I was a Black Projectionist in the sixties and seventies. In Los Angeles, you had to be licensed by the Department of Building and Safety to work as a professional projectionist. The practical test was given at Los Angeles Police Department Auditorium at Parker Center, 150 N. Los Angeles Street. The entire booth was all Brinkert Equipment which was rare even then. You had to be twenty-one to be licensed but the tests were so complicated and no young person ever applied, so at 18 no one ever asked me how old I was and I was granted a license after passing all of the tests and worked in So Cal for a while attending UCLA.
A grand Theater for sure with not just one, but two balconies. I last saw a double 3-D bill there of “It Came from Outer Space,” and “The Creature from The Black Lagoon.” It was so cool because instead of the old anaglyphic 3-D they used the new Polaroid which was awesome.
Well, time marches on and the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena that was formerly across the street from the Figueroa Theater is no longer and has been replaced by Banc of California Stadium, home of Major League Soccer’s Los Angeles FC which opened in 2018.
I don’t remember more than one Bill Robinson Theater. I used to walk by there everyday from 1961 through 1964 going to and from Thomas Jefferson High School down the street at 41st and Hooper. The Theater was close to a diner opposite it on Central called the “Nickle Spot,” famous for their chicken sandwiches.
Bards was a favorite when we would venture to the “Westside” when I was a teenager. Coming west up Adams Blvd, as you came over and down the hill toward crenshaw Blvd., there was huge metal side that proclaimed “Bards” in flashing lights.
Opened in 1925 by Lou Bard as Bard’s West Adams. In the 1929 city directory it was called Bard’s Adams Street. The location is just west of Crenshaw Blvd. Bard operated a number of other theaters including the Olympic downtown on 8th off Broadway, and two Hill Street theaters nearby, the Town Theatre and the College Theatre. Bard’s also built the Vista Theatre on Sunset Dr. in the Los Feliz area, and Bard’s Egyptian Theatre in Pasadena.
In the early 30s after the theatre became part of the Fox West Coast circuit it was called the Fox Adams. Evidently Fox didn’t keep the theatre long — it was called Bard’s Theatre by 1936 if not earlier. In 1945 it was an independent advertising as Bards Theatre once again.
An August 1962 item in Boxoffice noted that “Allied Theaters, operated by Bob Helm, Phillip Hoffman and Sam Decker, has taken a 20 year lease on the Bard Theater, 1,200-seat neighborhood house, which they have renamed the Adams West and switched to a first-run policy. The Bard had been closed for the past five years.”
They did a few live shows in 1963, and Adams West became a music house where I saw Les McCann Ltd perform here and recorded an album of the show. By 1964 it was a Japanese language house, the Kabuki Theatre.
1973 brought Hollywood films back to the theatre but it soon closed for good as a film house. As a later black cabaret venue in the early 80s it was the Apollo West.
Now a church, the current group, Restauracion, has had the building since 2000.
By the time I worked the Banner as a projectionist, it was a “nudie cutie” adult theater. Worse booth I ever worked. You could tell the theater wasn’t originally a motion picture theater, because the booth seemed to be added much later. It was off to one side on the south wall of the house, projecting at an angle, and the picture was keystone all over the place. But the movies didn’t have much of a plot, and nobody seemed to care that one side of the picture was way taller than the other. Ran a couple old Simplex XL heads here with Strong Lamps, off of tubed rectifiers. If you could work this house, you could work anywhere.
Worked this theater briefly during a revival, and ran a bunch of “Hammer” Horror Films that were popular in the lated sixties. The theater was like the Rio, and didn’t stay open very long on its second go round.
I remember working this booth. The regular projectionist was handicapped and I drew the assignment when he went on vacation. The booth was set up to accommodate him so it was a bit awkward. I became a favorite here because when he returned, he said for the first time he came back to no complaints. I filled in for him anytime he wanted time off.
I also remember coming one day and the cops were there. Seems the manager had not deposited the weeks receipts and took off to parts unknown. Showed a lot of Disney stuff here on Matinees.
