Academy Review Theatre / The Movie Parade

1455 Gordon St.  Hollywood, CA 90028 | map |

Opening: This screening room was known as the Academy Review Theatre. It was in a building constructed in 1931 on the west side of the street, just south of Sunset. Gordon St. is five blocks east of Vine.

 

The venue shows as "Projection Room" in this detail from page 909 of volume 9 of a Sanborn Fire Insurance Map in the Library of Congress collection. It's image 11 on their site. The map was originally published in 1919 and had been updated as late as 1950. Backstage it was in use as a bindery. Thanks to Ranjit Sandhu for locating this for the Revival Cinemas page on his site about Buster Keaton's "The General".   

The screening room didn't get a listing in the 1940 city directory.

For a period in 1941 it became known as The Movie Parade when Eddie Kohn ran a ten week series of silent films there using 35mm prints. He had moved the name over from his location at 1737 N. Highland, a 16mm operation. Later the name moved back to that location. See the page about the Highland Ave. location of The Movie Parade. 

Opening as the Movie Parade: June 5, 1941 with D.W. Griffith's "Intolerance." 

 

This item in Sidney Skolsky's column in the May 24, 1941 Hollywood Citizen-News announced the beginning of a Movie Parade series under the auspices of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. What it didn't note was that the Movie Parade name would be moving over to the Academy's screening room on Gordon for the duration of the ten-week series. Thanks to Ranjit Sandhu for locating this.

 

The June 5, 1941 ad for "Intolerance," the initial film in the series. Thanks to Ranjit for locating the ad.  

 

 

 

A June 6 item in the Citizen-News that confirms the Academy's involvement in the venture. 

 

The films in the ten week series were "Intolerance" (June 5 - 7 days), Valentino in "The Son of the Sheik" (June 12 - 7 days), Douglas Fairbanks in "The Three Musketeers" (June 12 - 7 days), Lon Chaney in "The Unholy Three" (June 26 - 7 days), Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald in "The Love Parade" (July 3 - 7 days), Erich von Stroheim's "Greed" (July 10 - 8 days), Eisenstein's "The Battleship Potemkin" (July 18 - 6 days), Greta Garbo in "Anna Christie" + "Potemkin" (July 24 - 7 days), Edmund Lowe, Delores Del Rio and Victor McLaglan in "What Price Glory" (July 31 - 2 days) and Douglas Fairbanks in "The Thief of Bagdad" (August 8 - 7 days). Thanks to Ranjit for all the research.

 

 

A June 14, 1941 story in the trade magazine The Billboard dubbed the ten week event "The First American Film Festival." While they noted that the Movie Parade's original location on Highland was to be rebranded as the Laugh Parade, Eddie instead settled on the name Nickelodeon. It's an article located by Ranjit.

 

 

"The Love Parade" was the attraction at the Movie Parade's Gordon St. location in this early July 1941 column of independent theatre ads in the Citizen-News. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating this for a post on the Photos of Los Angeles private Facebook group. 

 

 

Ranjit Sandhu notes that the initial festival prompted a three week extension. He located this item in the August 13, 1941 issue of the Citizen-News. "Underworld" only got a one day-run on August 14. "Sunrise" and "Public Enemy" weren't shown.

Closing as the Movie Parade: Eddie Kohn's series concluded August 28, 1941. The last program under his auspices was a 14 day return engagement of "The Thief of Bagdad" that opened August 15. Eddie moved the Movie Parade name back to the Highland Ave. location.

In the 1941 city directory the 1455 Gordon address is listed as the "plant" of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. In the 1956 phone directory 1455 gets a listing for Artisan Press, presumably the bookbinding operation noted on the Sanborn map as being at the rear of the building.

 

Status: The building the Movie Parade occupied still survives, now part of the Sunset Gower Studios.  

 

The building in 2019. Sunset Blvd. is out of the frame to the right. Photo: Google Maps

 

 

A look down the north side of the building in 2020. Photo: Google Maps

 

More information: See the page about the Highland Ave. location of The Movie Parade. Also see our page about 16mm Revival Houses that had opened in the 1940 to 1975 period.

For terrific research on revival houses, with a focus on 16mm operations, see Ranjit Sandhu's Revival Cinemas page on his site about Buster Keaton's "The General".

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