(Roving correspondent/ photographer Kristen Tobiason revisits and documents the scenes of our youth. Today, the Ken Cinema keeps it real!)
The Ken is the last of its kind. Most neighborhood theaters couldn’t cut the mustard as costs to run a neighborhood movie house skyrocketed in the early ’90s with the encroachment of digital projection and a hostile takeover by corporate multiplex theaters.
“The Ken opened in 1912,” the Cinema Treasures Web site tells us. “The theater was remodeled in 1947 by S. Charles Lee in Art Moderne style, and was restored in 1975 after being taken over by the Landmark chain as a showcase for foreign features.”
The first time I saw a film at the Ken (4061 Adams Ave.) was in 1981. In those years, the format was free-form and eclectic, serving foreign-language enthusiasts and cult-film buffs alike. The feature changed frequently, every day or so, from “8 1/2” to “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” to “Rear Window.” The Ken gave me my cinematic education and formed my tastes and preferences in film. Often it was like a big party, rowdy and interactive — I remember the row of scooters parked out front for “Quadrophenia.”
Gathering for regular showings of “Clockwork Orange” or “Harold and Maude,” we smoked, smuggled booze and snuck our friends through the back door. I threw rolls of toilet paper at the screen for “Rocky Horror Picture Show” and beer cans at “Eugene” during the premiere of “Decline of Western Civilization.” I endured an entire day of “Spinal Tap” fodder: “The Song Remains the Same” back to back with “Yessongs,” as well as countless other concert films.
I’ve seen Art Clokey (creator of Gumby) speak in person as well as Bruce Campbell (“Army of Darkness”). The memories are endless. Once in a while, I’ll still go catch an independent feature there. The format is now in the line of traditional Landmark theaters with emphasis on new foreign language or gay & lesbian films. There is still a cool hipster working the ticket window. And they put real butter on their popcorn.
— Kristen Tobiason
More views of San Diego then and now:
- Then and Now: Adams Avenue Theater
- Then and Now: Topsy’s
- Then and Now: Greenwich Village West
- Then and Now: Funland
- Then and Now: Studio 517
- Then and Now: La Posta
- Then and Now: Presidio Park
- Then and Now: El Cajon Blvd. Denny’s
There was a group of us at the Ken on the day of the Normal Heights fire, June 30, 1985. A Russian-speaking man had rented the Ken to show Russian-language films (this one was about Rasputin, I think?). Well into the film the screen went black. There was a long pause, and folks started to get a little restless. The Russian man came in and announced “It’s not my fault, it’s the fire.” At that point the smell of smoke became quite noticeable. Luckily, no one panicked, but we all filed out of the theatre. That strange feeling of exiting a theatre in the afternoon was made even more surreal by the smoke that was thickening by that point.
Anyone else remember what they were doing that day?
I think Cricket was there, but he may not have been. He’ll know the other folks (please help me fill in the last names-this is the group of folks I remember hanging out with around that time, but they might not all have been at the Ken that day): Audrey, Chris (and her sister?) Cindy, Pete, Justin, Charlie, Kastle, Trudy, Elaine. (Cricket, do you remember going to Oceanside with this group of people to play softball with my friends from the Carlsbad Licorice Pizza?).
Here’s our traditional Google Maps walkaround:
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this all made me think about the day that psa plane nosedived into normal heights, we rode our bikes up there and i remember seeing an arm with a really nice watch on it and my pals daring each other to go and snatch it off. man that was a weird day. it was during p.e. at taft jr high and everybody heard the explosion and looked up…it was crazy.
A friend of mine was taking a test when the plane hit — they could see the tail sticking up — and the teacher made the class finish the test. (A bizarrely dogmatic response to a disaster, but I was in SF for Loma Prieta and NY for 9/11, and each time I witnessed some rigid personalities absolutely refuse to change their routine right in the middle of chaos.)
Anybody get the watch, BOogie?
So many memories at this theater! Everything from Chaplin classics to that not very good movie with The Clash in it- “Rude Boy”. I’m trying to stop myself from going downstairs and melting butter over some popcorn….
I remember that plane crash day too, rumors of some big explosion all over the jr. high playground.
I saw “Caligula” at the Ken — I think with Eric Sloan and another person or two — and I’m afraid I walked out for some air when Caligula started eyeing the horse.
oooh memory is not my super power, justin andrezee, trudy truelove. -- the glorious bobby lane will have a given name for trudy. elain winnard. charley with the silver p200 that i crashed -- sory charley. went out with that cute button of a girl audrey, cant remember ther last names at the moment . and im sory i dont have a clear memory of soft ball in oceanside. i was quiet the athlete in my youth though. i remember the full contact softball games at, i think morley field ? charley was an architact or some such thing. was it lee , was that his last name ?
I liked “Rude Boy,” too, Simon. It was kinda leggy, kinda self-indulgent, but I think it captured a really sincere, sweet side of the Clash — the quality Lester Bangs fell in love with when he followed the band around England.
