I remember when I was a lad, going to the Fairfax Theater, a once-grand, now-shabby (and shuttered) film palace located at Fairfax and Beverly in Los Angeles, catty-corner from CBS Television City. The theater opened some time between 1929 and 1932 (accounts vary) and has changed hands many times, switching between first-run and grindhouse status, even turning briefly into a legit theater that housed the local debut of Oh! Calcutta! Until recently, the back wall (visible to those driving south on Fairfax) was painted with a large sign that said, "New Fairfax Theatre – Glorifying the Talking Picture." You can read more of its history on this page.
Originally, it seated somewhere between 1,500 and 1,800 (again, accounts vary). In the early eighties, it was trisected into three theaters — one seating less than 500 and two which each seat fewer than 200. For much of the last decade or so, admission was a dollar to see films which had left the first-run houses but (usually) had not yet come out on DVD. And now it's closed, its future uncertain. There's a proposal to save the historic façade and to incorporate it into a new "mixed-use" complex of condos and retail stores. There are parties that want to refurbish the place and resume showing either first-run or classic cinema. There's a group — here's their website — that just wants to preserve it and so is nominating it for Historic-Cultural Monument Status.
This is another one of those "Mark's conflicted" matters. The Fairfax has a grand history and part of me thinks it should be preserved. On the other hand, as with the Beverly Cinema which I wrote about recently here, I have no desire to go there again. The parking situation is dreadful and my last few visits there, I found the place depressing and the sound system close to inaudible. Since I've not been there in a long while, you might say, "Well, maybe they've fixed up the place since then," and I guess that's possible. But inasmuch they're charging a buck a ticket, I get the feeling that not a lot of cash has been spent on upkeep. This latest closure is because portions of the roof collapsed in the recent rainstorms.
I love old theaters and if the Fairfax looked like it probably looked back in the forties, I'd go out and march for it to be maintained. But that Fairfax is long gone and the one that stands today is just sad. I have no idea what it would cost to restore and refurbish but I have a hard time imagining that it would be worth any investor's while. Maybe it's time to let the place go.