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The Beginning of Art in the Arthouse: You’re Invited

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Outside of your home or office walls, how often do you really get the chance to get to know a work of art in person? Gallery openings and museum visits are often “drive by” affairs that typically limit your engagement. And, even assuming you still have an independent brewing house nearby, coffee house art is unpredictable in quality.

Enter Laemmle’s new Art in the Arthouse program. It promises to deliver a unique and alternative art-viewing experience. By reclaiming wall space throughout its theaters for the display of fine art, Laemmle will give its patrons a chance to bond with notable and emerging L.A. based visual artists and their work. Exhibits will last three to four months, affording regular movie-goers ample time to get to know a piece through repeat visits and exposure. Curatorial standards will be high, in keeping with the approach that has distinguished Laemmle as a film exhibitor over the years.

Art in the Arthouse is the brainchild of Laemmle president, Greg Laemmle. “Switching to digital poster frames conserves both paper and wall space,” says Laemmle. “This opened up the opportunity to extend the cultural scope of our theaters to include the visual fine arts.”

Our first two events feature artists Dave Lefner at the Royal and Bea Husman at the NoHo. The Lefner exhibit opening is February 19 — RSVP here — and the Husman exhibit opening is February 26 — RSVP here. Proceeds from the sale of art benefit the Laemmle Charitable Foundation.

Learn more!

Art in the Arthouse: Dave Lefner “Marquee”

 

 

 

 

 

Laemmle Theatres’ Umpteenth Annual Oscar Contest

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Laemmle Theatres will bestow fabulous prizes (movie passes) upon the people who most accurately predict the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science’s choices in all 24 categories, from the shorts to the Big Kahuna, Best Motion Picture. (Why INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS is not the tenth nominee in the latter category, we do not know.) We’ve got some smart cookies for customers so we have a tie-breaker question: you also have to guess the show’s running time. Take a crack at it! FABULOUS PRIZES (movie passes) to the those who can best predict the winners. First place wins ten pairs of passes, second place wins eight pairs and third place wins six pairs. Good luck!

Pete Seeger!

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We lost a great one this week when folk singer-musician Pete Seeger died. What a brave, talented man. There are a wealth of Pete videos on YouTube and a quick search turned up this gem, Pete’s March 4, 1970 appearance on The Johnny Cash Show. Among other things, it’s a great example of Pete’s musicianship and aversion to singing alone: watch him get the audience singing along.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADtAU43MM14

For a complete portrait of Pete, there’s a great 2007 documentary called PETE SEEGER: THE POWER OF SONG, available on DVD and streaming, and, for those who want to dig a little deeper, THE WEAVERS: WASN’T THAT A TIME, available on DVD.

Manohla Dargis/N.Y. Times Dispatch from Sundance

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We greatly admire the film writing of Manohla Dargis, first of the Village Voice, then the L.A. Weekly, then the L.A. Times and now the New York Times. Her reviews and reporting from important film festivals like Sundance are required reading in our little corner of the film industry. She posted this yesterday and as always it’s exciting to hear what we have to look forward to, including Boyhood, We Come as Friends and Land Ho! The latter, Ms. Dargis writes, features “the breakout star of this year’s festival,” Earl Lynn Nelson, which is refreshing because the actor is neither a comely ingenue nor a chiseled hunk but rather an elderly man.

Earl Lynn Nelson, left, and Paul Eenhoorn in Martha Stephens and Aaron Katz's "Land Ho!"

Climate Ride with Greg Laemmle and Win a 2014 Movie Pass

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Last year’s Ride with Greg Laemmle Climate Ride Contest was so successful we’re doing it again!

Tell us why you want to ride with Greg and you could win an Unlimited Laemmle Movie Pass for the remainder of 2014, free registration for Climate Ride California, and a $2500 contribution toward your Climate Ride fundraising goal from the Laemmle Charitable Foundation.  See the second and third prize packages, eligibility requirements, and all contest details over on the contest entry page.

An outside panel of judges will select the winners based on the quality of their entry statement so take the time to craft something that’ll really knock their cycling socks off! But don’t wait too long, the deadline for entry is Monday, February 17!

Climate Ride Wine Country 2014 is a fully-supported, four-day group ride covering 250 miles of stellar Northern California scenery starting in San Francisco and winding through the famous wine growing regions of Napa Valley and the Russian River Valley.  It culminates at the iconic state capitol building in Sacramento.  Bike fitness is recommended, but the ride caters to all levels of ability.

You can listen to Greg Laemmle talk about Climate Ride on KPFK’s Bike Talk here. He was joined by past Climate Riders, Ride Director Blake Holiday, and LA County Bicycle Coalition Executive Director Jennifer Klausner.

ENTER HERE

 

Laemmle 75th Events Raise $100K for Charity

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Wow!  Thanks to our patrons and community partners, we’re pleased to report that our 75th Anniversary activities raised approximately $100,000 for the Laemmle Charitable Foundation!  These funds will be directed to local, L.A.-based non-profits doing inspired work around the issues of poverty, the environment, and alternative transit.

