> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # For historic Aero Theater, the show’s nearly over - URL: https://www.smdp.com/for-historic-aero-theater-the-shows-nearly-over/ - Published: 2002-07-06T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T00:27:19.000Z - Author: Guest Author - Tags: Entertainment, Montana, #archive-import *Theater calls for help* *By TRAVIS PURSER Special to the Daily Press* The Aero cinema is a throwback. The seats are wood, metal and cloth, with no cup holders. And there’s no parking. Its finicky, outdated projector has been known to spontaneously self-destruct with a loud bang and turn a show into an unintentional cliffhanger. Still, many love the World War II-era movie house. To them, it is a quaint neighborhood treasure that was Robert Redford’s boyhood cinema and where today, patrons go for a low-key slice of history. To them, it represents the soul of Montana Avenue. But all that is poised to disappear. The theater’s operator, Chris Allen, is scrambling to raise $60,000 this month through donations and increased sales, or he’ll go out of business July 31, he said. The building’s owners, who for years have allowed the $10,000 monthly rent to go unpaid for months at time, have now given Allen an ultimatum: pay up, or get out. Paying the back rent still won’t give Allen any guarantees in operating the theater in the future, since he operates on a month-to-month lease with James Rosenfeld and his business partner in Chicago, who own the building, located on Euclid Street and Montana Avenue. Allen said the theater has always struggled financially, but over the last several years, fewer and fewer people have come through the doors, while the rent has remained the same. As other forms of entertainment move into the area, there are just too many other things for people to do, Allen said. Rosenfeld was not available for comment Friday. His assistant, however, said the owners were negotiating to bring in a new theater operator. The assistant declined to give further details. Like any well-plotted drama, the recent history of the Aero is filled with such twists and turns. In May 2000, a representative of Robert Redford announced to the Santa Monica City Council that the actor/director had plans to buy the theater and restore it as part of a planned chain of independent movie houses. Theater fans were relieved the Aero, located on a street that is fast becoming the Rodeo Drive of Santa Monica, had been saved from conversion to a clothing store, as so many other small theaters had become. But Redford’s plan later unraveled due to financial problems. Allen thinks patrons would have been more supportive if they knew that. The Wilshire/Montana Neighborhood Association and the North of Montana Association petitioned the city’s Landmark Commission to declare the theater a historical landmark three years ago. But the associations withdrew the petition in 2000 because landmark status could have hindered the deal with Redford. Landmark status limits changes to the architecture of a building. Even owners who wish to restore a building to its historical appearance sometimes view the status as a hindrance. And the status does not preserve a building’s historic use, only its appearance. Other theaters with landmark status have been turned into GAP stores and restaurants that feature old marquees and box offices. Mayor Pro Tem Kevin McKeown, who is the former chair of the Wilshire/Montana Neighborhood Association, wouldn’t speculate on whether the associations had plans to file a new petition. City officials have rallied behind the theater, which they see as a link to the past and as symbol for a livable community. McKeown said he has been working closely with Rosenfeld, who he believes sincerely wants to save the theater. But Allen, who has run the Aero for 10 years on a shoestring budget, said theater owners are under immense financial pressures to convert theaters to something else. He is the first to admit that a nationally known clothing store or a restaurant could make a lot more money there. But he would hate to see that happen, and he thinks neighborhood residents would, too. Allen and his handful of employees have distributed 3,000 flyers door-to-door asking for support. Allen sees himself as merely a caretaker of a piece of history and is hoping the community will rally in keeping the theater alive with donations and increased attendance. Friday afternoon, Aero employee Steve Smart was running his usual one-man show preparing to sell tickets, pop popcorn and operate the projector. Patrons had arrived in unusually high numbers the previous day because of the flyers, he said, and more were showing up Friday. About a dozen people came for the 1:30 p.m. show. There was only one problem — the projector malfunctioned and the show, “About a Boy,” was canceled. Moviegoers with unexpected free time gathered to discuss the theater’s fate. “This is the last vestige” of old Montana Avenue, said Susan Shilliday, who had received a flyer and decided to see a movie Friday afternoon in support of the theater. Shilliday, a screenwriter who co-wrote the “Legends of the Fall” movie script, said she has walked to the Aero from her home nearby for 27 years. “Maybe it’s a dinosaur, but it’s a dinosaur I think should be here.” Not everyone is sentimental, however. Dr. and Mrs. Gilbert Kuhn, wouldn’t support the theater, financially or otherwise, because the movies are “never any good,” they wrote in a letter to Allen. The Aero got its name from the Douglas Aircraft Co., which built the theater for its workers in 1939\. Movies showed 24 hours a day at first to cater to wartime employees who worked in shifts around the clock. Later, the Aero became a popular movie venue among the general public. Patrons sometimes strained to hear the low-tech sound system, but kids always got a free piece of bubble gum on the way out the door. Today, it shows second-run blockbusters fans might have missed at big-name multiplexes, or independent films they might have missed elsewhere. Only five or six people arrive for most showings, Smart said. “It’s part of the culture of the neighborhood,” said 20-year Montana Avenue resident Sam Schultz, who said he goes to the theater at least once a month. > “It’s part of the culture of the neighborhood.” — — SAM SCHULTZ Resident Smart blamed the theater’s problems on the proliferation of new technology, like high-tech home entertainment systems that keep people on their couches, and a fickle public that won’t put its money where its mouth is. “Everybody walks by here and says, ‘I love this place.’ And none of them come in here,” he said. > “Everybody walks by here and says, ‘I love this place.’ And none of them come in here.” — — STEVE SMART Aero employee ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/070602-02_01.jpg) Chris Allen, operator of the Aero Theater on Montana Avenue, is trying to keep the historic movie house alive. (Photo: Andrew H. Fixmer/Daily Press) *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 6, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/070602.pdf?ref=smdp.com)