Sbarge, who grew up in New York City, has always been an actor, working in Broadway theaters or Hollywood soundstages since he was a boy. You know, that’s why I made this movie.” Honest emotions “This was a legacy of things that matter. And what a remarkable thing that is, particularly in a world which is all about conglomeration, and you know, shareholders and how many likes we had and all these goofy things that have become so important at the moment. “This wonderful Jewish family who really cared deeply about art and culture and music and sort of the finer things. “It was always the family that really felt like the spine of it,” Sbarge says. “And while they have they cast a long shadow, and many theaters look to Laemmle in terms of what they do, what they also are is representative of small theaters in towns all over the country.”Įven so, “Only In Theaters” is a story about family at its heart, he says. “This is a story about this arthouse cinema in Los Angeles,” Sbarge says. The access Sbarge had – sitting in meetings as the Laemmles considered offers for their theaters, talking via Zoom with Greg Laemmle as month after month passed during the pandemic – was a personal journey on many levels.īut in other ways, it was a story familiar to any independent theater owner in any town or city in the country, Sbarge says. “Which was remarkable and speaks to his respect and honoring of film. “Greg saw it for the first time in front of an audience in Santa Barbara, which is where we world premiered it at festival,” Sbarge says. “It’s an 85-year-old theater, and arguably the most tumultuous two years of their history,” he says of the events unfolding as he filmed. Still, it wasn’t until mid-2019 that events within the company shifted and Sbarge saw an opening to tell a broader story as Greg Laemmle contemplated selling the family business and then the pandemic forced it to go dark for more than a year. Sbarge got his camera and set out to capture their stories “because of how priceless that was.” Furthermore, Alysse Laemmle – Kurt’s widow, and Greg’s great-aunt – was a lively storyteller at 103. “So they bought a theater and then it built from there.”Ībout three years ago, Sbarge realized that Robert Laemmle – Max’s son, Greg’s father – was at 85 still involved in running the company. “Carl brought these two over and they worked at Universal for a bit, worked off their board, and then decided to go into the movie exhibition business,” Sbarge says. The legacy of the Laemmle Theatres stretches back to 1938 when German-born brothers Max and Kurt Laemmle, nephews of Carl Laemmle, the founder of Universal Pictures, opened their first movie theater.
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