Here's the funniest thing you may find on the 'net for some time: A newspaper ad showing that Paramount Pictures ran Skidoo in Los Angeles "for Academy Award consideration." Actually, I'm a little puzzled about this since all my sources say the movie was released on December 2, 1968, which would have allowed plenty of time to qualify for the Oscars without a special engagement. Perhaps that date is when the special engagement began and the general release came early in '69. Either way, it received no nominations. I wonder why.
This ad was taken with permission from Gabriel Neeb's great webpage, San Diego Cinema. Usually, it features great old movie ads from that area but Gabriel couldn't resist an ad from Los Angeles because of the Skidoo box. The Crest Theater was one of my old hangouts. In fact, it's where I saw the movie Penelope, which we discussed back here.
If you go over to Gabriel's page, you'll see the whole listing for the Loews chain that week. Oliver is premiering at the Beverly. I took my girl friend of the time there (her name was Lynne) to see that movie a few weeks later. We went to dinner that evening at what was then my favorite Chinese restaurant, a place called Wan-Q, which I wrote about over on this page. Wan-Q is long gone but my current favorite Chinese restaurant, Fu's Palace, is in its old building. The Beverly Theater (which you can see here) closed in 1977 and was converted into a bank and a jewelry store. It was recently demolished along with most of that block.
After the movie, Lynne and I walked down to a Wil Wright's ice cream parlor that was on Beverly, a block south of Wilshire. Wil Wright's is also long gone and I don't know why I'm telling you all this. Old movie theater ads tend to send my memory into overdrive.