Opened: General Cinema opened this twin as the Sherman Oaks Cinema I - II on June 16, 1976. It was on the northeast corner of Van Nuys Blvd. and Millbank St. The location was across Millbank from the Pacific Sherman Oaks 5, once known as General Cinema's Cinema 3-4-5-6-7. Thanks to Steve Pritzker for this photo of the theatre's original look. It appears on the Cinema Tour page about the theatre.
An opening day ad. Thanks to Mike Rivest for locating it.
Architect: William Riseman Associates of Boston. This theatre was typical of many projects all over the country that the firm did for General Cinema. They also did work for Sumner Redstone's Showcase Cinemas and many other circuits.
Cinema Treasures has partial lists of other projects by William Riseman and also William Riseman Associates. Mr. Riseman died in 1982. The obituary in the New York Times noted:
"William Riseman, an architect who specialized in designing motion picture theaters, died of a heart attack Saturday in Boston City Hospital. He was 71 years old and lived in Boston. Mr. Riseman was thought to have designed more film theaters in the United States than any other individual or firm. He did work for the General Cinema Corporation, the National Amusements Corporation and the Loews Corporation.
"In addition to theaters, Mr. Riseman designed the Latin Quarter nightclub in New York and the executive offices of the Farber Cancer Institute and the Redstone Laboratory of the Jimmy Fund in Boston. A mural he painted in the Lynn, Mass., post office in the 1930's, 'The History of America,' has since been declared a National Historic Monument. He is survived by his wife, Marilyn, three sons, John of Cambridge, Mass., William Jr. of Boston and Walter of Gray, Maine; a brother, Henry Riseman of Brooklyn, Conn., and a sister, Charlotte Hosking, of New York City."
Stephen Pritzker noted in a comment on the General Cinema Memories private Facebook group:
"Before GCC used Cambridge 7 Assoc. (circa 1986), we used William Reisman [sic] and Assoc. who was also used by Showcase Cinemas et al, so some items in the theatre design were similar e.g. the white 'Refreshment' lettering (our back walls were blue vinyl, Showcase was red), pylons, etc. They didn't have our signature sculptured screen but they did have better seats."
Seating: 952 total, 476 on each side.
Bob Luchetti was the architect for a 1984 remodeling that seriously changed the appearance of the theatre. Work included installation of platters, THX sound systems and 70mm in auditorium #1. This theatre, then known as the Sherman Oaks 2, was a favorite valley location for studio previews in the 1990s.
The building was last operated by AMC Theatres after the GCC bankruptcy. Pacific Theatres bought the 5 plex across the street from AMC but didn't pick up this one.
Closing: The last day of business was July 16, 2003.
Status: It was demolished in 2005. The lot is now the location of a Best Buy store.
Interior views:
A 2001 lobby view. Thanks to Bob Meza for the photo, one appearing on Cinema Tour.
The stripped out booth. Thanks to Davewetsprocket for his 2003 photo. It was once on Flickr. Dave was the theatre's last manager.
Later exterior views:
Thanks to Bob Meza for this 2001 photo. It's on Cinema Tour.
Thanks to Davewetsprocket for his post-closing summer 2003 photo.
More Information: See the Cinema Treasures page on the Sherman Oaks I & II for lots of historical information and tales about the theatre. The Cinema Tour page includes additional photos of the exterior and lobby by Bob Meza.
Mid-century modern design General Cinema style
General Cinema, long headed by Philip Smith, was once one of the biggest names in American exhibition and a major innovator in suburban theatre construction. For most of us, going to the movies in the early 1960s was decidedly old fashioned. There were the ornate and dusty movie palaces downtown - where many of us didn't go anymore anyway. Or the down-at-the-heels art deco neighborhood theatre that felt it belonged to the same era as the social-realist murals at the local post office.
