Kirk Douglas Theatre

The lettering spelling “CULVER” has been completely removed.

What is the current status of this project? Has it reopened yet?

Valerie,

I have attempted to contact you by email with no results. Your email address is apparently incorrect in the member listing. I have tried to add mine to my ID page with no luck. Any suggestions?

Valerie,
I just read your comment. My father was the Manager of the Culver during the early 1960’s. I have several black and white, 35mm, photographs of the candy counter, staffed by young ladies and decorated to publicize various fledgling actors of that era, e.g Stuart Whitman, Patricia Owens, etc. If you are interested in them for your project, please contact me. Patrick Howard

After the Meralta burned down and after attending the movies at the old Culver City City Hall, I was fortunate enough to have attended the opening of the Culver Theater in ‘47. The movie was Red Stallion. I remember that the Culver, unfortunately, was the site of some of my most forgettable movie experiences. The Meralta, The Palms, and Picfair had many more pleasant experiences in movie watching. Maybe it was just the time frame of fine moviemaking. I’m looking forward to the Kirk Douglas Culver Theater’s presentations.

This theatre is one of some 200 that could be described as “Skouras-ized For Showmanship” which is the title of the ANNUAL of 1987 of the Theatre Historical Soc. of America. In the late 1930s through the 1950s, there occurred on the west coast of the United States a phenomenon known as the ‘Skouras style’ in recognition of the oversight of the Skouras brothers in their management of several cinema chains. They employed a designer by the name of Carl G. Moeller to render their cinemas/theatres in a new style best described as ‘Art Moderne meets Streamlined.’ The then new availability of aluminum sheeting at low cost was the principal material difference to this style allowing for sweeping, 3-dimensional shapes of scrolls to adorn walls and facades in an expression that would have been much more expensive and not at all the same in plaster. With the use of hand tinted and etched aluminum forms, the designers could make ornaments in mass production that allowed much greater economies of scale. The ANNUAL also show in its 44 pages how some 20 theatres were good examples of this combining of aluminum forms with sweeping draperies heavily hung with large tassels, and with box offices and facades richly treated with neon within the aluminum forms. Few of these examples survive today, but it was a glorious era while it lasted, and this collection of crisp b/w photos is a fitting epitaph by the late Preston Kaufmann.
PHOTOS AVAILABLE:
To obtain any available Back Issue of either “Marquee” or of its ANNUALS, simply go to the web site of the THEATRE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA at:
www.HistoricTheatres.org
and notice on their first page the link “PUBLICATIONS: Back Issues List” and click on that and you will be taken to their listing where they also give ordering details. The “Marquee” magazine is 8-1/2x11 inches tall (‘portrait’) format, and the ANNUALS are also soft cover in the same size, but in the long (‘landscape’) format, and are anywhere from 26 to 44 pages. Should they indicate that a publication is Out Of Print, then it may still be possible to view it via Inter-Library Loan where you go to the librarian at any public or school library and ask them to locate which library has the item by using the Union List of Serials, and your library can then ask the other library to lend it to them for you to read or photocopy. [Photocopies of most THSA publications are available from University Microforms International (UMI), but their prices are exorbitant.]

Note: Most any photo in any of their publications may be had in large size by purchase; see their ARCHIVE link. You should realize that there was no color still photography in the 1920s, so few theatres were seen in color at that time except by means of hand tinted renderings or post cards, thus all the antique photos from the Society will be in black and white, but it is quite possible that the Society has later color images available; it is best to inquire of them.

Should you not be able to contact them via their web site, you may also contact their Executive Director via E-mail at:
Or you may reach them via phone or snail mail at:
Theatre Historical Soc. of America
152 N. York, 2nd Floor York Theatre Bldg.
Elmhurst, ILL. 60126-2806 (they are about 15 miles west of Chicago)

Phone: 630-782-1800 or via FAX at: 630-782-1802 (Monday through Friday, 9AM—4PM, CT)

The Culver Theatre was opened and operated by Fox West Coast Theatres, which later became National Theatres and was later sold to Mann Theatres which dropped the house and it became an independent theatre till it closed.

history of the three main theaters in Culver City is at View link

The Culver theatre was tri-plexed, not twinned. All film ran from the original projection booth. This was the same type of early multi-plexing, used on the Fox California in Huntington Park.