Picwood Theatre

10872 W. Pico Boulevard,
Los Angeles, CA 90064

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Additional Info

Previously operated by: Phil Isley Theaters

Architects: Simeon Charles Lee

Styles: Streamline Moderne

Nearby Theaters

Picwood Theatre exterior

Located at the intersection of Westwood Boulevard & Pico Boulevard. This S. Charles Lee designed theatre opened December 24, 1948 with Gene Kelly in “The Three Musketeers” and Ted Donaldson in “Rusty Leads the Way”. The opening advertisement names it ‘Pickwood’ Theatre. It had 1,600 seats.

After four decades of delighting West LA crowds, the Picwood Theatre was closed on July 19, 1985 with F. Murray Abraham in “Amadeus”. It was demolished to make way for an extension to the Westside Pavilion mall.

The buildings on the entire block (a bowling alley, a bank, and a video arcade were among them) were torn down and replaced by the Westside Pavilion, a huge shopping mall, which takes up two blocks (an overhead bridge stretches across Pico Boulevard, providing access to both sides of the mall without having to physically cross Pico on street level.

A glimpse across the street from the mall at the 1940’s Apple Pan hamburger joint gives a glimpse of what the area once looked like. Pico has changed – for the better?

Contributed by Michael LeBlanc, William Gabel, Ross Melnick, Ray Martinez

Recent comments (view all 253 comments)

Coate
Coate on November 28, 2011 at 8:10 am

BobSe: Why are you repeating me??? Just two comments before you I had stated the Picwood showed “E.T.” after the Cinerama Dome and that it ran 22 weeks. If you were agreeing with me, then say so. Otherwise, please pay attention.

BobSe
BobSe on November 28, 2011 at 8:55 am

@Coate: sorry, I was agreeing with you and confirming according to the best of my recollection…thought you might like concurrance from someone who was actually there for the entire run.

deward
deward on August 29, 2012 at 9:38 pm

worked in the there in the 1950 was one of the greatest i worked in they had lots of first time showings like bell book and candles

                        james cook
                  
Captain_Furball
Captain_Furball on June 25, 2013 at 6:32 pm

Hey, Steve Tinner here, I know I’m many years too late to actively post but just wanted to say Hi to crew from the days of ET, Qwest for Fire(I still have some promo material), Evil Under the Sun; circa 1980’s… Bill, Lisa, Bob, anyone else out there?

William
William on June 26, 2013 at 5:15 am

Hi Steve, Those were the days at that theatre. Boy we had a fun crew running the theatre. Good to hear from you.

Joe Pinney
Joe Pinney on December 13, 2014 at 1:07 pm

When the Picwood opened it had a tropical type of interior in the auditorium. It was remodeled in and around 1966-7. After the remodel the Picwood seated 950 seats.

jackwolf
jackwolf on August 7, 2015 at 9:24 am

A great deal of my childhood was spent at the Pickwood. In 1967, when we lived in Westwood, I went to the kiddie matinee every Saturday at noon, where they had double-features. We used to go to Pickwood Bowl before, bowl, and have breakfast. Must have gone there for more than a year every Saturday. It was a great Westside tradition. I later saw many other movies there, including “Daddy’s Gone a Hunting”, “Rachel Rachel”, “All the Right Moves”, ect.

Coate
Coate on May 24, 2016 at 10:20 am

Extracted from 70mm in Los Angeles, here is a list of the 70mm presentations held at the Picwood, most of which were re-release, subsequent run or moveover bookings. (Sorry, I don’t have the duration data for most of these. But if anyone wants that info, it shouldn’t be that difficult for you to research now that you’re armed with the relevant titles and start dates.)

1975-01-22 … Gone With the Wind

1980-08-01 … The Black Hole / Sleeping Beauty
1980-08-15 … Fame (7 weeks)
1980-11-21 … Divine Madness
1980-12-17 … The Empire Strikes Back
1980-12-19 … Apocalypse Now (26 weeks)

1981-02-13 … The Jazz Singer (7 weeks)
1981-04-03 … Fame
1981-07-03 … Alien / Close Encounters of the Third Kind
1981-07-24 … Wolfen
1981-09-04 … Superman II
1981-12-16 … Zoot Suit (2 weeks)
1981-12-30 … Zoot Suit / The Jazz Singer (1 week)

1982-01-08 … Apocalypse Now
1982-02-05 … Sharky’s Machine
1982-04-02 … Quest for Fire
1982-06-11 … Raiders of the Lost Ark (5 weeks)
1982-07-16 … E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (22 weeks)
1982-12-17 … The Dark Crystal

1983-05-06 … Rocky III

1984-04-04 … The Right Stuff
1984-12-14 … Dune

1985-05-31 … Amadeus (3 weeks)
1985-06-21 … Lifeforce
1985-07-19 … Amadeus

rivest266
rivest266 on August 9, 2016 at 3:08 pm

Lawsuit in 1948 http://latimes.newspapers.com/clip/6175272/picwood_theatre_opening/

rivest266
rivest266 on October 16, 2016 at 2:18 pm

December 24th, 1948 grand opening ad. in photo section.

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