(PS: Do I lose any hipster cred points for not disavowing the Clash, US Festival and “Combat Rock” notwithstanding? I was on one of those newfangled flights recently where they let you select whole albums from their jukebox, and I fell in love with “London Calling” all over again — I can’t remember exhaling through sides one and two. Sides three and four are just showing off, but marvelously.)
>>>The Ken gave me my cinematic education and formed my tastes and preferences in film.
That about sums it up for me too. I can’t even remember how many great movies I’ve seen there, and how many great times I’ve had there. Before VCRs, there was no other way to see old movies, unless they happened to be on tv. I’d still prefer to seeing old movies at a place like the Ken than renting them.
One of the first times I went there, we were 16 and drove from Poway. We were completely unfamiliar with the area and got lost trying to find a freeway to go home. I think we probably went EAST on 10 and wound up near the desert. I think we spent about 4 hours getting home.
I love Rude Boy too…which I think I saw several times at the Ken. Also, Gimme Shelter, the Punk Rock Movie, the Decline of Western Civilization, Urggh A Music War, The Harder They Come, Quadrophenia… probably some other rock movies too.
Does anyone remember The Fine Arts in Pacific Beach? I went to the opening opening of The Unheard Music (the X documentary) there. The director spoke after the film and everyone got little booklets with X lyrics in them… I still have mine.
PSA in North Park? Hottest day of the year -- so it seemed. Tom Clarke and I were in the 8th, together at Horace Mann in “Eastside”.
I thought a gas station blew up. Just saw what looked like a flare falling at PE. Then BOOM!
A minimum day was declared, with the temp over 105 F. We still didn’t know what happened, and started a walk down to Comic Kingdom -- a couple miles or more down University.
Needless to say, we didn’t get much past 35th or so -- with the cops barricading all of North Park.
Years later we met Carl Irving, who was part of the branded “North Park Mods”. I think he and Eric Sloane, Kristin Martin and Dave Dick all went a ways back. His family house was about 3 blocks from core of impact. Dark stuff…
I caught all the classic Bogart stuff at the Ken as a 12-13 year-old. A couple years later, it was the Moreau and Cocteau stuff.
At about 14, I saw “The Man Who Fell to Earth” on a double-bill with “The Last Days of Man on Earth.” A formative experience, in many ways. What was I doing, going to the movies alone at night?
I had all the Ken “Calendar” posters of movies. Man. You learned about a lot of stuff, just reading the back of that thing. Herzog and Kinski and Fastbinder and Fellini -- I ate it all up.
Many of the great “scene” movies were mentioned here -- I have to add Antonioni’s “Blow Up”. A fantastic film on so many levels, both trivial and profound. This isn’t the time or place to go into all of it -- especially on a film and director so celebrated already in the artistic canon. But, Wow. I saw this perhaps 4 times -- all at the Ken. A small screen would diminish the visual aspect of the film in figurative and literal ways, such that I have no interest in seeing it “on video”. HD be dammned!
What happened? 60 years of impossible filmmaking! Now… pffftt.
Oh!
Urgh! A Music War!
There’s a Ken fave, where you could spot kids you knew in the audience shots from L.A. shows. John Cooper Clarke. What a gas.
Thanks, Ken.
The Ken. This theatre is such a big part of my youth. To tell ya the truth, I was gonna do a post on this myself.
I am not sure the first movie I saw at The Ken, but it most likely was in 1978. My Mom who was a bit of a hip young artist and a big Jimmy Cliff fan, took my brother & I to see “The Harder they Come”.
I recall having a hard time reading the subtitles. It also seemed to my young eye’s to be almost like a home made film, It seemed very low budget. I love that movie and also love Jimmy Cliff and Toot’s and the Maytals still.
I also saw movies there like “Attack of the Killer Tomato’s” and “Watership Down” around this time also.
A few years later (82?) I had one of those coming of age movie moments when my mom dropped me off to see “Dance Craze”.
I am bit younger than most folks on this site so going to see a movie like this was big deal for me are.
I had the time of my life dancing with the people in front of the screen. I was very shy and it took me some time to get up the courage to join in the fun. I just stood there and watched then some kid with a shaved head walk up to me and said come on man. I felt cool for the first time in my life. I was one of the kids to the right of the screen.
Then some Skinheads pulled the movie screen down! I was blown away.
“Dance Craze” never was show again at The Ken.
Maybe a year after that my brother and I went to see ““Quadrophenia”.
We could not believe our eye’s as our we pulled in front of the theatre in my mom’s VW bug. Scooters lined both sides of the street and filled the whole block. I jumped out of the car and I noticed a guy in Union Jack suit. Wow! Pow!
As we stood in line to get in we witnessed a drunk old man (I guess leaving the ken club) nock over some scooters with his car. A bunch of people ran from the line and shook his car back and fourth almost tipping it over.