And let's not even talk about the neo-baroque gold swirls adorning the Skouras-style theatres put up (or remodeled) by Fox West Coast. What period were those supposed to be from anyway? They were post World War II yet somehow didn't look it. It was the sixties. It was the space age. Things were starting to sizzle. The international style was everywhere and General Cinema Corporation was the one circuit who brought an innovative take on it to the business of motion picture exhibition.
We're talking about what we can call the "classic era" of GCC construction. When a "twin" theatre was the latest thing. GCC opened their first one in 1962. Prior to that they had operated drive-ins and had built lots of single screen theatres. The locations were suburban. Near a mall but usually not quite in it. Frequently GCC ended up at the back or nearby on some cheaper property.
A classic red/white/blue/grey color scheme. Not a curved line in the place. No musty drapes. A screen treatment that made your eyes pop the first time you saw it. Of course it couldn't last. The design morphed into something more generic and the GCC buildings came to resemble what the competition was doing. And it's been downhill for everyone since then.
GCC was a winner for years but market share slipped and the company spun off the theatre division into a separate entity and it slowly slid into oblivion by 2000. AMC picked up a lot of pieces of the circuit when it went into bankruptcy.
The Exterior - The early designs used white pre-cast concrete panels but the designs soon began using concrete blocks painted white. The white painted square blocks also figured into the design of the lobbies.
A rendering of a classic General Cinema exterior. It's what they'd call a "butterfly twin" with the lobby in the middle and the theatres splaying out on opposite sides. It's one of a number of illustrations on Dave's fine article "The Premiere of General Cinema" on his site "Pleasant Family Shopping."
Signage - With many of the locations General Cinema went into, a marquee on the building assumed less and less importance. These certainly weren't theatres where the theatre was within a block of other businesses and needed to call attention to itself with flashing neon.
In many cases the signage on the building became only the "Cinema I-II" and a few display cases. And the big sign, now out at the edge of the parking lot in many cases, was simple and modern. It made the marquees of the older competing theatres look dated. In many cases it was supported by modernist style frame of either black I-beams or tubular steel.
A later vintage General Cinema sign captured by Randy Carlisle on Flickr. It's a 1999 view of the sign for the Town East Cinemas in Mesquite, Texas. It's part of his Walk In Theatres album of over 600 photos. Sometimes these signs stood long after the theatres themselves had been demolished.
The Lobby - The General Cinema lobbies were always modern and minimalist. A Mondrian inspired carpet (mostly reds), a blue wall behind the snack bar ("Refreshments") and white ceilings. There were chrome tube 60s-modern benches to sit on and sometimes art on the walls.
A classic General Cinema lobby decorated for Christmas 1977. The photo is from the Pleasant Family Shopping article "General Cinema's Feature Presentation." We're at the South Shore Cinemas, Braintree, Massachusetts. In the 80s the color palette morphed into a new look of blue, red and gray with wood accents.
The Snackbar - GCC was an innovator in developing the modern snackbar. Initially they did concessions only in their drive-ins as it was unseemly to run a snackbar in a class indoor theatre.
A view of the 1966 Richland Plaza Cinema in Ft. Worth. It's a photo that accompanies Dave's Pleasant Family Shopping article "General Cinema Refreshments, 1966."
Where's Cinema I? - Some of the General Cinema twins had lobby signs indicating "Cinema I" or "Cinema II" that were detachable from the walls and could be switched. Thus a big film might open on the 1000 seat large screen and appear in ads as playing at "Cinema I."
You'd go into the lobby and that theatre was on the left. Weeks later the ads would perhaps still be saying that same film was at "Cinema I" but upon buying a ticket you'd find that the "Cinema I" signs would then direct you to the smaller house to the right of the complex.
Booking Patterns - In many of the markets they entered, General Cinema was a pioneer in getting first run bookings into the suburbs. In many towns the first runs still played downtown and then went in waves of sub run bookings into the suburbs. This was all starting to change in the 60s. As drive-in operators, they probably had a lot of experience in convincing (or litigating) distributors about the coming way of doing business. In the GCC indoor theatres Disney and Universal seemed most receptive to the new booking patterns. After "Jaws" it all snowballed and the saturation bookings into suburban theatres became the norm.
