The El Rey

If you’re gonna visit Los Angeles, you might as well make the most of your time and visit Venice Beach or Hollywood or Rodeo Drive or someplace cool like that…right?

Well of course! And it just so happens that I WAS in Los Angeles and I DID visit Venice Beach and Rodeo Drive and Hollywood (a few years ago) and so…I decided this time I wanted to see a site that no one would consider a “must see” site. So I picked a location featured in a film that I love and I’ve always wanted to see and so…this time I went looking for it. And I found it. And…uh…well…

Okay. It’s an old movie theater and it was featured in the awesomely 80′s film, “Night of the Comet.” Yeah…I know…you don’t get it and you don’t have to. This was MY thing and so…you don’t HAVE to get it. So…where was I? Oh yeah…the El Rey.

Featured in the 1984 post-apocalyptic, zombie, cheerleaders with guns, horror but not really scary, sci fi flick that no one remembers but me, I’ve always wondered what the place looks like. So why not go looking for it? It’s not really hard to find… 5515 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA. It’s still there and still kickin’. It’s no longer a movie theater though. Now the El Rey is a renovated concert hall where bands and comedians perform. Unfortunately, during the time of day that I went knocking, it wasn’t open. But I peered through the window and it looks like a nice place. No popcorn stand anymore and the old Tempest game is long gone…

Reggie LOVES Tempest!

And then…that was it. I took some pictures and went along my merry way. But now I can say I’ve seen it and I’ve been there and now when I watch my favorite little guilty pleasure from the 1980′s, I can say I stood where Regina (Catherine Mary Stewart) worked and where she was attacked by a crazed, blood-thirsty zombie and kicked his butt! And that, to me, is kinda cool. ‘Cause that’s how I roll.

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