While most of the country sees movies in multiplexes, Los Angeles is still blessed with many old movie palaces. Sure, we've seen the Showcase, Fine Arts, Rialto, and Crest shuttered in recent years, but we've also seen the Orpheum, Million Dollar, Egyptian, El Capitan, Palace, Wilshire, Culver, and a few others restored and actually active.
Most agree that the greatest gem of all the movie palaces is the Chinese theater. A massive place festooned with borderline corny but somehow tasteful Chinese decorations, it is without question the greatest place to see a movie, especially with a full house. Up through the mid-90s, large crowds came to see blockbusters, with lines down the block. I still remember seeing Fatal Attraction there in 1987, and hearing thousands of people gasp at the scary portions.
The Chinese then began having trouble competing with Arclight, the Grove, and the suburban spots. They seemed to book a lot of overly commercial fare that played for too many weeks. Plus I guess locals just don't like traveling to Hollywood/Highland following the building of the very tacky mall; it's pretty much all tourists down there now.
It was recently sold, and initially, there were fears it would be turned into a nightclub. (Ironically, it was sold to a Chinese
company called TCL. Their primary business is manufacturing......television sets.)
Luckily, that did not happen, but now it appears it will be an IMAX theater, with stadium seating and a big huge screen.
It's definitely sad they plan to rip out all the old seats and change the grade of the floor to something steep. Plus they'll be showing awful IMAX movies!
Maybe it will look like this when they are done:
Sunday night was the last night the general public could see a movie in the theater prior to the renovation.
The occasion was the TCM Movie Festival, an overpriced but very well-run festival done once a year.
The last movie, fittingly, was a 1926 silent movie starring Buster Keaton: The General. A live band (a three piece called the Alloy Orchestra that played everything from percussion to pennywhistles to keyboards) added a very modern and kind of amazing soundtrack to the film.
The theater was totally packed to the last row.
Prior to the show, Robert Osborne, from the TCM channel, gave some introductions.
He mentioned that everyone should take a look around the theater, because it was the last night. People gasped; I don't think everyone knew. As he went on to describe the changes, and said the phrase "stadium seating," loud boos and hisses erupted.
When the movie ended, people stayed for a long time, almost everyone snapping photos or just staring at the detailed ceilings, or the famed curtain.
Word is that they will only be
ruining changing the floors and the screen. Everything else is allegedly going to be preserved. They even may be replicating the wooden chairs (albeit with high backs like in stadium places.) And they might make a replica curtain that is big enough to cover the IMAX screen.
The theater preservation community is actually supporting this; I think because they feel it is the only way to save the theater - to keep it commercially viable.
But is it? Having tourists come in and watch awful IMAX movies? Couldn't this be turned into a quality venue showing classic movies, like the Egyptian is?
In fact the TCM Festival itself shows that people are willing to travel from around the world to enjoy Hollywood history. Why not make the Chinese a destination theater that shows great movies
from that history.
It would certainly go better with the footprints out front than the latest disposable mass market IMAX flick.
More pictures of the interior:
