Vanished movie theaters on Brand Blvd. in Glendale

[Oss Rae]

Recently there was discussion at the Eagle Rock Peace Vigil of bygone movie theaters in Glendale (closed/torn down as theaters like the Marketplace and Americana moved in). This prompted me to research them on the internet. Aside from the Alex and Roxy none of us could remember names of any other theaters (even though I myself frequented them quite a bit, particularly in the '80s).

This one was called the Glendale:

I saw Tess there back in '81. (It was long! I seem to recall there being an intermission.)

cinematreasures.org/theaters/2148/photos/95130

There was also the one with two screens on South Brand at a time when having multiple screens was somewhat unusual (the southernmost theater on Brand if I recall correctly). Was it called the Twin, maybe the UA Twin?  I believe A traditional theater was in the same building in the '90sbut on a floor above it.

In doing this research I learned that Glendale's tradition of having a lot of theaters goes back to the silent era. In the '20s there were seven theaters.

[Brian]

Thanks for starting this thread, Oss Rae.  Have you seen the page linked below?  Seems pretty comprehensive, from silent movie theaters to the multiplexes built in the 1990's throughout downtown Glendale.  It lists 11 theaters on Brand Boulevard alone.  You can drill down on the individual theaters for more history, stats and photos.

sites.google.com/site/losangelesmoviepalaces/glendale

I love that photo, taken in 1960. Maybe it was the Glendale Theatre that you were thinking of -- it was subdivided into the Mann Glendale Twin in 1980, not long after Mann chain amended the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood with additional screens and committed worse atrocities with other historic theaters it owned.

Another James Bond movie was playing at the Alex in January 1969. But in the center of the marquee, the theater was advertising a closed circuit boxing event, pretty common and lucrative in those days, featuring Cassius Clay -- who had changed his name to Muhammad Ali five years earlier.

And let us not forget the other venue in the city of Glendale, the Montrose Theatre, with a proud yet tragic history of its own.

[Oss Rae]

Thank you for the link, it's GREAT!!! I don't think I saw that site, although my preference for research, and apparently my inclination, remains going through actual periodicals rather than websites. So I can miss things.

This seems to clear everything up. Did you say you saw Grand Canyon at the Regency One?

When I was in film school, I needed a shot of a large crowd entering a theater, so I went to the Roxy where Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (the one about time travel and saving Earth's whales) was playing and shot it. (The marquee is in the shot. I rewatched it a few months ago.)

It looks like the only theater of the silent era that survived into the '80s may have been the Glendale Theater/Mann Glendale Twin*; however, converting the theater to two screens must've been a radical and profound alteration. Whereas multiple Pasadena theaters survived from the silent era well into the '80s (and in the case of the State on Colorado Blvd., into the 2000s).

Did you see the James Bond at the Alex? I saw Stanley Kubrick's The Shining there, among many other things.

The Montrose Theater, is that the one opposite the 210 from the vigil and west? I remember seeing and hearing about that theater for years, but I didn't actually go until Ghost was playing as a second-run movie in 1990. I heard something bad happened to it, but I forget the details.

Thanks again for the link. It's causing me to revisit good memories.


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*And the Alex, which opened in 1925.

[Sharon W]

The Montrose Theatre was on Honolulu next to Anderson's Pet store. The Shopping Park Association shows outdoor movies there now once in a while now to celebrate the history. cinematreasures.org/theaters/3488

The Chamber of Commerce history mentions a theater in the 1920s, www.montrosechamber.org/about-us/history-montrose/

[Brian]

Thank you for those links, Sharon!  Answering Oss Rae's questions:

No, I never saw "Grand Canyon" in a theater.  I lucked into it around 4 a.m. on premium cable before it was released.  In those days, studios would run films for Academy members to tape and consider for the Oscars without touting the showings for us subscribers.  Lawrence Kasdan was nominated for Best Original Screenplay.  I suppose "Grand Canyon" would seem dated to most people today, but it was a wonderful portrayal of race relations and magical personal encounters in L.A. -- if only among black and white folks, no Latinos or Asians -- in 1991, the year we met Rodney King.

I didn't choose that photo of the Alex because of the James Bond movie -- I was struck by what the listing of Cassius Clay on the marquee said about the community of Glendale in 1969.  I don't remember going to the Alex before I started riding the bus from Tujunga on Saturday afternoons in 1972, when I started high school.  Before then, every movie I saw was with my parents.

I'm with you, Oss Rae, in preferring print to the Internet, especially when researching history before 2000.  So much on the web lacks context, like that photo below from Pinterest.  No way did the Alex show "Deep Throat" in 1972, not even as a private screening.  I was 14, so I certainly would have heard about it!  Turns out that the producers of "Lovelace" shot this marquee in 2012 to use in their movie about the porn star.