So we get in, and start watching the movie and a bunch of Skinheads come and start yelling crazy shit. LOL!
Later but not long after I saw “HEAD” the Monkee’s movie. It was cool but there were no Skinheads so it was kind of a tame night.
I saw Head at the Ken too… I went there with Matthew once too, now that Im thinking about it… the movie we saw had the Seeds and the Strawberry Alarm Clock performing in it. What movie was that, Matthew?
When I saw The Harder They Come the first time at the Ken, there were no subtitles, so it was pretty hard to follow. The second time I saw it was with Jason Siebert at the Red Vic in San Francisco… this time with the subtitles.
Dave-that movie is called “Psyche Out,” and stars Jack Nicholson.
The Ken Cinema was definitely an important part of my formative years. I saw countless Beatles film festivals there, and it was always a big deal to see all of the county’s biggest Beatle freaks all show up in one place. I had many memorable moments there--including an afternoon showing of “Quest for Fire” with Mike Stax in 1983 in which I laughed nonstop throughout the entire film. The advent of VHS in the mid-eighties was a godsend, and the YouTube phenonmenon is a total revelation, but one unfortunate by-product was the end of the revival theater, at least here in San Diego. There’s nothing better than seeing a classic film on a big screen, even if the seats are threadbare and there is decades-old gum stuck to the floor. There used to be a number of great revival theaters in San Francisco and Los Angeles (the Red Vic comes to mind) but it’s been ages for me, and I’m not even sure if they are still around. Anyone ever been to the Silent Movie Theater in Los Angeles?
In 1985 I was at a Padre game, sitting in the cheap seats in the upper deck behind home plate, watching billows of smoke rise from the hillside across the canyon.
PSA Flight 182 occurred during the first couple of weeks of school in my junior year at Point Loma High School. Jerry’s eerie recollections are right on the money. It was an incredibly hot day, and due to the lack of air conditioning in most schools, they were planning on releasing us early anyway. I remember that the sky was a clear, bright blue with not a cloud in sight--how odd that two planes would collide when visibility was nearly perfect that day. I remember Ron Silva telling me that pizza delivery guy/blues harpist Steve Potterf was sent to deliver a pizza to the crash site that day, as a “joke.”
Dave, if you went to the Unheard Music at the Fine Arts I sold you your ticket! I was working the box that night as part of the 1st and only annual San Diego Film Fest (I still have my booklet too). It was too bad there was only one film fest as SD had a number of decent film notables to draw from. Budd Boetticher, a well regarded but fairly obscure protégé of the great John Ford, presented a new print of the Oscar nominated “The Bullfighter and the Lady” the day after the X film. Not many people showed up but his stories of hanging out with John Wayne in Mexico City were amazing. I read his obituary just only a few years ago in the New York Times and was really happy to see he eventually got the recognition he deserved.
I was at Roosevelt Junior High School the day the PSA flight crashed in North Park. We were in 2nd (or 3rd ) period Spanish class in the only 2 story building on that campus and could see the smoke and flames from the crash shortly after it happened. There was a loud bang, followed by a weird echo-y thud I still remember (off of Pt Loma?). Our Spanish teacher pulled out a radio from his desk and let us listen as the news reports rolled in. By the next period the school was covered by a thick haze of smoke that smelled like burning hair. Bits of burnt paper will raining down on the fields and I remember picking up a large piece of what looked like a navigational chart. The creepiest part of the day was when they started pulled kids out of classes who lived in the area of the crash. It was a terrifically hot day as well and, as was the case often in the early fall back then, air quality was already terrible. We left early that day and (I think) got half days for the remainder of the week.
Finally, in 1985 I had taken a brand new girlfriend (and the girl I would eventually move to Seattle with) for a ride on my 1963 Vespa 150. We went up to the visitors center at the Cabrillo National Monument (designed by my father many years earlier). When we got there we saw this massive plume of smoke over the Mission Valley area. We found out when we got home what had happened.
It was this weird mix of feelings of best-day-ever for me combined with a really bad day for a whole bunch of other folks.
Wow, I love our threads … This one is a lanyard that juxtaposes memorable cinema with cinematic memories of the most Jerry Bruckheimer thing ever to happen in San Diego.
PSA 182 was an exceptionally hideous accident, with some really traumatic images unfolding right in the middle of town. (I vividly recall talk of body parts smashing through car windshields on the freeway.) Like I mentioned earlier, I was working in Manhattan on September 11 (and my kids were at school in New Jersey) … I managed to get a ferry out of town, after being hosed down by a decontamination team in Hoboken, but a couple of parents in our little village never came back that night.
While the toll of Sept. 11 was higher and initiated far bigger geopolitical events and fears, it also didn’t happen right in a residential neighborhood!
There were a lot of social services and community-generated ritual to help our kids and ourselves deal with 9/11. It was emotionally a really strange time in the NY area … I was seeing grownups break down and cry in public for months afterwards.
