Madrid Theatre

I’m happy to see the new Madrid Theatre opening in Canoga Park at long last. But the record should show that this theater, before its Pussycat days, provided the only “picture show” house west of Van Nuys. I grew up in the West Valley in the ‘40s and ‘50s and the Canoga Park Theater, as it was named then, was where everyone in this area went to see movies.

For 25 cents we saw a double feature of first-run films. The program changed every Wednesday and Sunday, so an avid fan could see four movies per week along with the cartoons, serials, Movietone News, dish giveaways, etc. The theater had a loge section that really was special--large, leather-covered, high-backed seats. Many movie folk who lived on their San Fernando Valley rancheros attended frequently. I recall seeing Lionel Barrymore, Lucille Ball, Betty Grable, Robert Taylor and Barbara Stanwyck. Too bad the news stories only mention the theater’s less wholesome past.

JOHN W. HENDERSON, Woodland Hills