Pages about the Warner Hollywood: an overview | street views 1926 to 1954 | street views 1955 to present | main lobby | basement lounge | upper lobby areas | recent auditorium views | vintage auditorium views | stage | stage basement | other basement areas | booth and attic |
This theatre has been advertised using all sorts of variants of the Warner name: Warner Bros. Hollywood, Warner's, the Warner, Warner Cinerama and the Warner Hollywood Cinerama. Pacific Theatres acquired the house in 1968 and renamed it the Hollywood Pacific. After a 1978 triplexing, it was known as the Pacific 1-2-3.
It's still owned by Robertson Properties, the real estate arm of Pacific Theatres. The last regular film exhibition was in 1994. It was
later used as a test house for digital projection technology and, until
mid-2013, for church services. It's been boarded up and vacant since the church had their rental agreement terminated in June 2013. There's no word as to what is next for the building. Preservation groups including Hollywood Heritage and the Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation had been in talks with the owners, who said that they were exploring various options. But there's been no communication from them since about 2017.
Seating: 2,756 originally, Hollywood's largest. When Cinerama first went in the house in 1953 a news item on March 17 noted that the capacity was being reduced from 2,760 to 1,510. It's unknown what the capacity was when the Cinerama gear was pulled out and the house got a renovation in late 1961. During the Cinerama run of "2001" in 1968-69 the capacity was 1,256 with the back of the balcony closed off and seating eliminated in the back corners of the main floor. When it was triplexed in 1978, the two balcony auditoria ended up with 550 seats each. The main floor theatre has a capacity of 1,200.
Stage: The Warner has a full stage with fly capability via an Armstrong-Power counterweight system located off left. There is also a flyfloor off right. Proscenium width is 50' with the stage backed into the northeast corner of the building. The dimmerboard, located off left, was a Frank Adam/Major pre-selective installation. The pit at the Warner was on a screw-jack lift with the organ console on a separate lift at the house left end of the pit. The dressing rooms are mostly in the huge basement. See the stage and stage basement pages for details as well as many photos.
This preliminary drawing for the Warner Hollywood appeared in the August 22, 1925 issue of Moving Picture World, available on Internet Archive. Somehow that lovely tower or the two upper floors didn't make it to the final design. The October 1925 issue of Architect and Engineer had a small notice advising that Lansburgh was working on the plans for the building and that they expected it to seat 3,000 and cost $2,000,000. Thanks to Mike Hume for finding the A&E item on Internet Archive.
The initial scheme had been even wilder, at least according to the article below that appeared in the August 27, 1925 issue of the British publication The Cinema. It's on Internet Archive. In the version they describe, the tower was to be 150' tall, with an observation area on top and cinema museums on three of the landings as you went up. A ballroom was to be on the building's second floor and the stage was to have a huge tank for water spectacles. The basement levels were to have an ice skating rink and free valet parking for 400 cars.
A later design shows that the center tower was still part of the plan but the office building had lost two floors, the little domes on the corners had vanished and the signage atop the tower was to be circular instead of square. This drawing from Lansburg's office appeared in the October 1925 issue of Los Angeles Realtor on a page headed "Five New Playhouses For Hollywood." It reappeared in the November 1926 "Hollywood Issue" on a page titled "The Home of the Theatre." Thanks to the Special Collections division of the Los Angeles Public Library for allowing access to the issues.
The building as it was actually constructed is less grand in concept but still impressive. In addition to the theatre, it encompasses retail space on the ground floor and three floors of offices above fronting on both Hollywood Blvd. and Wilcox Ave. Warner Bros. Theatres had their offices in the building.
Transmitter towers for the Warner Bros. radio station KFWB were added to the building after opening. The studios and transmitter were originally located at the Warner studios on Sunset Blvd. The first use of the towers was the March 4, 1929 broadcasts. Later the studios were also moved to the building, remaining until a 1937 relocation to Burbank.
Looking north with Hollywood Blvd. at the bottom. The protrusion sticking up on top of the stagehouse roof (upper right) is the cooling tower, which is parallel to the proscenium. Look behind it and you'll see that the stagehouse ends in a point at the northeast corner of the building. Image: Bing Maps. Head to their site for the interactive version.
