Bay Theatre

15140 W. Sunset Boulevard,
Pacific Palisades, CA 90272

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Bay Theatre exterior

Viewing: Photo | Street View

Opened in 1948, the S. Charles Lee-designed Bay Theatre was twinned in the mid-1970’s. The Bay Theatre was closed in late-1978 and was converted into a hardware store by 1980.

Contributed by William Gabel

Recent comments (view all 17 comments)

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on July 29, 2007 at 3:27 pm

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

William
William on September 13, 2007 at 12:35 pm

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

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on February 12, 2009 at 6:05 pm

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.

RobertSides
RobertSides on December 27, 2010 at 1:42 am

It had – from 1954 thru 1956 – attended many a Saturday afternoon
matinee at the Pay Theater. 25 cents was all I needed!
Remember seeing “20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA”, “ROMAN HOLIDAY”,
“THE ATOMIC KID”, “TOBOR THE GREAT”, “THE CREEPING UNKNOWN”, “BAD
DAY AT BLACK ROCK”, “THE PONY SOLDIER” plus many more. To start
everything going, four LOONEY TUNES. Butter popcorn & a coke was
just 25 cents. Great memories as a baby boomer. I really miss that
theater! Regards,
Bob Sides E-mail

LarryDickman
LarryDickman on January 9, 2011 at 4:36 pm

Back in the mid-‘70s, whoever booked films into the Bay came up with some great double bills, terrific mixes of old and new flicks. So with “Old Dracula” you got Corman’s “Pit and the Pendelum.” With “Rollerball” came “Barbarella.” Aldrich’s “Flight of the Phoenix” was shown too, tho I can’t remember with what. And two years after I missed its initial release, the Vincent Price chiller “Theatre of Blood” screened with “Young Frankenstein.” (The booker must’ve liked “Blood” because the previous summer it played with AIP’s reissue of “Born Losers”!) Other memorable bills before and after the twinning: a screaming kid-filled matinee of the nature opus “Toklat,” “Planet” and “Beneath the Planet of the Apes,” “Tales from the Crypt” and “The Ra Expeditions” (!), “Marathon Man” and “The Enforcer,” “King Kong” ('76) and “Two-Minute Warning” and, on my last visit, “The Driver” and “High Ballin’”. So, a much- belated hats-off to the programmer at this modest but very-missed neighborhood hardtop…

lisasutton
lisasutton on January 9, 2011 at 6:30 pm

The Bay Theater closed its doors for the last time on September 10, 1978. The last films to play were “Saturday Night Fever” and “The One and Only” in theater 1, with “Freaky Friday” and “Hot Lead, Cold Feet” in theater 2. I think I saw every movie at the Bay that you mentioned in the post above, Larry

TLSLOEWS
TLSLOEWS on January 9, 2011 at 8:08 pm

Great photos posted by Ken Mc 11-20-05.

LarryDickman
LarryDickman on January 10, 2011 at 12:22 am

BTW, Lisa Weho and others: Did anyone happen to attend the midnight fright show hosted by TV horror host Seymour (actor Larry Vincent) in early ‘72? He showed Corman’s “Premature Burial.” I got to sit in the front row, a few seats away from Mr. Vincent, and it was a blast. My first midnight movie! During his opening remarks he said he’d invite selected attendees to come onstage (for what purpose, I can’t imagine) but it didn’t happen. At least he stayed to watch the film (quite raptly, as I recall) and signed autographs in the lobby after the screening. Fond memory: a few greedy kids kept cutting in line, wanting multiple signings, but Mr. Vincent was thoughtful enough to make sure every kid got one. And it was damn near 2 a.m. Now there’s a class act.

chris
chris on September 3, 2011 at 7:03 pm

I was an assistant manager at the Bay in the late 50’s/early 60’s and remember it well. The projectionist was Sam Shanley and he lived not far from the theater and had been there forever. I recall that Ronald and Nancy Reagan were customers, as were several Hollywood notables. Because of its location, it was also a favorite site for sneak previews which drew many of the actors, directors, producers and the like, On more than one occasion, we did not know the name of the film to be previewed until hours before it screened. The popular hangout was the Hotdog Show, across Sunset from the theater.

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