I used to love going to the Kenmore and Park Sq. theaters, and the program posters were amazing! Let’s see, I remember lots of people in the audience crying at the end of Wuthering Heights, people falling out of the seats laughing during The Producers, (or was it just me doing those things?) seeing first showings I think of Monty Python and Kentucky Fried Movie. Wasn’t there another small cinema on Boylston, around where Pall’s Mall and the Jazz Workshop were? I might be getting that one mixed up with the Park, but one of those premiered The Bitter Tears of Petra Van Kant.
I also worked at Century III Productions in 1984-5, but it then was diagonally across the street, not at the theater space anymore.
In Boston in the 70’s there was a series of films shown on local TV, hosted by Frank Avurush (who also had been the Boston TV Bozo if I remember correctly), where he would show 1 movie Saturday night and 2 on Sunday, all with the same theme or star, and he would talk about them. One night I was at the Exeter with friends seeing Seven Beauties (I think), it was really crowded, and Frank and film crew show up to shoot the line and crowd and got us buying our tickets at the box office which became the new showopen for his series.
Wow, I hadn’t looked on this site for a few years, didn’t realize it had been so long, and it is so great to see these old pictures of the El Miro. I worked here when it was a much more dumpy place, the summer and fall of 1977, sitting in the box office of Cinema on the Mall. The walk up balcony was still there but I remember it so much smaller than the way it was when it was El Miro. On weekdays it was a much deserted walking mall but when we would open up for the dollar matinee there would suddenly be a long line, mostly of seniors. Not like the huge line though of the exterior of the El Miro posted above!
Hi David, Meryl, Lisa, Sean – It’s Meredith again – Have to admit I haven’t been on this site for awhile, Meryl reminded me to check in.
David, let me know when you open that gallery, I have some snapshots I can probably scan to you, I’ll get your email from Meryl. I really remember your songs, especially a Christmas song you made up that was hysterical although now I don’t remember the words. I also have the Tommy Cooper record LP, him singing show tunes. David, you and Brett shared an apartment, right? I remember the Iggy Pop poster in the living room. I may be out in LA in Feb, I’ll drive by the Tiff and see if it’s still there.
Meryl, yes I remember that day so well, we sat in the back row in front of the old glass enclosed seats (for the moms and babies as I’ve read above!)and the staff took very good care of us. That upstairs office was very authentically hippie shabby chic.
I saw so many great double features at the Fox Venice, even though later I had moved away I was so sad when I heard it closed. I think it was the first or second theater I went to when I moved to LA in 77. Seem to recall seeing all of Herzog’s films there (the few that had come out then).
I remember seeing Deliverence here with friends as teens when I was once visiting NJ, and I had never been in a theater that you could smoke in – if you sat in the side sections you could smoke.
I worked at the Vagabond and the Tiffany in 1979 while a film student at USC. The Vagabond was great, got to see so many old films. The characters that came to that cinema every night were so classic downtown LA types of the period. There was a guy who would come with a huge 35mm camera around his neck, sit towards the front, and every so often raise his camera quickly and photograph the images on the screen. I saw him sometimes at other theaters too. There were the drunk older men who would snooze away the night, one I felt bad for one night when he showed up with scabs all over his head from being beaten up in nearby Echo Park.
Often “old movie stars” came in to see their films, or current celebs came in to watch. The owner, Tommy Cooper, had these large poster boards behind the concession stand that we would have any film person we recognized autograph. The ones that were filled up were mounted, but there was always one loose for people to sign until there was no more space. Those must be worth so much money now! BTW, I have an LP that Tommy had recorded, singing show tunes. Don’t know whatever happened to his musical career.
The only nights I didn’t really like to work there were the nights before the movies changed, and I, the young girl, not whatever man was around, had to climb the ladder outside in the deserted dark and change the marquee, with the big red plastic letters that I always had a hard time with fitting the metal connectors in the slots. Not to mention the fact that we sometimes didn’t have enough of the required letters for some titles and I had to get creative with spelling or abbreviating. And we always had double features. So there I was, going into the creepy little room outside the theater that housed the marquee letters spread out all over the floor, step around them like mines as not to crack them, pick out the letters not already on the marquee, get the ladder and spend the rest of the night going up and down. Next door was a Mexican restaurant for Japanese tourists who would come by the busload and stand outside and watch me when they came out from dinner. And there were the lone men walking around, stopping to watch me and ask me questions. I’m glad they didn’t make me do it at the Tiffany too, the boys did it. Don’t think I would’ve wanted to deal with the drunken hords on Sunset Strip!
