Movie Theater Owner, Folk Figure. He grew up in the Fairfax neighborhood of Los Angeles, and eventually befriended John and Dorothy Hampton, friends of his parents who owned a nearby silent movie theater. He apparently cultivated a mysterious mien, declining even to discuss his age in interviews, and presented himself as the son of a former silent film actor and a seamstress to Cecil B. DeMille, though there was no evidence to confirm this. The Hamptons closed the theater due to financial troubles in 1979, and Austin took over ownership after John's death in 1990, reopening it to great fanfare in 1991. He apparently delighted in his role as proprietor of the venue, which was the only theater in the country devoted solely to silent films. On the evening of January 17, 1997, during the showing of the silent short "School Days," a man who had been sitting in the back row slipped into the lobby and gunned down Austin and the 19-year-old concessions clerk; he then ran through the theater firing in the air, and escaped through a back exit. Austin was dead, but the clerk recovered and was instrumental in eventually convicting the gunman, who had been hired by Austin's projectionist partner, apparently in expectation of inheriting Austin's estate. Both men were sentenced to life in prison.
Movie Theater Owner, Folk Figure. He grew up in the Fairfax neighborhood of Los Angeles, and eventually befriended John and Dorothy Hampton, friends of his parents who owned a nearby silent movie theater. He apparently cultivated a mysterious mien, declining even to discuss his age in interviews, and presented himself as the son of a former silent film actor and a seamstress to Cecil B. DeMille, though there was no evidence to confirm this. The Hamptons closed the theater due to financial troubles in 1979, and Austin took over ownership after John's death in 1990, reopening it to great fanfare in 1991. He apparently delighted in his role as proprietor of the venue, which was the only theater in the country devoted solely to silent films. On the evening of January 17, 1997, during the showing of the silent short "School Days," a man who had been sitting in the back row slipped into the lobby and gunned down Austin and the 19-year-old concessions clerk; he then ran through the theater firing in the air, and escaped through a back exit. Austin was dead, but the clerk recovered and was instrumental in eventually convicting the gunman, who had been hired by Austin's projectionist partner, apparently in expectation of inheriting Austin's estate. Both men were sentenced to life in prison.
Bio by: Iola
Inscription
THE “SILENT MASTER”
Family Members
Advertisement
See more Austin memorials in:
Advertisement
