Quote:
Originally Posted by HossC
This attractive building is the Cornell Theatre in Burbank. Julius Shulman photographed it in 1949 - the year it opened. It's his "Job 619: Clarence J. Smale, Cornell Theatre (Los Angeles, Calif.),1949".
A slightly different angle shows a striped beacon on the left.
The building looks considerably plainer from the back.
I can almost smell the popcorn . Those candy canes are enormous!
A couple of shots of the auditorium.
Any guesses where this last picture was taken? Was this some sort of bar area?
All from Getty Research Institute
According to cinematreasures.org, the Cornell Theatre was at 1212 N San Fernando Boulevard. They also say that it closed in 1978 and was demolished in 1980. Historic Aerials seems to be working again, so I checked out the location. The 1980 image shows no trace of the Cornell Theatre. It's there on the 1977 image, but it's blurry, so here's the view from 1972.
Historic Aerials
Today, you'll just find a strip mall where the Cornell Theatre once stood.
GSV
|
AH, Yes, The Cornell. Named for the side street, which, in turn was named for Cornell University. I had never seen it looking new and pristine. By the time I was old enough to go to movies, you took your life in your hands going there and not getting stuck to the floor. The same carpet seen in the lobby shots was by then (mid to late 60's) so covered in soda, candy gunk, popcorn "butter" and other detritus that it was slick in spots and very sticky (like a tar pit) in others. It was all uniformly black except in some untraveled spots in the lobby. We all wore old grungy shoes so our good ones would not get ruined going there. All seats were 50 cents. The roof had leaked and there were odd brownish patches between the stars on the ceiling like clouds of radioactive waste. I also recall that there was a "thing" that was projected on the screen when there was not actually a movie or preview running. It looked like some sort of metal Jello mold, that rotated and changed colors. It also looked kind of grungy.
We (all the people who went to Burbank High, anyway) learned to drive in the parking lot. The parking lot gave way to the condos which can be seen behind the strip mall in the current picture
That was the ladies room, although later there were no chairs.
When they finally took it down, they had also closed the other theaters in Burbank and we had to go to Glendale to go to the movies, even though a lot of them were made right in Burbank. This lasted for a very long time, until they finally put in the AMC multiplex. Thanks for finding the pictures!