Opened: 1961 as the Valley West Theatre, on the west side of the street just north of Schoolcraft Rd. In this April 1964 Valley Times photo from the Los Angeles Public Library collection the owners are celebrating a remodel and expansion. Excerpts from the article appearing with the photo:
"Theater executives pose outside the remodeled Valley West Theater, which reopens Wednesday. Left to right are Donald Sayles, managing director of the theater, Alex Cooperman, and Shan V. Sayles, both executives of Continental Theaters, Inc....The theater is located two blocks from the area's largest shopping center, the three million dollar Valley Plaza development at Topanga and Vanowen boulevards. More than $50,000 has been spent in expanding and remodeling the Topanga
Boulevard house...The Valley West theater building is part of a neighborhood shopping center and is constructed of stone, stucco, glass and tile. Dominating the theater front is a new marquee, 30 feet in length, custom built for the Valley West by Inter-City Neon and Plastic Corporation of Northridge."
Seating: 300 originally, according to Bill Gabel. He notes that with the 1964 remodel the capacity was increased to 500.
Architect: Unknown.
A drawing of the new facade that was part of the 1964 expansion. Thanks to Dallas Movie Theaters for finding this for a post on Cinema Treasures.
It became the Baronet Theatre in 1965, reopening November 17 with "Zorba the Greek." Thanks to Mike Rivest for finding this November 10 ad.
Running "To Sir, With Love" in February 1968. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for finding the ad in the Van Nuys News.
Robert Simonton comments: "Around 1974, my girlfriend worked there for a while. They had no dedicated projectionist - the film was built up onto 1-hour reels, run by management. They had carbon-arc lamphouses, which would often drift out of adjustment if they weren't paying attention."
In 1984 it was renamed the Boulevard Cinema with a reopening on July 6. The theatre was a bargain revival house at the end of its life.
Closing: It was still running in the summer of 1986 but evidently closed not long after that.
Status: The building is now used as part of a luggage store. Or a paint store. It depends on which side of the marquee you look at.
1983 - Thanks to the now-vanished American Classic Images website for this shot. Robert Langer says: "That's me on the left discovering that our projectionist, on the right, had misspelled Casablanca."
1985 - "A moviegoer could pay $6 in Westwood, top, for the same first-run movie that could cost only 99 cents in Canoga Park." It's a 1985 Paul Chinn photo for the Herald Examiner that's in the Los Angeles Public Library collection.
2006 - That's the former theatre on the left. Thanks to Luke Gattuso for his photo appearing on Flickr.
2015 - Looking north on Topanga Canyon Blvd. Photo: Google Maps
More Information: See the Cinema Treasures page for the theatre.
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Do you remember Sandwich Man that I think was a couple of doors from the Baronet (and across the street from Canoga Park High School) in the early 1970's? Does anyone know what became of the owners of Sandwich Man?
ReplyDeleteNo but there's a "Sandwich Man" on Nordhoff & Mason (SE corner) perhaps the same?
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