The Vista Theater, 4473 Sunset Boulevard, Silver Lake designed by Lewis A. Smith - opened on October 16, 1923 with Baby Peggy in "Tips" along with vaudeville acts on stage. It's smaller than the famous Egyptian Theater in the center of Hollywood, the site of the first-ever Hollywood premiere "Robin Hood," starring Douglas Fairbanks, on October 18, 1922. It's sort of the Little Egyptian.
From the Los Angeles Times:
Locals adore this 75-year-old theater at the juncture of Hollywood and Sunset boulevards for its beauty, comfort and choice in films. The faηade is ornate Spanish, the theater itself lavish Egyptian-Deco, with carved serpents and sarcophagi, inverted-pyramid chandeliers of opaque glass and, looming over the audience, busts of Egyptian maidens with Mona Lisa stares. Several years ago every other row of seats was pulled out, meaning a yard of spare legroom. The seats are very comfortable, the screen is wall to wall and the picture and sound quality are excellent. There are always first-run flicks, and they're almost always right in step with what the arty Los Feliz-Silver Lake crowd wants to see. - Nancy Rommelmann
And this corner has its history D. W. Griffith's Fine Arts Studio was located diagonally across the street, and Griffith's back lot, where the famous Babylon set for Intolerance (1916) stood for years until it burned down, was behind the theater. All that is now gone just this theater remains. Curiously, Edward Davis Wood, voted the Worst Director of All Time, had an office in this building
|