Encore Theatre
5308 Melrose Avenue,
Los Angeles,
CA
90038
5308 Melrose Avenue,
Los Angeles,
CA
90038
7 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 38 comments found
It is true the Encore served Sunday mornings as a meeting place for the fledgling Metropolitan Community Church led by Rev. Troy Perry as a welcoming church for gays of all faiths. The chief projectionist Willie Smith was MCC’s musical director and persuaded Louie Federici to let the church use it before the Sunday matinees.
I worked as projectionist in the late sixties when it was run by Louie Federici, in fact, it was there I was trained to be an operator. The bill was mainly the better foreign films. Louie had the lens, masking and apertures so all those foreign films could be shown correctly. Once he had at great effort obtained Fellini’s personal copy of “La Strada” since it had been shot in English, then dubbed into Italian, and then the dubbed version was subtitled back to English. That was a concession to Anthony Quinn, and it helped that Guiellte Messini’s spoke English. The audience complained thinking they were seeing a dubbed print, (they were snooty about that), so Louie in disgust returned the original version and played the subtitled Italian dubbed version for the rest of the run.
looking at the pics posted of the original theater, I noticed how that strip of Melrose looks very similar to the strip of buildings between Van Ness & Wilton Place.
5308 Melrose is definitely now the one big building that stretches from one end of the block to the other.
A bit off topic I guess, but there was also an old ice skating rink right around there.
The picture from google up above shows the opposite side of the street, but if you rotate around you can see where it once was.
While it’s always heartbreaking when a movie theater is demolished, this particular one at least remains in the movie biz.
This is the site of Raleigh Studios. It’s had different names over the years, but Raleigh is the current name of the studio. Obviously the building there now is one of the newer ones on this studio lot, but you can see some of the older buildings of the studio behind it.
And, they use their studio for movie screenings. So while the theater itself is gone, you can still go see movies along this block of Melrose Ave.
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.
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.
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,
View link
Here is an October 1968 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/r34sbn
This site has a 1984 view of the Continental:
http://tinyurl.com/culbjs
Here is another 1951 photo from Life magazine:
http://tinyurl.com/amyzv6
The Encore was used for church services in July 1970, according to this article from Time:
http://tinyurl.com/9a79b2
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.
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!
I wonder if your father went to Nickodell’s near Paramount. That was a classic old restaurant.
ken mc,
Thanks so much for the Life photo. Great to have a photo of the theatre from when my father was producting there.
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.
Here is a 1951 photo from a new collection of Life Magazine images on Google:
http://tinyurl.com/6fn9ac
Here is a January 1950 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/4ocsgt
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.
Another copyrighted photo.
Here is a 1941 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/3e49c5
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.
I think this was one incarnation of the theater:
http://tinyurl.com/28c7tb
Here is a 1970 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/27dke9
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).