A cutaway drawing of the building by noted theatre historian Kurt Wahlner.
In one of the chambers. Photo: Bill Gabel - Photos of Los Angeles. Thanks!
An ad for opening night, advertised as "The Premiere of Premieres" at "Hollywood's only regular price first run theatre." The Egyptian and the Chinese were on a two-a-day reserved seat policy and charging legit theatre prices. The other houses in Hollywood were second-run venues. Thanks to Mike Rivest for the find, a contribution of his to the theatre's page on Cinema Treasures.
The Warner Hollywood has been referred to as the "theatre that saved Warner Bros." as it provided a high profile venue for their product in the film capital -- and a big seating capacity to boot. The ongoing prosperity of Warner Bros. resulted in more building and acquisitions. The expansion began in the L.A. area with the August 1929 takeover of the downtown Pantages (renamed the Warner Downtown) and they envisioned a second theatre in Hollywood, possibly as a deluxe two-a-day outlet for more prestige product.
It was reported in "Warners Plan Another Theater in Hollywood," a September 20, 1929 L.A. Times article, that they had spent $300,000 buying another lot east of the theatre (with 65' of frontage and 100' deep) as well as a buying a lot on Cahuenga (with 105' frontage) and were entertaining the possibility of entrances on both Hollywood Blvd. and Cahuenga. Although nothing came of the project, Jack Warner was dreaming of Moroccan architecture and a capacity of 3,500 for the house.
In 1930 and 1931 they built new Warner theatres designed by B. Marcus Priteca in Beverly Hills, San Pedro and Huntington Park. The Forum Theatre on Pico was added to the circuit. In October 1931 at Wilshire and Western they opened the Warner Bros. Western, a G. Albert Lansburgh design now known as the Wiltern. The depression took longer to catch up to Warner Bros than it did to the other majors but by 1932 all these theatres were in trouble and the company as a whole was losing money.
An interesting advertising medium for the Warner were these signs that
were posted along Pacific Red Car routes. Thanks to Steve Opperman for
the photo of this one he found that was once 20 minutes away from the
theatre. He reports that they were owned by the Chamber of Commerce and
that he's seen another saying 25 minutes to the Warner as well as
similar ones for hotels and restaurants, sometimes with different color
schemes. It's unknown how many were used or during what time period.
Vitaphone at the Warner: The process certainly wasn't new when the Warner opened as many theatres had been screening the hundreds of shorts that the Warner Vitaphone unit had produced since the mid 20s.
But the process had certainly hit the big time with the successes of "Don Juan" (August 1926) and "The Jazz Singer" (October 1927). "Don Juan" played its first run engagement in Los Angeles at the Egyptian, initially as a silent with the house orchestra, then with the Vitaphone version. "The Jazz Singer" opened downtown at the Criterion and later moved over to the Tower.
The process used records for the sound, with the turntable mechanically synched to the projector. The turntables, bases, amplifiers and speakers were all designed and manufactured by the Western Electric unit of Bell Telephone. The logo is from the Wikipedia article on the Vitaphone process.
The projectors in the booth for the opening of the Warner were Simplex Standards (the Super hadn't come out yet). As far as sound was concerned, the Western Electric installation included optical soundheads as well as the Vitaphone turntables so films using the Fox Movietone system and other processes could be played.
Looking down the length of the Warner Hollywood booth in the late 20s or early 30s in a view appearing thanks to John Conning at the site Moviemice. Note the turntables behind the 3 projectors for playing Vitaphone discs.
Early Widescreen at the Warner: There was a flurry of interest at several studios in wide gauge filming and projection in the late 20s and early 30s. An optimistic item in the November 1, 1930 issue of Exhibitors Herald-World boasted that Warner Bros. was intending to put wide film in all its theatres. The deepening economic gloom put an end to it until new challenges in the 50s prompted digging up some of the old experiments.
Warner Bros. used the name "Vitascope" for their process which is interesting because the same trade name had been used by Edison for an early projector in the 1890s. Wikipedia has an article on it. Vitascope didn't have sound on the film (unlike the 70mm "Fox Grandeur" process) and used Vitaphone records synched with the projector.
