Cinematheque 16

73 N. Fair Oaks Ave. Pasadena, CA 91124 | map |

Opened: April 1968. Cinematheque 16, an operation showing experimental films, used the main hall in the Masonic Lodge that's seen in the center of this c.1925 photo by Albert Hiller from the Pasadena Public Library collection that appears on the Pasadena Digital History Collaboration website. Thanks to Scott Babcock for finding it for his Noirish Los Angeles post # 44134.

The building was on the west side of the street just north of Union St. In the photo Union is just out of the frame to the left. The theatre on the right is the venue later known as the Oaks Theatre at 85 N. Fair Oaks.

In the 1969 city directory it's listed as the Cinematheque Theatre. The venture was an expansion of the earlier Cinematheque 16 located on Sunset Blvd. in what is now West Hollywood.

With Roger Delfont's articles on the site Ad Sausage that analyze the film ads that appeared in the Los Angeles Free Press is this discussion of the Cinematheque:

"The success of Sunset Strip location spurned two more locations; San Francisco and Pasadena (which didn't last long). Promoting itself as 'Possibly America's Most Unusual Theatre,' the Pasadena Cinematheque 16 opened at 7:00pm on April 25, 1968, and debuted with Warhol's 'latest triumph,' 'I, A Man.' The second feature was the 10-minute animation, 'Lapis' (James Whitney, 1966). Programming remained inspired with Paris Earl in 'Johnny Gigs Out' - also screened at the Watts Summer Festival, 'Pimple, Pimple, It's Only a Pimple' and 'Portrait of Jason' (Shirley Clarke, 1967) - 'A landmark in both queer and confessional cinema.' In 1968, the JFK assassination documentary 'Rush to Judgment' (Mark Lane, 1967) was shown..."

Joe Vogel recalls the Cinematheque in his Noirish Los Angeles Post #44132:

"In the mid-1960s I once visited the Pasadena Auction Gallery, which was then located in the old Pasadena Masonic Lodge at 73-77 N. Fair Oaks...[It] was dedicated in 1905 and served as the Masons' home until they moved to a new, much larger building on South Euclid in the latter half of the 1920s. I'm not sure when the Pasadena Auction Gallery took over the old building, but it was there for quite a while. In 1968, the gallery let that meeting room to the operators of Cinematheque 16, which had been operating a theater on the Sunset Strip for a couple of years. They ran indie and experimental films..."

Closing:  It was running into the 1970s. Joe notes that at the end it was running X-rated product.

Status: There's now a new office building on the site.

Joe comments: 

 

"The old lodge building and everything else on its block was demolished in the mid-1970s to make way for a big parking garage for Parsons Engineering, still there today. The Masonic Temple was a very handsome old building, and would have made a significant contribution to today's Old Pasadena, so it is especially unfortunate that it was knocked down only a few years before the surviving part of the neighborhood became such a roaring success."

 

 

A 70s photo located by Jose Sotela for a post on the Suicide Bridge Social Club Facebook page.

| back to top | Pasadena theatres | Downtown | Westside | Hollywood | Westwood and Brentwood | Theatres Along the Coast | [more] Los Angeles movie palaces | the main alphabetical list | theatre history resources | film and theatre tech resources | theatres in movies | LA Theatres on facebook | contact info | welcome and site navigation guide |