I worked many theaters in Southern California during the sixties while a student at UCLA. As a relief projectionist I got into lots of houses, and had a ball. I worked the CinemaLand Theater on many occasions.
I ran the original “Inspector Clouseau” there starring Alan Arkin, before Peter Sellers took over the role. I ran Rod Tailor’s “Dark Of The Sun,” and Jim Brown’s “The Split.” It’s funny how you remember where you worked by the movies you’ve shown.
This was one of my favorite places to work, and it was a first rate theater with beautiful architecture. The booth was spacious, well laid out, with really good air conditioning. Some places were cramped, really hot, with poor circulation and were miserable.
I was a young kid in my early twenties, and was treated really well by the staff. I loved being assigned there.
I think I’ll bop around the site and see if I can find some more theaters that i actually worked.
This was a favorite drive-in of my family, but only because it was reasonably close to where we lived. I remember we always had to keep the sound turned up very loud to drown out the sound of overhead airplanes, as the Century Drive-in was in the landing flight path to LAX.
Great info about Cinerama, although I don’t recall the Cinerama Experience there. I remember when they built the Cinerama Dome and saw all of the Cinerama Films there. I still have my original program guide from the original “This IS Cinerama” film, that I saw somewhere in San Francisco with my Mom when I was a little boy.
I was a regular at the local movie theaters in my extended neighborhood of Southern California, and the Academy was definitely on my list. One of the nicer theaters around, it was probably a close second to the old “Figueroa.” Neither the “Fig,” (as we called it) or the Academy had the “neighborhood” theater feel. Great movie experience and down the street from the “5th Avenue” which was a true “neighborhood” theater, where I saw the first run presentation of “Shaft.”
When I was a student at UCLA, I got a job there as a projectionist back in the seventies. I had an occasion to run “Straw Dogs” and “The Ballad of Cable Hogue” for Sam Peckinpah using and being entrusted with his personal 35mm prints.
The Theater was not on the corner, but just north of Imperial on Western Avenue on the west side of the street.
The Rio brings back lots of memories for me. Some good and unfortunately, a lot of bad. Located in the middle of gang infested territory when I first saw the theater in the late sixties – early seventies, it had already been closed for many years.
A Black Bus Driver from the then MTA, (I can’t remember his name) wanted to reopen the house to have a neighborhood theater again, and sunk his money into the project.
He approached me as one of the few Black and Licensed Projectionist around to help him with the project. In those days, Projectionists had to be certified and licensed through the Department of Building and Safety in Los Angeles.
I trained a projection crew, and ended up being the manager of the theater so a licensed projectionist was on site. The theater was only open on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday’s with plans to expand later.
The gangs made the theater a focal point for confrontations and the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department was constantly being called, and we pulled more than one gun out of the theater on shakedowns. Jamel Barnes, Tookie Williams, and Raymond Washington were all fledgling gang leaders and I knew all of them personally through my work with L.A. Schools Youth Services with my working buddy and college roommate, Cliff Stewart. They were in and around the theater constantly with their “crew.” These guys were all 15 and 16 at this time. It was just a matter of time before things exploded. The Crips had claimed the theater as “their territory,” and the Bloods didn’t take kindly to it.
Finally there was a shooting near the theater and threats were made for more if it opened. The owner closed down, which angered Sheriffs Deputies who had volunteered to work on their own time to prevent that from happening. They didn’t want the gangs to continue to ruin the neighborhood and dictate who could do business, and close the theater.
The last film shown was “AKA Cassius Clay.” I ran it 2 nights, put it in the can, and the doors closed forever.
As long as we’re on neighborhood theaters, what was the theater at the corner of Slauson on Vermont? Can’t remember the name but did get into the booth once and was surprised they were running a full Brinkert House. Never saw that before.
And then does anyone remember the “Bill Robinson” or “Lincoln” Theaters on Central Avenue? I worked the Bill Robinson Booth for a brief period, but never got into the Lincoln. And let’s not forget the “5th Avenue” and “the Academy” in Inglewood. Both Inglewood buildings are still there.
This theater was never a favorite of mine, and even then seemed to just be holding on. It was a rough house and pretty rowdy. The snack bar was even limited with no fountain, and drinks were served via a machine in the lobby. It was a little out of my neighborhood, and my Dad had to take me and he only took me there once.
My second favorite neighborhood theater for 2 reasons; it was a farther walk, and wasn’t as upscale as the nearby Figueroa, (known among us as “The Fig”) and was more a typical neighborhood theater.
While the Fig was a 1st run house, the Regent was a 2nd run house that specialized in the “B” Flicks. The Japanese Space Epics along with “B” titles like the “Attack Of The Killer Shrews,” with an occasional serial thrown in, made for some fun Saturdays and Sundays. My 1st look at “The Adventures of Captain Marvel” came at this house when I was in Junior High.
We would spend the day here and watch the films at least twice, until popcorn money ran out, and began the walk home. Never saw too many adults here on the weekend and it was a noisy boisterous house, that only got quiet when the “monsters were about to attack.” When the film broke, which happened frequently, the house would shake as the entire theater stomped on the floor until the movie came back on. It was a classic “grind house” and I loved it.
Yeah, the bank has been there awhile and is the cornerstone for the housing complexes around it. The Figueroa was such a great theater, and I have so many found memories of those Sunday Afternoons only a 15 minute walk from home after church. It made life really easy for a kid when the only other alternative for a theater of this quality was downtown L.A. Although the “Academy Theater” in Inglewood was a pretty nice house as well, for a kid that was just as far away as downtown.
Growing up this was one of the local theaters within walking distance of my house, and the nicest theater in the area. Awesome architecture and it had a balcony which was unusual for a neighborhood theater. I saw “Visit To A Small Planet” with Jerry Lewis there when it opened, along with the “Curse Of Frankenstein” and many others..
The gas station is across the street from where the theater was, the location now is occupied by housing. The picture is before they built the Sports Arena. My buddy and I used to play in the construction site, riding our bikes through doing hook slides and jumps.
I was a Black Projectionist in the sixties and seventies. In Los Angeles, you had to be licensed by the Department of Building and Safety to work as a professional projectionist. The practical test was given at Los Angeles Police Department Auditorium at Parker Center, 150 N. Los Angeles Street. The entire booth was all Brinkert Equipment which was rare even then. You had to be twenty-one to be licensed but the tests were so complicated and no young person ever applied, so at 18 no one ever asked me how old I was and I was granted a license after passing all of the tests and worked in So Cal for a while attending UCLA.
A grand Theater for sure with not just one, but two balconies. I last saw a double 3-D bill there of “It Came from Outer Space,” and “The Creature from The Black Lagoon.” It was so cool because instead of the old anaglyphic 3-D they used the new Polaroid which was awesome.
I worked this theater as a projectionist in the mid-late sixties, In was a nice house and I enjoyed the expereince as a young kid.
Well, time marches on and the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena that was formerly across the street from the Figueroa Theater is no longer and has been replaced by Banc of California Stadium, home of Major League Soccer’s Los Angeles FC which opened in 2018.
I don’t remember more than one Bill Robinson Theater. I used to walk by there everyday from 1961 through 1964 going to and from Thomas Jefferson High School down the street at 41st and Hooper. The Theater was close to a diner opposite it on Central called the “Nickle Spot,” famous for their chicken sandwiches.
Bards was a favorite when we would venture to the “Westside” when I was a teenager. Coming west up Adams Blvd, as you came over and down the hill toward crenshaw Blvd., there was huge metal side that proclaimed “Bards” in flashing lights.
Opened in 1925 by Lou Bard as Bard’s West Adams. In the 1929 city directory it was called Bard’s Adams Street. The location is just west of Crenshaw Blvd. Bard operated a number of other theaters including the Olympic downtown on 8th off Broadway, and two Hill Street theaters nearby, the Town Theatre and the College Theatre. Bard’s also built the Vista Theatre on Sunset Dr. in the Los Feliz area, and Bard’s Egyptian Theatre in Pasadena.
In the early 30s after the theatre became part of the Fox West Coast circuit it was called the Fox Adams. Evidently Fox didn’t keep the theatre long — it was called Bard’s Theatre by 1936 if not earlier. In 1945 it was an independent advertising as Bards Theatre once again.
