This theater marquee that has seen better days represents the last gasps of what started in 1940 as the Monica Theater at 7734 Santa Monica Blvd in West Hollywood (before it became West Hollywood, of course). A neighborhood theater showing 2nd run major motion pictures, it was briefly an arthouse, showing foreign films before, in 1968, it changed its name to the Left Bank Theater and went into the nudies game.
In 1970 it became the flagship theater of the adult film Pussycat Theater chain and remained so until the '90s when it became a gay adult theater and changed its name (appropriately enough) to the Tom Kat. 2006 saw Mr. Tom Kat make way for STUDS, and after that, it just seemed a slow but inexorable slide to obsolescence. The above photo, post-COVID, reflects the theater's 2022 fate.
Whatever lies in store for the empty space now, I hope someone holds on to the "celebrity" footprints of the deceased legends of the "porno chic" '70s that grace the front courtyard.
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| John Holmes / nee John Curtis Estes (1944 -1988) |
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| Linda Lovelace / nee Linda Susan Boreman (1949 - 2002) |
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| Harry Reems / nee Herbert John Streicher ( 1947 - 2013) |
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| Marilyn Chambers / nee Marilyn Ann Taylor (1952 - 2009) |
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