theaters in Southern California where movies premiered. Batman actually premiered simultaneously in two theaters right across the street from each other in Westwood (where UCLA is) - the Village and the Bruin were the names. They’re very old single screen theaters (from the days before megaplexes) with large (but not IMAX) screens and 1,000 seats each. Dad’s company also owned The Chinese Theater at the time (probably the world’s most famous movie theater - where stars have their handprints and footprints in the cement) in Hollywood.

For Batman they had 500 seats in each of the two theaters reserved for celebrities and 500 each for people that got in line first. That’s highly unusual. People camped out for over a week. I was technically working so I got in without the line.

Burgess Meredith (the old trainer from Rocky) played the Penguin in the old Batman TV series. He was there. One of my buddies came out of the bathroom all geeked out because he had just stood next to Burgess Meredith.

Eddie Murphy was also there. And there’s a funny story about that too but I’m tired.

The Village Theater was the site of the World Premiere of every Harry Potter movie and a bunch of movies through the last 80 ish years.