An August 1962 item in Boxoffice noted that “Allied Theaters, operated by Bob Helm, Phillip Hoffman and Sam Decker, has taken a 20 year lease on the Bard Theater, 1,200-seat neighborhood house, which they have renamed the Adams West and switched to a first-run policy. The Bard had been closed for the past five years.”
They did a few live shows in 1963, and Adams West became a music house where I saw Les McCann Ltd perform here and recorded an album of the show. By 1964 it was a Japanese language house, the Kabuki Theatre.
1973 brought Hollywood films back to the theatre but it soon closed for good as a film house. As a later black cabaret venue in the early 80s it was the Apollo West.
Now a church, the current group, Restauracion, has had the building since 2000.
By the time I worked the Banner as a projectionist, it was a “nudie cutie” adult theater. Worse booth I ever worked. You could tell the theater wasn’t originally a motion picture theater, because the booth seemed to be added much later. It was off to one side on the south wall of the house, projecting at an angle, and the picture was keystone all over the place. But the movies didn’t have much of a plot, and nobody seemed to care that one side of the picture was way taller than the other. Ran a couple old Simplex XL heads here with Strong Lamps, off of tubed rectifiers. If you could work this house, you could work anywhere.
Worked this theater briefly during a revival, and ran a bunch of “Hammer” Horror Films that were popular in the lated sixties. The theater was like the Rio, and didn’t stay open very long on its second go round.
I remember working this booth. The regular projectionist was handicapped and I drew the assignment when he went on vacation. The booth was set up to accommodate him so it was a bit awkward. I became a favorite here because when he returned, he said for the first time he came back to no complaints. I filled in for him anytime he wanted time off.
I also remember coming one day and the cops were there. Seems the manager had not deposited the weeks receipts and took off to parts unknown. Showed a lot of Disney stuff here on Matinees.
I worked many theaters in Southern California during the sixties while a student at UCLA. As a relief projectionist I got into lots of houses, and had a ball. I worked the CinemaLand Theater on many occasions.
I ran the original “Inspector Clouseau” there starring Alan Arkin, before Peter Sellers took over the role. I ran Rod Tailor’s “Dark Of The Sun,” and Jim Brown’s “The Split.” It’s funny how you remember where you worked by the movies you’ve shown.
This was one of my favorite places to work, and it was a first rate theater with beautiful architecture. The booth was spacious, well laid out, with really good air conditioning. Some places were cramped, really hot, with poor circulation and were miserable.
I was a young kid in my early twenties, and was treated really well by the staff. I loved being assigned there.
I think I’ll bop around the site and see if I can find some more theaters that i actually worked.
This was a favorite drive-in of my family, but only because it was reasonably close to where we lived. I remember we always had to keep the sound turned up very loud to drown out the sound of overhead airplanes, as the Century Drive-in was in the landing flight path to LAX.
Great info about Cinerama, although I don’t recall the Cinerama Experience there. I remember when they built the Cinerama Dome and saw all of the Cinerama Films there. I still have my original program guide from the original “This IS Cinerama” film, that I saw somewhere in San Francisco with my Mom when I was a little boy.
I was a regular at the local movie theaters in my extended neighborhood of Southern California, and the Academy was definitely on my list. One of the nicer theaters around, it was probably a close second to the old “Figueroa.” Neither the “Fig,” (as we called it) or the Academy had the “neighborhood” theater feel. Great movie experience and down the street from the “5th Avenue” which was a true “neighborhood” theater, where I saw the first run presentation of “Shaft.”
When I was a student at UCLA, I got a job there as a projectionist back in the seventies. I had an occasion to run “Straw Dogs” and “The Ballad of Cable Hogue” for Sam Peckinpah using and being entrusted with his personal 35mm prints.
The Theater was not on the corner, but just north of Imperial on Western Avenue on the west side of the street.
The Rio brings back lots of memories for me. Some good and unfortunately, a lot of bad. Located in the middle of gang infested territory when I first saw the theater in the late sixties – early seventies, it had already been closed for many years.
