I'm still seeing a lot of worries on the Internet about the Village Theater and the Bruin Theater here in L.A. closing this Thursday. Yes, they're closing but no, they're not likely to never be working theaters again. As I forgot to mention, they've both been designated as Historic Cultural Monuments so there'd be a lot of public hearings and meetings before they could be repurposed as weed dispensaries or anything.
Moreover, the owners of each — separate owners, now — don't seem to want to do anything but some upgrading and remodeling and then to reopen and show films. Whenever one does, you'll probably find me there, reminding myself of the days when I used to do something I don't do much now: Going out to a movie.
And while we're talking about old movie theaters in Los Angeles, let's mention my favorite…which is sadly not the theater it used to be. I spent a lot of my childhood at The Silent Movie Theater over on Fairfax and I developed a bit of a friendship with the couple that operated it, John and Dorothy Hampton. I wrote about it here and elsewhere on this site.
I thought I knew everything there was to know about the place but I recently found this webpage which told me a great many things of which I was never aware. If you're even a tenth as interested in this place as I still am, you'll want to read every bit of it.