Glendale’s historic Alex theater is back in the picture business. For 35 years, since Terminator 2: Judgment Day debuted in 1991, the venue — where Walt Disney liked to test his cartoons — hadn’t screened first-run films. Then the Alex’s artistic director, Miles Williams, invested $500,000 in time for its centennial last year so that it could host state-of-the-art screenings. Now, the 900-seat house has been holding three screenings a day of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey on 70mm, becoming the epic’s highest-grossing venue in the country on the film format.
“This is a reclamation,” says Williams, a veteran live show curator and promoter who programmed the Ace and Orpheum theaters in downtown Los Angeles, collaborating with the L.A. Conservancy on its popular classic film series Last Remaining Seats. He brought in Taylor Umphenour — an in-demand projectionist who has worked with Imax as well as Nolan on his dailies — to help upgrade the Alex, including by guiding the construction of a new ground-floor projection booth that features windows: “You’re looking at the last performer to be part of the making of the film,” he explains.
The Alex’s packed performance calendar will now feature regular film screenings, including special-engagement runs of large-format studio productions. “I have people who are so moved to see a movie in this place again,” says Williams. Adds Umphenour: “Culturally, it’s an incredible thing to see. Somebody came in the other night and she was just crying with happiness.”
