Legacy Theaters

Shortly before heading off to the San Diego Comic-Con, I heard the news that two classic movie houses in L.A. closing down at the end of that week: the Village Theatre and the Bruin Theatre, which both opened in the late 1930s. They’re classic movie palace theaters—they even have balcony seating (I remember seeing The Killing Fields in the balcony of one of the theaters, in a packed house.) The weekend before, we saw Twisters at the Bruin, which I guess is the last movie that played in that theater.

The theaters are across the street from each other in Westwood Village, just across the street from the UCLA campus. I’ve gone to those theaters since the 1980s, since that's where I went to college. Westwood was a real hotspot for young people and cruising during the ‘80s. As recently as a few years ago, the theaters were popular sites for red carpet movie premieres, such as the 1989 film, Batman, where I saw it opening weekend. I saw Blade Runner in one of those theaters too, along with many others.

During that era through the ‘90s, I often spotted celebrities walking up the street to attend a premiere at one of the theaters or just out and about, such as Pierce Brosnan and Sean Connery on two separate occasions. I bumped into James Woods twice on the street (while actor Jon Lovitz walked by) and in the restroom at the Village. Another time, Billy Crystal, Jane Seymour and Lou Ferrigno were at the same movie showing within a few rows of me. I sat behind Bill Campbell and Jennifer Connelly at another show, shortly after their film The Rocketeer had been released. 

The Bruin was recently prominently featured in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time…in Hollywood. In fact, I made a point to watch that film there. When the theater was revealed during the movie in a drone shot, the audience laughed and applauded.

The Village actually was recently purchased by a long list of Hollywood players led by director Jason Reitman. It is being refurbished and will re-open to play first-run films and repertory programming. The future of the Bruin remains unclear, though like the Village, it is designated an L.A. historic landmark.

A few years ago, UCLA purchased an abandoned movie theater not too far from these theaters, renovated it into a performance arts theater, and renamed it the Leonard Nimoy Theatre. I wonder had the Bruin been up for sale earlier would it have been purchased by UCLA at the time; or whether that’s potentially in the cards in the future.