This is shaping up to be some week. Not only is Howard Stern having his so-called last broadcasts on so-called regular radio, but the American Multi Cinema Century City 14 closed on Tuesday night.

Both of these go back quite a while with me, but the CC14 more so. It all began in the Fall of 1987. Even before the theatre opened with new films, someone, somewhere, had the grand idea of paying homage to Century City’s origins. Once upon a time, 20th Century Fox Studios owned land stretching all the way to about Santa Monica Blvd. that was used as its back lot, but due to the financial disaster know as 1963’s Cleopatra (at that moment in time the most expensive film production on record), had to sell the back lot. Thus Century City became what it is today. The place is absolutely grand. Just walk around the buildings in the middle of the night – how eerily quiet and enchanting, the fog moving beneath the streetlights, without all the hustle and bustle of the weekday mornings and afternoons.

So before the CC14 started with the new films, for one week (or so remember), they played 20th Century Fox’s old films. But way back in the fall of 1987, I was not interested in whatever else they were showing except the Star Wars Trilogy. And what an event this was – the three films one after another, individually ticketed. I went twice – once the first day, and once the last. I seem to think that this may have been the first, if not the only, time they were shown as a group since at least Return of the Jedi in 1983. Anyway, it was a big deal, and not just to me. They were all sold out, every single screening. I, of course, got my tickets as soon as I could, but still ended up in an SRO auditorium for one of the screening of A New Hope (now, I can only attribute that they allowed about 15 people to stand through the film to the fact that they were just opening up and the commotion and confusion that ensued during that time). Auditorium Three, at the end of the left hallway and to the right. That is where the Century City 14 began for me. I stood between the last row of seats and the rear wall for the entire film (I don’t remember if this was the first or second go-round for me). It was tough, but exhilarating just the same. And now that I am typing this, I am becoming more and more certain that these screenings may have been the first time that I watched A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back on a movie screen. It was quite something.

(AMC’s Old Town Pasadena Theatres did the same Star Wars Trilogy screening series when they opened, sometime in 1990-1991).

Since then, I have seen literally hundreds of films at the Century City 14 – awful films and absolutely fantastic films. Almost always in either of the five large auditoriums, and more than I could have cared for in the nine smaller ones. The focus was above par, the sound was above par, and the screens were bright. This was a multiplex that was damn well taken care of. And it soon became hugely successful, AMC’s flagship complex. AMC and others have since built bigger, but not better.

There was, of course, a familiarity that developed with the theatre that became unmatched over the years. As a single complex, single screen or otherwise, I tend to believe I have seen the most new films here out of all the theatres in Los Angeles.

All these memories have been building up since about a year or more ago, when Westfield, the Century City Mall’s new owner, announced a $150 million remodel that would include moving the food court and building a new movie theatre complex, then converting the old food court and the CC14 into “upscale” shops.

And so the day finally came this week, on a Tuesday night. There would be an almost seamless transition from the old to the new. The 14 would run their last films on Tuesday the 13th, and the new 15-plex would open on Wednesday the 14th.

A lot of movie theaters have closed on the Westside as of late: the Mann Plaza, Mann Westwood Four, and the UA Coronet in Westwood; the old Plitt/Cineplex Odeon four-screener in the ABC Entertainment Center in Century City; the Fine Arts on Wilshire (though it seems to have been bought and has reopened, although do not know as exactly what). A lot have opened, too: Pacific’s Culver City 12, The Grove 14, Sherman Oaks Galleria 16, and the Arclight 15. But the presentations, as far as I am concerned, are, generally, awful. I have had to complain about focus, masking, and sound issues so many times that it is getting uninteresting. There is so much absolute carelessness out there in the projection booths that is it almost unimaginable. But the AMC CC14 had a standard that it always lived up to. Sure, there were times that the focus was a bit soft here and there and the masking was too tight and the sound was cracking. And all this was promptly corrected when brought to their attention. I would go to the AMC CC14 a little less apprehensive of how the film would be presented; even of the film was shit, it looked good.

Sure, the new theatre has stadium seating, but I do not care for that at all. I just want a good time watching a film, and, hopefully, will have lots of those memories to remember the old complex by. Within a day, the “AMC” sign that faced Santa Monica Blvd. was gone, but I had already taken a few pictures to remember the place by and take note of the City’s change.

Barry Levinson so perfectly and eloquently wrote this last voice-over in Liberty Heights: “But a lot of images fade, and no matter how hard I try, I can't get them back. I had a relative once who said that if I knew things would no longer be, I would have tried to remember better.”



Howard Stern came to the airwaves of Los Angeles in the summer 1991. At that time, I was in the Classic Rock listening period, which, coincidentally, KLXS was playing. So it just became natural to listen to the show in the mornings. I have heard of Stern, but knew of him very vaguely, mostly by name, from newspapers.

I distinctly remember listening to the radio show that fall, on the headphones, while riding the RTD 212 Line south on La Brea, standing due to the morning rush-hour. And how hard I tried not to burst out laughing. This was so early in his broadcasts that I have not even heard enough to know that sidekick Robin Quivers was black. That particular bus segment had something to do with her dating a Daytime Soap Opera star, so I naturally assumed that she was white and svelte.

Over the years the show has changed drastically, yet remained the same. Some regular guests disappeared from the airwaves little by little, some died. In-studio cast voices changed. Nothing stays the same for 14-plus years. But there is such a familiarity with the show and the goings-on that the core group really does feel like an extended family that you hear from almost every day, if even for no more than 30minutes. A cliché statement, yes, but true.

Friday’s show, which will begin live in less that an hour from when I am writing this, will be the last on what is becoming known as Terrestrial Radio. Lots of old voices and familiar voices have been turning up on the show the past few weeks, and especially the past few days, to say their thanks and goodbyes. Memories have been re-ignited. Times like when I sat in the already-parked car on the street, already late for work, but unable to turn off Gilbert Gottfried all those years ago. A cliché, yes, but an absolutely true story.

Yes, the gang will still be around on satellite, but a lot of familiar voices will not make the transition, familiar voices that worked at WXRK in New York and will continue to work there.

So it is the same, but different. The AMC Century City 14 has closed, the Century City 15 has opened, not even 100 yards away. Howard Stern is moving buildings a few blocks and swapping formats, but will sound the same, even if I need a new receiver to listen in on the goings-on. It is what is called progress, whether it really is or not (at least in my eyes). So I will go to the new and improved movie theatre, and will listen to the new and improved Howard (or so he claims). But those first memories of both will remain with me, I hope, for a long time to come.