Vista theater east hollywood

It is one of the remaining historic structures from the s, when Hollywood was first built up and began attracting residents to its new suburban homes from areas near downtown Los Angeles and East Los Angeles, at the time middle and wealthy class sections of Los Angeles. The theater, which was erected where the epic Babylon set from the movie Intolerance once was, is a local landmark.

It has been renovated to play new release movies, and retains its historic architecture. The theatre went through many changes over the years, including a 20 year period where it showed soft core porn, then hard core porn, then finally gay porn. Architect: Lewis A. Website: www. Telephone: The Vista, a single-screen neighborhood movie theatre, opened on 9th October Smith design an Egyptian interior for the theatre.

The highlight was ten eerily-lit life-size pharaonic masks lining the sides of the auditorium. Although originally opening with vaudeville acts and organ concerts, within a couple of weeks of its opening the theatre settled into a pattern of two features per week, a reduction in vaudeville acts — which were often replaced by an organ concert, until finally just films were screened.

The organ was later broken up for parts. Seating capacity was originally quoted as in the s, however for many years the reported capacity was lower, in the range of Current capacity is , with every second row of seats having been removed to increase legroom.

By the theatre came under the new management of Fox West Coast which was when the theatre was renamed as the Vista Theatre. In the s the theatre was known for screening cult films, however by the mids became better known as a porno house, moving from soft-core to hard-core and finally gay porn until it was refurbished for revivals in by the San Francisco-based Thomas Theaters chain.

Landmark closed the Vista in , it was sold, renamed the New Vista , and went back to screening first-run movies. When Five Star Theatres now Vintage Cinemas acquired the property in , the Vista was a dilapidated dive with a checkered past. Lance Alspaugh, head of Five Star, was planning extensive improvements when he was approached by designer Ronald Wright, who proposed a complete and thorough renovation and restoration.

By going down to the smallest level of detail it took around a year to restore all of the pharaoh masks lining the auditorium. Vertical seismic retrofit strengthening beams are hidden behind the red curtains adorning the pharaoh masks lining the walls, slightly altering the original shape of the auditorium. Originally there was no hint of the interior Egyptian theme outside the building, however the addition of a new Egyptian-themed box office at the entrance doors, as part of the refurbishment, firmly planted the Egyptian theme as starting at the entrance lobby.

The theatre is built on the site used for the massive Babylon set from D. Having seen some rough times, East Hollywood has been getting lots of love in the past few years which is more than well deserved. The Vista is a movie theater for people who love the act of going to the movies. Built in ,it retains much of it's golden-age-of-Hollywood charm and architecture. There's something about a big red curtain being pulled aside on the theaters only screen to kick off a flick that makes the experience that much more enjoyable.

The extra leg room and cozy seats help too. East Hollywood by Cris Cimatu. Dark beers, dark walls. Los Angeles , CA Los Angeles. Property Type:. Architectural Style:. Spanish Colonial Revival. Original Name:.

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