No one had seen much Paul Reubens in over a decade — certainly not out and about in public, and it didn’t seem like the man behind Pee-wee Herman had any intention of changing that. After a 1991 scandal involving an adult movie theater effectively ended his status as a children’s entertainment mainstay, Reubens was only making an occasional film or television appearance, and the outside world was out of the question.
“He thought everyone hated him,” Cinespia founder John Wyatt said during a recent interview with IndieWire. “He must have gotten a lot of hate mail when he was unjustly persecuted.”
Wyatt was persistent, if still sympathetic. It was 2006. He wanted to pair a screening of “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” with a surprise Reubens introduction for his little movie club. Of course, any Angeleno can tell you that Cinespia is not really just a little movie club — it’s a uniquely L.A. activity. Thousands gather at Hollywood Forever Cemetery on a lawn — tastefully tucked away from the graves — and watch a cinema favorite. The annual summer screening series started with “Strangers on a Train” back in 2001.
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“I had a friend who worked at the cemetery, and the cemetery was interested in doing events, so it all kind of came together in this one moment where they were like, ‘Let’s try one screening.’ And my good friend Richard Rushfield wrote the teeniest little blurb in the LA Weekly… just this odd little sentence in a little tiny box,” Wyatt recalled. “And beyond my film club, some people must have noticed this odd thing and been like, ‘What is that?’”
A few hundred showed up, and the reaction from the crowd was overwhelming. Wyatt knew he had stumbled on something that was going to be big. Before long, Cinespia was attracting thousands weekly, and celebrities were often making appearances to introduce their films.
So, naturally, Reubens seemed like an obvious fit. But even after the herculean task of getting him to agree to a public appearance, Wyatt still had to make sure the man felt safe.
“He asked us to provide him with a bulletproof jacket, and we did. He literally thought he might be killed doing this. He was so scared,” Wyatt said. But as Reubens walked out to greet the crowd, and a spotlight hit his familiar face — at first frozen in fear — Wyatt witnessed a transformation. Reubens managed, “Hi, I’m Paul.”
“The audience could not believe that he was there in person,” Wyatt said. “The love that came from this audience. It just swept over us. It was incredible. No one knew he was going to be there. No one had seen him in a decade more. Everyone just poured out this love. And I saw his face transform. I saw him be like, ‘Wow, this is real.’ And he said something else. And again, this audience reaction, and I saw his life change before my eyes… he was back. He started cracking jokes. It was such an amazing thing to see. And of course, he went on doing specials, doing a tour across the country, being fully back.”
This is the energy Cinespia mints weekly for its patrons, inevitably a sell-out crowd of 4,000. The schedule this summer has ranges from all-time masterpieces (“Casablanca” on June 28) to horror favs (“It” on July 12) to cult classics (“Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion” on July 19). Outside of Humphrey Bogart’s ghost, it’s safe to say just about any surprise appearance is possible, sometimes just hidden in the crowd. In addition to introductions and Q&As with Jordan Peele, M. Knight Shyamalan, and Stevie Wonder (“People were just bursting into tears at the sight of him,” said Wyatt), Margot Robbie, Tom Holland, Justin Timberlake, Jordan Peele, Alicia Silverstone, and Kaitlyn Dever have all shown up just to take in a flick.
“Cinespia is L.A.’s “secret” that every local knows about,” Dever told IndieWire. “That’s what makes it so magical, it’s the secret that everybody’s in on — it’s the smell of the grass you sit on, the stars just above the screen, and the beautiful feeling of lounging with a big group of fellow film lovers to laugh and cry together.”
Much like the Rock ‘n’ Roll Ralph’s on Sunset (IYKYK), it’s quintessentially L.A. — and a not-so-secret open secret where locals across every demographic gather to picnic, chat, dance (of course there’s a dance floor), take a photo at a themed booth, eat, drink, be merry, then settle in for a movie. Like the fabled old Hollywood parties of yore, after a couple hours of social interactions, you gotta throw on a film.
In the months since the Pacific Palisades and Eaton fires devastated entire swaths of the city, the little traditions that thread together Los Angeles County’s 10 million residents have taken on renewed meaning. What was before an activity that felt like it could only happen in L.A., now feels like the very definition of L.A.
