AMC Beverly Connection 6

Three of the theatres were equipped with 70MM projectors.

This was the one across the street from the Beverly Center, wasn't it?

Yes, it was. It was the nice one across from the Beverly Center.

I know it's happened to hundreds of multiplexes since the stadium-seating trend took hold, but I really felt sad when this particular theatre closed. I had only been there twice - on consecutive nights in March of 1996 to see 'Flirting with Disaster' and 'Girl 6' - but there was a vibe of excitement surrounding the theatre and the near-capacity crowds I saw those films with were really into them; I especially remember people roaring with laughter at 'Flirting' - a great comedy and the kind of audience that made the experience all that much more memorable.

BevCon was a fun theatre to work. I got to work the relief shifts in the booth for a few years.

There are a couple of photo tours posted at http://www.cinematour.com/tour.php?db=us&id=7236 AMC assumed control of the Beverly Connection after the Pacific Theatres at The Grove had opened - the titles in the marquee shot consisting of move-overs or films Pacific Theatres took a pass on. It's unclear when the General Cinemas photos were taken - both those and the AMC shots were most likely snapped on weekday afternoons - but, and absolutely no offense intended towards Scott Neff who snapped the GC-era images and for which we'd otherwise have no photographic images online from those years (and who has done tireless work taking pictures of cinemas across the US), they don't capture the electric atmosphere of the Beverly Connection during its best times.

General Cinema opened the Beverly Connection theatres in June 1990 (Spring 2002 AMC took over all of GCC's theatres). DICK TRACY and GREMLINS 2 were some of the opening films. I went too see DICK TRACY there opening week. They were nice theatres. Too bad they did not survive and the Beverly Center theatres did not close. The Grove did pretty much murder the Beverly Connection, as the Arclight killed the GCC (Later AMC) Galaxy theatres in Hollywood.

But, the Beverly was a nice theater, whereas I didn't think too much of the Galaxy when it opened. I think the Galaxy took over the spot where CC Fudge used to be, and I was upset about that. Great hot fudge sundaes.

Bev Con did a Studio Week Salute the week before the theatre was to open. From June 6th. to June 12th. they ran All Seats a $1.00 for Charity showing.

Wed. 6/6 Warner Bros.
Batman in 70MM
Chariots of Fire
Dirty Harry
The Color Purple
Lethal Weapon 2

Thurs. 6/7 Universal
Out of Africa in 70MM
American Graffiti
The Sting
On Golden Pond
Field of Dreams

Fri. 6/8 Orion
Amadeus
Hannah and Her Sisters
Robocop
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure

Sat. 6/9 Tri-Star
Glory in 70MM
Look Who's Talking
Steel Magnolias
The Natural
The Bear

Sun. 6/10 Buena Vista
Who Framed Roger Rabbit in 70MM
Three Men and a Baby
The Little Mermaid
Good Morning Vietnam
Honey, I shruck the Kids
Dead Poet's Society

Mon. 6/11 20th. Century-Fox
Patton
Hello Dolly
Zorba the Greek
Love is a Many Splendored Thing

Tues. 6/12 Paramount
Raiders of the Lost Ark in 70MM
To Catch a Thief
Airplane
Romeo and Juliet
Terms of Endearment

NOTE: Leftover screens per day were Private Studio screenings.

On Wed. 6/13
Total Recall opened in 70MM and 35mm.

On Thurs. at Midnight Dick Tracy opened.
On Fri. Gremlins 2: A New Batch opened.

ken mc, the Galaxy was built on the former site of the Garden Court Apartments. The building just east of the site was C.C. Browns fudge. it was still there when the GCC Galaxy opened.

OK. My memory isn't what it used to be. I'm pretty sure the fudge place is gone now, though.

I went there twice, it was good.

The GCC photos above were taken when I went to see U-571 there in the main house. (So sometime in APR or MAY of 2000).

I would have loved to take a bevvy of really nice photos, but that place was crawling with managers, and theatre managers usually freak out when they see people taking pictures, so I try to be discreet.

Try taking pictures in a church sometime. Even worse.

The Beverly Connection theatre were very spacious which is a reason I liked them. They did not seemed that cramped and really made the Beverly Center theatres look worse in comparison.

"Once enormously popular, this six-screen multiplex closed in the summer of 2004, unable to compete with Pacific Theatres' stadium seating, 14-screen multiplex at The Grove."

I visited this theater many times during its run, and it was never crowded or "enormously popular". Maybe once when "Home Alone" first opened, but that was it. While it was a nice multi-plex at first glance, it didn't have much character and was actually a bit depressing. When the Grove arrived it was really dead. It won't be missed. Beverly Center 13 should be next---who the hell still goes there? How is it still in business? Gut it or remove it.

I worked the house many times during it's GCC days and it was a busy plex in the evenings and weekend matinees. The studios loved the house for their market research screenings. The decor was the standard GCC look of the 90's.

MMmmm blue, red, gray and wood.

I liked the Beverly Connection more than I have ever liked The Grove. The Grove is probably my least liked theatre in L.A; the screens are nothing special,I go out of my way to not go to them.

All it needs for you Scott is the old standard 70's GCC "CINEMA" signage. :)

"Beverly Center 13 should be next---who the hell still goes there?"

I do as my picture give me away on Cinematour. Its all part of my quest to find the world's smallest 35mm movie theatre screen! Just when I thought I had seen the smallest in '05, I dug deeper and found a smaller one in 2007! Check out the picture on the right at the following link:

http://www.cinematour.com/tour.php?db=us&id=2114

The exit door is almost wider! Really I only go there to see something that I have missed earlier in its run, such as Flags of Our Fathers when the Beverly Center was the last place playing it. Mann must have a cheap deal from the Mall to operate it. Ironic Mann had to close the National, but keeps this place open.

Regarding the actual subject of this thread: I saw 2 movies at the Beverly Connection before it closed, both in the same small theatre downstairs. Presentation was good. I poked my nose in the other 2 theatres on that level and they seemed like the typical 80's/90's GCC large auditorium: dark, red panels hiding surrounds, around 400 blue seats, screen seeming as if it should be bigger, auditorium size making you wonder if you were in the biggest house or not. The use of space at that theatre seemed odd to me. Lobbies upstairs and down seemed too big, as if they could have squeezed in a couple extra screens. (or 10 Beverly Center screens!)

Does anyone know what the seat counts were for the auditoriums, upstairs and down?

That small screen at Beverly Center when it opened only was listed for flat presentations, but later it was fitted for scope too. Now that's a small picture.

Almost as big as the computer screen you are looking at. (which, in ones field of vision for normal proximity to a computer, would appear larger!!)

We can go ahead and mark this one as closed/demolished. The theatres were torn down about a year or so ago.

What was (or will be) built here after the demolition?

The lower level was rebuilt as a loading dock area, and the upper area is now a Home Goods. If you go to Windows Live Local and look at the Beverly Connection, the south view shows the demolished theatre, and you can see the footprint of the three downstairs theatres. The sloped floors were all that was left when the picture was taken.

The north view shows the theatre before demolition.

Those charity screenings back in 1990 with the 70mm titles and classic and very good films (now many of them are) must have been fun! I wish more theatres did that to celebrate their openings.