The New Beverly – An Old Fashioned Good Time

In 2020 Los Angeles cried out when the Vista closed its doors and cried even louder at the demise of Arclight’s historic Cinerama Dome in 2021. Until last year, the westside’s Landmark lived like beautiful ghost in its abandoned shopping mall shell. This last week, it was announced that after 60+ years, the Mission Tiki Drive-In Theatre would be paving paradise and putting something else in the parking lot. A warehouse development, to be precise.

Often disappearing with barely a flutter of a kerfuffle, in this day and age, we’re grimly used to seeing brick and mortars of all kinds grind to a sudden death. Barnes and Noble used to be the colossal monster, smashing independent bookstores with every stomp of its commercialized, rewards-program-mongering boots. Now B&N is being swallowed by the T- Rex that is Amazon’s overnight delivery and the kindle on every couch.

Nicole Kidman’s sparkling AMC ad, for better or for worse, has become a familiar sight- As have clips like the one before Babylon where the actors profusely thank you for being there today. Most recently, it’s Michael B. Jordan telling you that ‘Creed 3’ is going to be so cool in iMax. These performances are delivered directly to the camera, appearing larger than life with heads 20x your size, like visitors sending a message from another planet.

This is only thanks to the big bucks of chain movie showers. The local family-owned joint would have difficulty pulling together that amount of endorsement cash, even for celebrities as saintly as those to sit down for their cinema-loving confessional. The lack of bells and whistles makes it even more impressive when the rink-a-dink single-screen spots can keep the projector light on today.

However, the light at New Beverly is so good at staying on that it can be hard to get tickets. The only showings in the next few days are either Sofia Coppola’s ‘The Virgin Suicides‘ (1999) or ‘Enter the Void‘ (2009), Gaspar Noe’s controversial, fantastical, psychological extravaganza. I had never seen both movies and were sold out online days in advance.

Hm… The website says that vague amount known as “some additional tickets” will be available at the door “on a first-come, first-served basis on the day of the show.” There is also flex room in that door opening, “roughly one hour before showtime.” I decide, or more so, my calendar decides, that I don’t have time to hope at getting one of those special at-the-door tickets, and instead, I purchase the next available showing that isn’t sold out: the “Kiddee Matinee” of ‘The Dark Crystal‘ on Sunday.

There’s no highfalutin AMC validated parking lot at the New Bev. As there’s no seat reservation, you can wage the time-honored LA tradition of scrounging for street parking. Here’s the other perk that I didn’t consider, though, when landing on the Sunday kiddie matinee… Street cleaning and meter laws have no jurisdiction on a Sunday. This guides me in perfect time to the ticket window of the former “vaudeville house, candy factory & beer parlor, Jewish Community Center and celebrity nightclub” that is now The New Beverly.

Like many LA movie lovers, I’ve been coming to this spot since I first moved to the city. My first film here was… well, it was either ‘Straw Dogs‘ or ‘Mary Poppins.’ You can see how someone could get them confused. That was before the renovation, an extended period, or maybe what felt like a ‘long’ period for the fans when the theater closed for upgrades. Then it was only open for a wink before it closed down again because of that pandemic thing that was going around.

Now its refurbished doors have opened to the movie-hungry customers once more, inviting them into a still tiny lobby that offers enough squishing space for the line to concessions, two bathrooms, and a daintily plain rack of calendars for the upcoming month’s showings. The first order of business is to wriggle past the concessions line that snakes into the movie theater and past the row at the back permanently tattooed with paper ‘RESERVED’ signs (you never know who will show up) to set my jacket down on a nice back-of-the-middle seat. Yes, I’m a seat saver- Bite me. As long as the laws of seat saving lay intact, I will have more arm space for snack holding, a jacket, and a place to put my butt when I get back.

I join the queue, and because you start to notice things when the only activity is waiting, my ears suddenly become aware of The Muppets’ music playing overhead. Fitting for the theme. The couple in front of me discuss their favorite candy to mix into the popcorn. The couple behind me discuss their variations of surprise at the number of people that turned up for today’s showing. I ask myself how long these couples have been together… a month and two years.

