The Seville Theatre was where organist Gaylord Carter was working in the mid 1920s when he was “discovered” by Harold Lloyd, an event which led to his employment as chief organist of the Million Dollar Theatre downtown and his first touch of fame.
Ed: I get both a “Forbidden” message and a “404 Error” on both of your links.
I’m not surprised at the orignal seating capacity of 1500 for the Hastings. It was by far the largest single-floor theatre I ever attended in the San Gabriel Valley. In fact I’d say the only larger single-floor theatre I’ve ever been in was Grauman’s Chinese.
Speaking of maps, the link to Google maps for this theatre does not display the actual location. In the absence of Court Street (obliterated decades ago), Google defaults to the 100 block of Center Street, about a mile east of the theatre’s actual location.
CORRECTION: Wait a minute. I’ve gotten the street sides backward again. The odd numbered addresses are on the north sides and the even numbers on the south sides. The Tunnel Theatre would have been across Third Street from the building in the photo to which I linked. It might have been in the low building a corner of the roof of which is visible at right foreground.
The Lux was not very near Beaudry, and both theatres were west of the tunnel. The Lux was between Flower and Figueroa, so the Tunnel Theater would have been between Flower and Hope. The Third Street tunnel in those days ran from just east of Clay Street to the middle of the ROW of Hope Street.
In that photo to which I linked, Hope Street runs on that shelf above the tunnel, and is also the narrow street running to the left from Third Street. The parts of Hope Street joined up near Second Street. When the hill was lowered for the urban destroyal project, the Second and Third Street tunnels were both lengthened a bit on their west ends, and the dirt from the hill was piled onto the low ground into which the tunnels had previously opened.
It’s probably difficult to envision the way it all looked before the reconstruction of the land, but I can still remember quite a few details of the area’s old form.
This theatre would have been a few doors west of Hope Street, on the north side of Third, and about a block east of the Lux Theatre (aka Rose Theatre, Rex Theatre.) Here’s a photo of the general location as it appeared about 1937. The theatre might have been a storefront nickelodeon in the two story building at left, though a building of that style could have been built anytime from the early 1900s to the mid 1920s.
There was another Florence Theatre, built in 1921 on Moneta Avenue (South Broadway) near 72nd Street. It was listed under that name in a 1924 city directory. I don’t know if it’s on CT under another name or not.
The introductory paragraph for the Aloha Theatre says that the Century Theatre across the street from it has been destroyed. Not so, as ken mc has posted recent photos of the Century’s building (linked on its page) which now houses an upholstery supply company.
UCLA has changed the URLs of the photos in the Times collection,and no longer displays the very large versions they once did. The remaining version of the 1977 photo cited in ken mc’s post of May 18 is now available here.
The Fox Cabrillo was at 115 W. Seventh, not Sixth. The Victoria was a different theatre. It’s mentioned, in passing, on a card in the California Index referencing a 1920 article.
Additionally, in the California Index I’ve come across mentions of theatres in San Pedro bearing the following names: Alhambra, Barton, Electric, Empire, Lyric, Star. and Union. No addresses or other details are given for any of them.
I see that there are four theatres named “Music Hall” listed in that 1945 ad. I wonder if they were all run by Walter Reade Theatres? I know that the Beverly Hills Music Hall was a Reade operation for a while, and they also ran the Music Hall Theatre in San Francisco, though that was in the 1960s.
That last photo is late 1928 or early 1929, I’d say, given the fact that the building is covered in signs announcing its imminent destruction to make way for the expanding May Co. Department Store.
It also give the address of Tally’s New Broadway as 254 S. Broadway, but given the evidence of historic photos confirming that it was at 554 S. Broadway, I’d guess that the newspaper listing probably has a typo.
Lots of other interesting stuff in that ad, though, including the address of the first Metropolitan Theatre at 257 E. Fifth, and of the second Los Angeles Theatre, at 340 S. Spring.
It would be nice if it differentiated between movie theatres and stage theatres, though. It’s going to be hard to tell which ones ought to be added and which ones don’t qualify.
The Redding Theatre is mentioned several times on this page of the Cascade Theatre website. According to that page the Redding Theatre was built in 1910, and the wording gives the impression that by the 1930s it was being operated by T.&D., Jr. Enterprises. (Note that the page is not entirely reliable, though, as it names the owners of T.&D. as Turner and Duncan, not the correct Turner and Dahnken.)
There’s another photo of the Redding Theatre accessible from this page at the Redding Record-Searchlight’s website.
Ken, that was no typo. That was a spur-of-the-moment portmanteau coinage, but a Google search on the phrase indicates that I was not the first to ever use it. The results show two earlier examples.
Here’s a slightly wider version of the photo at the top of this page. The Paradise was built in 1950, a few years before the various wide-screen processes of the era were developed, so its exceptional width was not intended to accommodate them (unless architect Ted Rogvoy was presciently anticipating their development.) The building was a splendid example of Midcentury Modern design, and maybe the best theatre in that style in the Los Angeles area.
