Picwood Theatre

10872 W. Pico Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90064 | map |

Opened: December 25, 1948 with a second-run engagement of "The Three Musketeers" starring Gene Kelly along with "Rusty Leads the Way." The theatre was on the south side of the street just west of Westwood Blvd. This photo by Michael Greene with the opening attractions on the marquee is on Calisphere from the UCLA S. Charles Lee Papers Collection.

Architect: S. Charles Lee

A facade rendering by Mr. Lee. It's on Calisphere from the the UCLA S. Charles Lee Papers Collection. 

 

 

A sketch of the boxoffice. It's on Calisphere from the the UCLA collection.

A section of the building from S. Charles Lee's office. It's on Calisphere from the UCLA S. Charles Lee Papers Collection.

 

A floorplan. It's on Calisphere. There's a simpler version of the floorplan on the Picwood Cinema Tour page that had appeared in the publication Theatre Catalog.

More S. Charles Lee theatre photos in the UCLA collection can be located via the S. Charles Lee Papers home page on Calisphere or the UCLA Library page for the collection. There's also a Finding Aid for the S. Charles Lee Papers on the Online Archive of California site.

Seating: 1,100 originally, reseated for 950 during the 1966 remodel.

It was an independent operation at first. The L.A. Times noted on November 7, 1948: 

"Opening soon of the new Picwood theater at Pico and Westwood Blvd. has been announced. The new structure has 1,500 seating capacity, 1,000 on the first floor. The theater is owned by Earl Collins and will be managed by Phil Isley, of Dallas." 

 

A December 24, 1948 ad. Note that lovely PICKWOOD typo. Thanks to Mike Rivest for locating this. Visit his site: Movie-Theatre.org

This December 31, 1948 article in the West LA Independent noted that the owners had intended to open the theatre with a first run film but nothing was made available to them. They filed a lawsuit against several studios and exhibitors. MGM had advised them that they could bid against the Fox Wilshire for product but they had no hopes of succeeding in competition against Fox West Coast. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for including this in a thread about the theatre on the private Facebook group Photos of Los Angeles.  

 

 

Another article about the anti-trust lawsuit. Thanks to Mike Rivest for spotting this one. 

It ended up as an operation of Pacific Theatres. It got a remodel in 1968 that obliterated the original tropical themed decor. They draped the whole thing -- including a curtain across the front of the booth to hide those unsightly portholes during intermission. The Picwood often got exclusive runs after the renovations. The theatre reopened August 20 with a charity premiere of "Petulia," followed by an exclusive run on August 21.

"I'm the elegant, all new Picwood Theatre... " It's a 3 minute audio clip on Google Drive [no image] that played before the film when the house reopened after the remodeling. Thanks to longtime L.A. projectionist Paul Rayton for sharing this from his collection. "Really, there aren't any others like me anywhere... I have been reborn..  My all new restrooms are sparkling clean, colorful and commodious... Share with me the fun of going out to a movie theatre excitingly planned just for you and your pleasure... "

The remodel by Pacific was profiled in the Modern Theatre section of the October 14, 1968 issue of Boxoffice. The issue is on Yumpu. The renovations included equipping the theatre for 70mm presentation. Engagements in 70 included "Apocalypse Now" (1979-80 - 26 weeks), "Raiders of the Lost Arc" (1981), "E.T." (1982) and many more. Michael Coate notes that the last 70mm run at the house was "Amadeus," playing for three weeks beginning May 31, 1985 and then back again beginning July 19. 

Closing: 1985. The last film to play the theatre was the August release "Volunteers."

Status: Demolished. 

 

Other theatres on the south side of this stretch of Pico: The Pico Drive-In was at Pico and Westwood from 1934 until it got moved over to Olympic in 1944. At the time, Westwood Blvd. dead-ended at Pico and the theatre property was approximately centered on what would be the later extension of the street. 

 

The Laemmle Westland Twin was later in a strip mall east of Westwood Blvd. It opened in the mid-1970s and closed around 1984. The original section of the Westside Pavilions mall was built on this property in 1985 and was home to the Westside Pavilion Cinemas, a Landmark 4-plex that closed in 2007. 

 

Later there was an extension of the Westside Pavilions Mall built west of Westwood Blvd. where the Picwood had been. This development included The Landmark, a 12 screen complex opening in 2007. That one closed in 2022.  

 

Interior views: 

 

A look at the lobby of the Picwood. It's a 1948 Julius Shulman photo on Calisphere from the UCLA S. Charles Lee Papers Collection.

The view toward the exit doors. It's a Julius Shulman photo on Calisphere from the UCLA S. Charles Lee Papers Collection.

A 1968 photo of the Picwood snack bar that appeared in the Motion Picture Herald. It appears on the Picwood Theatre page in the 70mm in Los Angeles section of the site From Script To DVD.

A look down from the top. The 1948 photo is on Calisphere from the UCLA S. Charles Lee Papers Collection. No photographer is credited.

An uncredited photo of the rear of the house. It's on Calisphere from the UCLA S. Charles Lee Papers Collection.

A chance to check out that tropical sidewall decor. The 1948 photo is on Calisphere from the UCLA S. Charles Lee Papers Collection. The photographer is not credited.

A detail of those flamingos on the side wall. Thanks to Matt Spero for the photo. He comments: "This was taken shortly before teardown. They had ripped down the drapes that covered the original S. Charles Lee wall art for many years. Notice the bracket for surround speakers. I only had a few shots left to this roll and this was the best interior shot I got."

A view of the draped auditorium of the Picwood in its later years. The photo appeared in the Motion Picture Herald on September 24, 1968. Thanks to Michael Coate and William Kallay for including it on the Picwood Theatre page in the "70mm in Los Angeles" section of the site From Script To DVD.

A view to the rear of the remodeled theatre. Note that the booth is obscured by its own motorized curtain that would be closed during intermissions. Thanks to Bill Gabel for posting the photo on the Cinema Treasures page about the Picwood. It's one that appeared in the October 17, 1968 issue of Boxoffice.


More exterior views: 

A 1949 view of the theatre by Julius Shulman in the Getty Research Institute collection. The main feature the week of the photo was "Angel on the Amazon," a November 1948 release. The Getty indexes this as Shulman job #474: Picwood Theatre.

 

An entrance detail from the Shulman photo above.

 

The Cinema Tour page on the Picwood includes this colorful exterior shot from Jay Emmanuel Publishing's 1949-1950 "Theatre Catalog." They were running "Portrait of Jennie," an April 1949 release with Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotton.

 

 

A 1949 photo by Alpheus A. Blakeslee with the theatre playing the May release "Home of the Brave." It's on Calisphere from the the UCLA collection.  

 

 

 

 

Jeanette MacDonald made an appearance in 1963 along with a screening of "Maytime." Thanks to Maggie McCormick for posting this shot by an unknown photographer on the private Facebook group Metro's Stars Jeanette and Nelson. And thanks to Claudia Mullins for spotting the post.  

 

A 1965 aerial view by Howard D. Kelly from the Los Angeles Public Library collection. We're looking southeast. That's Pico in front of the theatre and Westwood Blvd. over on the left. The bowling alley is to the right of the theatre.

Another 1965 photo by Mr. Kelly from the Los Angeles Public Library.

A new facade. This 1969 view was taken during the exclusive engagement of "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" Thanks to Michael Snider for sharing the photo on the private Facebook group Mid Century Modern Los Angeles.

"The barrio is real - not glamorous." It's a 1979 photo of the premiere of "Boulevard Nights"-- and a protest. It's a Dean Musgrove photo in the Herald Examiner collection at the Los Angeles Public Library. Also in the collection: another "Boulevard" view | yet another "Boulevard" shot  - "Stop Gang Exploitation Films"

A 1981 photo from the now-vanished website American Classic Images. 

 

 

"We Killed a Theatre AND a Bowling Alley," Ken Levine's 2008 blog post, included this photo of the theatre's last engagement, "Volunteers," in 1985.

A view of the boarded up facade of the Picwood by Mark Van Slyke. It's in his Mid-Century Modern set on Flickr.

 

Thanks to Mark Van Slyke for this facade detail from his Mid-Century Modern set on Flickr.

 

 

"Cleveland Wrecking Co. Brings Down the House." A look at the Picwood with its fate left in the hands of the demolition company. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for the post for the private Facebook group Photos of Los Angeles. 

 

The Picwood in the Movies:

We get a lovely view east toward the theatre in this shot from "Young Doctors in Love" (20th Century Fox, 1982). The film was directed by Garry Marshall and stars Michael McKean and Sean Young. The cinematography was by Don Peterman. Thanks to Eric Schaefer for spotting the theatre in the film and getting the screenshot.  

More information: See the Cinema Treasures page for lots of discussion about the Picwood's history. Michael Coate posted a list of the Picwood's 70mm runs in 2008.

Also see the Cinema Tour page on the Picwood for a few more photos. The theatre was pictured on the cover of the May 7, 1949 issue of Boxoffice. Also see the Picwood Theatre page in the "70mm in Los Angeles" section of the site From Script To DVD.

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