Opened: June 2, 1948. It's on the north side of the street just east of Reseda Blvd. In this c.1960 postcard view east on Sherman Way we get a look at the original facade. Glen Norman calls our attention to the billboard for the Golden Jubilee of the Campfire Girls, an organization founded in 1910.
The theatre was running a reissue bill Rudolph Maté's September 1954 release "The Black Shield of Falworth" with
Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh. Along with that was Douglas Sirk's "All That Heaven
Allows" with Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson, a film out in December 1955. Thanks to John Nelson for sharing this version of the card with the Southern California Nostalgia private Facebook group.
Architect: S. Charles Lee.
Seating: 900
A 1948 ad located by Ken McIntyre.
An item in the Valley News on June 21, 1951 noted that the theatre was owned and operated by Henry Kern and Bud Grensbach. The Reseda was later operated by Pacific Theatres.
In September 1973 the operation was taken over by Malcolm Hardy's Century Theatres, Inc. He had started with the Rivoli in Long Beach and soon also had the Cameo in El Sereno, the Wardman (now known as the Whittier Village Cinemas), the Whittier Theatre, the Whittwood and the Cove in Hermosa. Malcolm also operated the Rialto and Highland Twin in San Bernardino, the Pismo Theatre in Pismo Beach, the San Luis Obispo Drive-In, the Town in Gilroy and the Mt. Burney Theatre in Burney. Hardy's Century firm shouldn't be confused with the larger Century Cinema Circuit that was operated in the 1970s by Fred and Robert Stein.
In its final years the Reseda was operated by Metropolitan Theatres as a Spanish language house advertised as the Cine Reseda.
Closing: It closed in 1988.
Status: It's been sitting vacant since it closed. Several restoration schemes have come and gone. The now-defunct website PreserveLA.com had a 2005 story boasting that the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency was then the "proud and official owner" of the Reseda. There was a request for proposals that went nowhere despite the CRA's statement that rehabilitation of the building was an important goal for the area.
In an April 16, 2008 story headed "A Revival in Reseda," the L.A. Times was overly optimistic about an $8 million project with the CIM group as developers. A spokesman for CIM was already discussing the kind of bookings the house would get. An August 2010 Curbed L.A. item by Dakota Smith titled "Reseda Theatre Site Up for Grabs" talked about that deal falling apart. The CRA was going to give them half the cost of the project and yet the deal still couldn't be pulled together.
The building fell into in a different kind of limbo with the 2012 dissolution of the CRA. In early 2014 a petition to "resurrect" the theatre appeared on MoveOn.org. The theatre got some new plywood over the entrance and paint on the facade in 2010 in an attempt at a bit of maintenance.
"After 22 years of deterioration..." In June 2016 city councilman Bob
Blumenfield said the city was proceeding with negotiations for a
developer to build a new building on the site incorporating housing and a six-screen theatre to be called the Laemmle Reseda. In his press release, Blumenfield noted that the signage
would be restored in the new project. The new theatre was expected to
have a total seating capacity around 500.
In "Shuttered Reseda Theater gets green light to become Laemmle multiplex," the July 2016 Los Angeles Daily News
story by Gregory J. Wilcox it was noted that
At a February 2023 CicLAvia event Councilman Bob Blumenfield's team was handing out flyers like this one indicating that the project is still alive. Thanks to Donavan S. Moye for grabbing this and keeping up with the news.
The Reseda Neighborhood Council included an "update" in their Spring 2024 newsletter. Thanks to Donavan S. Moye for spotting it. Perhaps there will be no action by the developers until there's some tenant lined up. Interested? Contact Sandra Hernandez at sandra@azuredevelopmentco.com. It appears that, depending on what tenants emerge, they'll be happy to have more restaurant action and downsize the already small theatre.
Interior views:
A look to the front of the long-closed theatre in 2005. It's a photo from Scarlett Lark that once appeared on the site Buzznet but has now vanished. The occasion was a CRA tour of the building. The interior was later stripped out.
More exterior views:
1958 - A photo from the Citizen-News. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for finding it for a post on the Photos of Los Angeles private Facebook group. Their caption:
1963 - An MGM/Cinerama float publicizing "The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm" visits the Reseda. Thanks to Dallas Movie Theaters for locating the trade magazine photo for a post on Cinema Treasures.
1966 - A photo appearing on "Early Views of the San Fernando Valley," a Water and Power Associates Museum page. It looks like someone has spent some time trying to erase a watermark.
1983 - The theatre as a Spanish language venue a few years before closing. Thanks to the now-vanished American Classic Images website for the photo.
2009 - A glamorous postcard view including the closed theatre. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for finding this one for a post for the Photos of Los Angeles private Facebook group. He notes that the giant donut once on the corner has been replaced with a gas station. Leonard Agoado commented:
2009 - The facade from across the street. Thanks to Don Solosan for this view taken for the now-dormant Theatre Committee of the L.A. Conservancy. And thanks to Hillsman Wright of the Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation for making the photo available.
