There are a lot of former theaters hiding in plain sight.”Īfter opening as The Metropolitan, the theater became known as the Hermosa, the Cove and finally the Bijou, and played host to newly released films, perennial classics like the Rocky Horror Picture Show, and the occasional concert, including a notorious punk rock show featuring the band Redd Kross. “But if they look around, they’ll start to see it. And a lot of people, it just doesn’t occur to them,” Wright said. “Sometimes, I’ll tell people, You know this was a movie theater. And while the credits no longer roll and the marquee is long gone, much of the building’s guts remain intact - enough for Wright’s fellow exercise class attendees to bridge the gap between present and past with their imagination. While the Fox was demolished in the 1970s and the Bijou closed some two decades later, the latter is one of few buildings protected under Hermosa’s historic preservation ordinance. It includes footage and photos of movie palaces past, including a previous incarnation of the Bijou and the former Fox Theater in Redondo Beach. Wright’s documentary premiered in Los Angeles in October. It’s part of the kickoff of the Hermosa Beach Historical Society’s new exhibit dedicated to the Bijou Theater, which opens Thursday at the Hermosa Beach Museum. The Hermosa resident is the filmmaker behind “Going Attractions: The Definitive Story of the Movie Palace,” which screens Friday night at the Hermosa Community Theater. In between dips and plies, she marvels that she is taking a class inside a building that once housed a movie theater. Photo courtesy of the Hermosa Beach Historical SocietyĪpril Wright attends an exercise class at the Bar Method in downtown Hermosa almost every day. When the Bijou Theater in downtown Hermosa was named The Metropolitan when it opened in the 1920s.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |