Pacific 1-2-3

Went to Hollywood High. Great memories of this place. Sat thru “Cotton Club” 3 times in a row here.

From what I am told, the negative element on the boulevard that reached a peak in the 1980s, has improved every year. My strong feeling is that when you have a building or business in good repair or maintain an area, it shows you care…. and people naturally respect it for the most part. If something is boarded up and left to decay, graffiti and vandalism generally follow and it goes downhill from there.

The boulevard has a built in reputation as historically being the capital of motion pictures, and for years tourists have come and been disappointed. That is now changing, thank goodness. The apparent success of the new Hollywood Highland Center and El Capitan, Chinese Theater and Pantages restorations have caught the attention of intelligent big business who are now looking to develop and partially restore the “old Hollywood” that is left. They see these renewed areas are not being vandalized or trashed, but enjoyed and attracting a lot of attention, and money. Tourism dollars will potentially be a huge payoff if they play their cards right. Those of us who care about our history and culture can only benefit by seeing some of the glamour return to the area to be enjoyed at last on some level once more.

Years later in 1968, I saw the west coast premiere gala on television of “2001: A Space Odyssey” and a few days later actually saw the film in this theater. I understand that they wanted to use the newly constructed dome on Sunset Blvd, but it was unavailable, so it was shown here. Nearly all the walls were draped over in the theater, but it was clean and the film looked beautiful on the screen.

In 1971 I saw “The Andromeda Strain” here, again, only a few days after the premiere and the ticket takers and ushers wore sterile white clothes and keys around their necks to “unlock” the detonation device shown in the movie. Again, the theater looked very nice and was still one screen. During those years it was known as the Pacific CinermaTheater.

I cannot imagine anyone thinking this theater would cost 40 million to restore. There are great theaters being restored now, including the huge “California Theater” in downtown San Diego. This building has a great history and was quite beautiful in it’s day and deserves to be restored.

Ack. Let me try that Tripod site again. That’s the direct link

http://alexdlg.tripod.com/aco/pressbook.html

I found the web address with pictures of the Pacific as it looked in 1971 for the “Clockwork Orange” run:
[url=http://alexdlg.tripod.com/aco/pressbook.html] I got the address from a link (“Pressbook”) on this Malcolm McDowell site: [url=http://malcolmmcdowell.net/] It can also be addressed with this: [url=http://www.geocities.com/malcolmtribute/] I’ve bookmarked these sites and saved the web pages and image files. You never know how long these things will last on the net. It’s an interesting page in cinema history. As the web site says, they put this level of promotion into one theater for one film. I can’t believe I was actually there for the event. I rarely get to L.A. and just happened to be there for a few days visiting friends just after Christmas in 1971.

When I was in second grade, at Monterey Vista School in suburban Monterey Park, the highlight of the year was a school field trip to see the original Cinerama production, “This is Cinerama” at the Warner Hollywood Theatre. I had already attended many of the big Downtown Los Angeles movie palaces, but I was still amazed by the Warner. Some of my classmates had never seen any theaters other than our small, suburban neighborhood movie houses, and could scarcely believe that such a place as the Warner even existed.

Our seats were on the main floor, near the front, just to the side of the central projection booth for which a section of seats had been removed. The Cinerama screen was awe inspiring, and I remember becoming a bit dizzy from the roller coaster scene. All the girls screamed. We had a great time, even though the chaperones wouldn’t allow us to visit the concession stand.

After the movie, the theater opened the side exits from the lobby to the side street where the curb space had been reserved for school buses. Leaving the theater was like being expelled from a magical world, and more than a few of us looked back through the doors for a last glimpse of the splendid lobby as we boarded the bus for the long ride back home through the everyday world. I’ve had a special fondness for the Warner ever since, and hope that it can be saved to delight future generations.

This theatre is not closed and is being used on a regular basis for digital movie industry screenings. The Pacific is being used a movie theatre by people who love movies.Daily Variety lists the Pacific as one of the major screenings venues for the industry.brucec

I saw a screening of “A Clockwork Orange” at the Pacific in December of 1971. The theater was still single screen at that time, and the place was packed for either a Friday or Saturday evening performance. I recall the crowd was a bit rowdy. We sat in the balcony. The lobby seemed small for the auditorium which was huge. Somewhere on the web is a site with black and white photos of the marquis and lobby for that “Clockwork Orange” run. I’ll try to find it again. “A Clockwork Orange” was a rather violent film for that era. Heck, it would still be violent. I’ve never seen it again. The first viewing was vivid enough. Emerging from the theater after the film, I looked up at the radio towers on the building looming in the darkness. It all had a noirish quality.

The restoration of the Pacific doesn’t have to cost $40 Million. The Pacific is in very good shape and not on its last leg like the New Amsterdam in New York was before Disney spent $30 Million to restore it and turn it into a state of the art broadway house. I think it would take between $8-12Million to restore the theatre and turn it into a single screen. To turn the Pacific into a broadway house would be between $20-30Million. I would love to see the origianl name Warner back on the theatre. I would even settle for Pacific Warner. I even think the Nederlanders could make better use of the Pacific than the Wilshire in Beverly Hills for broadway shows. I have always felt that Hollywood and Downtown should be the legit districts. The Fox-Wilshire would make a great house for movie premieres like the old days.brucec

The “Collateral” screenings are not open to the public; they are for the press and for the Cast & Crew of the movie.

Actually, we’ve been holding special studio screenings for a number of years but we are not open to the public. We’ve had thousands of people enjoy the latest in Digital Cinema projection here since that is our speciality.

Restoration is really not an option unless someone comes along with “very deep pockets”. It would cost in excess of $40 million just to bring it up to acceptable conditions. We know of no one willing to spend that kind of money for what may be a very low return.

You can read about the Digital Symposium and see pictures of the theater interior here:

View link

It was a pleasure to see the theater where “2001” played in Hollywood for well over a year.

This is a great theater, the front is no longer boarded up so you can see the lobby. This movie palace is the Queen of the Hollywood Theaters. It looks as though she is being presserved, if at least maintained.

Pacific Theatres has been trying to sell this theatre and building for the last decade. Remember the tri-plexing was done in the early half of 1978. When it was done fast without a lot of care for the ceiling area. Yes, it would make a wonderful premiere showcase. But if it ever gets to be restored, it would be better used like the Pantages Theatre for live Broadway type shows. Maybe with the lost of the Schubert Theatre in Century City. The Pacific Theatre may rise from the ashesof Hollywood Blvd.