The Nuart Theatre opened in 1930 like so many movie theaters did back then. There was a big premiere, lots of lights, music and fanfare. The film was Sweethearts on Parade starring Alice White, and big silent film stars like Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford were in attendance.
It got a “beautiful remodel” in the 1940s, says theater historian Ross Melnick, that left us with the three-cornered Art Deco marquee and the sunburst terrazzo out front that still adorns the Nuart today.
An arthouse rep is built
“Every theater in Los Angeles, especially all these rep houses, have a history that's not consistent, “ says Melnick. “They have a history that's related to the changes in the neighborhood, the changes in the city, the changes in moviegoing, and then they just have histories related to the people who ran them.”
The Nuart changed hands a couple of times and, at one point in '40s and '50s, showcased international films from Latin America and Japan, driven by the interests of nearby students from UCLA and Santa Monica College. But for decades the Nuart was just seen as another “sub-run neighborhood theater,” according to a local theater blog.
That is, until a group that would become known as Landmark Theatres bought it in 1974.
“They got the L. A. first-run engagement of Pink Flamingos,” says longtime former programmer at The Nuart, Mark Valen. “But it was a midnight show. Midnights only because, you know, it's such a weird movie.”
Or, as critics called it, “one of the most vile, stupid and repulsive films ever made.
"In Pink Flamingos, famed drag queen Divine (aka criminal Babs Johnson) has just been named the “filthiest person alive,” and some nasty rivals try to come for her title.
And, really, it just gets nastier from there.
The film had been running in New York for about a year but never on the West Coast. When it premiered at the Nuart, Valen remembers Divine showing up on a motorcycle with a trash truck in tow. Out of the back of the truck emerged a group Valen recalls as the Cycle Sluts.
“They were all dressed in leather biker gear and made up with their wigs and stuff and they, you know, did a little dance in front of the theater,” he says. “It was amazing.”
And a success.
Pink Flamingos ran as the midnight show at the Nuart for years after that and helped build the theater’s reputation as a destination for arthouse film.
“It’s legacy, I would say, is really bold, edgy and eclectic,” says Landmark Theatres president Kevin Holloway, noting that after 50 years of being recognized for this, it’ll probably never change.
“We're just excited to be at year 50, and to be able to give our audience more of what we've been doing from the past 50 years, and trying to endure for, hopefully, another 50,” he says.
The 'defining theater of cult movies'
After Divine christened the newly-owned Nuart, other cult movies like David Lynch’s Eraserhead would find a home there too.
But no film has had as lasting a run as The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
When the film first premiered in 1975 with Tim Curry as the “sweet transvestite from Transexual, Transylvania,” it was a flop. But its story, about two square lovers who get lost in a castle with a cast of characters who show them how to “give [themselves] over to absolute pleasure,” eventually found a delighted audience. The innuendo-laden musical rock numbers probably didn’t hurt, and a cult classic was born.
It soon became a must-see midnight movie complete with raucous audience participation — and props — and its appeal has never really waned. Rocky Horror is now considered one of the longest running theatrical releases in film history.
The Nuart was one of the first theaters to play the film continuously (aside from a few special hiatuses) starting in 1976.
The performance troupe that evolved in 1988 from all that audience engagement is called Sins O’ The Flesh. They’re now what’s known as the Nuart’s Rocky Horror “shadow cast” — actors who come out in full costume and makeup to lipsync and perform live as the film screens.
“I would come to the Nuart for Rocky Horror … and then just come to the Nuart for all of their other screenings,” says Nina Minnelli, who now performs with Sins O’ The Flesh. “The Nuar t… since probably about the '60s is the defining theater of cult movies.”
Tickets to Rocky Horror still sell out most Saturday nights.
A space for moviegoers (new audiences, too)
Films from directors like John Waters, David Lynch and Darren Aronofsky helped make the Nuart. It also found a lot of success with classic films, or versions of them, like the director’s cut of Blade Runner. One of its biggest programming successes, however, says Valen, was in 1999 with a small little horror film you may have heard of: The Blair Witch Project.
“I remember driving by the theater at noon on that Friday and there was a huge line down the street waiting to buy tickets,” says Valen. “I remember a couple came up to me and they said, ‘is this just a one-movie theater house?’ And I realized, ‘wow, they're bringing in people from, like, the suburbs in Orange County who are used to only going to multiplexes.’”
He adds: “I was kind of glad to have, you know, introduced a new audience to the Nuart.”
Now in its 50th year owned by Landmark, the Nuart is still looking to provide a space for moviegoers to discover new films in a packed house full of other folks — that may or may not include dancing or screaming.
“Our core focus, even though it has evolved, has really just been being those community locations for moviegoers,” says Landmark’s Holloway.
Adds historian Ross Melnick: “I just trust it because it's the Nuart … it's always been this hallmark of arthouse cinema.”
If you are looking to catch a film at the Nuart, keep your eye on the calendar this year. There are two special film series coming up to celebrate moviegoers with great picks from the New Hollywood era of the '60s, '70s and '80s, and also from 1999, which means that, yes, you’ll be able to catch The Blair Witch Project again on the big screen.
