A Hollywood Happy Ending

Ask Southern Californians of a certain age about the Cinerama Dome and they will smile and gush about seeing the blockbusters of their youth on that huge, awesome curved screen. Today the Hollywood movie house, opened in 1963, still sells out for big action pictures.

So it is welcome news that Pacific Theaters has decided, after intense pressure from film buffs and the Los Angeles Conservancy, not to gut the Sunset Boulevard structure. Instead, last week the company announced that in large part it will leave the geodesic dome and the giant screen as they are. So as not to overwhelm the dome, the company is also scaling back plans for an adjacent complex, which will have restaurants, more movie theaters and other attractions. The project still has to go through various city reviews, but last week’s agreement eliminates major opposition.

Preservation of the Cinerama Dome, one of the oddest of America’s movie houses, should also enhance interest in the mega-entertainment project underway nearby, at Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue, that will bring the Oscar awards show and other attractions back to Hollywood. Together, these efforts should help revive the dreary heart of Tinsel Town.

Movie theaters were once truly palaces, with glittering neon spires outside and wide aisles and plush seats inside. But financial pressures and changing moviegoing tastes have pushed the big theater chains toward look-alike multiplexes. Hollywood’s El Capitan, Egyptian and Mann’s Chinese theaters are among the few reminders of a flamboyant era. The Cinerama Dome, in its modernist way, is another.

The 900-seat concrete dome was intended to be the first of hundreds of geodesic dome theaters, but it remains the only one. The three-reel projection system was designed to give audiences the sensation of being surrounded by film action. Although the theater has never shown a movie in full Cinerama and the technology was quickly displaced, some of those instrumental in developing the 3-D Imax film format trace their inspiration to Cinerama. Now new generations of moviegoers can enjoy the dome and store up memories that they can gush about one day.