2009 - A signage detail from Ken McIntyre.
2009 - Thanks to Don Solosan for this Christmas season view.
2009 - A look west at the boarded up entrance and some of the terrazzo. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for his photo.
2010 - A fine shot from Mark Peacock on Flickr. It's part of his Vintage Theatres and Drive-Ins album.
2012 - Hey, the CRA gave the theatre a coat of paint! We're looking east on Sherman Way. Photo: Google Maps
2016 - A view by Dean Musgrove included with a July 1, 2016 Los Angeles Daily News story by Gregory J. Wilcox titled "Shuttered Reseda Theater gets green light to become Laemmle multiplex."
2019 - The back of the building. Photo: Bill Counter
2023 - The street end of the mural. It's another photo by theatre explorer Dave Hunter. He featured three shots of the work in a June Facebook post. The Reseda photos were an addition to Dave's ever-growing Theatres album.
The Reseda in the Movies:
The biggest break the Reseda had in years was the inclusion in the title sequence of Paul Thomas Anderson's "Boogie Nights" (New Line, 1997). Thanks to the page about filming locations on the San Fernando Valley Blog for the screenshot. See the Historic L.A. Theatres in Movies post for another Reseda view as well as a shot from a visit to the Pussycat Theatre in Santa Monica.
The Reseda is included in "5 Landmarks in San Fernando Valley in Film," a 2019 article by Deja Magee on the CSUN site Sundial.
More Information: See the Cinema Treasures page on the Reseda for many stories. The Cinema Tour page has three post-closing exterior photos.
The Los Angeles Daily News
had a good 2012 story about the 100th anniversary of the town and the
current problems with economic development. There had been a 2006 article on the site about officials trying to reinvent the community.
Wikipedia has an article on Reseda which also includes a 2010 look at the theatre.
An earlier Reseda Theatre? In 1927 two Van Nuys theatremen planned a
theatre in Reseda, evidently never built. It's mentioned in a July
3, 1927 L.A. Times item unearthed by Cinema Treasures contributor Jeff
Bridges:
The Van Nuys Theatre mentioned was later known as the Fox Van Nuys. The Madrid Theatre was known in its later years as the Canoga Theatre and the Park Theatre.
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It broke my heart when I was back in Reseda a few years ago and saw this place. We used to go to this theater, when I was little. Then, I saw the newspaper article saying that Laemmle was going to restore it. Hopefully, they'll fix this place up soon.
ReplyDeleteI use to go to the Reseda Theater in the 50s and 60s. I do remember seeing many movies there including “ The Blob and The Great Escape. Now Reseda is sadly not the same. I still have my memories.
DeleteI made a game where you walk around this intersection
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YKReJWL6MQ
Hey, my sister and I used to work at Reseda Theater back in the early sixties. We would come in after school at Reseda High, or on Saturdays and Sundays, put on a sweaty uniform which another worker had recently taken off, and work the aisles, the candy counter, or the ticket booth. On Friday nights, I would go upstairs to check the women’s restroom, and the rough smoking girls up there would sneer at me, and keep smoking. At the Saturday matinee, sometimes they would pack the kids two to a seat. Our brother threw something at the screen and put a tear in it. Reseda Theater was a big part of our formative years, that’s for sure!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your recollections!
DeleteI was raised in Reseda,elementary school went to Northride jr High
DeleteCleveland H.S Reseda Even attended
Lapin Bros. School of Bty on Reseda blvd my first apt was the Fountain Apt Reseda blvd corner of strathern I'd tell ppl I live in Reseda whr the Karata kid lived. Lol I just lived up Reseda blvd at Cantara st on Darby Ave my friends and I on the week ends spent are good hard earned allowances At Reseda Theater in between horse backriding. As I got older Reseda drive in.i was always proud that I was from Reseda little was known about Reseda back in my day it's come up over the years an just so happens I came across this theater blog got interest.its really sad the theater finially ended, the drive in too. Not much to do, the Skating rinkonplummer, then the country club openned bought Savon drug store that was super while it lasted alot on memories in Reseda slowly saw everythg disapear Woolworths on the other end from the theater get a shake at the counter fill up with candy for the theater. It was a great time to grow up in Reseda
The Reseda Walk-In, as folk referred to it in my teen years, known as the Reseda Crawl-In because by the 1970’s the place had seen better days! The place I saw Frank Zappa’s “200 Motels” in 1974, and about a year later a double-bill of Umberto Lenzi’s “Eyeball” & Damiano Damiani’s “Tempter”. Fond memories, sticky floors. Going up stairs to what you might think would be a balcony , but only turning to be seats further away from the screen. Then it turned into a church for the Spanishly Christian…
ReplyDelete