WHAT'S NEW, PUSSYCAT?

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. 

John Holmes / nee John Curtis Estes (1944 -1988)

Linda Lovelace / nee Linda Susan Boreman (1949 - 2002)

Harry Reems / nee Herbert John Streicher ( 1947 - 2013)

Marilyn Chambers / nee Marilyn Ann Taylor (1952 - 2009)

NO BAD TIMES AT THE EL ROYALE

The El Royale Apartments on Rossmore and Rosewood in Hollywood was built in 1929 by William Douglas Lee (designer of The Chateau Marmont on Sunset Blvd). The El Royale is now a designated Historical Cultural Monument and was home to notables like George Raft, Loretta Young, and William Faulkner.

HOLLYWOOD BABYLON

The Hollywood and Highland Shopping Center (mall) with its design inspired by the Gates of Babylon set from D.W. Griffith's 1916 film "Intolerance." Built in 2001, the elephants, pillars and archway - towering minimally some three stories high - are identical in scale to the sets of the original classic silent film.

The "Intolerance" Babylon set. Built in the Silverlake area of Los Angeles (today, the site of the Vista Theater).

Am I Blue?

On October 20, 2017, various buildings and fountains throughout Los Angeles were bathed in blue light in honor of the Los Angeles Dodgers being in the World Series (first time since 1988).

The Dodger ultimately lost to the Houston Astros, but for a time the City of Angels was feeling Blue

Los Angeles City Hall

Downtown Fountains

HOLLYWEIRD SCIENCE

Exterior of the Science Building at Hollywood High School on Sunset and Highland

THE LAST MOVIE HOUSE

The Sierra Theater, Chowchilla, Ca.
The Sierra Theater was the larger (474 seats) of two motion picture houses in the small town of Chowchilla. Built in 1941, the Sierra Theater closed in the mid to late '70s, but stood, abandoned until it was demolished in 2006. As you can see in the last B&W photo, there used to be an outdoor ticket booth.
The first three photos were taken by me in 1997. My partner was born and raised in Chowchilla, as was his father, who, as a teen, worked at the Sierra Theater.
The last to photos were found on the site Cinema Treasures

Rear view of the Sierra Theater

 

Cinema Treasures

YOU CAN STILL GET GAS HERE

On the corner of Highland and Willoughby in Hollywood, Ca., a run-down gas station built in 1935, has been converted into a drive-thru Starbucks

SAY CHEESE

Bravo Farms in Traver, California. 

Off Highway 99, Bravo Farms is part rest stop, restaurant, Old-West tourist attraction, petting zoo, gift shop, and cheese-lovers paradise.

CRUISING ON SUNSET BLVD

Crossroads of the World - Hollywood's first Shopping Mall
Located at 6671 Sunset Blvd and extending north to Selma, the Disney-esque outdoor shopping mall, Crossroads of the World, is an collection of buildings (retail stores and studios) recreating the architecture of various parts of the world, all surrounding the center structure/building, which resembles an ocean liner.
In May of 2015, plans were announced for an extensive redevelopment of Crossroads and the surrounding area.

GENERIC GENTRIFICATION

April, 2015

In a temporary art installation titled: "Projection," French artist Vincent Lamouroux has taken the creepy, long-abandoned Sunset Pacific Motel in Silverlake, Ca. (nicknamed "Bates Motel" by locals due to its Sunset Blvd/Bates Street location as well its crime-filled history) and painted it totally white.

Not painted, exactly, but covered every inch of the property - including nearby palm trees and billboard - with white, lime powder paint (environmentally friendly lime-wash which wear off over time and doesn't harm the trees).

The notorious Sunset Pacific Motel at 4301 West Sunset Blvd

"Bates Motel" given a temporary facelift

The Sunset Pacific Motel has been a neighborhood eyesore and public nuisance crime-magnet since it was shuttered in 2002. Currently slated for demolition, its new, temporary status as living art installation has been heralded in official press as a site which, "...induces both an appearance and disappearance. It revisits our existing landscape with new eyes and envisions the building's new surfaces as screens for the projection of our desires."  

Pre-Art

Post-Art

However, savvy longtime Silverlake residents, aware of the area's recent gentrification and the gradual influx of middle-class hipsters into the area, wonder if perhaps the artist is actually making a vivid statement about a neighborhood literally being whitewashed. 

INTO THE (HOLLY)WOODS

Hollywood's El Capitan Theater, an ornate movie palace located across the street from Grauman's Chinese Theater on Hollywood Blvd, was built in 1926. Owned now by Disney Studios, the El Capitan was the site of the Christmas Day opening of the 2014 movie adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods. Theater patrons are welcomed with a serenade of classic Disnet tunes played on a refurbished 1939 Wurlitzer Theater Organ, and on the occasion of Into the Woods' limited run, treated to an exclusive display of props and costumes from the film.

Jack's slingshot, The Magic Beans, and the Giant's Gold Coins

The Latin motto inscribed along the edges of the coin reads: FABER EST SUAE QUISQUE FORTUNAE (roughly translated: "Every man is the architect of his own fate") -  a quote attributed to ancient Roman politician,  Appius Claudius Caecus (340 BC - 273 BC)

Cinderella's Wedding Bouquet, The Golden Egg stolen from The Giant, Rapunzel's Hair Brush

Costumes by three-time Oscar-winning designer Colleen Atwood (Chicago, Alice in Wonderland, Memoirs of a Geisha)

The Witch's Costume 

Cinderella's Stepmother and Stepsisters

Costume for Jack's Mother. And a guest appearance by Milky White, the Cow

Costumes for The Baker, Rapunzel, and Rapunzel's Prince