Claremont’s Laemmle Theater lives to see another year

FIONA HERBOLD & JACOB RAGAZA

To the relief of many 7C students and Claremont locals, the 16-year-old Laemmle’s Claremont 5 Theatre is not set to close any time soon. However, with sparse business since the beginning of the pandemic, the ultimate fate of the theater remains uncertain.

The Claremont Courier prompted the initial rumors of the theater’s closing in Dec. 2021, after naming Winfund Investment LLC as a potential buyer for the property. The Rancho Cucamonga based company planned to reconstruct the lot as a restaurant complex. With the recent closing of Laemmle’s NoHo 7, the company’s North Hollywood property, many in Claremont feared that their local theater would see a similar end.

But earlier this month, owner Greg Laemmle told a Daily Bulletin reporter that the Claremont property was no longer for sale.

According to Laemmle Claremont 5 Manager Carlos Castillas, Greg Laemmle appeared on site two weeks ago and notified the staff that the theater would stay open for the rest of the year.

However, Castillas admitted that business has been slow for the theater in recent years and explained that a timeline beyond 2023 may be more difficult to predict, depending on the theater’s earnings.

“[Greg Laemmle] will try to keep the theater open as long as people keep coming in,” Castillas told the Daily Bulletin.

Since Laemmle’s appearance, the theater’s earnings have doubled, according to Castillas. He is optimistic that with profit continuing to rise, the Claremont community has a chance to keep the independent “arthouse” film establishment in their own neighborhood. Jeremy Martin PO ’25 and Adam Osman-Krinsky PO ’25 are grateful the uniqueness of the Laemmle experience will be preserved.

“I think it’s a great movie theater, I really do,” Martin said. “They have a very diverse set of movies.”

Osman-Krinsky marveled at the theater’s quaint charm that can’t be found at larger theater chains in the area.

“There’s a lot of personality there,” Osman-Krinsky said.“There was this guy who worked at the concessions stand [who collected] what must have been a hundred enamel pins of different movies and video games [to wear] on his uniform.”

Both Osman-Krinsky and Martin noted that the Laemmle is integral to entertainment in Claremont.

“It is one of the few things that you can really do to have a good time in Claremont without a car,” Martin said. “There are AMCs in the area, but all of them are an Uber away.”

Martin believes that the theater could attract more customers from the Claremont Colleges with a simple change.

“You can get seven dollar tickets from Associated Students of Pomona College (ASPC),” Martin said. “I wish the ASPC deal was more widely publicized. I didn’t know about that for a long time.”

Given this budget-friendly ticket option and the Laemmle’s accessibility to campus, Martin urged students not to take the Laemmle for granted.

“Once it’s gone, only then will people realize how much of an impact it has here.” the outdoors.

One of Bigenho’s first projects is to develop a clinic to teach staff and students mountaineering skills. He explained that tools such as crampons and ice axes are inherently dangerous and require training and practice.

“I don’t want to limit students from being able to do things just because I don’t want to spend the time trying to train them and how to teach them,” Bigenho said.

In addition to this ongoing effort, Bigenho has been in contact with various outdoor 5C clubs who have expressed interest in certification. In response, Bigenho has been working with them, researching and contacting industry organizations that provide certification courses.

“The students would like me to share knowledge with them and experience, and have me share my skills,” Bigenho said. “Or, if I don’t personally have those skills, to see if I can outsource that to bring someone who’s a professional in those skills.”

Although Bigenho has only been here for a couple weeks, the conversations and connections he is making haven’t gone unnoticed by his staff.

“Connor gives us a lot of agency over the types of events and the type of atmosphere that we want to be,” Katie Chao PO ’25 said. “He’s very focused on creating an OEC that fits in with what students actually want and need and not what he thinks it should be.”

In the future, Bigenho hopes the OEC can have a greater positive impact on the 5C community, giving students the opportunity to branch out of their campus bubbles.

“I’m hoping it’s a resource, and it’s a community building center,” Bigenho said. “The 5Cs can come in here, they can rent gear [and] they can get to know people all across campus.”

The add/drop period left many 5C students full of anxiety and frustration in the struggle to get permission to enroll requests (PERMS) accepted and find courses with open slots this semester.

Students across the 5Cs were able to register for spring classes during a designated time, set by class year, in mid-November. But many don’t finalize their schedule until several weeks into the Spring semester because of limited class availability. Ella de Castro SC ’23 expressed her frustration with the PERM system for students that may struggle with time management and the anxiety that registration may bring.

“I have always hated the registration process,” de Castro said. “It’s unnecessarily stressful. I had a 9:30am registration time on the first day of registration, and I didn’t get into half of the classes I needed.”

Alex Perez Pleitez CM ’26 claimed that classes were open to all of the 5Cs further contributed to the dysfunctional registration process.

“I feel like there should be some classes that should be considered just that school’s [students],” she said. “It’s harder for first-years, especially, to get the classes that they want or that they need.”

Perez-Pleitez explained that the current system can prioritize some students over others, based on seniority, major or college that put underclassmen and non-majors at a disadvantage to take the subject areas they truly are interested in.

For students like Henrik

Barck HM ’26, the disproportionate prioritization of students in the registration process can postpone necessary prerequisites and delay their path to their eventual major.

“Mudd freshmen were [...] fighting over discrete math and CS 60, because those are the only STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] courses that didn’t have more [prerequisites],” he said. “You need to take those classes before you can take the other STEM classes that everybody’s kind of looking for.”

Registrar at Scripps College Kelly Hogencamp responded to similar student complaints.

“The student information system and the registration process it supports was selected and implemented as a collaborative process across the colleges,” Hogencamp told TSL via email.

“[The registration process rep - resents the] benefits and challenges of being part of a consortium.”

Hogencamp shared that Scripps will soon launch a calendar feature on the registration portal to serve as a visual tool for student schedule planning. She also shared that changes to the registration system will be made soon.

“[The Claremont Colleges have] spent several years researching different systems that can support the complex operational needs of Scripps and the 7Cs and deliver the user experience students and faculty deserve,” Hogencamp said.

But the administrations’ response felt lackluster and hopeless for the many students looking for a solution to the chaotic registration process.

“I feel like there has to be a better way to do it. I don’t know how, I just feel like there has to be,” de Castro said.