Hollywood's Ritz Theatre, formerly News View Theatre, Newsreel Theatre, Hollywood Newsreel, New View Theatre, Pacific New View, Pussycat Theatre, and briefly Hologram USA Theater, is a historic former

newsreel A newsreel is a form of short documentary film, containing news, news stories and items of topical interest, that was prevalent between the 1910s and the mid 1970s. Typically presented in a Movie theater, cinema, newsreels were a source of cu ...

and

movie theater A movie theater (American English) or cinema (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), also known as a movie house, cinema hall, picture house, picture theater, the movies, the pictures, or simply theater, is a business ...

located at 6656 W.

Hollywood Boulevard Hollywood Boulevard is a major east–west street in Los Angeles, California. It runs through the Hollywood, East Hollywood, Little Armenia, Thai Town, and Los Feliz districts. Its western terminus is at Sunset Plaza Drive in the Hollyw ...

Hollywood, California Hollywood, sometimes informally called Tinseltown, is a List of districts and neighborhoods in Los Angeles, neighborhood and district in the Central Los Angeles, central region of Los Angeles County, California, within the city of Los Angeles. ...

History

The building that would become the Ritz Theatre was originally built for retail in 1930. In 1939–1940, it was repurposed into the 386-seat News View Theatre (also known as Newsreel Theater), designed by Norton & Wallis and featuring a

streamline moderne Streamline Moderne is an international style of Art Deco architecture and design that emerged in the 1930s. Inspired by Aerodynamics, aerodynamic design, it emphasized curving forms, long horizontal lines, and sometimes nautical elements. In indu ...

interior and

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

lettering on its exterior. The theater opened on May 2, 1940, boasting a policy of screening

newsreels A newsreel is a form of short documentary film, containing news stories and items of topical interest, that was prevalent between the 1910s and the mid 1970s. Typically presented in a cinema, newsreels were a source of current affairs, info ...

air-expressed from

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

in 15 hours and

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

in 40. The theater's first screening included views of the siege of Warsaw, a special reel that applied words of Washington to European events of the day, and lighter fare such as sports, woman's issues,

Lew Lehr Lew Lehr (May 14, 1895 – March 6, 1950) was a comedian, writer and editor known for his humorous contributions to Fox Movietone News, his radio appearances and his popular catchphrase, "Monkeys is the cwaziest peoples." Born in Philadelphia ...

commenting on bathing beauties, and various other items. '' The Bear's Tale'', a

Merrie Melodies ''Merrie Melodies'' is an American animated comedy short film series distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was part of the ''Looney Tunes'' franchise and featured many of the same characters. Originally running from August 2, 1931, to Septem ...

cartoon, was also screened, as was Carey Wilson's commentary on '' A Door Will Open'' and Pete Smbth's '' Spots Before Your Eyes''. By 1944, the theater was owned by ABC Theatres. In 1949, the theater starting going by Hollywood Newsreel, and in 1954, it changed its name to New View Theatre as it transitioned from newsreels to

features Feature may refer to: Computing * Feature recognition, could be a hole, pocket, or notch * Feature (computer vision), could be an edge, corner or blob * Feature (machine learning), in statistics: individual measurable properties of the phenome ...

. In 1968,

Pacific Theatres Pacific Theatres was an American chain of movie theaters in the Los Angeles metropolitan area of California. Pacific Theatres was owned by The Decurion Corporation which also owned and operated ArcLight Cinemas. In 2008, it sold its store loca ...

acquired the theater and renamed it Pacific New View, and the theatre was renovated, including the addition of a snack bar, in 1969. In 1974, the theater was taken over by the porno theater chain Pussycat Theaters, where '' Deep Throat'' would play for more than ten years, ending in 1989. Additionally, from August 1977 to January 1978, the theater's neighbor housed Los Angeles's first punk rock club in its basement, with a secondary access point through a staircase from this theatre. In 1984, the

Hollywood Boulevard Commercial and Entertainment District The Hollywood Boulevard Commercial and Entertainment District is a historic district that consists of twelve blocks between the 6200 and 7000 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, California. This strip of commercial and retail busines ...

was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

, and while this theater is in the district, it was not listed as a contributing or non-contributing property. In 1989, the theater became the Ritz Theatre, which closed in 1991. It was managed by Johnny Legend and Eric Caidin. In 1994, the theater became a church, which closed in 2015. In November 2017, the building was reopened by

Alki David Alkiviades "Alki" David (born May 1968; pronounced ) is a Cypriot-British businessman. By 2008, he was the majority shareholder of Leventis-David Group, which owns Coca-Cola Hellenic bottling plants in 28 countries. He founded the Internet-b ...

as Hologram USA Theater, which closed one year later. In 2020, the building was used as a

marijuana Cannabis (), commonly known as marijuana (), weed, pot, and ganja, List of slang names for cannabis, among other names, is a non-chemically uniform psychoactive drug from the ''Cannabis'' plant. Native to Central or South Asia, cannabis has ...

lounge.

In popular culture

This theater has been featured in numerous films, including ''

Lethal Weapon ''Lethal Weapon'' is a 1987 American action film directed by Richard Donner and written by Shane Black. It stars Mel Gibson and Danny Glover alongside Gary Busey, Tom Atkins, Darlene Love, and Mitchell Ryan. In ''Lethal Weapon'', a pai ...

'', ''

Alex in Wonderland ''Alex in Wonderland'' is a 1970 American comedy-drama film directed by Paul Mazursky, written with his partner Larry Tucker, starring Donald Sutherland and Ellen Burstyn. Sutherland plays Alex Morrison, a director agonizing over the choice ...

'', ''

Death Wish II ''Death Wish II'' is a 1982 American vigilante action-thriller film directed and co-edited by Michael Winner. It is the sequel to the 1974 film '' Death Wish''. It is the second installment in the ''Death Wish'' film series. In the story, ar ...

'', '' Exit Through the Gift Shop'', and ''

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood ''Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood'' is a 2019 comedy-drama film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. Produced by Columbia Pictures in association with Bona Film Group, Heyday Films, and Visiona Romantica, and distributed by Sony Pict ...

''.

References

{{Greater Hollywood Hollywood Boulevard Culture of Hollywood, Los Angeles Culture of Los Angeles Cinemas and movie theaters in Hollywood, Los Angeles Former cinemas and movie theaters in Los Angeles