Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
At the rep
Rialto Theater, South Pasadena, California
For the first 21 years of my life, I had a repertory theater close at hand. I grew up less than ten miles from the Rialto Theater, a lovely old place with neat architecture which I was about to call “art deco” until I read this:
Construction of the Rialto Theatre began in 1924 featuring the Spanish Baroque architectural style with Egyptian touches by noted Theatre designer L.A. Smith. Note the Batchelder tiles drinking fountain in the lobby, complete with picture tiles. The Auditorium features plaster ornaments, colorful stenciling, organ screens supported by harpies (half woman, half vulture) and a glaring mythological gargoyle with red eyes staring down from the proscenium arch.
You probably know the Rialto. Remember The Player? Tim Robbins kills that dude in the back of the Rialto. Remember Kentucky Fried Movie? The “Feel-A-Round” skit was filmed inside the Rialto.
At the Rialto, I saw Polanski’s Macbeth, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and the 1973 Christopher Lee version of The Wicker Man. Can’t remember what else I saw, sadly enough.
I went to college at 17. Berkeley had the UC Theater:
How sad — they’re not showing movies at the UC anymore.
At the UC Theater, I saw Pink Floyd’s two films, More and La Vallée (you younguns: yes, Pink Floyd made more movies than just The Wall), Lawrence of Arabia, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Paul Scofield’s King Lear (sublime), and Lawrence Olivier’s Hamlet (trash). My girlfriend & soon-to-be fiance accompanied me to Labor of Love, a hilarious documentary about the making of an X-rated movie.
I think we had a repertory theater when I was in med school, but they never had anything good. French films without subtitles, I’ll bet. So I guess I got out of the habit. But really, where better to watch an old Bogart and Bacall film? And what can be better than an all-day festival of Hammer horror films or Ray Harryhausen’s stop-action mythological beasties?
Yeah, I miss those theaters. Last 20 years of my life have been a spirit-sapping procession of multiplexes.
If I get rich, I’m opening a rep.
You may regale me with repertory theater memories now.
D.
I didn’t grow up around anything like this – in St. Thomas there was a drive-in movie theater (a cow pasture during the day – watch your step) and I remember seeing two films at the cultural center – sitting on folding chairs, sheets hung on the windows to make it darker. Not exactly a rep theater.
I’m with Sam, it was Drive-ins or multi-plex. I did see a couple of kiddie films at an old rep in North Quincy Massachusetts which had the painted walls, ornate stained glass ceiling and gold leafed cherubs decorating the stage – it had a stage for plays and a pull down screen for film. It had noisy wooden pull down seats and smelled of old old popcorn butter.
One thing I took advantage of was, in Boston at the Wang Center, which is a grand theater for proper plays and ballet and stuff (An extended sequence in “The Witches of Eastwick” was shot at the Wang. The palatial lobby was used for one of the interiors of the house of Jack Nicholson’s character a.k.a. the Devil That staircase is Wang’s), but every January, after The Nutcracker finished and attendance was low, they would do movie days where you could sit and watch (at the time) the Star Wars trilogy and the Indiana Jones trilogy on a 30foot screen(bells ring in my head shouting “No it was 60 feet!” but I’m not sure now) and the most amazing sound system I ever heard.
Sitting in the best balcony seats, watching Star Wars and the best part – it was all for free because I worked there as a support usher during Christmas time and this was my treat. The best way to spend eight hours.
My favourite local theatres.
Here’s the Forum Theatre in Melbourne, Australia. Note the gryphons in alcoves on the outer wall. While the outer is arabic inspired, the inner decor is 1st Century Roman opulent.
More pics here
And for high Art Deco, there’s always the Astor
The Somerville Theatre, Davis Square, Somerville, MA. A Rococo masterpiece of a vaudeville theater – great balcony, lousy chairs, live music, rep. film… It could get cold as fsck during overnight film marathons. Has apparently been subdivided since I was there last (yeesh – almost 20 years, I guess…) – but mostly by expanding into other space. It’s evidently still large enough to host live shows…
Seattle has a great rep. theater scene, with many neighborhood ‘movie houses.’ The University District, for instance, has 3 or 4. While many of them have subdivided, there are still quite a few single-screen theaters.
The town I grew up in had a population of 15 (that’s what the sign said in the 60’s). It had a post office, a grocery store, a school, Moss’s Mill and a Cal-Tran’s yard. To see a movie, we had to drive to Weaverville or Eureka, and I have NO idea where the closest repertory theater was. Later they built a drive-in closer to us in Willow Creek.
Guys, sorry to be uncommunicative, but the Feds have finally landed, and I’m stressin’. More later.
Welcome, Cuppa! Looks like we’re nearly neighbors. I work in Crescent City. I think we pass through Weaverville whenever we drive down to the Bay Area.