There was another smaller old theater down the mall from the Criterion I worked at the summer of 1977. They had the same owner or management company. I remember the Criterion was way more lavish and beautiful than the one I worked at. We had dollar matinees that would have lines of sr.citizens down the block. I was sitting in the box office when the newspaper guy was going up and down the mall hawking his papers saying Elvis had died.
I lived in LA in the late 70’s-early 80’s – took pictures of some of these theaters that I will find and scan in for this site. Also did some volunteer work for the LA Conservency and have some of the old tour brochures somewhere with some good pictures. Worked at the Vagabond, will write about that soon on that page.
I worked in the box office (the upstairs street level) of the Cheri in the summer of 1978. The big hit that summer there was Warren Beatty’s “Heaven Can Wait”. The job was fine, except we had to wear these horrible blue and red polyester uniform dresses. I liked working upstairs since the manager didn’t come up too much, (only to count the money occasionally) and I got to read a lot of books that summer in between ticket sales times. Funny to think of a young girl alone, sitting in a enclosed booth away from other employees, right on the sidewalk in downtown Boston, with wads of cash in an old drawer. Were things that much safer then? Nothing ever happened to me at that cinema, but when I worked at a small triplex downtown LA a year later near USC some kids just reached in and grabbed the money through the hole in the window.
Meryl! OMG, I worked with you at the Tiff (and with Mary at the Vag) – I just joined this site tonight and was about to write about this theater when I just saw your postings! I’m Meredith, (friend of Danny’s still too) and in NYC! Remember me (and David)?
Does anyone remember the short animated film that played with “Outrageous” at the Wells? It was kind of a collage, may have been made by a couple…can’t remember much else except I thought it was fantastic!
I used to love going to the Kenmore and Park Sq. theaters, and the program posters were amazing! Let’s see, I remember lots of people in the audience crying at the end of Wuthering Heights, people falling out of the seats laughing during The Producers, (or was it just me doing those things?) seeing first showings I think of Monty Python and Kentucky Fried Movie. Wasn’t there another small cinema on Boylston, around where Pall’s Mall and the Jazz Workshop were? I might be getting that one mixed up with the Park, but one of those premiered The Bitter Tears of Petra Van Kant.
I also worked at Century III Productions in 1984-5, but it then was diagonally across the street, not at the theater space anymore.
In Boston in the 70’s there was a series of films shown on local TV, hosted by Frank Avurush (who also had been the Boston TV Bozo if I remember correctly), where he would show 1 movie Saturday night and 2 on Sunday, all with the same theme or star, and he would talk about them. One night I was at the Exeter with friends seeing Seven Beauties (I think), it was really crowded, and Frank and film crew show up to shoot the line and crowd and got us buying our tickets at the box office which became the new showopen for his series.
Wow, I hadn’t looked on this site for a few years, didn’t realize it had been so long, and it is so great to see these old pictures of the El Miro. I worked here when it was a much more dumpy place, the summer and fall of 1977, sitting in the box office of Cinema on the Mall. The walk up balcony was still there but I remember it so much smaller than the way it was when it was El Miro. On weekdays it was a much deserted walking mall but when we would open up for the dollar matinee there would suddenly be a long line, mostly of seniors. Not like the huge line though of the exterior of the El Miro posted above!
Hi David, Meryl, Lisa, Sean – It’s Meredith again – Have to admit I haven’t been on this site for awhile, Meryl reminded me to check in.
David, let me know when you open that gallery, I have some snapshots I can probably scan to you, I’ll get your email from Meryl. I really remember your songs, especially a Christmas song you made up that was hysterical although now I don’t remember the words. I also have the Tommy Cooper record LP, him singing show tunes. David, you and Brett shared an apartment, right? I remember the Iggy Pop poster in the living room. I may be out in LA in Feb, I’ll drive by the Tiff and see if it’s still there.
