Warner Huntington Park

Very Nice.

Sorry if there were problems with the link. Here’s the full Flickr URL:

View link

HTH

le0pard13 your here and these picture links send you back to this page without any pictures.

November 2009 Black & White of the Warner courtesy of avilon music.

View link

I’m glad I’m not the only one who remembers this beautiful lady fondly.

I’ve kicked around the idea the last couple of years of somehow buying the theater and showing classic films…..in similar fashion to the Bay Theater down in Seal Beach.

If only I didn’t already owe so much on my college loans.

who owns this theatrical geme? anyone know?

Here is a 1981 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/d554b5

Growing up (during my Junior and High School days) in rival South Gate, I regularly came to Huntington Park to take in the movies at any of the three theaters that were so closely located on Pacific blvd. SG only had its drive-in and a small theater on Tweedy compared to HP’s better commercial area. Later, I worked there as a part-time projectionist back in the mid-70’s (I was in jr. college while my brother worked there full-time). Owned by an Armenian-American business man who also owned some other theaters (one of them might have been the Warners San Pedro). I have some fond memories of this place. When I was first there, it ran spanish-speaking or -dubbed movies. And, it had a weekly amateur night on their stage (the projectionists were then re-deployed to do the audio/microphone/spotlight support)—some of the singers were surprisingly good.

Later, the owner switched the content to popular U.S. movie releases and re-releases. It was an independent, but could, from time-to-time, get some first-run movies. My favorite of those was probably Eastwood’s now recognized early great, The Outlaw Josey Wales. Heck, there were times I would go to the distributors and pick-up/return the reel cans! The two longest playing films there (during my time) were Jaws (6 weeks) and The Exorcist (4 weeks), both in re-release. They were there so long, the projectionist didn’t need to watch the film cues for the changeovers. We could do it just by listening to the dialog (they played so long).

It also had roof-access from the projectionist booth. And that area served as the best location to view the annual Huntington Park Christmas Lane parade come each December. I left before the twin-screen renovation. I’ve been to and seen the Wiltern, San Pedro, Pantages, and other art-deco designed theaters, and the Huntington Park Warner (when it was in good shape) compared very favorably as a grand lady of movie theaters. I hope someone restores her to her previous glory.

replicmike, it all depends on how many screens in the complex. At this theatre one man could run both booths, but over at CityWalk before the Imax room it took two projectionists to run. And at some Pacific Drive-In locations that were nearby. They had one projectionist run both theatres, Studio Drive-In and Centinela Drive-In. Over in Glendale, Pacific had one man running the Roxy and Regency plus Mann’s Alex Theatre. It’s all in scheduling start times and timers.

What’s your thought on the way projection booths are today? Looks like they need only one projectionest for their multi-flexs

Wiltern was my favorite Warner theatre. You must have been a manager working in their theatres.

it was a great time, had 3-d movies. The change over to Cinemascope and stereo sound. Jack Warner previewed his movies there.

Worked there in the 50’s.