Fairfax Cinemas
7907 Beverly Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90048
7907 Beverly Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90048
21 people
favorited this theater
The Fairfax Theatre opened on March 26, 1930, and was a 1,504 seat single screen, designed for movies and vaudeville.
Laemmle Theatres purchased and reopened this former Loews Cineplex discount house on November 2, 2001 after an interior makeover with new seats and new carpet added. Extra wide seating was also added which reduced the cinema’s capacity to one screen with 400 seats and two others with 200 seats.
Laemmle, which has always attempted to preserve the original historic elements of its acquisitions, retained the theater’s free-standing ticket window. The ticket booth is one of the last in the West Hollywood/Hollywood area.
When Laemmle took over the Fairfax Theatre, the programming was changed to incorporate mostly art house and foreign films.
The Fairfax Theatre was closed by Laemmle Theatres in September 2006. However it was taken over by Regency Theatres and operated as a second run art house. It was closed in late-February 2010, just short of its 80th birthday.
Contributed by
Ray Martinez
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Recent comments (view all 107 comments)
As I said before, they call that “demolition by neglect.” Theoretically, the city’s building codes require that you maintain your buildings and don’t let them rot away and become blights in otherwise nice neighborhoods. But wonder of wonders, yet more government employees who either don’t do their jobs or bend the rules to benefit wealthy owners…
By the way, Ken, does the LA Times note that the roof had been leaking for quite a while and refused to fix it? That the Regency employees had jury-rigged tarps to catch water and funnel it to large trash containers? As well as government employees, I think we can add newspaper reporters to the list of people who are taking it easy on the job.
Here is the link to the article:
http://tinyurl.com/yafof5l
There will be a party tomorrow from noon to 12:30, Saturday, March 27th, out in front of the theater to show support for preservation efforts and to celebrate the theater’s 80th birthday.
The landmark nomination will be heard on April 1st.
The LA Times has reported that Regency asked to be let out of their lease, but this isn’t true. The owner refused to make repairs to the structure, and used that as an excuse to force Regency out. Regency has stated that they were happy with the theater’s performance and wanted to stay there. Now if the owner has his way the building will be empty for the two years it takes to work all the environmental impact reports, etc., out, all the while disintegrating from neglect, until the point where if the redevelopment doesn’t occur there will be nothing left to save. That’s being a good neighbor…
In case anyone is wondering, the party went well. Over a hundred people showed up, the Times and ABC 7 covered the event. And there was even a birthday cake…
On April 1st the Cultural Heritage Commission did vote to consider a landmark nomination for the Theatre.
The next step is that the Commission will make a field trip to the the theater and if they approve the nomination it will then move to the Planning and Land Use subcommittee of the city council and if that sub committee approves it then the nomination will move to the City Council for final approval.
Several people did speak in favor of the nomination, Including the Friends of the Fairfax, The Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation and the Art Deco Society of Los Angeles.
The only speaker who objected was a representative of the owner who wants to develop the property into a mixed-used development with 67 condos and a three story underground parking garage which would destroy the theatre, which has been closed since January due to Rain Damage.
Hillsman Wright, Executive Director of the Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation urged the commission to expedite this nomination due to the deteriorating condition of the theater.
View link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4AriEpC_NI
Interesting youtube videos jwballer.
According to BOXOFFICE The Fairfax Cinemas being a Cineplex-Odeon theatre announced a two dollar All-the-time admission at this L.A. theatre.It will be for a trial period.It will show “encore” films for a two dollar admission price.Cineplex-Odeon wants to see the response to second run movies.Oct 1994.
Theatre’s all boarded up now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDkw-CT7b9M
A trailer shot overnight at the theater based largely on the employees' ghostly experiences.