Baronet Theatre
6937 Topanga Canyon Blvd.,
Woodland Hills,
CA
6937 Topanga Canyon Blvd.,
Woodland Hills,
CA
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This small theater ran revival movies during its final years. Located near the Topanga Theatre, the Baronet closed in the mid-80s and has been demolished.
Contributed by
William Gabel
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Recent comments (view all 26 comments)
I always remember it as a single screen house.
I should clarify that the theatre was in Canoga Park, but the building’s postal address today is in Woodland Hills due to a change made in 1992. A quarter section bounded by Victory, Vanowen, Topanga and Shoup was withdrawn from Canoga Park and added to Woodland Hills that year.
Boulevard is the name under which the theatre is listed in the L.A. Times Calender section on August 24, 1986. It is showing two features but there’s no indication that it’s a twin theatre. Admission price was $1.50. Quite a few older theatres were still showing double features in 1986, so I’m thinking it was probably a discount double feature house at that time.
In one comment above Lavar says that it closed in 1985, but it was still open in August 1986, so I’d guess that it probably closed not long after then and never got twinned.
Google maps places this address in Canoga Park. Savinar H Luggage has an address of:
6931 Topanga Canyon Blvd
Canoga Park, CA 91303
I wonder if the luggage store uses a different entrance than the theater did to make the address change from 6937 to 6931.
No, wait, it’s not Woodland Hills. I rechecked the map and Vanowen marks the change from 6700/6800 N block of Topanga Canyon, so the 6900 block remains in Canoga Park.
Most likely the luggage store now sprawls through several buildings. I noticed that in the Flickr photo you linked to there’s an arrow marked “Entrance” pointing south above the door where the theatre’s foyer once was.
Also I’m not positive about the Valley West name as an aka. Lavar reported it only as a rumor, and I haven’t found any confirmation anywhere. In the 1966 ad ken mc linked to it’s the Baronet, and as the building was built in 1961 and the place probably closed not long after August 1986, that doesn’t leave much time for the Valley West name to have been in use, if it ever was.
According to the policy of this website, which I don’t totally agree with, theaters are listed by the last name that they had as a theater. If we follow that policy, this theater should be listed as the Boulevard Cinema aka Baronet Theater. We can leave out the Valley West name until someone can confirm it. Should we use the 6937 Topanga Canyon Blvd address or change it to the luggage store address of 6931 Topanga Canyon Blvd?
Ok, here is the “official scoop”. My dad owned the theatre through the late 1970’s-early 1980’s. I always thought of it as the “final era”, as it wasnt the “heyday” of the theatre, but definately a second run movie house. (the rock and roll movies and concerts, as well as re-runs of Star Wars) Back then, (amazing to anyone under 40)there were no movie theatres in the San Fernando Valley with more than one screen, until the Topanga (at Victory and Topanga) opened a second/third screen. That was the beginning of the end for small theatres like the Baronet. Eveything became multiplex corporate cinemas.
Several subsequent owners did re-name it, and the photos posted are of the same place. The address discrepancy is this: right next to the theatre was the restaurant “Two Guys from Italy”. I worked there as well for years. When the theatre closed, the restaurant did shortly thereafter. The wall was torn down, and it became one big location, as Savinar luggage.
I will never forget being a teenager, loving all of the dumpy little single screen theatres in the Valley, such as the Art Theatre (Ventura at Topanga), the Valley Circle (Valley Circle Blvd) the Holiday (Topanga) and of course the Baronet. It should be listed as such, as no one would really know or appreciate the subsequent names.
For years and years, since its opening, it was the Baronet Theatre. The address was 6937 Topanga.
Thanks hankg. Now I understand why there are two addresses for this building. The address above should be left as it is except for replacing Woodland Hills with Canoga Park. If the primary name remains as Baronet Theater, the description above would just need a slight change:
“This small theater ran revival movies during its final years. Located near the Topanga Theatre, the Baronet Theatre was later known as the Boulevard Cinema which closed in the mid-80s. The building is now used for retail.”
Address (city) should be updated to read: Canoga Park
Function should be updated to read: Retail
Here is a 1983 photo of the Baronet:
http://tinyurl.com/r6yxhd