Los Angeles Theatres: Encino Theatre

16342 Ventura Blvd. Encino, (Los Angeles) CA 91436 | map |

Opened: August 10, 1949. The first film was "Sorrowful Jones" with Bob Hope, according to Bill Gabel. The theatre was on the south side of the street a block east of Hayvenhurst Ave.

This item appeared in the August 3, 1949 issue of the Valley Times:

"The new Encino theater, 16342 Ventura Blvd., will open next Wednesday, Aug. 10. Highlight of program arrangements of the new theater will be its one-feature policy. 'Our policy is to comply with public demand for single attraction shows,' Howard Goldenson, manager, said. 'We are arranging our program so that there will be two hours of entertainment nightly, including the feature, a short and a newsreel'... The 1000 seats in the theater are staggered to provide clear views of the screen from every chair. There is only one admission price."

Architect: William L. Pereira

A rendering from Pereira's office that's in the Los Angeles Public Library collection. It was on their website indexed as item #00043106 but it seems to have vanished during a site makeover. Note the openings in the roof of the drive-through and ticket lobby areas.

Joe Vogel reports that an item in the Boxoffice issue of December 18, 1948 noted that construction had begun for owner Charles Menderson. The contractor was Struction of Los Angeles. The rendering made an appearance in the December 4 issue.

Seating: 1,000 was the number advertised at the opening, 700 was a later number.

Kurt Wahlner comments:

"It was a pretty big house, with a SMASHING Scope screen. We used to go to kiddie matinees there all the time. They had a small area before the screen for drawing ticket stubs, but the three carpeted steps up to the area were STEEP! I have a million stories, but no photos, alas."

Pacific Theatres was the final operator. Earlier it had been run by Lee Theatres.

Closing: The last day of operation was Labor Day, September 6, 1976. Thanks to Kurt Wahlner for the research. He notes that the last program was "Future World" and "Mysterious Monsters."

After closing as a theatre, the building was used as a retail space and, at least part of it ended up as Bonjour Bagels. This 1977 article was located by Ken McIntyre. It's unknown what's being referred to in that "A theater and book store are now open" sentence. Perhaps a small community theatre space?

Status: The building was demolished in 2007 along with the rest of the shopping plaza it was located in. The August 2007 Google street view shows a construction fence up in front of the lot.

An early Valley Times photo from the Los Angeles Public Library collection. The marquee advertised "Technicolor Suspense" ... and an unreadable first title. The second feature was Nicholas Ray's "They Live By Night" starring Farley Granger and Cathy O'Donnell. It was out in November 1949.

Kurt Wahlner comments:

"The photo must have been taken when the theatre was brand new - all the plantings and so on, and the old car in the background, and what looks like three rail fencing. This was as it was in the beginning. The theatre always had 'ample parking' behind the building and to the east. On the corner of Ventura and Libbit, there was a Texaco station, and the rest of it was asphalt parking for the theatre."

"Captain China," a February 1950 release with John Payne and Gail Russell. Thanks to Kurt Wahlner for making the photo available. He notes: "No date, but it seems to have been run in the yearbook of one of the high schools in the area, and was posted by one of the Valley History Facebook posters at some point."

An August 3, 1954 photo that appeared on The Judy Garland Experience Facebook page. The preview was, of course, for "A Star is Born." Thanks to David Zornig for spotting this shot for a post on Cinema Treasures. The photo can also be seen on the Judy Garland News page "On This Day... August 3." With Judy are Jack Warner, Sid Luft, George Cukor and an unidentified man.

The first preview had been August 2 at the Warner Huntington Park using a cut that ran 3 hours and 16 minutes. The date for the Encino preview comes from a timeline on a page on the site The Judy Room. Lawrence French comments about this second preview:

"George Cukor is there, so he saw the long version, perhaps for the first and last time. As he told me, he and Judy never watched the cut version."

Kurt Wahlner comments:

"We had always heard that this preview had been held at this theatre, and that this is where it was decided to cut the film's running time."

The film opened September 29 at the Pantages with a new run time of 181 minutes. It was later cut to 154 minutes.

A c.1963 photo. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating it for a post on the Photos of Los Angeles private Facebook group.

Encino Theatre

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