As modern movie-going moves increasingly toward all-inclusive experiences with megaplexes offering everything from shopping to fine dining, the New Beverly Cinema, located at 7165 Beverly Blvd., offers a simpler and grittier experience that is rapidly disappearing.
“It’s a small, little theater with just one screen. It’s like theaters in Westwood but cuter, in a run-down way,” said recent alumna Catherine Martin.
With origins dating back to the 1920s as a vaudeville house, and having undergone various transformations into a nightclub and later an adult-film theater, the New Beverly Cinema took on its current form in 1978 when owner and UCLA alum Sherman Torgan bought the theater and transformed it into one of the last-remaining revival cinemas.
“I was looking for a business at the time that didn’t involve getting up too early and would be fun, harmless and nonpolluting,” Torgan said. “I get to deal with people when they are happy, when they are being entertained.”
Staffing his original crew with solely UCLA students and alumni, Torgan, who graduated in 1968 with a degree in sociology, claimed that much of his film education and programming advice came from fellow Bruins he hired.
With the addition of a simple “New” to the Beverly’s name, both to make a distinction from its erotic predecessor and as an inexpensive change to the marquee, the theater began offering its unique double-bill features of films ranging from 1920s silent movies, foreign films and slapstick comedies, to 1980s cult classics and even some less mainstream modern movies.
“You really get an experience like no other; movies you can’t find anywhere else, in a place like nowhere else,” graduate film student Ross Melnick said.
The New Beverly’s typical programming includes double features of films from the same era or genre, or even combinations of modern movies with old classics, as seen with this past weekend’s double feature of “Children of Men” and “1984.” This past month, the theater held a month-long film festival in honor of the premiere of “Grindhouse,” a self-contained double feature directed by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino.
With the decline of such revival houses having begun with the introduction of home video in the 1980s, the New Beverly provides an atmosphere that is hard to come by, and for some, may seem hardly sanitary.
Lacking the modern amenities of most movie theaters, the New Beverly truly provides an atmosphere that is noncommercial and unsterile. Nonetheless, the theater harkens back to the rustic nature of older cinemas, which for the cinephile or even the average moviegoer, may add to the unique movie-viewing experience that the theater has to offer.
“It feels friendly, lived in, but not sleazy,” Martin said.
Despite its less-than-luxurious appearance, the theater’s affordable ticket and concession stand prices are noteworthy. For $5 or $6 (student and full price, respectively), average moviegoers can see two feature-length films and perhaps grab a candy, popcorn or Kosher hot dog all for considerably less than the average ticket price at modern multiplexes such as the Arclight Hollywood, where tickets can go for up to $14.
“I don’t see new movies anymore, because I don’t want to spend $8, so I go here instead. I’m pretty far behind on new movies because of that,” Martin said.
Staying true to revivalist fashion, the theater rotates its films every few days and provides an online calendar of its upcoming screenings for the next two months.
“Here the audience gets to see films on the big screen that they probably only saw on DVD or TV,” Torgan said. “They really get to have the theatrical experience.”
Although Los Angeles is the center of cinema in the United States, with megaplexes and even classics theaters easy to come by, the New Beverly still provides a one-of-a-kind experience that is increasingly less available to moviegoers.
“It’s definitely worth checking out,” Melnick said. “It’s really a unique theater, one of the last of its kind.”