An article on Vitascope on In70mm.com notes that the process used 5 perforations per frame and 65mm film stock. It had an aspect ratio of 2.05 to 1. The cameras and projectors were developed by the Warner Bros. technical department. Brunswick Corp. was making the dual gauge 35/65mm projectors for the circuit. It's unknown how many actually got completed or installed. See Wikipedia for a nice list of film formats that includes these widescreen experiments of the 30s.
A 65mm Vitascope frame, actual size. Engagements with widescreen Vitascope projection at the Warner included "The Lash," which opened December 26, 1930 (for two weeks) and "Kismet, " which opened February 13, 1931 for a one week run.
"2 Theatres at the Same Time!" It's the December 26, 1930 Times ad for "The Lash" at the Warner Downtown (in 35mm) or at the Warner Hollywood (in 65mm Vitascope -- "uncanny in its realism"). Thanks to the terrific site In70mm.com for the ad. It's from their article "Magnified Gandeur" by David Coles.
An ad for "Kismet" at the Warner Bros Hollywood. But it's the wrong Warner Hollywood -- this one's in New York City. And perhaps New York never got the 65mm projectors for the run. Again it's from "Magnified Grandeur" the great In70mm article on early widescreen by David Coles.
See the Film Technology listings on this site for more on early widescreen. If the Warner Downtown was ever equipped for the Vitascope process, it's unknown what films they ran. "The Lash" wasn't one of them. For dates of early wide-gauge runs in Los Angeles at other theatres see the From Script To DVD page "70mm and Wide Gauge: The Early Years" by Michael Coate and William Kallay.
RKO-SW: After the consent decree divestitures of the late 1940s and early 50s, the Warner Bros. theatres ended up as part of a corporation called Stanley Warner Theatres. The Stanley Corp. of America was a theatre operator Warner Bros. had purchased in the late 20s. In 1967 Stanley Warner merged with RKO Theatres (then controlled by the Glen Alden Corp.), thus forming the company called RKO-Stanley Warner. In the L.A. area the combined company's operations after the merger included the Pantages, the Hillstreet, the Topanga, the La Mirada and the former Warner theatres left in the circuit: the Wiltern, the Warner Beverly Hills, Warner Huntington Park, Warner Downtown and Warner Hollywood.
3 Strip Cinerama at the Warner: In early 1953 the theatre was renovated for 3-strip Cinerama with a deeply curved screen with its center within the proscenium and sides extending out into the auditorium. The special Cinerama screen was of louvered construction, composed of several thousand vertical strips, a design intended to eliminate cross reflections from the sides of the screen.
Three small
projection booths were added on the main floor. Seating was
reduced to 1,510 by draping off the upper balcony. The
Cinerama films ran as reserved seat engagements with Cinerama, Inc. operating the theatre. This was the third market in the country for Cinerama, with earlier installations in New York and Detroit.
An ad for the 1953 invitational premiere of "This is Cinerama" at the Warner. Thanks to Roland Lataille for finding the ad. It's on his In Cinerama site's Warner Theatre page.
A view of the louvered Cinerama screen -- designed to prevent light on the sides of the screen from washing out the picture on the other side. It's from Greg Kimble's great article "This is Cinerama" on the widescreen site In70mm.com.
"This is Cinerama" opened at the Warner on April 29, 1953 and ran 133 weeks.
"Cinerama Holiday" opened November 14, 1955 and ran 81 weeks.
"Seven Wonders of the World" opened June 5, 1957 and ran 69 weeks.
"South Seas Adventure" opened October 1, 1958 and ran 71 weeks.
"Search For Paradise" opened February 11, 1960 and ran 38 weeks.
"This is Cinerama" return engagement opened November 2, 1960 and ran 22 weeks.
"Cinerama Holiday" return engagement opened April 4, 1961 and ran 7 weeks.
"Seven Wonders of the World" return engagement opened May 23, 1961 and ran through September 9, 1961 -- 16 weeks.
A page 82 story in the September 18, 1961 issue of Boxoffice told of the millions grossed by Cinerama and noted that the theatre was reverting to Stanley-Warner.
A September 15, 1961 article about the renovations. Thanks to Roland Lataille, curator of the site InCinerama.com, for locating the article for his page about the Warner Hollywood. The reopening they were planning for October 19 didn't happen until the 26th.
Page one of a March 14, 1962 Motion Picture Herald article discussing the 1961 renovations. Note the "new look" of the draped proscenium. Thanks again to Roland Lataille for the find -- he has the article on his In Cinerama Warner Theatre page.
Page two of the Motion Picture Herald article -- with an ad for Norelco projectors touting the long runs they were getting from prints at the Pantages.
The new flat screen at the Warner in 1961 was installed on the stage and much of the auditorium was draped in the makeover. Note in the photo in the article that the front of the stage was still intact with steps down to the auditorium to conceal the orchestra pit. The screen was within the original proscenium and the footlights were being used to illuminate the curtain. The theatre reopened with the premiere of "Back Street" with Susan Hayward (in 35mm) on October 26, 1961. More 35mm non-roadshow engagements, including "Flower Drum Song," filled the schedule until the theatre closed on June 3, 1962. The last film to play was "The Counterfeit Traitor."
The 2nd Cinerama installation: Soon the new proscenium treatment was removed for another Cinerama screen installation. The 28' x 76' screen encompassed 146 degrees of arc. This time there was substantial demolition and lowering of the front of the stage for a rounded bubble treatment as a transition from the auditorium floor to the bottom of the screen. Three new main floor projection booths were built. The center one substantially forward of the back wall and the two side booths near the front of the balcony overhang. Other work included a dropped ceiling and the draping of main floor sides and rear areas where seating was not desirable.
As with the 1953 version of Cinerama in the house, the rear of the balcony was not used and had drapes part way up to hide the rear of the auditorium. The theatre started showing 3 Strip Cinerama again in August 1962. Longtime Pacific Theatres projection supervisor John Sittig notes that by the time of the "How the West Was Won" engagement the 146 degree screen configuration had been flattened out to a 126 degree curve similar to the one later installed at the Cinerama Dome.
"The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm" (Cinerama/MGM) opened August 7, 1962 and ran 28 weeks.
"How The West Was Won" (American premiere engagement, Cinerama/MGM) opened February 20, 1963 and ran 93 weeks.
Thanks to Martin Hart for this great illustration of a Cinerama shot from the opening sequence of "How The West Was Won." It's on the first page of the Cinerama section of his wonderful American Widescreen Museum site.
William R. Forman takes over Cinerama, Inc: It was a publicly traded company that once had been controlled by Stanley-Warner Theatres. In "L.A. Man Buys Cinerama Loan of $15 Million," a February 18, 1963 L.A. Times story, they noted that he had bought the indebtedness that had been held by Prudential Insurance. By December 1963 he had control of the company. Later it became a subsidiary of Pacific Theatres.
"Circus World" -- premiered December 17, 1964 and ran 16 weeks. It was advertised with the tagline "Cinerama surrounds you with the greatest thrill-packed story ever filmed."
"The Hallelujah Trail" (world premiere engagement, United Artists)
opened June 23, 1965 and ran for 26 weeks. "Presented in Cinerama.
Filmed in Ultra Panavision." Thanks to Michael Coate for sharing the opening day ad in a post on the Friends of 70mm Facebook page. He notes that the engagement began without an actual premiere -- that "world premiere" was held in New York on the 30th. There had been an L.A. press preview on June 11th.
"Cinerama's Russian Adventure" opened May 3, 1966 and ran 13 weeks.
Regular 35mm films on the Cinerama screen followed "Russian Adventure" including including a 13 week run of "Is Paris Burning?" later in 1966.
A ticket to an April 2, 1968 preview of "2001: A Space Odyssey" (MGM). Thanks to Bruce Kimmel for sharing the item from his collection. Also see a photo of the premiere he located.
"2001" played the Warner for 80 weeks as a reserved seat engagement starting April 4, 1968. The 70mm prints for Cinerama houses had the Cinerama logo as part of the credits -- it didn't appear on 35mm prints. The feature was filmed in Super Panavision 70. The main floor side sections, some of the rear areas and the back of the balcony were still concealed with drapes during the run of "2001" resulting in a seating capacity of 1,256.
A trade magazine ad touting the capacity business the theatre was doing for "2001." Thanks to Bruce Kimmel for finding it. "2001" later moved over to the Warner Beverly Hills -- still in 70mm and with reserved seats but not on a Cinerama screen. See "Still the Ultimate Trip: Remembering 2001...," Michael Coate's article on the site Digital Bits about the film's initial engagements.
Much of the information about the 70mm and Cinerama runs at the Warner comes from Michael Coate and William Kallay's fine site From Script To DVD. They have a list of 70mm Theatres and a Photo Gallery featuring pages about many of the Hollywood theatres as well as 70mm engagements listed year by year. Also check out their Warner Hollywood and This Is Cinerama in Los Angeles pages.
Pacific Theatres takes over: Pacific took over the Warner from RKO-Stanley Warner during the 1968-69 run of "2001" and changed the name to the Hollywood Pacific. They also acquired the other southern California and Texas assets of
Stanley Warner. In 1970 Pacific picked up the remaining 133
theatres of the combined RKO and Stanley Warner chains.
Although "Cinerama" was still atop the marquee, the Cinerama screen was finally removed for good sometime before early 1971 according to John Sittig, then chief projectionist for Pacific Theatres. The replacement was a less curved version fitted within the proscenium that utilized a single sheet rather than the louvered Cinerama configuration. Kurt Wahlner notes that although the curve was shallower, the curtain configuration was the same as it had been during Cinerama. It wasn't opened all the way, just far enough that you saw the sides of the proscenium, covered with drapes. Black masking at the top went up to meet the dropped ceiling.
Long runs of this era included a 29 week run of "Airport" in 1970, the engagement of "Clockwork Orange" in 1971 and a roadshow booking of Universal's "Thoroughly Modern Millie" (in 35mm) in 1976.
The 1978 Renovation: The balcony was enclosed for 2 additional screens in 1978. The original booth upstairs was re-equipped to serve those two screens. The three main floor booths that had been constructed for the second Cinerama installation were removed and a new main floor booth was constructed, farther back against the back wall.
The listing for the theatre in the Pacific Theatres L.A. Times ad on
August 15, 1994 -- the last day of regular operation. Not even a "Last
Times Today" mention. At the time, the only other Hollywood houses
appearing in Pacific's ads were the Cinerama Dome and the El Capitan.
The building evidently sustained some damage during the construction of
the Red Line subway in the mid-1990s including basement flooding. Whatever issues there were got solved and no evidence of problems was revealed in later inspections. It's
not known how much seismic retrofitting has been done to the building or
even if any is needed.
Later uses: After Pacific Theatres ceased regular operations there
was still occasionally a public film screening downstairs such as for the AFI Fest in 2001 or an L.A.
Conservancy screening in 2005. From 2001 until 2006 the main floor theatre was used as USC's
Entertainment Technology Center, hosting trade screenings of various
films to demonstrate digital projection technology.
For several years a church group, Ecclesia Church in Hollywood,
was using the main floor auditorium for their Sunday services. The
unrepaired upstairs theatres remained off limits. The church was told to
vacate at the end of June 2013.
Status: The Warner is
currently dormant and waiting for the next great idea. The building is still owned by Robertson
Properties / Pacific Theatres, its longtime operator. Pacific and its associated
companies also own almost the whole block surrounding the theatre.
Wendell Benedetti has a map on the LAHTF Facebook page.
The Park La Brea News / Beverly Press had an August 2017 story "Meetings will determine historic theater's future"
that discussed city councilman Mitch O'Farrell's plan to meet with the
owners to get discussions moving again. There had been a three year
effort by the Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation, Hollywood
Heritage and other groups to get a feasibility study done concerning
restoration possibilities. Hillsman Wright of the LAHTF notes that the
first meeting at O'Farrell's
office had been back in 2014 with the owners agreeing to fund the study
3 or 4 months later. Then the process stalled.
