Putting the Lime in the Coconut (Hollywood’s Dark Decade: part 5)

Every Friday night at midnight, a line of people waited in the lobby of The New Beverly Cinema to watch Quentin Tarantino’s masterpiece, Reservoir Dogs. It had become a tradition at this art house theater to show the same film, without variation.

The New Beverly had rose from the ashes of a building that had followed the history of Hollywood. It had been a home for vaudeville, a Jewish community center, and even a candy and beer parlor. As Hollywood declined, it was a porn theater. Then, in 1978, it was purchased by Sherman Torgan and it became the wonderful haven for old school cinema fans that still existed in 1990s.

Located at 7165 Beverly Blvd., this old theater in disrepair showed perfectly paired double features that changed every day or two. One could stop in at any time and catch two Bogart films, two Hitchcock movies, or a pair of Fellini masterpieces. Audiences, having come from the classic candy counter, were enthusiastic and would cheer and applaud the films.

The New Beverly cinema was a true cinematic gem in Hollywood. But, not the only one.

Also located in the area, between Beverly Blvd. and Melrose Ave. on Fairfax, was The Silent Movie Theatre. This old cinema, started in 1942 by John Hampton, showed exclusively silent films. Each film was accompanied live by a pianist or organist. Laurence Austin, the theater’s owner in the 1990s, would come out before each showing and speak about the movies that were about to be shown.

There were no cinema hot dogs or boxes of Good-n-Plenty, here. Rather, theater-goers were offered homemade slices of cake or freshly brewed coffee in actual porcelain cups. It made for a fine viewing experience and it’s no surprise that, before his deportation, Charles Chaplin, himself, would slip quietly into the back of the theater to watch his own films when they showed.

Then, on January 17, 1997, during the same week I had moved away from Los Angeles, Laurence Austin was murdered in his apartment by a hit man hired by his long time business partner and lover. The theater was closed by March of 1998 and, although a new owner tried to keep it going, it now exists, showing newer films. Mostly, though, it makes it’s money, renting the space out for private events.

One can get an insight into the vast variety of life from seeing the great disparity of living all around Beverly Blvd. My friend, Brad, and I once made the walk from Hollywood Blvd. and Highland Ave. to the Beverly Center, the huge 8 story mall, founded in 1982. On this walk, we saw everything from abject poverty to mind-staggering mansions. Most of the homes were gated in and had bars on the windows, keeping their dwellers trapped safely in the confines of their houses.

The Beverly Center was fresh and exciting, even in the nineties. Many times I would go there to shop, especially at Christmas, when the mall reminded one of the glamour of the old New York department stores. The cinema that was on the top floor had 14 different theaters, so that big budget films could be shown in the larger ones, but offerings of foreign films and art projects could be seen in intimate, smaller settings.

Before the mall existed, there had been an oil field at the location. It was there that David Lynch filmed industrial scenes for his debut film, Erasure Head.

We were thrilled to watch Paul Mazursky’s, Scenes From a Mall, starring Woody Allen and Bette Midler, at the Beverly Center, which was the location of the film. Many of our favorite places in the mall were very recognizable in the movie.

Crossing the street to the Beverly Center, one evening, with my friends J.W. and Tony, Luke Perry screeched around the corner and almost hit us with his sports car. He stopped and rolled down his window, “Sorry, gentlemen.”

Said J.W., “That’s all right, Dylan.”

Unfortunately, the great dining experiences in that mall are a thing of the past. The Beverly Center has changed ownership and eliminated its food court and has made many changes, due to the lack of foot traffic, these days.

Like all things in New Hollywood, the corporate house cleaning has affected even the malls.

But, there is good news, out on Beverly Blvd., which has always boasted a rich heritage of Jewish culture, socialite shopping, and art. Some things, indeed, have not changed for the worse.

In 2017, Quentin Tarantino bought the New Beverly Cinema, vowing that as long as he’s alive and rich, he will be showing double features of films in 35mm prints (mostly from his own collection.) What a great relief to know that new generations can experience the great joy of escaping into the theater in the middle of the day to watch a classic film or two in an historic cinema.

It meant so much to all of us, all those years ago, to leave the restaurant or bar in which we were celebrating life in Hollywood and race in our cars to The New Beverly Cinema to catch Reservoir Dogs at midnight. And as two o’clock in the morning approached, the credits of the film would roll, and once, again, as I dozed off to sleep at night, Harry Nillson’s song would play in my head: You put the lime in the coconut; you drank them both up…