Remembrance of L.A. movie revival theaters past.

I'm partway through reading Patton Oswalt's SILVER SCREEN FIEND--his memoir about becoming immersed mostly in the Los Angeles revival-house culture (chiefly the still-in-operation New Beverly when the late Sherman Torgan was manager) to enjoy/study films for a hoped-for future career as a director.  The immersion turned into an extended fever which finally broke when Oswalt--like many other viewers--discovered in 1999 that THE PHANTOM MENACE wasn't STAR WARS.

Cued by a review of Oswalt's book, I started at the appendix section where he lists all the films (old and then-new) he saw in 1995-99, as well as the theaters he attended.

Here are comments on now-departed cinematic venues he mentions:
CHAPLIN THEATER AT RALEIGH STUDIOS: the Melrose Avenue home of American Cinematheque during part of the 1990s (Raleigh's just across the street from Paramount).  Oswalt and I were in the same audience for a double bill of JAMES ELLROY: DEMON DOG OF AMERICAN CRIME FICTION and the 1950s B-film DADDY-O with Dick Contino (Ellroy wrote a story about Contino that appears in HOLLYWOOD NOCTURNES).

TALES BOOKSTORE: a now-long-gone bookstore on La Brea near Wilshire which served a niche market for people who wanted to buy short-story book collections.  Tales, on weekends, set up a screen in the food/snack area and ran 16mm copies of film noir and B-grade juvenile delinquent epics.  I remember watching the lesser Bogart film DEAD RECKONING and the Albert Zugsmith B-camp-classic GIRLS TOWN with Mamie Van Doren and Mel Torme.

MELNITZ THEATER AT UCLA: the university's on-campus predecessor to today's Hammer Museum Billy Wilder Theatre for running various film retrospectives by director/genre/country.

NUART THEATRE--by the time I moved to SoCal in 1988, the Nuart was transitioning out of its all-revival programming to running primarily new-release independent films.  But the occasional retrospective series continued into the 1990s (e.g. Preston Sturges, Charlie Chaplin, 30s pre-Code films, 1970s Blaxploitation).

FOUR-STAR THEATRE LOS ANGELES CA: Mid-Wilshire Miracle Mile venue closed and turned into a church; I attended on occasion during the early-to-mid-90s.  Favorite double bill was DELIVERANCE/THE ROAD WARRIOR, both in 70mm prints.

And here are brief comments on other venues I remember from the 80s and 90s:
STATE THEATRE PASADENA CA: Before closing in the latter 90s, this venue served as both revival house and Hong Kong cinema (if I recall correctly, the State ran John Woo's THE KILLER before Woo and Chow Yun-Fat became Household Names).

VAGABOND THEATRE LOS ANGELES CA: the Vagabond (now the plays-revues venue Hayworth Theatre) was a tiny theatre west of MacArthur Park; my first revival-theatre experience--I was a regular customer into 1992.

BING THEATRE LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART: still running films, almost scuttled years ago since Michael Govan had little interest in the revival-theatre ethos until Martin Scorsese talked Govan out of it; I went there mostly from 1988-1993 when Ron Haver was the programmer and host--if Haver were still living today, he likely wouldn't have tolerated Govan.  My favorite double bill at the Bing was part of a series of Haver's favorites scheduled after his death: Hitchcock's VERTIGO and Powell/Pressburger's BLACK NARCISSUS.

CINEPLEX ODEON FAIRFAX THEATRE: Gone now, but in 1989-90 it had a Sunday morning old movies program.  If I recall correctly, the work print of BLADE RUNNER (released in theaters during 1991-92) had its first screening at the Fairfax.  Also, I remember seeing a 70mm Australian roadshow print of THE WILD BUNCH (with some violence deleted by the Australia censor board) with Bo Hopkins and Sam Peckinpah's son Matthew in attendance.

The New Beverly Cinema, OUT OF PRINT and me.

Facebook, a SoCal revival-theatre employee, and me.

Apologizing in advance for any complaints about perceived "bad manners" of mine.

Saturday night, I attended part of a Montgomery Clift double bill of THE MISFITS/WILD RIVER (have seen both before) at the American Cinematheque's Aero Theatre in Santa Monica.

The young male Cinematheque employee (who will go unnamed here) gave an introduction to the films which began with out-loud musings about how the audience was bigger than expected (from my estimate, about 40% full, surprising for an evening of its Clift mini-fest).  It didn't improve from there, with the employee discussing the upcoming slate of movies in what seemed to me to be an "I-don't-care" fashion.  And, when in the lobby, I happened to notice the employee was sporadically playing chess behind the snack-and-soda counter with another young male employee.

So, I made the impulsive decision to complain about this on Facebook--specifically on the Aero Theatre page.

And I received this response from the introduction-giving employee, which mixed a reasonable reply with a passage (highlighted by me) I took offense to:
I'm sorry you were unhappy with my intro. I've been working at the Aero for five years and I finally decided to try giving the intro - it looks like you mistook my stage fright for apathy.
We are always happy to hear from our customers at the counter and if you feel like you need to speak to a manager you can address complaints directly to [name deleted by me], the theater manager, or [name deleted], the director of the American Cinematheque.
By making your complaint public, you not only embarrass me personally (which I can get over), but you also make the whole institution look bad (which is harder to rectify).
If you think that we should only have employees who are already comfortable on stage give the introductions I encourage you to suggest that to one of our managers, but I would like to ask you personally if you would consider sending your message privately and take down the public comment.
I hope that other than my less-than-stellar introduction, your time at the Aero was enjoyable.

I wrote back to the young man as follows:

I will not take the comment down. If you do further intros, take a moment to get focused and have some knowledge about the films you're promoting. And remember that it makes the institution look bad when you're talking openly to the audience about how many audience members are in attendance.

Since the Aero Theatre Facebook page isn't intended as the comments section of Yelp.com, I knew that my public incorrectness would be removed by him or someone else involved with the page.  And it was.

My final words to the young man were these:
"....if you had only stayed with your clarification and not hectored me about taking down the comments, I would very likely have done so voluntarily. So, in the end, we both have to take responsibility for this matter leaving a bitter aftertaste."

In closing, I like the American Cinematheque overall.  I've attended since the 90s across various venues including the DGA Theatres on Sunset Boulevard and the Melrose Studios screening room, plus the permanent sites of the Egyptian and Aero.  And I'm hoping that examining this molehill (which isn't really one, since it's part of the quality of revival-house presentation) of an incident here won't preclude me (plus my wife and mutual friends of ours) from attending future film programs.

I just hope that the employees--regardless of stage-fright--will express some genuine enthusiasm about the theatre's film choices to audiences, regardless of whether the number of patrons are twenty or 200.