Entering The Auditorium - The GCC design got rid of the tired drapes at the head of each aisle. A modern set of white doors awaited you. With a small window so you could see if the last film was still on. Or watch the credits without entering the theatre.
Most of the theatre cicuits in the country were either draping their auditoriums to cover up dated plaster ornament or (in a new complex) to cover the concrete block walls. GCC avoided drapes on the side walls. The surface was a perforated gray corrugated metal with sound absorbent material underneath. In the 80s the design became red sound absorbent panels on the side walls. In the more deluxe installations, these panels hid surround speakers.
The Push Back Seats - No rockers here. The classic General Cinema seat was the push back style. Always white frames and backs with red upholstery.
A look at the seating in a classic General Cinema auditorium. The photo is from Pleasant Family Shopping's terrific article "General Cinema's Feature Presentation." See lots of discussion about the seats (and other GCC design features) on the Cinema Treasures page for the Overlook Cinemas in Bellevue, WA.
Many of the push back seats stayed around forever but in the 80's new complexes were getting rockers with higher backs and in blue.
A 1984 look at the rear of an auditorium at the Westgate Cinema 6, Spartanburg North Carolina. It's from Patricia Poland on Flickr. It's in her Movie Theatres album.
The Reflective Surround - The amazing thing about entering a classic General Cinema auditorium for the first time was the screen treatment. At the time, the only theatres that didn't use a curtain in front of the screen between shows were run down grindhouses. Even your neighborhood theatre had a curtain. And in the deluxe theatres it even got closed between the trailers and the feature.
At General Cinema you got a shadowbox. This reflective surround meant not only the elimination of the curtain but the gloomy black masking as well. And you got the blue lights. Typically it was a striplight with 60 or so 150 watt lamps with blue roundels. The blue light on the surround was wonderful as the GCC "preview" strip ran and also frequently nice as the blues came up surrounding end credits. For example "Zabriskie Point" with its red and orange fire scene as the credits rolled at the end was stellar when boxed in by the blue reflective surround.
A look in to one of the screens at the GCC Cinema at Shopper's World in Framingham. Thanks to Gary Dwyer for including this in a post for the private Facebook group General Cinema Memories.
A late 70s view of what the the screens looked like in Cinemas V and VI at the Framingham 6. It's included in a "Going to the Movies" post on the blog Framingham Views.
Looking down from the booth at the 952 seat Westgate Cinema I in Brokton, MA. Thanks to Dennis Mahaney for sharing his photo.
By 1973 or so the look began to change. The GCC theatres were then built with a screen on the back wall with black masking. Only the blue lights remained. The bit about the screen being on the back wall was literally true in many of the complexes. If you went around to the back you'd find a concrete block "bump" at the center housing the one speaker system. When Dolby came to many of these houses, the speakers for the left and right channels were mounted in the auditorium, on each side of the screen.
In the booth - Into the very late 60s GCC was still installing manual booths and carbon arc lamps. Century was always the projector of choice. Soon the circuit began automating.
A typical GCC booth with Century projection and sound, Christie platters and a Rank Cinemation pegboard automation system. The photo is of a 70mm booth at the Northpark West 1 & 2 from the amazing site Film Tech. You can scroll through photos of many theatres around the country -- including more shots of this one.
By the mid 80s, GCC had stopped installing Century equipment and Cinemeccanica was the brand of choice.
On The Screen -
The classic all-blue "Feature Presentation" 30 second bumper is on You Tube. Also see the 80s "Feature Presentation" look. TR3X has done a six minute "General Cinema Logo History."