“I think we who are Angelinos, feel a possession, a territorial nature towards our business, and when we play these movies, many of which shot a lot in L.A., it feels like they’re ours. And this is our thing,” Wyatt explained.
For this year’s lineup, special attention was paid to mixing in movies that not only are products of the industry that made the city famous but showcase it in all its glory. When “Clueless” screened in May, Circus Liquor go the biggest applause of the night. Same with the Cinerama Dome in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” And then there was the opening night film, “The Big Lebowski.”
“It begins with the narration, and you see this tumbleweed. And it starts in the mountains, the hills. You see L.A. below,” Wyatt said as he began to tear up. “It pulls through West Hollywood. It goes by Benito’s, and it ends up at the sea, and you see Malibu in the background. And it was just such a poignant moment there at the cemetery.”
That moment made it clear to Wyatt just exactly how necessary Cinespia had become for his hometown.
“I did grow up in the Palisades, and my entire neighborhood is gone… my friend’s houses, my mom’s house. My mom is still without a house right now,” he said. “I just felt like everyone really needed to come together, and they wanted to come together at Cinespia, because that’s where we watch our favorite movies in Los Angeles.”
The backdrop of Hollywood Forever Cemetery layers in a tiding helping of gravitas to the proceedings. Just beyond the lawn rests the original movie king, Douglas Fairbanks, and his son Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. (also a movie star) at an elaborate crypt and reflection pond. Judy Garland rests just across the park. A nearby mausoleum holds Rudolph Valentino. Burt Reynolds, Cecil B. DeMille, Mickey Rooney… they’re all there. And recently, the legendary director of “Blue Velvet” — which screened last month at Cinespia — took up residence.
“The amount of respect and love for David Lynch, it was palpable,” Wyatt said. “Everybody was so excited to watch one of his films. Everybody made a little pilgrimage to his grave. There were just heaps of flowers, VHS tapes, packs of cigarettes, stuffed animals, pictures, just all kinds of things. People just wanted to put it at his grave… I think that respect has carried through everything we’ve done over the years.”
And like true Angelenos, the audience’s respect extends not just to the films and their makers, but their surroundings, as well.
“I’m always blown away about how tidy everything is after these screenings. We’ll have 4,000 people come in there with their picnics, tons of stuff, drinks, we have popcorn, all these things, and the field will just be immaculate,” Wyatt said.
Oftentimes, members of the Cinespia audiences are the leaders in critical and cultural reassessments of divisive material. As Wyatt says, “Movies shift. How we view them [changes].” On June 14, one such film, “Showgirls,” screened in a special partnership event with the Los Angeles LGBT Center and the Trevor Project. On hand was star Elizabeth Berkley, who credited the fans in the audience for salvaging the once maligned movie and giving both it and her performance renewed life.
“You guys didn’t just embrace it. You rescued it,” Berkley said. “You have elevated it. You’ve made this movie what it is, what it was intended to be. And I’m forever grateful.”
Like Reubens nearly 20 years ago, Berkley felt that wave of love from the audience — that unique interplay between an audience and a piece of art revived. In a film that has yet to (but seems destined to) screen at Cinespia, 2022’s “Babylon,” Jean Smart’s gossip columnist character tells Brad Pitt’s movie idol he will “spend eternity with angels and ghosts” as films shot decades ago are brought out of the vault for new generations to enjoy. “A child born in 50 years will stumble across your image flickering on a screen and feel he knows you, like… like a friend, though you breathed your last before he breathed his first,” Smart says.
Each week, that’s what Cinespia allows audiences to do: go on an adventure with the angels and ghosts — those screen icons and their craftsmen who have defined L.A. and made it into the kind of community that gather for a collective experience like no other.
Take a note, Mr. Wyatt, I bet Ms. Smart would show up, too.
Upcoming screenings at Cinespia include “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” on June 21, “Casablanca” on June 28, “Top Gun” on July 4, “La La Land” on July 5, “Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion” on July 19, and “The Addams Family” on July 26. The July 4 and 5 events will include Independence Day fireworks. August screenings to be announced soon. For tickets, click here.
