Bay Theatre

The Bay Theatre was located at 15140 Sunset Blvd.

The Bay Theatre was situated in an exclusive residential community of Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles. It was designed by famed architect S. Charles Lee. He left no stone unturned to make the Bay a first class picture house, both within and without. the convention type of marquee and entrance have been done away with in favor of a roofed outer lobby, separated from the interior by a porcelain enamel wall with glass doors. An overhanging canopy protects patrons in bad weather while the driver proceeds to a 500 car adjoining parking lot invaluable in modern management. The luxurious foyer has been embellished with lavish murals done in a tropical motif, and a modern candy stand. Doors lead from either side of a dominating mural into the 1100 seat auditorium. A stairway at one side of the candy stand leads up to the mezzanine floor, which includes the projection booth, 80 loge seats, the ladies room and mens room. The auditorium proper is done in soft rose tones with two murals on eight side of the proscenium providing decorative accents to the ornamentation.

I was the projectioinist here from 1969-1970 - it was still in very good condition and did pretty good business. I remember we ran "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" for THREE WEEKS! very rare for a neighborhood theatre that changed programs (Double Features) once a week. The booth was a standard booth with Simplex E-7's, SH1000 soundheads, and magnarc (Peerless) lamps. The original proscenium was behind the screen and still had the original curtains up. Last time I went by there it was a hardware store - oh well.

From the UCLA Collection:

http://sclee.library.ucla.edu/001/13/i0011308.jpg

http://sclee.library.ucla.edu/001/13/i0011303.jpg

http://sclee.library.ucla.edu/001/13/i0011306.jpg

http://sclee.library.ucla.edu/001/13/i0011302.jpg

http://sclee.library.ucla.edu/001/13/i0011301.jpg

http://sclee.library.ucla.edu/001/13/i0011304.jpg

http://sclee.library.ucla.edu/001/13/i0011305.jpg

http://sclee.library.ucla.edu/001/13/i0011307.jpg

This is my neighborhood pharmacy and hardware store now. The building has 2 stores in it. From the photos, it looks like the main entrance was on the side that has the hardware store. The structure for the big "Bay" sign still stands, it is emblazoned with the name of the hardware store. The pharmacy was a venerable old neighborhood independant store named "Bay" although in the last couple of years it has been bought by a national chain and renamed.

There appears to be no remaining trace of the theatre in the public portions of the stores. The pharmacy has undergone an extensive remodeling since its recent purchase, so I imagine any remaining artifacts of the theatre have been purged. The only sign that indicates there once was a theatre here is the vestiges of a terrazo sidewalk at the corner where the entry once was.

Next time I go shopping I will look at the place with new eyes....

I moved to the Palisades in 1980, and by then it was already Norris Hardware/Bay Pharmacy. I remember hearing rumors from old-timers that it had been a movie theater, so I'd put the closing date closer to the mid-1970s.

The Bay was an Electrovision theater in July 1960:
http://tinyurl.com/3cm8h8

The Bay twin theatre closed in 1978. My top intro comment should change to late 1978 now.

The twinning of the Bay Theatre took place in 1972. The house reopened as the Bay Twin on August 24, according to Boxoffice Magazine's September 18 issue that year. The owners had the theater's interior entirely stripped and rebuilt, rather than merely splitting the original 1100 seat auditorium with a wall. The new twin auditoriums each had 400 seats.