I was way up north for PSA 182 … It freaked us out, too, but we weren’t watching it! But it was another era, and I don’t know if there was the same kind of focus on trauma, especially for kids. Do you eyewitness peeps feel like San Diego provided opportunities for kids to deal with this truly hellacious tableau?
(Sorry if I sound like Dr. Phil! I’m more reacting as a parent and thinking what my kids would be like if they saw that.)
PS: I just looked up Wikipedia’s account of the events of 9/25/78 and their aftermath, including swift moves to quiet calls to relocate the airport: “On the 20th anniversary of the crash, a tree was planted next to the North Park library, and a memorial plaque was dedicated to those who lost their lives. The library is not in the immediate vicinity of the actual crash site, which is completely rebuilt and bears no visible evidence of the crash.” A cynic might wonder if the city wanted to make this disappear in the interest of tourist dollars.
The PSA crash pre 1985? right?
My aunt Judy’s then husband Mike saw the crash. A body landed near his truck. He said “I will never get on a plane again”. It changed his life for ever. When moved to Hawaii he took a boat. He also became a Jehovah’s Witness.
Ah yes, the Ken Cinema. I had the Ken poster schedules hanging in a stack on my kitchen wall--which led into the Rockin’ Dogs practice studio--in the little house on 53rd street where I lived with my girlfriend Lori. She and I used to ride my Vespa, and later my Triumph Bonneville 650 that Dave Rinck suggested I get, to the Ken all the time. “Rude Boy,” “The Decline of Western Civilization” (that was a Friday night scene), “Salo”--with barf bags, ” “Caligula,” “A Clockwork Orange,” “Quadrophenia,” and some weird Frank Zappa movie were just a few of the delights we savored there. I remember going to see something on a Saturday afternoon, and Mojo Nixon came out in front of the screen with an empty plastic water cooler bottle and started jumping around singing and banging away on the thing. It was one of the most impressive one-man rock ‘n’ roll performances I’ve ever seen.
Much like the long departed Biograph Cinema in Richmond, Virginia, the Ken Cinema gave me an opportunity to see a lot of really great movies in a cool artsy atmosphere conducive to enjoying them to their fullest.
But let’s also not forget the old Campus Drive-In--where I got my first job in San Diego. “An American Werewolf In London” and “A Boy and His Dog” was the double feature playing when I started working there. It was a block from my apartment--man I loved that place.
And to Dave, yes I do remember The Fine Arts in Pacific Beach. Loir and I went to the same premiere of “X: The Unheard Music,” and indeed I still have my little lyric book too.
I will never forget it either, the way the sun on that hot day was reflecting off of that watch was forever burned into my mind, man we were silly kids too, pushing each other towards the arm…you know how kids do, “go get it! go get the watch!”
Matt Rott: Thanks I thought I was losing my mind.
I was in a scooter rally when I was 16, had to be about 84′ heading to the Ken to see Quadrophenia. Local media was there (“Mods on mopeds, story at 11:00”) That was how my parents found out I smoked, they saw it on the news.
As for PSA 182 I have been doing a lot of research on this for a book of San Diego history I am writing. Point of impact was the intersection of Dwight and Nile streets in North Park. Incidentally this September the 25th is the 30th anniversary. I will be at the crash site at about 8:30 along with many others including David Fresina who is a Boston based documentary filmmaker. He is producing a documentary on the crash, “Return to Dwight and Nile”.
If you want to read some eyewitness accounts of the aftermath go to http://www.sandiegoblog.com and do a search for PSA 182. With the 30th coming up it has been a very active blog.
If you want to see the graphic aftermath of the accident go to http://www.moviesfoundonline.com and do a search for “Faces of Death 1978”. The on the ground 182 footage starts about 1 hour and 33 minutes into the film. You are warned, it is graphic.
>>Ton says: What was that film with the UFO’s and junkies centered around 1982 NYC downtown Culture?
I’m thinking “Liquid Sky” -- anyone? that movie freaked me out. I went to “Riot” and “Psyche Out” too and got the commentary from the mouth of one of our many walking film encyclopedias, to whom I am grateful for enriching the movie watching experience -- we could have had our own Mystery Science Theater with Jerry Cornelius and Matthew as our hosts!
Hey -does anyone remember the “Smellorama” card from Pink Flamingos/Polyester? It was a scratch n’ sniff card for scenes in the movie complete with cigarettes and doggie doo doo. Polyester is CLASSIC! Love how the daughter is out of control and dating Stiv Bators. Then she goes to AA, gets sober and starts doing macrame! hahahaha! John Waters movies were iconic at the Ken.
PSA 182: was in math class at Dana Junior High when it happened. I was terrified when hearing it was raining severed limbs in South Park and that people on the ground, while still inside their homes, died too.
The PSA planes stopped smiling after that.
I still have the front page from union trib paper…somewhere… in my packrat piles.
Liquid Sky is probably the one you guys are thinking of. It had two main characters, one male and one female, both played by the same actress.
Kristin, did they actually take all the smiles off the PSA planes as a result of that accident?
Kristen: Yes the Smell O Rama cards from Polyester! I did not see Polyester at The Ken, but my moms best friends kids did. They let me smell there cards. Yummy farts!
Tim and Chris were kind of young for that movie, now that I think about it.
MATT ROTT: I guess I should have not jumped the gun on my post and read yours right above it. I read 1984 and got cornfused. Sorry.
Dave,
Kristin meant it metaphorically. According to the website http://www.catchoursmile.com , PSA planes carried the smiles up until their merger with US Airways in 1988, and then even afterwards on a few planes.
And what wasn’t to smile about!
Steven Dietz (welcome!) isn’t overstating the grue factor of that crash-site footage. Woof!
Steven, what do you know about the city’s (and especially the school system’s) community outreach post-crash? Folks think a lot more about PTSD now, and I don’t know if ANY American city in the late ’70s had trauma-response plans to make sure the kids are alright.
But I also can’t help but think that San Diego in particular neither wanted to move the airport nor encourage out-of-town visitors to dwell on the image of vacationing families cartwheeling through the blue skies over Highway 5.
So they let the kids who’d been closest to the mouth of hell take a few half-days, and then everyone hurried back to the mundane rituals of the new school year with nary a backward glance. And we all grew just a little twitchier, a little less confident in the status quo and a little more punk-rock.
Anybody else think that sounds right, or am I being unfair? Sorry if I’m obsessing a little, but this air-disaster tangent opened a whole Pandora’s box for me — I swear, I haven’t thought about Flight 182 in years, and now I can’t stop. Damn you, BOogie! 🙂 (Seriously, dude, you know I’m teasing … I appreciate you bringing it out into the open and making me look at it through adult eyes. And that was a really creepy thing for you to witness.)
Remember the part in “Polyester” where Francine leans forward to smell a bouquet of flowers, but there’s a fish behind it? I felt smug that I knew it was going to be a — ahem! — red herring and didn’t inhale.
I wonder if you can still buy fresh Odorama cards somewhere?
Mmrothenberg
I thought you and I would talk. I think you hit the nail on the head with your theories of general post traumatic stress disorder associated with the city we live in.
PSA 182 was in many ways the most traumatic thing we have colllectively experianced. But there have been many more. Keep in mind just 4 short months later Brenda Spencer cut loose in San Carlos in our contries first school shooting incident.
As far as PSA 182 post traumatic outreach, there was none. I have interviewed several residents and first responders and they got no help either. Keep in mind that this was the late 70’s. The Cessna that PSA collided with was also practicing instrument landings at a major international airport during normal commercial flight operations. That doesnt happen anymore.
I must admit I have never equated the housing boom and our local mass migrations from it to an additional stress factor to us as children but I think that is a great bit of insight on your part and I must agree with you.
PSA 182 -- Bad scene. Steven, I agree with you on the counseling. My Mom was a psychology professor at Miramar College then & there were alot of fire science guys in her class that were called in to respond, keep the crowds away (I guess they didn’t want any wristwatches walking away), and clean up. She did a bunch of work with those guys afterwards trying to counsel them through it & was pretty angry about the lack of any concerted effort to help thse guys out.
Hi all ,
Another North Park mod reporting in. Andy Grossberg gave me the link to this site -- thanks Andy. I was best friends with Eric Sloan and Karl Irving. I was a Manual Scan groupie, having gone out with Kevin and then Paul Brewin in 1981-1983 or so. Lived with Andy and Jeff (and about 10 other people) for awhile at the crazy Mission House in San Francisco after Andy and I moved up there in 1987. Hi also to Jerry C., Pat Works (who I had a crush on and probably never knew it), Dave F. and Bobo! I’m not sure all who posts here yet, so sorry if I’m not mentioning everyone.
Karl and Eric and I were at Wilson Jr High the day of the plane crash. I was taking a test and heard something and looked up and saw the plane falling in the reflection of a glass cabinet. It fell 2 blocks from each of our houses. I lived at 33rd and Upas. I was called to the office and my father came and picked me up. He was delayed because he had thought it was a gas station exploding and he got in the car and drove towards the smoke. He got there before the emergency vehicles and then got boxed in by them and could not leave. He wandered around the body parts, shocked by what he was seeing. Finally, he was allowed to leave, picked me up and he was required to show his Driver’s License to get back to our house. I believe Karl’s dad picked him up, but that Eric’s mom was working -- not positive.
As far as the Ken, I can’t count how many movies I saw there. My favorite times were when they had mod/ska movies/concert films and we all came up to the front and danced.
Tashina, Steven Hi!
Two things come to mind on this divergent thread.