Becoming the Netflix Theatre? CBRE was pitching the idea when Netflix was looking around for a suitable venue around 2018. They ended up buying the Egyptian instead. Thanks to April Brooks Clemmer for sharing this photo she took when she encountered the display in the lobby on one of her tours. Visit her April's Hollywood Facebook page and the website for the Old Hollywood Tours she conducts.
The Warner is in the upper left, but not yet with the radio towers, in this c.1929 shot from footage used in "It
Happened in Hollywood" (Columbia, 1937). We're told that there's going to be a location shoot for a gangster picture at Hollywood and Vine. Fay Wray and Richard Dix star. She's a
glamorous actress, he's a
horse-riding western star who has been down on his luck since talkies came
in. Harry Lachman
directed. See the Historic L.A. Theatres in Movies post for an earlier shot looking toward the El Capitan during a premiere at the Chinese.
Elvis is late for work as a photographer at the Hollywood
Citizen-News in Norman Taurog's "Live a Little, Love a Little" (MGM,
1968). Up the street we get a view of the towers atop
the Hollywood Pacific. Elvis loses his job but we get a fine tour of the press room and a
fistfight as well. The film features Michele Carey, Don Porter, Rudy Vallee, Dick
Sargent, Sterling Holloway and Celeste Yarnall. The cinematography was
by Fred J. Koenekamp. Thanks to Adam Taylor for noting this shot in the film. See the Historic L.A. Theatres in Movies post for three views of a later photo shoot Elvis does at the Music Center.
The Pacific is seen in the background of this shot from
"Star Spangled Girl" (Paramount, 1971). It's a film directed by Jerry Paris based on the
Neil Simon play that features Sandy Duncan, Tony Roberts Elizabeth Allen
and Todd Sussman. The cinematography was by Sam Leavitt. Thanks to Marc
Edward Heuck for spotting the theatre in the film and getting the
screenshot. He shared it as a post on the LAHTF Facebook page. Again "Little Big Man" is on the marquee.
We get a look west toward the Pacific vertical at the end of a big musical number on the street in "The First Nudie Musical" (Paramount, 1976). The book, music, and lyrics for the movie are by Bruce Kimmel. See the Historic L.A. Theatres in Movies post for sixteen more shots from the film including many views of Hollywood theatre signage and a look at the lobby of the Fox Venice.
We get a look at the east side of the Warner a bit in a scene in "Night of the Comet" (Atlantic Releasing, 1984) where we're in the alley behind the KFWB building (now demolished). We're pretending to be near the El Rey Theatre on Wilshire. See the Historic L.A. Theatres in Movies post for more from the film.
We see a lot of Hollywood Blvd. in Robert Vincent O'Neill's "Angel" (New World, 1984). Fifteen year old Molly is a high school student by day, a hooker by night. Here she's in front of the Warner on the rampage trying to shoot a killer who has been preying on teenage girls. The film stars Donna Wilkes, Cliff Gorman, Dick Shawn, Rory Calhoun and John Diehl. See the Historic L.A. Theatres in Movies post for a dozen shots from the film.
Farm boy Anthony Michael Hall spends a summer in Los Angeles and gets mixed up with drug dealers in Richard Tuggle's "Out of Bounds" (Columbia, 1986). The film also features Jenny Wright and Jeff Kober. Thanks to Eitan Alexander for this screenshot looking west from Cahuenga Blvd. toward the theatre, at this point called the Hollywood Pacific.
The Pacific neon on one of the towers is lit as we look east on Hollywood Blvd. in Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" (Miramax, 1994). Uma Thurman has just overdosed and John Travolta is frantically driving her to Eric Stoltz' house for a shot of adrenaline. With a big syringe. Right in the heart. Also starring in the film are Samuel L. Jackson, Ving Rhames and Bruce Willis. Thanks to Jonathan Raines for spotting the shot. See the Historic L.A. Theatres in Movies post for a shot of the Raymond Theatre in Pasadena that's also seen in the film.
