My last visit was in 2012 for the 60th anniversary of Cinerama.
Cinerama Dome (Los Angeles, USA) Celebrates Cinerama's 60th Anniversary -
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Cinerama Dome (Los Angeles, USA) Celebrates Cinerama's 60th Anniversary
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On Friday, April 16, 2021, 04:45:09 AM EDT, David Kusumoto
<[email protected]> wrote:
Used to attend screenings there - required for awards consideration in a
calendar year - (which AMPAS will likely rescind permanently as COVID hastened
the death of in-person screenings - and - with the industry letting streaming
services bankroll their own productions before 2020 regardless, bypassing
exhibitors except for tent-pole films). I wished I could've seen "It's a Mad,
Mad, Mad, Mad World" at the '63 world premiere of both the film and the Dome
itself - which is recounted in rich detail in Criterion's restored boxed
version of the film - complete with scratches and sound drops and all. I also
saw "Apocalypse Now" there like others in 1979 - and was struck not only by the
roadshow "reserved seating" still in place - but also by Coppola's baffling
ending at the time. I remember the movie just ended, like BAM! - with no
credit scroll at all.My last visit to the Dome was in 2016 to see "La La Land"
- and director Damien Chazelle came out and introduced the picture. Only later
did I learn that celebrity visits and intros were "commonplace" at the Dome.
The Dome's demise became national news everywhere this week. The WSJ finally
took its turn today, putting this on its front page. (As a public service, just
in case its restrictive paywall is in place, I've copied the text below.) - d.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/hollywood-mourns-the-loss-of-its-beloved-movie-theater-11618506514
| | Hollywood Mourns the Loss of its Beloved Movie Theater - WSJHollywood
Mourns the Loss of its Beloved Movie Theater The flagship ArcLight Cinema on
Sunset Boulevard had long served as L.A.’s clubhouse for the city’s most ardent
movie lovers, where a ...www.wsj.com |
=============
FRONT PAGE - THE WALL STREET JOURNAL - FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 2021
Hollywood Mourns the Loss of Its Beloved ArcLight CinemaThe flagship theater on
Sunset Boulevard had long served as L.A.’s clubhouse for the city’s most ardent
movie lovers, where a ticket might land a seat next to the same star appearing
on the screen
PHOTO BY Bing Guan/Bloomberg NewsBy
Eric Schwartzel for the Wall Street Journal
LOS ANGELES— Nicole DeGraaf was several episodes into the TV show “Felicity”
this week when friends grew concerned about her well-being. “Are you OK?”
several texted. News was spreading throughout the nation’s filmmaking capital
that Hollywood’s unofficial theater chain, the ArcLight, wouldn’t be reopening
its auditoriums when the pandemic ended.Ms. DeGraaf, a hard-core movie lover in
a city full of them, was still processing the revelation. “It’s like someone
was saying your second home is closing forever,” said Ms. DeGraaf, a
42-year-old Los Angeles native who lost her job as a salon manager when
Covid-19 forced the shop to close. Similar scenes are playing out across
America. As the nation re-emerges from 14 months of shutdowns, beloved diners,
music venues and other community landmarks are informing customers that there
will be no life after the pandemic. Few notices have rippled through Los
Angeles like the announcement Monday that the screens operated by ArcLight
Cinemas would be among them. The ArcLight, and in particular its flagship
location on Sunset Boulevard, doubled as a Kiwanis Club for cinephiles, its
lobby a celebrity-filled haven and its auditoriums marked by a quiet, almost
religious, reverence.Still illuminated this week, but padlocked.
When it opened in 2002, the ArcLight was among the first in the nation to
offer assigned seating. Earnest ushers—their own favorite movies featured on
their nametags—introduced each movie by identifying its director and running
time. Each month featured Q&A sessions with filmmakers after the show. In the
lobbies, costumes from blockbusters like “The Avengers” were often on display,
not far from a cafe and restaurant. Next door to the ArcLight’s flagship
location is the Cinerama Dome, an iconic single-screen orb that the chain
operated and had screened such epics as “2001: A Space Odyssey.” The
58-year-old theater could seat more than 800 moviegoers and often dressed the
part, getting covered in yellow tarp for the opening of a new “Minions” movie.
It was displayed in Technicolor glory in Quentin Tarantino’s 2019 ode to
midcentury Los Angeles, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” It, too, will close,
the chain announced.
