Revival theater rich in history

The soft tick of a 70-year-old projector comes from upstairs in
the New Beverly Theater. Up in the projector room, reel after reel
of film lie in stacks: everything from “Things to do in
Denver “¦” to “X-Men.” The room is cluttered
with canisters, oversized red letters for the marquee and
30-year-old copies of Playboy magazine. Jeff Nowiki, the
projectionist, hovers around, tinkering with some film and making
sure everything runs smoothly.

“My whole job is to remain invisible. If nobody knows
I’m up here, I’m doing a good job,” he says.

Then again, there’s a lot to the New Beverly that you
can’t see when you walk in the doors. Opened in 1978 by
Sherman Torgan, a UCLA graduate, the theater shows a wide variety
of films, always as double features. This weekend, you can see
“Mulholland Drive” and “Memento” for $5
with a valid student ID. Or, you can wait and see “Donnie
Darko” and “Ghost World.”

The ticket price includes a free journey into the world of the
New Beverly, where you are guaranteed to see something
interesting.

While standing at the concession stand, Nowiki, Torgan and
Beverly regular “Corky” Baines talk as if they’re
in a “Cheers”-like sitcom. They stand around, trying to
think about their favorite stories.

Nowiki talks about ghost sightings. The others nod and smile,
acknowledging the events they’ve seen that they can only
explain through the supernatural.

Baines, an ex-roadie, tells the kitten story. He found five
kittens in the walls of the Beverly about two months ago. Torgan
named them all “Corky” and offered them for adoption.
Next, Baines reminds Nowiki that a bolt from his car fixed the
projector and is still keeping it working.

“We have a state-of-the-art booth, circa 1940,” says
Torgan jokingly.

Torgan is reserved but friendly, always happy to talk about
movies, the theater, history, his life or the recent MTA strike.
When he opened the Beverly, revival theaters were everywhere. Now,
the Beverly is the last independently owned, commercial revival
theater in Los Angeles.

The continued survival of the theater relies on the patronage of
college students, who have been a large percentage of the core
audience ever since the theater opened. When he started out, Torgan
employed UCLA students to work in the theater, and he still keeps
in touch with some of them.

When you spend time in the New Beverly, what is immediately
noticeable is the striking authenticity that multiplexes will never
be able to provide. The New Beverly is a living museum, a little
replica of the Golden Age of Hollywood, and it means something
different to everyone who enters.

“I come here for therapy,” said Baines, a short,
stocky man with long hair and a cowboy hat. “I’ve been
all over as a roadie; (while watching the movies), you see all the
places I’ve been.”

Baines is just one of the regulars. He’s been coming
almost every weekend for the past 5 years. Pulling out the
schedule, he points out all the days he’ll be at the Beverly.
He’ll be there almost every weekend, but he’s going to
have to miss this weekend’s show.

“I have a bike race,” he says sadly.