UA Warner Center
6050 Canoga Avenue,
Woodland Hills,
CA
91367
6050 Canoga Avenue,
Woodland Hills,
CA
91367
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I worked at the UA Warner Center in 1991-1992. It was at that time that I was training and managing a few of the projection staffs for UA.
Marc Derdon (sp) was the manager. He was a good guy. Lots of great staff there. It was a great place to work at the time.
I remember the folks at El Toritos giving us free food for movie passes. Although frowned upon by corporate, such trades were common place.
It’s a storage facility now! Much of what was in that area is long gone.
This theater (and the Topanga) was my go to local theater in the late 70’s early 80’s while I was in high school. In the fall of 1980 I won a Rocky Horror costume contest which gave me a free pass to this place for 1 year! Rocky was always playing the large yellow theater to the back right of the lobby. I ended up coming here at least twice a week that year. I would skip out of high school at lunch, and spend many afternoons just watching movie after movie.
The staff was so cool, they all knew I had the pass, and they let me go to whatever film I wanted even though it was for one film day. I remember that the “big” house had blue seats, was in the back left of the lobby had awesome sound and a decent screen. They showed 70 mm films and once I made my dad take me to see Alien here. We splurged and spent the extra .50 cents for the LOGE seats. From what I recall, the loge seats were the last 6 or show rows and the seats were somewhat nicer and might have rocked.
After my free pass expired, sadly I do not think I ever came back to this little place. I get sad when I drive by it on Canoga Ave and see the storage facility in its place.
This opened on December 15th, 1978. Its grand opening ad can be found in the photo section.
Ajtarantex when did you work there?
I managed this place for about six months, after Neil Stoleberg went to work for General Cinmea, It was a busy theatre and all of the Film Companies EXC. children wanted to work there. So in order for UA to play the game and get film they made the Manager hire these lazy useless people that couldn’t even sweep the floor.
(cont) Saw Moment By Moment of course—I mean it was Travolta’s new film!! Saw Little Darlings, The Pirate Movie! Random but remember Hercules with Lou Ferigno playing there. Caveman w Ringo Starr, Rocky III, The Rocky Horror they would host on Sat midnight. About Last Night, St. Elmo’s Fire. Remember 2010 w Roy Scheider. Platoon! Tom Hanks and Gleason in Nothing In Common. I truly miss this movie theatre which was ground zero for much of my youth growing up in the valley and the movies which shaped my life.
For some reason it is this theatre that is most vivid in my youth, growing up in the 80s! It certainly wasn’t your vintage, classic looking movie house. It looked very much like a mall theatre, except on large room and a bunch of theatres—mostly small except for the 2 main ones on either far side of the concession counter. I would spend all day there many times, especially during the summer. Saw Every Which Way But Loose in the small theatre to the right of the concession stand. Saw Superman there in the big theatre to the right. The Shining was playing there but my friend and I were too scared to stay in the theatre. How we managed to theatre hop all day is beyond me, there really wasn’t any way to be discreet about it with their lobby set up. Saw Bladerunner and loved it as a 12 year old. Cont: in following comment…
I doubt AlanSanborn is still watching this page, but if anyone else mistakenly believes that the United Artists Westwood Theatre is (shamefully) missing from the Cinema Treasures database, it can be found listed under its later name, the Mann Festival Theatre.
I opened this place in Dec 1978. Just turned 16 years old in November. This was my first “real” job.
Great memories, or I wouldn’t be on this website.
Kurt Messerschmidt
Here is a February 1983 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/y9a727h
UA Warner Center was one of several UA theaters in the San Fernando Valley that looked very much alike (the UA Granada Hills and the UA Valley Plaza being the others – all closed now). The UA Warner Theater resembled its sister theaters in being very boxy. In the late 1980’s I saw many films here because someone I knew then could get into the theater for free. I do not remember why. In its heyday the UA Warner Theater however was very busy. In particular I waited in very long lines to see “Batman” and “Waterworld.”
i worked there in the early-mid 80’s as an usher and finally asst mngr…. CRazy fun times.. it was definitely the place to work
I don’t imagine this theater gets a lot of traffic here. I worked there in it’s final months as the “House Manager” (I believe that was my title) which was essentially the head Asst. Mgr. below the general manager. That general manager was Bill Day in those final months and I had transferred with him from the United Artists Westwood Theater which (shamefully) there is no listing for which I can find on these pages. I had worked for 17 years at the Westwood House but did the change to Woodland Hills as a favor to Bill (not to mention the fact that they gave me a raise and, since I had moved to Northridge, it was closer to home).
Generally speaking, there were only two houses out of the six which were pretty decent. More than any film we played, I mostly remember when the trailers arrived for The Phantom Menace. I would go into the theater almost every time to watch it and must have seen that coming attraction sixty or seventy times.
But the theater closed as did the Westwood House and, barring a brief period doing projecton in La Canada, my time with U.A. was over.
They weren’t the greatest theaters around but the job was a lot of fun.
Best wishes,
Alan Sanborn
The 70mm presentations at the WARNER CENTER included:
Superman (1978)
Alien (1979)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Sleeping Beauty (1981 re-issue)
The Empire Strikes Back (1981 re-issue)
Quest For Fire (1982)
Let’s Spend The Night Together (1983)
Return Of The Jedi (1983)
2010 (1984)
Return Of The Jedi (1985 re-issue)
Cocoon (1985)
Aliens (1986)
Empire Of The Sun (1987)
Cocoon: The Return (1988)
Batman (1989)
Last Action Hero (1993)
For more, see: View link
The theatre initially did not use Dolby equipment for their stereo presentations. But by the mid-1980s they had installed Dolby and also had become THX certified in their largest auditorium.
Intro data claims theatre complex opened in early 1980s. Not correct! The WARNER CENTER opened in December 1978.
The original six attractions were:
Every Which Way But Loose
Lord Of The Rings
Moment By Moment
Pinocchio (re-release)
Superman
Watership Down
Wow…TWO whole pictures! Well, I can match that. :–)
View link
Pictures: http://www.cinematour.com/tour.php?db=us&id=3101
I was one of the projectionists at the UA WARNER 6 around 1985. This theater has a 70mm projection system in theater number two (the blue theater)
The Manager was George Gerard and his wife Kathy was the assistant manager. Their son Geordie was a projectionist in rotation and they seemed to have their infant daughter, Jennifer, at the theater all the time.
UA theaters had ousted its projectionist union by this time. Prior to 1985 the theater had been plagued with projectionist vandalisim. Platters of film being sliced and so on. By 1985 that was not a problem. It was a premiere place to see a 70mm print in the west valley. The sound system in theater 2 was maintained and delivered quality 6 channel audio.
Address Correction: 6030 Canoga Ave. At this location there now sits a self-storage building owned by Storage, Etc.