A Black Bus Driver from the then MTA, (I can’t remember his name) wanted to reopen the house to have a neighborhood theater again, and sunk his money into the project.
He approached me as one of the few Black and Licensed Projectionist around to help him with the project. In those days, Projectionists had to be certified and licensed through the Department of Building and Safety in Los Angeles.
I trained a projection crew, and ended up being the manager of the theater so a licensed projectionist was on site. The theater was only open on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday’s with plans to expand later.
The gangs made the theater a focal point for confrontations and the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department was constantly being called, and we pulled more than one gun out of the theater on shakedowns. Jamel Barnes, Tookie Williams, and Raymond Washington were all fledgling gang leaders and I knew all of them personally through my work with L.A. Schools Youth Services with my working buddy and college roommate, Cliff Stewart. They were in and around the theater constantly with their “crew.” These guys were all 15 and 16 at this time. It was just a matter of time before things exploded. The Crips had claimed the theater as “their territory,” and the Bloods didn’t take kindly to it.
Finally there was a shooting near the theater and threats were made for more if it opened. The owner closed down, which angered Sheriffs Deputies who had volunteered to work on their own time to prevent that from happening. They didn’t want the gangs to continue to ruin the neighborhood and dictate who could do business, and close the theater.
The last film shown was “AKA Cassius Clay.” I ran it 2 nights, put it in the can, and the doors closed forever.
As long as we’re on neighborhood theaters, what was the theater at the corner of Slauson on Vermont? Can’t remember the name but did get into the booth once and was surprised they were running a full Brinkert House. Never saw that before.
And then does anyone remember the “Bill Robinson” or “Lincoln” Theaters on Central Avenue? I worked the Bill Robinson Booth for a brief period, but never got into the Lincoln. And let’s not forget the “5th Avenue” and “the Academy” in Inglewood. Both Inglewood buildings are still there.
This theater was never a favorite of mine, and even then seemed to just be holding on. It was a rough house and pretty rowdy. The snack bar was even limited with no fountain, and drinks were served via a machine in the lobby. It was a little out of my neighborhood, and my Dad had to take me and he only took me there once.
My second favorite neighborhood theater for 2 reasons; it was a farther walk, and wasn’t as upscale as the nearby Figueroa, (known among us as “The Fig”) and was more a typical neighborhood theater.
While the Fig was a 1st run house, the Regent was a 2nd run house that specialized in the “B” Flicks. The Japanese Space Epics along with “B” titles like the “Attack Of The Killer Shrews,” with an occasional serial thrown in, made for some fun Saturdays and Sundays. My 1st look at “The Adventures of Captain Marvel” came at this house when I was in Junior High.
We would spend the day here and watch the films at least twice, until popcorn money ran out, and began the walk home. Never saw too many adults here on the weekend and it was a noisy boisterous house, that only got quiet when the “monsters were about to attack.” When the film broke, which happened frequently, the house would shake as the entire theater stomped on the floor until the movie came back on. It was a classic “grind house” and I loved it.
I am unable to find the page for the Regent. I would definitely comment.
Yes I did. That was my second favorite neighborhood theater. Down the street from Manual Arts High.
Yeah, the bank has been there awhile and is the cornerstone for the housing complexes around it. The Figueroa was such a great theater, and I have so many found memories of those Sunday Afternoons only a 15 minute walk from home after church. It made life really easy for a kid when the only other alternative for a theater of this quality was downtown L.A. Although the “Academy Theater” in Inglewood was a pretty nice house as well, for a kid that was just as far away as downtown.
Growing up this was one of the local theaters within walking distance of my house, and the nicest theater in the area. Awesome architecture and it had a balcony which was unusual for a neighborhood theater. I saw “Visit To A Small Planet” with Jerry Lewis there when it opened, along with the “Curse Of Frankenstein” and many others..
The gas station is across the street from where the theater was, the location now is occupied by housing. The picture is before they built the Sports Arena. My buddy and I used to play in the construction site, riding our bikes through doing hook slides and jumps.
The theater address was 4011 S. Figueroa, and Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd was called Santa Barbara Ave back then.