Charles de Lauzirika in 1978 on his first trip to see the re-release of
"Fantasia"
“Yet another L.A. temple or cathedral to movies that’s fading away,” said
Charles de Lauzirika, a filmmaker whose first visit to the Cinerama Dome was as
a young boy for a rerelease of Disney’s “Fantasia.” Its closure is a sign of
the times, he said, “and the times have sucked.” The 300 screens operated by
ArcLight parent company Pacific Theaters compose a fraction of the 41,000
operating before the pandemic, but they loom large in the home of Hollywood.
These ArcLight-branded multiplexes were a film-geek’s paradise, also defined by
what they didn’t offer—sticky floors, bad lighting—and didn’t tolerate: Talking
or texting during the show and tardy arrivals. “Not letting people in late,
what a dream!” Ms. DeGraaf said.
There are other theaters in Los Angeles, of course, whether those operated
by major chains or boutique operators that specialize in luxury food and
special seating.
But Ms. DeGraaf’s experiences at the big chains, when she must attend them,
are characterized by “20 minutes of commercials with the lights on,” she said,
and at fancier auditoriums by a constant flow of servers delivering appetizers
and cocktails in the auditorium. “Which is great for people who don’t care
about movies,” she said. Pacific Theaters said in a statement: “This was not
the outcome anyone wanted, but despite a huge effort that exhausted all
potential options, the company does not have a viable way forward.” News of
its closure sent Los Angeles film fans into a citywide shiva, with filmmakers
like Rian Johnson and Barry Jenkins joining in the commiseration.
“Nooooooooooooooooooooooo,” wrote actress and director Olivia Wilde. On
Wednesday morning, Michael Horton, a 35-year-old TV researcher and writer,
marked the sad occasion. He loaded CineStill 50 film into his camera and drove
to the Cinerama Dome, Located less than 5 miles south of the Hollywood sign, it
was where Mr. Horton saw “Men in Black” as a child, and where he fell asleep
during an 11 a.m. screening of “Batman v Superman.” The Dome he photographed
this week, though, looked much different than it did back then. Plywood covered
the doors. The only people outside were cleaning the sidewalk. As he took in
the scene, Mr. Horton sounded like a man older than his 35 years as he recalled
the old days. “So much movie culture is leaving Hollywood,” he said. If the
Dome, a historic landmark built out of 316 interlocking concrete panels,
doesn’t reopen, “the next time I go to L.A., will it even feel like the same
city to me?” asked Mr. Lauzirika. He now lives in Atlanta, where movie and TV
producers have flocked in search of lucrative film-tax credits.
In December 2017, every screen but one showed "The Last Jedi"
-----------------------------In July 2019, Nicole DeGraaf and Kurt Meyers
attended an advance screening of "Once Upon A Time in Hollywood"
The ArcLight was one of the few places where moviegoers have a chance at a
celebrity sighting, and where stars were left largely alone. Mr. Lauzirika saw
“Back to the Future” sitting next to Thomas F. Wilson, who played the bully
Biff in the movie. Ms. DeGraaf speaks in awe of watching Keanu Reeves whip off
his motorcycle helmet at the ArcLight bar “like it was in slow-motion.” The
ArcLight was also a gathering spot for the less celebrated in a city that can
feel atomized. “You run into people you know, you run into people you don’t
want to run into,” said Peter Avellino, a 49-year-old ArcLight devotee who
writes about films on a personal blog. Several ArcLight locations were among
the top-performing in the U.S., yet theaters everywhere have struggled to
return. The impact appears to be disproportionately hitting small-town
locations. Last weekend, about 55% of theaters were open, but those locations,
mostly in larger cities, represent about 92% of the nation’s box-office
receipts. Many fans are holding out hope that a deep-pocketed benefactor—or a
streaming service or major studio—will step in and keep the ArcLight open.
Lee Trovillion, a 35-year-old facilities manager for a production company, is
cautiously optimistic. Before he moved to Los Angeles in 2008, film-school
buddies who already lived there told him he would be spending a lot of his time
at the ArcLight. He keeps the ticket stubs to every movie he has seen since he
was 16, and he is heartbroken to think that the disappointing 2019 release
“Terminator: Dark Fate” will be the last one he sees in an ArcLight auditorium.
“I still can’t think people would let that theater die,” he said.
From: MoPo List <[email protected]> on behalf of Susan Heim
<[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, April 14, 2021 12:25 PM
To: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Cinerama Dome to close permanently I would have loved to see How
the West Was Won. It's one of my favorite movie. I just watched it the other
day on TCM.. I have a customer, Tom March from Canada, that is part of a HWWW
group that did a video years ago tracing all the locations that the movie was
filmed in. Showing the current location next to the original filmed location.