As the line moves forward, we pass by slivers of the wall that feature the fictional ‘Once Upon Time in Hollywood‘’s Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) in 60s western-style movie posters. It’s a lovely decor choice, presumably by the theater’s owner, Mr. Quentin Tarantino, who, after 10 years as a benefactor of the theater, leaped to head programmer and owner in 2014. With this leap came changes, most famously that all movies playing at the New Beverly would be shown in 35mm, most of which would come from Tarantino’s collection. Among other additions like cup holders for the seats and expanded concession options, Tarantino also added kiddie matinees and midnight showings of those movies he’s directed, declaring; “if you want to see one of my movies in 35mm, any week of the year, there is one place you can go to.” My head hears that quote read like a used car salesman in a 1980s commercial. I hope that’s how he said it.

The expanded concessions include; fountain and old-fashioned bottled soda, freshly popped popcorn, more variety in candy than you’ll find anywhere else, and ‘Okja‘ vegan dogs, which I have yet to try. (I’ve never understood hot dogs at movie theaters, but it’s a thing.) Sadly there is no longer a hotel buffet line of popcorn seasonings to adorn the fluffed grain. Still, there are reusable lids for the ‘Tasty Beverage’ stamped soda cup, and the cookie dough bites are offered at room temperature as well as frozen.

I get the tasty beverage, fluffed grain, and frozen CDBs and make my way back into the theater, hungry and using my face and not my hands to eat the popcorn. You are more than welcome to steal this clever technique the next time you go to the theater. I find my butt space has been saved and settled in. The line for concessions still grows to my right, as does the number of people filling seats in front of me. The Muppet music also increases, with peppier anthems now at play. I’m grateful for not arriving earlier because, after 20 minutes of caroling Muppets, it’s safe to say a little goes a long way.

There are three minutes left until the scheduled showtimes, and the front row is now full- Good for you, strong-neck people. The variety of people falls between families and hipsters (are we still using that word?)- college kids, let’s say. The oldest person here might be in their 80s and the youngest in their 2s. Somehow at both sides of the age spectrum and between the typecast genre, this showing lands in the “granola punk” camp.

Ah, wait. It’s time.

A manager in a short sleeve button-up steps to the front of the granola punks and starts speaking into a microphone, listing anecdotes about the filmmakers involved in Dark Crystal from director to composer. The chatter of the 20 people in the concessions line doesn’t die down for his performance, and the manager notices. He takes the opportunity to advise, in a tone similar to that of a disappointed middle school teacher, that those standing in line show up earlier in the future. Then he turns his attention to the A+ students who are already in their seats and lets us know that we, the smart kids who are going places, will be enjoying three trailers (which turn out to be ‘Return to Oz,’ ‘The NeverEnding Story,’ and ‘The Last Unicorn‘) and short Bugs Bunny cartoon.

We applaud as he finishes his speech, the lights dim, and with it, the volume of chatter. The screen comes alive, and I am treated with one of my favorite cinematic views; little moviegoing heads silhouetted against the glow of a projected film. Especially a 35mm one. As the trailers go on, the popcorn line fades away, and the last stragglers find empty seats, and we are there, a group of friends and strangers, here to enjoy a movie.

We applaud at several other points throughout the viewing. Like fans in any arena, we seek to show the spectacle we approve of. Applause is doled out in increments: after each trailer, the short film, the bonus ‘The Rescuers‘ cereal advertisement, for the director, the creator, and at various points in the film when it just feels right, and of course… at the end when the world is saved (spoiler alert).

This applause feels just as warm as the old film projection and encompasses the appreciation and love that fills this little room of fold-out seats. I’m going to fast forward past the things that’ll sound like what Nicole Kidman’s already told you with more jumpsuit glamour than I could pull off and leave it with this- A quote is taken from the New Beverly website:

I know this will sound like a stretch, but there are quite a few other rich people alive. If we could sit them in the theater and have them clap along with strangers to old film reels of Jim Henson… We could save some pieces of history, culture, and community before they’re gone. And in the meantime, while we wait for the rich folks to get with the program (they’re in the rack in the lobby)… here’s a toast.

May we continue to see movies in places with such loving reverence for them, and may we strive to get there early enough to get our popcorn before the Bugs Bunny short starts. Long live movie theaters. Long live The New Beverly.