Dave Klowden and Dave Rinck were neighbors of Brenda Spencer -- Klowden had a view of the school from his house, I believe. In any case, I’m pretty sure he was in classes with her and he told me that he’d known her as a good acquaintance, if not friend. I’m sure Rinck knew her, too. Both of them are capable of chiming in on this with corrections or clarification.
That leads to Tashina -- Rinck saw her hanging out with our crowd at the 80 or 81 Comic Con. We struck up friendship as he’d come over to me at the Adams Avenue theatre, asking “Is that Wendy chick gonna be here?” I’m SURE I mentioned this on another topic, some months ago! Ha ha. How tightly woven these things are. Rinck was wearing a “real” Red-Plaid bondage jacket from Vivienne Westwood -- complete Johhny Rotten gear. Impossibly clear, some of these details. When he first saw Tashina, I’m nearly positive she had a “Logan’s Run” outfit -- but that could be a minor confabulation.
What was I wearing? Wake me up, and I’ll tell you.
Tom Goddard came up with this one.
wendy welcome !
Hi Tashina! You were just starting to take your painting seriously when I met you -- I loved that you painted your car! We hung out a bit before the move up north to the Mission house. I was not in the best of spaces -- all apologies if needed --
I remember sitting around listening to music with you and Andy G. -- great to see you on the blog.
I do remember the smellorama cards from “Polyester.” Thanks for the reminder. I’m surprised Waters never used them for any other movie. All John Waters movies should have smellorama cards. That was a fun night at the Ken.
Hi cricket and Kristen,
Cricket -- I don’t recognize the nickname, so I’m not sure if I know you.
Kristen, So sorry! I wasn’t ignoring you! Didn’t recognize the last name and assumed you were from a different circle then I hung out with. We had Tons of good times. I have a photo or two of you around too. I’ll have to get out the photos soon and upload some. I actually have more of the San Francisco days than I do of the mod crowd since I was usually dancing so didn’t bring a camera to shows.
Tashina: Cricket equals Bobo, plus so much more. 🙂
Wendy P/Tashina?! Wow! I just saw Paul Brewin on Sunday night at the 25th anniversary of Secret Society Scooter club, as well as a host of San Diegans that night. Dave Dick stated that he saw Paul Allen. I wish I would have known and introduced myself! I will post links to photos from that night.
Jeremiah: I love that photo, BTW! I browse the site so often on my Blackberry, I sometimes miss the visuals. I wish we’d gone to high school together.
Jeff Benet from Jet Set Scooter club has a marvelous mod photo set, some of them capturing “Dance Craze” at the Ken. Check ’em out — some sharp-looking kids there!
Jesus Christ! Jeff Benet. Last time I saw him I was working at “Ground Zero” coffee house on Haight Street in San Francisco. Jeff used to come in and bum free coffee from me all day long. Steve Dietz and I were just talking about him a couple of months ago. He once talked Steve and I into going to craft fair with him.?….
I believe that two of the people in the above photo are old friends of mine. The kid in the hat is (maybe) Josh Huffman and the spikey haired dude behind the hand is for sure Chris McCalliff.
Wow! This made my day! Now off to blue collar bliss!
Hey Dylan!
Jeff Benet! I wish I still knew people like him. When he wasnt on his P200 he would drive an old Citroen, the kind with the hydraulics. When he parked it it would just rest on the ground. For some reason he had a “Lets Talk Tuna” sticker on his rear window. I do remember that craft fair he took us to. It was downtown. What a strange day. Toll painting and country crafts.
Remember Jeff Benet used to wear this gleaming white parka?
That is definatly Josh Huffman in the photo. Man, we sure looked young. Makes my day too.
Steve: I think Jeff said to us “you guys wanna have some fun” and we said “sure we love to have fun”, I think we thought we were gonna go get in some trouble with Jeff, maybe dine and dass at “Gay Denny’s” or something like that. Instead he takes us to a country craft fair. LOL! We had been partying all night with him.
We also took his Citroen to Chicano park so we could show off his hydraulics to all the Cholos. It was a sunday.
Jeff also made us watch a slide show about homeless people he had made for a class he was in. Strange but fun.
I hope Josh is some where in life doing well, that kid had a tuff life.
wow, there’s photos of the Rock Palace in that mod photo set… starting here: http://www.think.cz/san_diego_modscene_1980s/pages/rock_palace.htm
Dave Ellison: Yeah, Jeff Benet and Tony Suarez have been very generous filling in the names in those Rock Palace photos, which Jeff believes date from January 1985. Stay tuned for a rip-snortin’ Rock Palace “Then and now” piece!
MATT ROTT/Dave:Those photos of “Dance Craze” have to be before 1985. And also The Club ZU photos. I am pretty sure CLUB ZU was a pizza place by 1985.. The Rock Palace I missed never went there… Maybe before my time….Those photos are killer! Jeff was always taking pictures.
Hey Dave did ya get that MP3 I sent ya?