The Film-Tech.com website also has many GCC policy strips to view: GC feature presentation snipe from the 1970s | GC feature presentation snipe from the 1980s | GC Now Showing (1980s) | GC policy from the 1980s | GC policy from the 1990s (candy band #2) | GC policy from the 1990s (candy band) | GC policy from the 1990s (space candy/clouds) | "Welcome to General Cinema" (and keep quiet). The site also has lots of the General Cinema strips of later vintage. Go to "videos" on the site's navigation bar and scroll down to "policy trailers."
More General Cinema information: Visit GeneralCinemaTheatres.com. It's a re-creation of a GCC website including a history of the company. The site also includes a 1983 list of locations and a 1999 list of locations.
See Christopher Crouch's "General Cinema Art Galleries," a 2009 post on Cinelog, his Orange County theatres blog. He comments: "The GCC chain, once one of the biggest names in the exhibition industry, was an early pioneer in the multiplex era and an innovator of many cinema features we currently experience. However, General Cinema’s lobby art galleries were an innovation that never quite caught on with the industry."
A bit about the early history of the company appeared in "Top Firm Managing Cinema," a 1961 article in the The Daytona Beach Sunday News.
See the great posts on Dave's blog "Pleasant Family Shopping" for a fine history of the company: "The Premiere of General Cinema" | "The General Cinema Experience" | "General Cinema's Feature Presentation" | "General Cinema Refreshments, 1966" |
Visit the website Shoppers World Cinema for a loving tribute to this New England GCC complex. Photo albums include: Addition of Cinema II - 1963 | Addition of Cinemas III & IV - 1974 | Cinema World Behind the Scenes |
See the Wikipedia article on General Cinema Corporation. You might want to join the Facebook group General Cinema Memories.
A few other Los Angeles area General Cinema projects:
Sherman Oaks 3-4-5 | Los Angeles Theatres | Across the street from the Cinema I & II. Demolished after the Northridge earthquake. Replaced by GCC with a 5 plex known as Cinema 3-4-5-6-7. It's now the Pacific Sherman Oaks 5.
Avco Cinemas, Westwood | Los Angeles Theatres | Currently operated by iPic Theatres.
Beverly Connection 6 | Cinema Treasures | Cinema Tour | Opened 1990. 2000 seats. Last operated by AMC. Closed in 2004 and now demolished.
Fallbrook Cinemas | Cinema Treasures | Opened as a 6 screen venue with a 7th and later 3 more added. Acquired by the Laemmle circuit in 2001. The last 3 screens added were converted to retail so it's back to 7 and doing well, now under AMC management.
Galaxy 6, Hollywood | Los Angeles Theatres | Opened in 1992 and closed in 2003.
Santa Anita 4 | Cinema Treasures | Upstairs in the Santa Anita Mall. Closed in the 90s and is now retail space.
South Bay 1-2-3 | Cinema Treasures | Cinema Tour | Also known as the Redondo Beach Cinema 3. The original theatre was a single, then a twin, then a tripex. Later there was another separate building built as a single, later twinned. And there was a 3rd building with a single 70mm equipped theatre -- later twinned. The latter 2 buildings closed with the opening of a new GCC complex nearby. The original building (3 screens) survived as a sub run house and finally closed in 2010. Got all that?
Montclair Cinemas | Cinema Treasures | Started as a twin in 1969 and later turned into a triplex. Another separate 5 screen building was added later. The original twin/triplex remained open until 2000.
Northridge Fashion Center Cinema 1-3 | Cinema Treasures | In the mall. Closed in 1994 after the earthquake.
Woodland Hills Cinema | Cinema Treasures | Cinema Tour | Opened as a twin in the 60s and became a triplex around 1984. Closed in 1991, demolished in 1992.
GCC also acquired a number of theatres (both single screens and multis) from other operators in the L.A. area, including taking over the sites operated by Loew's when they left the California market. Bill Gabel has posted a nice list of the company's L.A. theatres as of June of 1973 on the Cinema Treasures page for the Santa Anita 4.
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