Meryl, yes I remember that day so well, we sat in the back row in front of the old glass enclosed seats (for the moms and babies as I’ve read above!)and the staff took very good care of us. That upstairs office was very authentically hippie shabby chic.
I saw so many great double features at the Fox Venice, even though later I had moved away I was so sad when I heard it closed. I think it was the first or second theater I went to when I moved to LA in 77. Seem to recall seeing all of Herzog’s films there (the few that had come out then).
I remember seeing Deliverence here with friends as teens when I was once visiting NJ, and I had never been in a theater that you could smoke in – if you sat in the side sections you could smoke.
I worked at the Vagabond and the Tiffany in 1979 while a film student at USC. The Vagabond was great, got to see so many old films. The characters that came to that cinema every night were so classic downtown LA types of the period. There was a guy who would come with a huge 35mm camera around his neck, sit towards the front, and every so often raise his camera quickly and photograph the images on the screen. I saw him sometimes at other theaters too. There were the drunk older men who would snooze away the night, one I felt bad for one night when he showed up with scabs all over his head from being beaten up in nearby Echo Park.
Often “old movie stars” came in to see their films, or current celebs came in to watch. The owner, Tommy Cooper, had these large poster boards behind the concession stand that we would have any film person we recognized autograph. The ones that were filled up were mounted, but there was always one loose for people to sign until there was no more space. Those must be worth so much money now! BTW, I have an LP that Tommy had recorded, singing show tunes. Don’t know whatever happened to his musical career.
The only nights I didn’t really like to work there were the nights before the movies changed, and I, the young girl, not whatever man was around, had to climb the ladder outside in the deserted dark and change the marquee, with the big red plastic letters that I always had a hard time with fitting the metal connectors in the slots. Not to mention the fact that we sometimes didn’t have enough of the required letters for some titles and I had to get creative with spelling or abbreviating. And we always had double features. So there I was, going into the creepy little room outside the theater that housed the marquee letters spread out all over the floor, step around them like mines as not to crack them, pick out the letters not already on the marquee, get the ladder and spend the rest of the night going up and down. Next door was a Mexican restaurant for Japanese tourists who would come by the busload and stand outside and watch me when they came out from dinner. And there were the lone men walking around, stopping to watch me and ask me questions. I’m glad they didn’t make me do it at the Tiffany too, the boys did it. Don’t think I would’ve wanted to deal with the drunken hords on Sunset Strip!
There was another smaller old theater down the mall from the Criterion I worked at the summer of 1977. They had the same owner or management company. I remember the Criterion was way more lavish and beautiful than the one I worked at. We had dollar matinees that would have lines of sr.citizens down the block. I was sitting in the box office when the newspaper guy was going up and down the mall hawking his papers saying Elvis had died.
I lived in LA in the late 70’s-early 80’s – took pictures of some of these theaters that I will find and scan in for this site. Also did some volunteer work for the LA Conservency and have some of the old tour brochures somewhere with some good pictures. Worked at the Vagabond, will write about that soon on that page.
I worked in the box office (the upstairs street level) of the Cheri in the summer of 1978. The big hit that summer there was Warren Beatty’s “Heaven Can Wait”. The job was fine, except we had to wear these horrible blue and red polyester uniform dresses. I liked working upstairs since the manager didn’t come up too much, (only to count the money occasionally) and I got to read a lot of books that summer in between ticket sales times. Funny to think of a young girl alone, sitting in a enclosed booth away from other employees, right on the sidewalk in downtown Boston, with wads of cash in an old drawer. Were things that much safer then? Nothing ever happened to me at that cinema, but when I worked at a small triplex downtown LA a year later near USC some kids just reached in and grabbed the money through the hole in the window.
Yes, it was definitely a party, working the midnight and 2AM Rocky Horror screenings, and going to breakfast at Cantor’s after…
Meryl! OMG, I worked with you at the Tiff (and with Mary at the Vag) – I just joined this site tonight and was about to write about this theater when I just saw your postings! I’m Meredith, (friend of Danny’s still too) and in NYC! Remember me (and David)?
Does anyone remember the short animated film that played with “Outrageous” at the Wells? It was kind of a collage, may have been made by a couple…can’t remember much else except I thought it was fantastic!