A lot of it out in Convict Lake and Lone Pine. Here is the youtube video of
that film he made. It's a wonderful watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73draiaEIMg
| | "How the West Was Won". Locations: Then and Now\"How the West Was Won\".
Locations: Then and Now. Photographed by Tom March. Edited by Dave Strohmaier.
Produced 2007.www.youtube.com |
Sue
From: Rudy Franchi <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, April 14, 2021 6:59 PM
To: Susan Heim <[email protected]>
Cc: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [MOPO] Cinerama Dome to close permanently Great post Sue. When I
heard the news I tweeted the following:
Mega Bummer.The Dome was my favorite place to watch movies.Few years ago saw
How The West Was Won in three strip true Cinerama&a new perfet print of The
Searchers.
---------After the HWWW screening the audience was invited up to the projection
room. Only a few of us took advantage of the invitation and the visit was a
real treat. We got to talk to the projectionists as they went over their clean
machines and I got to see the 4th "projector" in the booth: the large unique
device that ran the sound on its own dedicated track. The God Of Cinema ( who
lives in Hollywood ) will save this iconic movie palace dedicated to the
technique of showing films. rudy
On Wed, Apr 14, 2021 at 7:33 AM Susan Heim <[email protected]> wrote:
When I was a kid growing up in the 1960's, going to the Dome to see a movie was
an event. You got dressed up and you behaved yourself, unlike the local
theater where you could get up and smack your brother or your friend in the
head when they were talking too loud!! It was a treat and it cost a bit more
than going to your local neighborhood theater. We never got concessions
because the cost of getting into the theater pretty much tapped your parents
out. Since we were a large family, we mostly went to drive -in's where the
entrance fee was by the carload and there was always a playground up front,
under the screen, that you could play on until the movie started. I miss the
drive - in's too!! By the time my children were born, the drive - in's were
pretty much closed all over Los Angeles and surrounding areas. It was such a
great venue for a family outing or for date night!!
While I moved out of Los Angeles 5 years ago, I still go down every year to see
friends and family (with the exception of last summer because of Covid). I
would pass the Dome as I traveled down Vine Street to my daughter apartment,
never imagining one day it would be closed and possibly gone forever. I do
hope some corporate entity comes in and buys it and does something wonderful
with it. It would be a great place to not only show new films, but old films
and perhaps a film history museum and learning facility.
SueHollywood Poster FramesHollywoodPosters.com(800) 463-2994
From: MoPo List <[email protected]> on behalf of Alan Adler
<[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, April 14, 2021 2:18 PM
To:[email protected] <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [MOPO] Cinerama Dome to close permanently I remember how thrilled
I was to see APOCALYPSE NOW at the Dome. I knew it was going to be the best
venue I could possibly see the film. The thing about the Dome for me was that
everything was so memorable when seen there. It was the modern movie palace -
one of the last temples to the old gods.
Alan
On Apr 14, 2021, at 6:03 AM, Roland Lataille <[email protected]>
wrote:
Petition Launched To Help Save Hollywood’s Cinerama Dome (msn.com)
On Tuesday, April 13, 2021, 10:19:17 PM EDT, Toochis r <[email protected]>
wrote:
It’s terrible. Don’t understand why they didn’t get Covid19 help. So many worse
businesses got $.
On Tue, Apr 13, 2021 at 6:57 PM Christopher Quarles <[email protected]>
wrote:
Very sad!
On Tue, Apr 13, 2021 at 9:40 PM Susan Heim <[email protected]> wrote:
Sad news from Hollywood. Due to pandemic losses, Pacific and ArcLight
theaters, which includes the iconic Cinerama Dome on Sunset Blvd. will close
permanently. Having grown up in Los Angeles, we arrived in July of 1963. The
Dome opened in November, 1963 with the premiere of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad
World. We lived closeby and went down to see all the hoopla.....I saw so many
movies there growing up and more recently, the American Film Institute would
have a yearly event where they show about 10 or 12 movies and had people
associated with the movie in attendance discussing it. With so many movies to
choose from, the last time, I opted for Spartacus and Kirk Douglas was in
attendance and was wonderful. I took my then teenage daughter as it was one of
her favorite movies too from growing up with her movie crazy Mom......I'm so
sad to hear of it.....
SueHollywood Poster FramesHollywoodPosters.com(800) 463-2994
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