Head of Laemmle Art House Theater Chain Was 89

Bob Laemmle, who headed the family-owned chain of Los Angeles art house theaters that bears the name of the founder of Universal Pictures, died Thursday. He was 89.

Laemmle died at a healthcare center in Santa Monica, where he was receiving attention after falling Dec. 23 at his nearby home, his son Greg Laemmle, current CEO of the independent chain, told the Los Angeles Times.

Born in Paris on Sept. 5, 1935, Bob Laemmle entered the family business in 1961 and eventually ran the theater operation, taking over for his father, Max Laemmle. He retired in 2004, the Times noted, but continued to come to the office until the 2020 pandemic.

The German-born Kurt Laemmle and his brother Max launched the chain in 1938 with two theaters in Highland Park section of L.A. after their uncle, Carl Laemmle, brought together several companies in 1912 to launch Universal as studio president.

“It’s something that my grandfather [Kurt] started, and we just sort of picked up and ran with it from there,” Greg Laemmle told the Times, “understanding that as much as it was a business and a family business, it was also there to support the community.”

The chain, which was the subject of the 2022 documentary Only in Theaters, has screens in such locations as Glendale, Santa Monica, Newhall, North Hollywood, Encino, Claremont and West Los Angeles (the Royal).

It also serves as a home for Academy Award qualification runs used by independent films, shorts and docs and as a host for special one-night screenings, events and premieres.

Laemme closed its Music Hall Theatre in Beverly Hills, which had been in business for 82 years, in 2019, and shuttered its Pasadena outpost in 2022.

Survivors include his third wife, Michelle; his children Greg, Jessica, Yvonne, Michelle, David, Carri, Mitchell, Maitland and Robert; and 13 grandchildren.

Carla Laemmle, a niece of Carl Laemmle who also was a dancer and actress — she played the prima ballerina in Universal’s 1925 silent-film production of The Phantom of the Opera — died in 2014 at age 104.