The Warner is running "How the West Was Won" in this early 60s stock footage used in "The Kid Stays in the Picture," the documentary by Nanette Burstein and Brett Morgen about Robert Evans (USA Pictures, 2002). It's based on his 1994 autobiography of the same title. See the Historic L.A. Theatres in Movies post for a couple of 1970 vintage Fox Westwood shots from the film.
A 1954 "This Is Cinerama" shot appearing in David Strohmaier's documentary "Cinerama Adventure" (C.A. Productions, 2002). See the Historic L.A. Theatres in Movies post about the film for three more Cinerama-era shots of the Warner plus a couple views of the Cinerama Dome.
The Wilcox side of the Warner appears as kidnapped star George Clooney is hauled away in a panel truck in the Coen Brothers film "Hail, Caesar!" (Universal, 2016). We also get shots inside the Los Angeles Theatre and the Palladium plus Music Box exteriors. See the Historic L.A. Theatres In Movies post for those.
Liam Neeson plays Chandler's detective in "Marlowe"
(Briarcliff, 2023). His office is in Hollywood and we get this CGI shot. The film, set
in 1939, was shot in Ireland and Spain. Those towers would have said "KFWB" at the time. Neil
Jordan directed and was a co-writer. Also featured are Diane Kruger
and Jessica Lange. The cinematography was by Xavi Giménez. Production
design was by John Beard. See the Historic L.A. Theatres in Movies post for another shot a moment later out Liam's window.
More 3 Strip Cinerama process information: See Roland Lataille's In Cinerama web site for lots more data and Cinerama memorabilia. His Warner Hollywood page has ads and other items relating to the Warner in its Cinerama days. The site In70mm.com has lots of Cinerama information. See their Cinerama page and the article on Cinerama pictures on digital. For the latest Cinerama filming in Los Angeles there's the article "Cinerama 2012."
And don't miss the six page Cinerama section on Widescreen Museum. The Cinerama Dome held a 3 strip festival in September 2012 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the process. On
YouTube see several shorts by Michael Cahill about film historian Dave
Stromaier shooting a new 3 strip Cinerama film in Los Angeles: "Cinerama 2012" Part 1 | Part 2
Other 3 strip projection venues in Los Angeles included the Forum Theatre, 5050 W. Pico, as a test house for the process and Crest Labs, who processed Cinerama footage. The Century Drive-In put in a 180' wide screen and ran several three-strip films.
The Cinerama Dome was designed with a wraparound projection booth for 3 strip projection but Cinerama had abandoned the process and gone to 70mm by the time of the theatre's opening. Equipment was later installed for revival screenings. The Dome and the Cinerama in Seattle are the only two theatres in the country currently capable of showing the original Cinerama format.
In 1958 Grauman's Chinese
was equipped for a rival 3 projector process, Cinemiracle, for showing
"Windjammer." See Kurt Wahlner's Cinemiracle section in his monumental epic Projection and Sound Systems at the Chinese for more on the process. It ran 37 weeks and then moved over to the Music Box
(then called the Fox) for a 15 week run there, although evidently not in the 3 projector format. That was the only film
in the process as the company was then purchased by Cinerama and shut
down. Cinemiracle, unlike Cinerama, used only one booth and mirrors to
get the beams from the side projectors to the screen. Several later
Cinerama installations incorporated this single booth idea. Cinerama,
Inc. was later acquired by Pacific Theatres.
More Warner Hollywood information: Visit the Pacific 1-2-3 page on Cinema Treasures for engrossing discussions of the Hollywood Pacific Theatre's history as well as over 150 photos. Some nice photos (including lots of interiors by Bob Meza) are on the Cinema Tour page for the Hollywood Pacific.
Check out the Warner Hollywood page on From Script To DVD for photos and other items. The page is part of the 70mm in Los Angeles section of their site. Hollywood Heritage has an article with many photos of the Warner on their "endangered" page.
See a 2014 facade view by Stephen Russo on the LAHTF Facebook page for a long thread of very interesting comments about the dormant building. Ken Roe has a set of Warner Hollywood photos on Flickr that he took in 2005. And, of course, there's an article on the Warner on Wikipedia.
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