I wonder if we went to see “HEAD” the same night at The Ken?
dylan… I emailed you about the mp3… I didnt get it for some reason.
I think I saw Head on two different occasions at the Ken, so it’s possible you were there one of those times… I remember that movie as being kind of fun and kind of boring at the same time. Really, all I remember about it is when they’re microscopic and traveling through somone’s veins… and Frank Zappa riding a horse or a camel or something.
I found “Head” a complex tautology … In it, the Monkees seemed to mock their status as the Prefab Four (there’s a scene where they’re marionettes, chattering inanely about how lovable the Monkees are) and throwing down some pretty alarming imagery (there’s one moment where that harrowing photo of a South Vietnamese officer about to shoot a Viet Cong in the head is repeated hundreds of times on screen). But as I recall, it’s hard to tell how much is an honest effort to challenge their origins as a Hollywood gimmick and how much is itself a Hollywood gimmick to capitalize on late-’60s antiestablishment sentiment.
Dave/Matt: When I saw “Head” it was almost sold out. I had been a child hood Monkees fan watching re-runs every weekday up in L.A. at my grandma’s house.
I was maybe 13 when I saw “Head” and yeah it kinda confused and bored me.
I recall digging the song “Circle Sky”.
Last night I was at the Seattle airport, waiting to fly home after a vacation, and I started to read this thread. Woah, not a good time to be remembering the PSA crash! I’m not afraid to fly, but I had to stop reading this.
I was in high school at the time, walking the hall between classes, saw the plume of smoke in the sky and thought it was just a regular structure fire. Then in my next class the teacher brought out a radio and put on the news and didn’t say a word.
But to get back on track, the Ken was like a home-away-from-home for me. I used to go at least weekly when I lived near 35th and Meade. I loved seeing foreign films there, especially the Fellini double features -- 6 hours at the theatre!
I miss the Ken. We don’t have any revival type theaters like the Ken in the East Bay anymore. The University theater in Berkeley was the last, and it closed some time ago. We do still have some great theaters in SF that play old movies occasionally, like the amazing Castro Theater. They have a great film noir festival there every year, and I go almost every night for 2 weeks straight.
Tony, I think the movie you referred to earlier was “Brother From Another Planet”?
Does anybody remember the Fellini festival that was broken up by SDSH? Apparently Arturo felt Fellini had sold out after “La dolce vita” … He and Chui started flicking ziti at the screen until a full-blown riot erupted — skinheads, cinephiles and circus freaks tumbling through the air like fleshy confetti. (I believe a dwarf was thrown through a plate-glass window and Rome abruptly ended sister-city discussions with San Diego.)
Chui and Arturo of SDSH. I met those guys once, at UA Glasshouse theatres dollar night in Point Loma of all places. They were with a friend, Erica Bernhart of Ocean Beach. They still visit me sometimes in my nightmares. Either way, I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall at that Fellini fest.
Steve: It’s verys sweet of Chui and Arturo to comfort you in your nightmares.
Dean, hello from Seattle. What were you doing up in our corner of the world?
I still remember watching Roma, Satyricon, etc at the Ken in the summer of 1984. It was easily 95 degrees in the theater, possibly hotter. A few years later I was the manager of the Neptune Theater in Seattle and showed the same set of movies as we were part of the same chain of theaters (probably the same prints too). They all had such a different feel in the cool and dark Seattle winter as compared to the Mediterranean summer in San Diego.
After seeing both I do think seeing Fellini in a sweltering, old and somewhat rundown theater is the way it is meant to be seen.
Ah, yes. UA Glasshouse Square--the Ken Cinema’s dimwitted cousin. On the same night “The Seven Samurai” was playing at the Ken, one could catch “Risky Business” in Point Loma for a dollar and still have enough change for some Strawberry Hill.
For the record, I made up the story of the San Diego Skinheads busting up a Fellini festival. I know for a fact that Arturo was actually a Bergman guy.
UA Glasshouse. Spent many tuesday night sitting in front of that 31 flavors. Not sure if I ever saw a $1 movie.
I remember when I was about 10, my mom dropped me off at the Ken Cinema so I could see “Film About Hendrix”. It was a double feature with “The Song Remains the Same” and I was the only one there for the Hendrix film. I sat there all alone in the theater through the entire movie with a Jimi Hendrix t-shirt on just blown away by it all (that was before I started wearing red bondage jackets).
Look up gullible in the dictionary and you will find me. I guess glasshouse was just a natural for the Point Loma-Ocean Beach crowd. Like Dylan it was really just a place to hang out.
And dont worry Dylan, you are in my nightmares too!
Jason Petteway wrote:
Dean, hello from Seattle. What were you doing up in our corner of the world?
