Lewis Teague
1938 Venue Proprietor Curator Artist
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Biography
Lewis Teague is a programmer, theater manager and director based out of Los Angeles, California.
Teague, a student from NYU film school, moved to Los Angeles during the early 1960s as a participant in a Universal Studios apprentice director program and directed an episode of the Alfred Hithcock Hour. He soon became involved in the city's rock n' roll scene and decided to try his hand at film programming. In 1964, he took over a small store-front theater on the sunset strip. The theater was owned by Robert Lippard, an exploitation producer, who unsuccessfully attempted to use it to screen nudie cuties and soft-core pornography. When Teague became manager he renamed the theater Cinematheque 16 and began to program art films and documentaries. Attendance at early screenings was minimal until Teague debuted a series of evenings of 'Psychedelic Film Trips' that included works by Brakhage, Emshwiller, Warhol, and the Whitneys and appealed to the local hippie population. Teague supplemented the regular schedule with open screenings (to which Jim Morrison brought his student films). The theater became popular amongst young filmmakers and Jeffery Perkins and Peter Mays became regulars. Evenings often ended with a trip to Barney's Beanery followed by breakfast at Canters.
Noting Teague's success, Frank Woods, theatrical entrepreneur and producer, bought the theater and opened another Cinematheque 16 in Pasadena, which quickly failed, and in San Francisco, which became as successful as the one on Sunset Strip. After leaving the Cinematheque 16 Teague devoted his efforts to directing full-time and helmed films including JEWEL OF THE NILE and CUJO. He is currently a director living in Los Angeles.