Pacific 1-2-3
6433 Hollywood Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90028
6433 Hollywood Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90028
60 people
favorited this theater
Showing 276 - 300 of 394 comments
The American premiere of “How the West Was Won” attracted a spectacular turnout of movie stars. 12 of them were actually in the picture:
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I found a gorgeous photo of the theater in 1937…
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The Picwood was nextstore to the Picwood bowl, with a small bead shop at the corner, not far from an old May Company/mall.
William Haines was the DM for pacific and manager of the Dome,
Along with Don Immenchuh sp?
I worked the picwood in 1977 with Jack Tate for a short span.
The world has become a stage for circus performers, email me at
my regular email address so I can talk with you live.
Diana, The Picwood was Pacific’s house in West Los Angeles at Pico and Westwood Blvds.
The Henry Fonda used to be the Pix, not the World. I worked at the World for two weeks in 1967. Also worked at the Pantages for the entire run of Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf.
Hello William, great to read a voice from the old Hollywood past.
I believe that your theatre went back to stage productions and is now called the Henry Fonda. Is it still open?
Hi Diana, I remember you from the Pacific and the World. Because I was over at the Picwood at the time.
Hello, I was one of the managers of the Hollywood Pacific. I
basically grew-up in the theatre. I am surprised that know one has mentioned any of the ghost stories, the theatre made Entertainment
Magazine’s top ten most haunted theatres a few years ago. One of the urban legends is that since Sam Warner died right before the completion of the theatre, the theatre will never stop changing.
One of my dreams and goals is to own the theatre one day and manage it again. If you came into the theatre back in the mid-seventies,
I was probley the cashier who sold you your ticket. I remember
one stormy night, when one the KFWB towers got struck by lightening and my hair stood on end, what an enormous skreeching noise! I also remember going to a Hollywood Chamber meeting
along with other theatre managers asking “What the hell is multi-plex? I have shared some of my pics with the digital people
in there now. I would love to make a movie based on true events,
any sponsors? My name is Diana Marks, But I was also known as
Diana Brennan back then. I also remember having a going away party thrown in the downstairs lobby by some west-end Hollywood Blvd.
managers, because I had to go run the World Theatre, (3 movies for $2.50) back in 1981. A couple of the managers had to peel me off
of one of the beautiful pillars while I was holding tight and crying. Maybe the movie would make the bank for restoring the theatre.
That’s the “Sunshine” version.
The way I heard it, when she was an usher at the Warners in 1947, she wouldn’t let some customers in during the last few minutes of a Hitchcock film. Her boss, the manager, got so upset with her he fired her on the spot and tore the epaulettes off of her uniform.
Since that was the only job she was ever fired from, when she got her “Star” on the Walk of Fame, she had it put right in front of the Warner theater to snub her nose at the place.
BTW – the IRIS is now called the FOX
Thanks.
Carol Burnett was a movie usher in LA when she was in high school. I would be curious to know which theater, if anybody is a fan.
Kristi: Thanks for such a lovely reminiscence. Your post is a fine example of what Cinema Treasures is all about.
It’s so good to know that the Hollywood Pacific survived its boarded up phase!
As a former usherette during the theatre’s transition from Warner to Pacific, I have many fond memories of working there.
Of course, the lobby was by far the most memorable part of the theatre with its wood carved stairways and ornamentation, as well as the elegant chorus line of chandeliers stretching out across the semi-circular lobby ceiling.
Then there was the joyful luxury of having our dressing room just off the lower lobby where we would take our breaks (between showings, of course) sitting in the Louis XV style chairs and other vintage furniture.
I once served popcorn and sodas in the small screening room downstairs for a group of Hollywood VIPs. The film was “Marnie”. After spotting Tippi Hedren there, I furtively looked around in the dark for Sean Connery but I don’t think he was there.
As an aspiring actress/college student, I can’t imagine having had a better job. Some of the perks were getting to dress as a flapper for “Thoroughly Modern Millie” and in metallic gold A-line mini dresses for “2001: A Space Odyssey”. We got to meet, greet and seat the Who’s Who of Hollywood since we were a hard ticket house – just like live theatre – and seats were pre-destined for loge, mezzanine or balcony.
There are just too many memories for a short blog entry. But I’m hopeful someone else will find this theatre a proper home for their new endeavor. Either way the Hollywood Pacific will live within me forever as a joyful, inspirational and magical beginning, as a memory that transcends time.
Kristi Koons
The screen at the Hollywood Pacific, site of the Digital Cinema Lab for the Entertainment Technology Center at USC, has gone dark. After 6 years of testing, demonstrations, and industry screenings the Laboratory is closed and will vacate the building by the end of this October.
It has been a wonderful run and I’m proud to have been a part of it since the beginning. In that time we’ve shown over 115 features and independent films, 99% in digital form; over 175 clips and shorts as part of demonstrations and special exhibitions; ands we played host to many diverse conferences and meetings.
There is some talk of the theater being renovated but that’s between the owners and a new lessee.
Goodbye to all who have been our guests,
Paul Miller
From the Los Angeles Times, April 1968. “2001” was about to begin its very long run at the Warner Cinerama:
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Here is an interesting “before” picture, probably from the teens. The home on the northeast corner of Hollywood Boulevard is the predecessor of the theater:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics03/00011251.jpg
Here is a photo of Warners/KFWB from the 1930s, via the LAPL:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics03/00011252.jpg
In 1981 saw Maniac ,also Clash Of The Titans, in the main theatre. upstairs For Your Eyes Only, Escape From NY, Halloween 2, Cheech and Chongs Nice Dreams w/co fet. Next Movie. I would go alot, living only a couple blocks off the Boulevard.
I think I remember seeing “Dressed to Kill” up in one of the converted balcony areas and my neck was all twisted as you had to turn to see the screen the way they cut the theater balcony in half and did not move the seats. What a mess.
I saw many shows at the Pacific and later ran the last few years as the projectionist before it closed. I remember during one of the last summers at that theatre, we had a new manager. Pacific Theatres stopped paying the neon company to repair the radio towers. So one Saturday night I was in the upper booth. I found the timer for the east tower and reconnected the power to it. At that time the Pacific and the Vine theatre was tied together for the projectionist to run. So I set the timer to go on for a few hours at night. That night I was on my way to the Vine for their next show. Later the manager asked me how to turn the tower off, because Pacific did not want to keep running the neon. Pacific Theatres payed around $10,000 a year for service on that neon. Oh Well we had fun there.
A little more of “my” history with this beautiful theater: First time I was ever in it was for Seven Wonders of the World (a revival showing a couple of years after its original run) and I was flabbergasted (and wrote about it at length in my novel Benjamin Kritzer, in which many LA theaters are fondly remembered). I saw How The West Was Won, Brothers Grimm, then, when it changed over after Cinerama, I saw Flower Drum Song and The Counterfeit Traitor, and Thoroughly Modern Millie, and Back Street and many, many others. After the screwed up the balcony by twinning upstairs, I stopped going regularly. I think the last film I saw there was Carrie, although I may be misremembering.
Just saw a digital screening of the “restored” South Pacific. It was so great to be sitting in the theater. I was surprised at how nice it was inside the auditorium. The lobby isn’t so swell right now – it would be wonderful if it could be restored and used in the way Disney uses the El Capitan – obviously that renovation worked for Disney and certainly it wasn’t cheap.