With $18,000 in ticket sales, the response to the 75th Anniversary Raffle was beyond expectations.  In addition, $70,000 was raised via our commemorative book – “Not Afraid … 75 Years of Film Exhibition in L.A.”  The final $12,000 came from tickets purchased to the 75th Anniversary Gala held at the Royal Theatre on December 17th.  Additional support was provided by ticket buyers at four additional celebratory screenings at the Monica, Claremont, NoHo, and Playhouse.

Even though the 75th Anniversary events have passed, it’s not too late to participate! Your purchase of a 75th Anniversary T-shirt or the  “Not Afraid…“ book will benefit the Foundation.  The book, which features articles on Laemmle History, our Top 75 Films, classic L.A. Eateries, and more, is a great keepsake. It can be purchased at any Laemmle theatre or online. The spiffy t-shirts are also available online and at select Laemmle locations (Claremont, Encino, North Hollywood, Pasadena, and West L.A.).

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Reminder: If you purchased a raffle ticket, please visit any Laemmle location to redeem your raffle stub for a FREE COPY of the “Not Afraid…“ book.
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If you had the good fortune of attending the 75th Anniversary Gala at the Royal, you know what a fantastic evening it was.  Senior V.P. Jay Reisbaum kicked off the proceedings with some brief remarks about the Laemmle Foundation.  Then Bob Laemmle regaled attendees with memories of his father, Laemmle Theatres co-founder Max Laemmle, and talked about the bygone days of movie exhibition.

CicLAvia Co-Founder/Executive Director, Aaron Paley, is presented with check by Laemmle Charitable Foundation board members at the 75th Anniversary Gala on December 17, 2013.
Friends of the L.A. River Co-Founder, Lewis MacAdams, is presented with check by Laemmle Charitable Foundation board members at the 75th Anniversary Gala on December 17, 2013.

Tish Laemmle, wife of current company President Greg Laemmle, introduced Aaron Paley of CicLaVia, who accepted a grant of $5000 for L.A.’s preeminent bike and pedestrian street festival. Lewis MacAdams captivated everyone with a very impassioned speech on behalf of the L.A. River.  His organization, FOLAR (Friends of the L.A. River) also received $5000 from the Foundation.  Lastly, we were thrilled to honor Alyse Laemmle, wife of co-founder Kurt Laemmle, who was in attendance and, at 97 years old, still going strong!

The evening culminated with a screening of  A MAN AND A WOMAN, Claude Lelouch’s classic 1966 French romance that enjoyed a startling two-year run at the Laemmle Regent, thus kicking off the Westwood Village moviegoing boom.

The 75th Anniversary was a “coming out” party or sorts for the Laemmle Charitable Foundation. While the Foundation has been around since 2000, it had kept a low-profile. The 75th Anniversary presented a great opportunity to raise funds and bring its mission into clear focus for the community.

The Foundation is an IRS recognized 501(c)(3) private, non-profit organization, meaning your donations to the Foundation are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. Without any paid staff,  the Foundation has managed to distribute more than $850,000 since its inception.  The board hopes to cross the $1M mark by the end of 2014.  As mentioned earlier, giving is directed to local organizations with the ultimate aim of making L.A. a more livable and compassionate city for all its denizens.  For more information on the Foundation, including a full list of beneficiaries, visit its website at www.laemmlefoundation.org.

We’d be remiss if we didn’t end this post with a big thank you to the entire Laemmle community, including you, our devoted patrons, friends, family, associates, and sponsors.  In most cases, these parties are one and the same – as we consider all in our purview to be, as poet Ogden Nash observed, ‘Laemmle Faemmle.’

Since 1938, we’ve been bringing great cinema to L.A.  As a result, we’ve thrived as a family owned and operated business for over three successive generations of leadership. And we couldn’t have done it without you.  So here’s to the past 75 years … and the next!

Happy New (Film) Year!

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Today Indiewire posted The 50 Indie Films Indiewire Wants to See in 2014, and the new year is looking for promising for cinephiles. In addition to movies from a host of lesser-known filmmakers, chances are good we will all by enjoying new films from gifted directors such as Todd Haynes, Wes Anderson, Wim Wenders, Steve James, Bennett Miller, Thomas Vinterberg, Woody Allen, David Cronenberg, Yorgos Lanthimos, Mike Leigh, Kelly Reichardt, Lars von Trier, Peter Bogdanovich, Michael Winterbottom (a sequel to The Trip with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon!), Terrence Malick, Gregg Araki and Noah Baumbach. Happy New Year!

L.A. Times: “At 75, Laemmle Family’s Theaters Look to the Future”

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In case you missed it, on Saturday the L.A. Times published a piece about Laemmle Theatres as part of their “Company Town: The Business Behind the Show” column. Writer Richard Verrier interviews third generation company president Greg Laemmle about our business philosophy, charitable efforts, and plans for the future, including possible new theaters in Newhall, Glendale and Inglewood. Check it out!

From left to right, Robert and Greg Laemmle.