Westwood Village is a small community of (mostly) retail outlets and offices adjacent to U.C.L.A. and I spent a lot of my youth there. My parents were always taking me to stores and restaurants there. It's where they took me for tap dancing lessons in one of the few major errors they made in parenting. You could have taught a pelican to tap dance before you or anyone could have taught me. Later, when I went to U.C.L.A., I hung out in "The Village" between classes and when I was dating, it was a terrific place to take dates.
The core of Westwood Village — if there was one — was an intersection with movie studios on two of its corners. Where Broxton Avenue and Weyburn Avenue cross, there stand The Village Theater (opened in 1931) and The Bruin Theater (opened six years later). I was in both a lot and while I remember the movies I saw at that intersection, I'm not always sure which movie I saw where. I'm pretty sure my mother took me to see Bambi at the Bruin and I'm pretty sure I saw Goldfinger and Fritz the Cat at the Village.
These viewings spanned several decades, of course. I think most folks my age who grew up near Westwood have a lot of such memories. And a lot of those people are very sad that, as this article notes, both theaters are closing this Thursday. The sadness seems to me overdone given that both will probably soon be back in biz, somewhat or fully remodeled.
The Village was recently purchased by a consortium of Hollywood filmmakers. I don't think they bought it to tear it down and open a Sephora in its place. The Bruin remains unpurchased but no one seems to be talking about razing it either. I haven't set foot in either for a long time but once one or both are back, I intend to rectify that neglect on my part. If I weren't so busy this week, I'd share some of my happy memories of those theaters now but that will have to wait.