Optic Theatre
533 S. Main Street,
Los Angeles,
CA
90013
533 S. Main Street,
Los Angeles,
CA
90013
5 people
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Showing 76 - 89 of 89 comments
Ken, vokoban must be right about the address of the Optic. It was situated right where Main Street makes that little bend, which was about mid-block. The Art Theatre, at 551 South Main, was only a few doors south of the Optic. The Burbank, at 542 South Main, was immediately south of the bend. 523 is too low a number for the Optic’s location. In fact, 523 may have been the address of the Omar Theatre, which was a few doors north of the Optic.
The only references at the L.A. Public Library Regional History database to the Woodley Theatre on Broadway give its only other names as Victory (until 1920) and Mission (1920 to demolition.) There’s no indication of when the name was changed from Woodley to Victory. I suppose it might have been called the Optic at some point.
I’m a bit surprised that Mr. Woodley owned the Olympic, assuming that this was the Olympic on 8th Street. This was a later theatre than the Woodley or the Optic, and every early reference to it I’ve seen indicates that it was opened by Lou Bard.
KenRoe, if you send me your email, I’ll forward you a .pdf from the LA Times talking about Woodley’s Optic on Broadway. It’s a different theater from the Woodley theater. He also owned another theater called the Olympic. My email is
The only theatre on S. Broadway operated by R.F.Woodley that I have records of is Woodley’s Theatre later known as the Victory Theatre and then Mission Theatre, located at 842 South Broadway. This was demolished and the current Orpheum Theatre built on the site.
Maybe the Woodley’s/Victory/Mission Theatre, S. Broadway was aka Optic Theatre, or could we have discovered another ‘lost’ theatre.
The address of this theater should be changed to 533 South Main. From the LA Times Dec. 25, 1910:
Negotiations have just been closed with R.W. Woodley, the former proprietor of the Optic Theater on South Broadway, for a motion-picture theater, to be erected at No. 533 South Main Street. The place will have a seating capacity of about 900.
Also, all of the further listings for this theater up to the early 1970’s list it at 533 S. Main. I wish more photos could be found of this theater. It was one of the first in Los Angeles to be built exclusively for motion pictures.
Look carefully at the left side of the picture. The Optic is showing “Twilight People”, which is a 1975 film:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics09/00014168.jpg
From the LA Library:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics09/00014172.jpg
From the USC Digital Archive:
View link
Here is a clearer and wider shot of the photo above, which shows the organ ranks a bit better…..
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater3/00015509.jpg
The impression I got from the outside was that there wasn’t even a real theatre in there, but just a bunch of seats stuck into a former retail space some time after the building was built. But then, maybe the entrance foyer itself was bigger to begin with, and part of it was converted to retail shops later on, to bring in more rent after the Main Street theatre district began to decline. I never examined the building carefully, so I don’t remember how deep those shops next to the theatre were.
In fact, I don’t even remember how high the building was, or how far up from the intersection of 6th Street it was, though it wasn’t too far, I know, because I recall being able to see the place quite clearly from the southeast corner of 6th and Main, out in front of Whelan’s Drug Store.
I would not have thought that the Optic was this large, given the look of it from the outside. It had a very small frontage, tiny ticket foyer, and virtually no marquee- just a neon sign with the theatre’s name. By the time I recall first seeing it, about 1960, it was an adult theatre, catering mostly to servicemen on leave and the unsavory characters of L.A.’s nearby skid row, who came to see what the posters out front called “Nudie Cuties.” I never went there, and I am surprised to find that a 700 seat auditorium was lurking behind that diminutive facade.
Magiclantern, it IS an interior view. The caption was just a typo.
Hi All: I believe that the Optic Theatre is pictured in the opening scenes of the “Rockford Files” TV series?? Does anyone know this for certain?? TK…
That sure looks like an interior view of this theatre, though. Maybe they were the avant-garde grindhouse theatre?
The Optic Theatre was located at 523 S. Main Street.