An Activist Spent Years Pushing for Hollywood’s Cinerama Dome to Reopen. Why Did He Just Stop?
📖 Full Retelling
The LAPD told Benjamin Steinberg that the family ownership of the iconic theatre considered his latest protest a form of harassment. He's since called off his long-running campaign.
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Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment Since Hollywood’s iconic Cinerama Dome movie theater closed in 2020, at the onset of the pandemic, Benjamin Steinberg has been making a scene about it. He started a popular dedicated social media account, launched a petition that amassed more than 30,000 signatures, held multiple rallies and, in recent days, staged a special effects-driven protest. That last one drew a police response, and now he says his “movement” to “save the Cinerama Dome” has ended amid fear of legal reprisal. What happened? The 26-year-old actor-filmmaker hired an on-site lighting engineer to projection-map a vivid rebuke of the property’s ownership on the theater itself for what he views as civic abandonment. The illumination specifically called out Chris Forman, CEO of his family’s Decurion Corp.: “Mr. Forman REOPEN THE DOME!” Forman’s father William — a pioneering Southern California drive-in theater owner who also founded the Pacific multiplex chain — opened the Dome in 1963, premiering with It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World . Later, Forman himself built up and later shuttered his own, high-end ArcLight theater group, including its flagship location adjoining the Dome. The family’s business is now focused in commercial and industrial property development. Two hours into the second night’s demonstration, on Apr. 3, the LAPD informed Steinberg and his associates that the Formans considered it harassment and wanted it shut down immediately. While they weren’t threatened with arrest or issued a citation — they were operating from a public sidewalk across Sunset Blvd. — Steinberg has since chosen to end the campaign. “I can’t continue,” he says. “This is clearly a First Amendment issue but they’re very wealthy and I can’t afford to mess around with them.” Steinberg consi...
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