Today’s Newsreel

posted by Ross Melnick on August 1, 2002 at 9:10 am

LOS ANGELES, CA — Bob Dylan will be the first performer at the Wiltern Theatre in mid-October following a “reconfiguration” in which all of the seats on the first floor of the historic Art Deco theater were removed to accomodate a more general admission policy.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the Wiltern has been closed since early June. Seating in the balcony has remained intact for upcomng shows with Dylan, Bryan Adams, Ani DiFranco and more. The only officially announced show is a November 4th appearance by the Rolling Stones.

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SANTA MONICA, CA — In other Los Angeles-area news, the historic Aero Theatre may have found a savior in the American Cinematheque, a 21-year-old film society which currently owns and operates the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the group is in “negotiations to help run the historic Aero Theater in Santa Monica by using it as part of the Cinematheque’s classic film screening programs.” If successful, the group would also help add new seats, projection equipment and a new concession stand.

The 550-seat Aero has been struggling in recent years as a second-run movie house. A previous plan for Robert Redford’s ill-fated Sundance Cinemas to take over the theater fell through after General Cinema, which was a partner in the project, filed for bankruptcy.

The Aero was the childhood movie theater of the prolific Redford and has been a staple of now-trendy Montana Avenue for over six decades.