Robert “Bob” Laemmle, the president of the Los Angeles-based Laemmle Theatres who ran the chain till his son Greg took over in 2004, died Thursday in Santa Monica. He was 89.
Bob Laemmle was born in Paris and got here together with his mother and father, who had been fleeing the Nazis, to the U.S. in 1938. He graduated from Marshall Excessive College the place he was a basketball star and from Cal State L.A. and obtained an MBA from UCLA. Laemmle Theatres was established that very same yr by his father Max and Kurt Laemmle, German immigrants who had been nephews of Common Photos founder Carl Laemmle.
Bob Laemmle began working in his father’s theater on the age of 14 at their first location within the Highland Park neighborhood, he recounted in a Laemmle seventy fifth anniversary booklet. After working as a banking trainee, he joined the household enterprise formally in 1963 to assist open a Pasadena location for the reason that solely Laemmle location on the time was in Los Feliz.
Bob Laemmle helped redefine the picture of an “artwork home,” programming and innovatively advertising and marketing movies from all over the world.
“We imagine in private dealing with of our product,” he informed Selection in 1983. “You must stay small and intimate to have the time to try this.”
Laemmle Theatres are an integral a part of L.A.’s exhibition neighborhood, exhibiting a mixture of first-run impartial and foreign-language movies in addition to classics and re-releases on the Royal in West. L.A., the Monica Movie Middle in Santa Monica and 7 different areas, together with one in Kingston, Wash.
The 2022 documentary “Solely in Theaters” tells the story of the family-run theater chain. “It’s fairly uncommon to have a 3 generational household enterprise and I feel we occupy a novel, fascinating place in Los Angeles: being the household that has been bringing overseas movies to L.A. for generations, and people movies educate and encourage folks,” Greg Laemmle informed the Santa Monica Day by day Press when the doc was launched.
In 2000, Bob and Greg Laemmle established the Laemmle Charitable Basis to provide again to the neighborhood. The inspiration focuses on donating to regionally based mostly nonprofits with a give attention to social and environmental giving. Previous award recipients embody Heal the Bay, the Venice Household Clinic, the Westside Meals Financial institution, Tree Folks, Union Station Homeless Companies, the Belief for Public Land, and plenty of others.
Bob Laemmle was made a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French authorities, a distinction his father additionally earned.
He’s survived by his spouse Michelle Laemmle, kids Yvonne Ascher and Leonard Laub, Michael and Haidee Ascher, David and Tammy Ascher, Greg and Tish Laemmle, Jessica Laemmle, Carri Bisbee, Mitch and Debbie Needelman, Maitland Finley and Robert Finley.