Hey Jason, I was on a vacation by train from Oakland to Portland, then Glacier National Park, and finally Seattle, then flying home from there. Great trip! Seattle weather was perfect. I bought the new Seattle Architecture Guide and explored Seattle Center in detail -- I love mid-20th-century architecture. I have been there a few times before but saw much more this time. We also did touristy stuff like Pike Place and a ferry to Bainbridge Island and back at night. Just one night and 2 days there but we crammed in a lot.
Dylan --
I practically LIVED in Ground Zero for two or three years.
Carolyn, my ex-gf and Morlock’s San Francisco Den Mother worked there. She wound up as Jay’s gf for a few years.
Post-Morlocks, Jeff and I ate Ham and Cheese Croissant for breakfast/lunch in there, regularly. Kept me alive.
Leslie, my first wife, also worked eves in GZ. I met her first there.
Our flat was at 569 Haight from 86-88. Next door to Noc-Noc.
Jeremiah: Paul Kaufman and I once went to Noc Noc and ordered the nachos. I don’t think many people ordered food there … The bartender called back to the kitchen, “Some guy here wants the nachos! … Yeah — he’s SERIOUS!”
I haven’t thought about Ground Zero in years. I’d forgotten how much time we spent in Lower Haight back in the day … I somehow met my future wife at Nicky’s Dive Bar!
More traumatic shit incubated in 1970s California: Happy 30th anniversary, Jonestown massacre!
Yes,that is Josh Huffman and Chris!! I rememberf when Josh’s drunk mom made him move to the desert with her since he was getting in so much trouble hanging out with us!! I got to try and look him up on facebook. Classic!!
I Saw Taxi Driver there with Friends as a Pre Spaghetti Dinner in the early AM thing,but i still woke up in presidio park
This is an ancient thread, I know, but I just saw an ad here in the Voice about a Thin Man festival, and I was instantly transported back to the Ken. I LOVED the Thin Man series and loved watching them at the Ken. That and the Repulsion/Tenant dbl features. and all the Kurosawa. and Psych Out with the Seeds. I used to go to the movies by myself with a book and read in the dimmed movie theater until the movie started (I had a rockin’ adolescence! not.)
I just had to share with people who would understand. thanks.
The Ken was recently recognized by the Phantom of the Paradise fansite Swan Archives as hosting the world’s first known Phantom “shadowcast” (patrons dressed as film characters and acting out scenes in front of the screen, ala Rocky Horror) -- July 29, 1983. Article about this also includes two Overheard in San Diego comic strips set at the Ken — http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/27/midnight-movies-a-local-history-part-1-the-80s/
2 years later….
I so love this blog Matthew, especially the San Diego history posts.
My older brother was a student at St. Augustine high school in North Park when PSA 182 happened and they evacuated all the students and used the gym as a morgue. Like Matthew I was way up in Encinitas but it was still very scary.
Hopefully Landmark can keep the Ken going, it’s a real institution. My father and stepmother had a bookstore/cinema in La Jolla years ago (60’s-70’s) so I know how hard it can be to such things going.
Did Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper used to spontaneously perform at the Ken or was that a dream?
Is it curtains for the Ken?! I feel like Charlton Heston at the end of “Planet of the Apes.” 🙁
That was not a dream Abigail. I once saw Mojo perform at the Ken on a Saturday afternoon before the start of a movie. He jumped around like a madman banging on a 20 gallon plastic water jug. It was a true rock ‘n’ roll performance of frenetic gospel-styled energy and inspired a cappella singing! It was the only time I saw Mojo there (Skid wasn’t present), but I remember it as if it was just yesterday.
Re reading this after finding out the Ken is soon to be gone forever for real I am flooded with so many memories. Seeing Diva there with Karl when we were first dating. Paul Makarushka working there and sneaking me in and handing me a piece of the celluloid from a John Lennon film. But, in the names here, I see the person who sexually assaulted me and stole my virginity. I want them to know that what they did marked my life and tainted all my intimate relationships for many years. You took what was not yours and caused me pain for so long. It fucked me up. And you never acknowledged what you did. Sexual assault is one of the worst things a person can do to another. It ruins lives. And seldom do the people who cause that pain ever pay for their cruelty. I hope you see this. I hope you know that all my life I have hated you for what you did. And now, at this late stage of my otherwise beautiful life, I forgive you, for you will never be free of what you did. That is yours to carry.
Dear Em,
I’m so sorry about your experience of abuse. I don’t think it’s understood -- even still -- that this is tragically normal in the experiences of women, and that the happy memories most people get to share, are frequently colored by a connection to sexual violation by almost half of all women — who are often made to revisit these things in silence.
It sounds like you’ve made a small sort of peace with your own history, one you didn’t get to choose. I hope so.
I’m going to be openly supportive and declarative about this. It’s the small support I’m capable of offering, and helping take this out of the darkness for you, and so many others. We were woefully ignorant about these things -- certainly I was -- when we were young. There was a kind of tolerance for this, that avoided seeing these kinds of abuse. That’s got to stop, and better late acknowledging than never.