember when there were many such revival theaters in LA, the continued operation of the New Beverly is fantastic news as it is now the last of it's kind and even more of a treasure especially as we watch as more single screen theaters are closing one by one. So, thanks again for confirming this good news and I'll be sure to say hello if I see you in the box office or behind the snack bar counter. Cheers!

Again, I misspoke and assumed the operator of the New Beverly was the owner. Thank you for the clarification. Could we have hoped for a better buyer? I think not. Thank you, Michael, for posting the best news I've heard in a very long time.

Love going to this little theater but is there any chance of money being put into the presentation? The small offcenter screen is pretty awkward. It's fixed width, correct? The sides can't be expanded for scope films?

Driving by yesterday, there is some restoration and repainting of the facade going on.

The presentation of the New Beverly is just fine and is the absolute best I can remember in the 30 + years I've been going. Everytime I go to The "Beverly" I am always happy to see something new that has either been added or replaced since the last time I was there. I was out a few weeks ago for a great double feature of "Death Wish 3" and "Rolling Thunder" and noticed that the front doors had been replaced and brand new. I love this theater with all my heart. Los Angeles is very lucky to have it and some great programing coming up in January 2010 including a showing of "The Exiles!"

Come out and support this theater!

Keep up the great work Michael and God bless you!

January 8, 2010:
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff204/hollywood90038/BeverlyCinemaJan1020101.jpg

What is happening with the missing signage?

The Beverly ovals were taken down for rewiring / repair and should be back up & properly lit soon.

For a long time I've had a vague memory of having attended a movie at a twin theater on Beverly Boulevard in the early 1960s, and of having read an article about the opening of said theater in the Los Angeles Times some time before that.

I was pretty sure it was the theater that became the New Beverly, but nobody posting on this page ever mentioned anything about such a twin here, and the theater's web site said nothing, so I didn't comment (for several years I also had a very vivid memory, which turned out to be false, of there having been an Admiral Theatre on Main Street in downtown Los Angeles, so that embarrassing experience made me a bit gun shy.)

Now, I have found confirmation of the existence of this twin! Boxoffice of October 19, 1959, has an article with pictures of the very theater I remember, and it was indeed this one. Capri and Riviera were not sequential names for this theater, but the names of the two auditoriums of the twin opened at this address by Robert Lippert in the late 1950s.

The Capri and Riviera Theatres had to have been the first twin opened in the city of Los Angeles, and the first in Southern California after Jimmy Edwards opened the Annex at his Alhambra Theatre in suburban Alhambra in 1941.

I don't recall the year in which I attended the Riviera, but it was probably no earlier than 1961. Boxoffice of September 16, 1963, tells me it couldn't have been later than 1963, as that's when the house was restored to a single-screen configuration, reopening as the New Yorker on Friday, September 13.

Both articles give the name of the "legitimate playhouse" (Boxoffice's term) that had previously occupied the building as the Dahl Theatre. I've been unable to find out any details about it. The Los Angeles County Assessor's office gives the date of construction of the building at 7165 Beverly as 1929, with an effective construction date of 1942. At least two sources say that Slapsie Maxie's opened here in 1943, which would match well with the 1942 rebuilding.

An article in a 2004 issue of The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles (PDF here) says that after Slapsie Maxie's closed, the building became the New Globe Theatre, a venue for Yiddish plays. It was operating under that name in 1951.

The impression I got from the Boxoffice items about the Capri and Rivera was that the building had housed the Dahl Theatre immediately before Lippert converted it into a cinema. I haven't had much luck with confirming this, but a Google search turned up a theater memorabilia site advertising a "VINTAGE PLAYGOER FROM DAHL THEATRE~LA~ 1958" for seven bucks. I couldn't find the item on the site, and the Google results also said "No Image Available" in any case.

As for the many sources saying this was once a vaudeville theater, I'm skeptical. For one thing, the footprint was quite small. After allowing space for a stage house, even a theater with a balcony on this lot could scarcely have held five hundred patrons. For another, when Lippert converted the building the ceiling was so low that a special arrangement of mirrors had to be installed to allow the projector beam to reach the screen.

Finally, for anyone to have built a vaudeville theater in this location in 1929 would have been folly. It was not yet very densely populated, there were no streetcar lines on either Beverly or La Brea, and it would have been much easier for locals to leave the neighborhood to reach the large theaters of Hollywood, Carthay Center, and Beverly Hills than it would have been for any significant number of potential audience members to reach this location.

I suspect that, before becoming Slapsie Maxie's, the building was most likely ordinary retail space, with a vanishingly small chance that it was a neighborhood movie house.