Public Eye

It was a bad week for the big screen in the West San Gabriel Valley.
First, the Rialto in South Pas goes dark for more or less good. Yes, there is still a hope that it will someday reopen as a movie theater when (historically sensitive) redevelopment of its Fair Oaks Avenue block occurs. But the Rialto's various owners had threatened to close before, and never actually did. Then what medium-timers still call the Hastings in East Pas will also close: that huge screen, perfect for spy-pic blockbusters; that crazy layout, with no center aisle, but plenty of room between the rows for popcorn-holding walking.
Thank God for the very small-screen Academy on Colorado, what? In the age of video on demand, it's the last vestige of a second-run, cheap-seats cinema around. So what if those seats are sometimes at an odd angle to their screen? And management has humor: Read top to bottom, the marquee announces "Lady Chatterley Knocked Up."