If I hadn't let the geography of my new job determine where I'd live when I moved to LA back in 2011, I would've made the neighborhood of Los Feliz my home.
Of course, its walkability and nightlife offerings would've made it an easy transition for an incoming New Yorker. And it sits nestled in the cradle of Griffith Park, a vast urban wilderness that I'd been long fascinated with before making the big move.
Los Feliz also has a long history with the movies.
Los Feliz was really Hollywood before Hollywood was Hollywood—and the junction of Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood Boulevard, and Hillhurst Avenue was a giant backlot for monumental productions like the Babylon set from D.W. Griffith's problematic feature film Intolerance.
circa 2015 That's the same intersection where the Vista Theatre was built, opening in October 1923 as Bard’s Hollywood Theatre. It got the name "Vista," a 1985 Los Angeles Times article says, when Fox West Coast took over in 1927.
circa 2022
When I moved to LA in 2011, the Vista was being run by Vintage Cinemas (also operating the nearby Los Feliz 3), which had completed a major restoration in the year 2000. Twenty years later, it closed during the COVID-19 pandemic—and, given the state of things at the time, it was a little scary to think it might never reopen.
circa 2022
But filmmaker Quentin Tarantino swooped in to take over the Vista in 2021, as he'd previously done to save the New Beverly Cinema from redevelopment in 2007. The Vista, however, would continue to be a first-run cinema and not primarily a revival house (although some weekend matinees and midnight screenings do feature repertory repertoire).
circa 2022
During construction, I'd try to drive by on Wednesday mornings on my way home from The Los Angeles Breakfast Club in 2022, when our breakfast meetings had resumed. But observing the changes was a little nerve-wracking.
circa 2022Witnessing the removal of the snack bar from the lobby, I found myself panicked to be unable to remember what much of it had looked like before (even though I'd seen movies there and had even attended a wedding ceremony at the theatre). I'd never bothered to fully document it.
The Tarantino-owned Vista opened up in November 2023, and I finally made it back in September 2025...
...to grab a coffee at the Pam Grier-inspired "coffy" shop in the retail space at street level...
...and see Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, perhaps for the first time ever on the big screen (and, like many other films on the calendar, in 35mm).
The Spanish Colonial Revival-style exterior had been repainted from brick red to a mustardy gold with white trim—a historically-appropriate choice, even if we'll never know what the original color scheme was.
Architect Lewis Arthur ("L.A.") Smith originally designed the interior with an Egyptian motif, but the hieroglyphic-ornamented box office in the forecourt was added in the 1990s refurbishment (although the Los Angeles Conservancy dates it to 1942).
The Chinese Theatre-style walk of fame remains preserved, with handprints and signatures from cult figures like Bud Cort (of Harold and Maude), Spike Jonze, John Landis...
...Elvira...
...and the cast of Swingers (which gave a lot of screen time to Los Feliz, with its scenes at The Dresden Room and The Derby).
In its days as a revival house—after a stint as a porn house called the Starbrite—the Vista secured a foothold in the community with screenings of cult favorites (like those by the likes of John Waters) and lesser-known international films. So the celebrities honored there are little kookier than those in central Hollywood.
Sadly, the hieroglyphics are gone from the lobby, which has been stripped of pretty much all of its Egyptian flair. (For historic photos, visit the Los Angeles Theatres blog.)
Its retro vibes come from nostalgic concessions, like RC Cola...
...served in quirky cups, like the ones at the New Beverly.
Thankfully, the auditorium is basically the same design now as before the restoration, although the Egyptian-style proscenium columns are obscured by the red curtain. and the seats are contemporary.
Those (sort of) pyramid-shaped lighting fixtures still hang from the ceiling...
...and Egyptian figures still line the side walls...
...although the "ladies" are most likely generic Egyptian Revival goddesses or priestesses, and not "pharaoh masks" or "sheiks" as attributed elsewhere.
The organ grilles on either side of the stage are all aglow...
...although the theatre organ that once brought music to the auditorium was dismantled decades ago.
The grilles offer up more Egyptian iconography, like a paired-cobra (uraeus) motif and protective birds (probably Egyptian vultures) surrounding a fan-shaped pectoral that forms an ornamental shield. The figural heads on either side may even be the goddess Isis, making a cameo as she keeps an eye on things.
In addition to 35mm, the Vista is also equipped to screen films in 70mm—and, as of 2025, in VistaVision, to accommodate the release of the Paul Thomas Anderson film One Battle After Another.
The marquee—which dates back to the 1930s—was recently restored for the Tarantino-era reopening, with a fresh paint job and new neon tubing and readerboards (with vintage letters).
The façade itself is missing some of the lighting it featured a decade ago (see photo at the top of this post). And, according to Bill Counter's Los Angeles Theatres blog, neon tubing used to run along the parapet, whose ornamentation had gone missing but was put back in during the 1990s renovation.
But honestly, it's a stunner of a neighborhood theater, at the end of a street known best for its boozy brunches and late-night dive bars. (Sadly, the Good Luck Bar—located in the adjacent building directly behind the Vista—met a tragic demise in 2019-2020.) It's a community treasure—but it's also worth driving from the westside to visit.
Related Posts:
