Nice picture. Is it possible that they put whole new marquees on the sides? On the Back Street picture there is standard black lettering on a backlit white panel, but the Grimm marquee seems to have red neon letters and the horizontal stripes that usually hold letters (as can be seen on the 1943 picture and at the top of this page) are gone. That’ll also explain my doubts about (not) inconsistent “Cinerama” and “Holiday” signs.
PS: New street lights on Hollywood Blvd every decade :)
I digged up some more pictures at the LA Public Library (with some nice b/w of the interiour BTW: go to [url]http://lapl.org[/url], select the photo catalog and search for “hollywood warner theatre”) and while noticing on [url]http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater1/00014800.jpg[/url] that the “Studio Mens Shop” of 1943, right of the entrance, turned into the “Motherhood Maternity Shop” in 1961 (what a change..;), I also noticed that the top of the white marquees left/right is above the shop signs. “Holiday” ends clearly below these signs, so you’re right, it’s on the marquee.
Nevertheless, the whole point was that this is one sign just for this movie. The letters not only are just too similar, it’s “Cinerama Holiday”, one title, not something reading like “Presented in Cinerama:”, the movie “Holiday”, so they actually should look the same, making this one sign.
Because of this I came up with a flat wooden board (which may of course very well have neons or bulbs on it) placed in front of Warner and marquee (not instead of) to get both words on the same level with the same light – looks nice and no hazzle with dis-/mounting the Warner sign. (Am I talking like a marquee designer? Sorry :)
In short: It’s not alternating between WARNER and CINERAMA, it’s between WARNER and part of a Cinerama movie title announced big style. And the letters Warner are still there, they’re just hidden by the Cinerama movie title sign.
What did it look like on the postcard you mentioned (and how did they get that title The Wonderfull..Grimm title on the marquee anyway?:), could you post that one?
re stevebob: Looking closely it’s visible that the “Cinerama Holiday” has the size of the “Warner” label (compare the bottom line of Holiday and Warner with the top line of the white front marquee on both of the photos you mentioned). So I’d say they didn’t replace Warner with Cinerama, they simply put a wood sign announcing the movie Cinerama Holiday (and not the system Cinerama) over the Warner letters. After all, you can’t announce Cinerama if not playing Cinerama movies.
I’m anything but an expert on Cinerama history, but looking at the mere 10 movies listed by the IMDb with the same film format (http://imdb.com/SearchTechnical?PFM:3%20x%2035%20mm%09(6%20perf.%20per%20frame) ), it’s no surprise to me that they had other movies, too. If I got that right, the freshest Cinerama release in 1961 would have been South Seas Adventure from 1958..
Nice picture. Is it possible that they put whole new marquees on the sides? On the Back Street picture there is standard black lettering on a backlit white panel, but the Grimm marquee seems to have red neon letters and the horizontal stripes that usually hold letters (as can be seen on the 1943 picture and at the top of this page) are gone. That’ll also explain my doubts about (not) inconsistent “Cinerama” and “Holiday” signs.
PS: New street lights on Hollywood Blvd every decade :)
I digged up some more pictures at the LA Public Library (with some nice b/w of the interiour BTW: go to [url]http://lapl.org[/url], select the photo catalog and search for “hollywood warner theatre”) and while noticing on [url]http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater1/00014800.jpg[/url] that the “Studio Mens Shop” of 1943, right of the entrance, turned into the “Motherhood Maternity Shop” in 1961 (what a change..;), I also noticed that the top of the white marquees left/right is above the shop signs. “Holiday” ends clearly below these signs, so you’re right, it’s on the marquee.
Nevertheless, the whole point was that this is one sign just for this movie. The letters not only are just too similar, it’s “Cinerama Holiday”, one title, not something reading like “Presented in Cinerama:”, the movie “Holiday”, so they actually should look the same, making this one sign.
Because of this I came up with a flat wooden board (which may of course very well have neons or bulbs on it) placed in front of Warner and marquee (not instead of) to get both words on the same level with the same light – looks nice and no hazzle with dis-/mounting the Warner sign. (Am I talking like a marquee designer? Sorry :)
In short: It’s not alternating between WARNER and CINERAMA, it’s between WARNER and part of a Cinerama movie title announced big style. And the letters Warner are still there, they’re just hidden by the Cinerama movie title sign.
What did it look like on the postcard you mentioned (and how did they get that title The Wonderfull..Grimm title on the marquee anyway?:), could you post that one?
re stevebob: Looking closely it’s visible that the “Cinerama Holiday” has the size of the “Warner” label (compare the bottom line of Holiday and Warner with the top line of the white front marquee on both of the photos you mentioned). So I’d say they didn’t replace Warner with Cinerama, they simply put a wood sign announcing the movie Cinerama Holiday (and not the system Cinerama) over the Warner letters. After all, you can’t announce Cinerama if not playing Cinerama movies.
I’m anything but an expert on Cinerama history, but looking at the mere 10 movies listed by the IMDb with the same film format (http://imdb.com/SearchTechnical?PFM:3%20x%2035%20mm%09(6%20perf.%20per%20frame) ), it’s no surprise to me that they had other movies, too. If I got that right, the freshest Cinerama release in 1961 would have been South Seas Adventure from 1958..