The Kim Sing Theatre has been converted to a living space/furniture showroom by a designer who now owns it. It was featured in one episode of the HGTV show What’s With That House? I remember seeing the Kim Sing before it was called the Kim Sing, back when Chinatown had not yet expanded as far west as Figueroa Street. It was running Mexican movies at the time, and I believe it was using the name Alpine Theatre (it was on Figueroa at the corner of Alpine Street.)
As the first Godzilla movie came out in 1954, and I recall the La Brea still being a Fox house at that time (it was across the street from my doctor’s office), I suspect that the Japanese language version of the movie would have first been shown at the Linda Lea, either in 1954 or 1955. It would probably have been run with English subtitles, as most of the movies shown there were. After Toho acquired the La Brea (in the late 1950s, I think), that theatre ran many of the company’s “arty” films, leaving the more popular stuff for the Linda Lea or to a Japanese language theatre (can’t remember the name) that opened up in the West Adams area. I think there might have been a Japanese movie theatre in Gardena in those days, too.
The plans for the Strand Theatre were announced in Southwest Builder & Contractor issue of March 18, 1921. The location given was the corner of Moneta (now Broadway) and Vernon. The owner was named as Ed Colter, the architect as William C. Penell. The building was described as a two story brick theatre, store and market. It was listed as the Strand Theatre, at 4409 S. Moneta Avenue, in the 1923 City Directory.
The theatre’s peripatetic front door suggests that Penell may have studied architecture at Hogwarts Academy, but this is only speculation.
The Junior Orpheum Circuit ran combination houses which featured moderately-priced shows consisting of a movie and several acts of vaudeville, presented either continuously or (usually) three times a day. Regular Orpheum Circuit theatres were two-show-a-day, all-vaudeville houses, though of course many of them soon converted to combination houses or ran only movies as vaudeville withered away.
Guys: The Mozart Theatre at 730 S. Grand was the one with all the names (Including, per the photo, Clune’s Grand Avenue Theatre.) It outlasted the Criterion. Also, the state library got both direction and date wrong on its photo. The view is south from 7th and Grand, not north, and the year has to be 1908 or later, when the building was erected.
As for the Fox Criterion, it looks as though (per ken mc’s comment of May 29 this year) that this theatre’s last operating name must have been either Tally’s Theatre or Grand Wilshire Theatre, since the original entry at top of this page says that it was razed in 1941.
My memory of my one visit to this theatre (which was before it was multiplexed) is that it had a curved screen.
The Seville Theatre was where organist Gaylord Carter was working in the mid 1920s when he was “discovered” by Harold Lloyd, an event which led to his employment as chief organist of the Million Dollar Theatre downtown and his first touch of fame.
Yes, that works. Thanks.
Ed: I get both a “Forbidden” message and a “404 Error” on both of your links.
I’m not surprised at the orignal seating capacity of 1500 for the Hastings. It was by far the largest single-floor theatre I ever attended in the San Gabriel Valley. In fact I’d say the only larger single-floor theatre I’ve ever been in was Grauman’s Chinese.
Speaking of maps, the link to Google maps for this theatre does not display the actual location. In the absence of Court Street (obliterated decades ago), Google defaults to the 100 block of Center Street, about a mile east of the theatre’s actual location.
CORRECTION: Wait a minute. I’ve gotten the street sides backward again. The odd numbered addresses are on the north sides and the even numbers on the south sides. The Tunnel Theatre would have been across Third Street from the building in the photo to which I linked. It might have been in the low building a corner of the roof of which is visible at right foreground.
The Lux was not very near Beaudry, and both theatres were west of the tunnel. The Lux was between Flower and Figueroa, so the Tunnel Theater would have been between Flower and Hope. The Third Street tunnel in those days ran from just east of Clay Street to the middle of the ROW of Hope Street.
In that photo to which I linked, Hope Street runs on that shelf above the tunnel, and is also the narrow street running to the left from Third Street. The parts of Hope Street joined up near Second Street. When the hill was lowered for the urban destroyal project, the Second and Third Street tunnels were both lengthened a bit on their west ends, and the dirt from the hill was piled onto the low ground into which the tunnels had previously opened.
It’s probably difficult to envision the way it all looked before the reconstruction of the land, but I can still remember quite a few details of the area’s old form.
This theatre would have been a few doors west of Hope Street, on the north side of Third, and about a block east of the Lux Theatre (aka Rose Theatre, Rex Theatre.) Here’s a photo of the general location as it appeared about 1937. The theatre might have been a storefront nickelodeon in the two story building at left, though a building of that style could have been built anytime from the early 1900s to the mid 1920s.
There was another Florence Theatre, built in 1921 on Moneta Avenue (South Broadway) near 72nd Street. It was listed under that name in a 1924 city directory. I don’t know if it’s on CT under another name or not.
The introductory paragraph for the Aloha Theatre says that the Century Theatre across the street from it has been destroyed. Not so, as ken mc has posted recent photos of the Century’s building (linked on its page) which now houses an upholstery supply company.
UCLA has changed the URLs of the photos in the Times collection,and no longer displays the very large versions they once did. The remaining version of the 1977 photo cited in ken mc’s post of May 18 is now available here.
The URL for the photo I linked to above has apparently changed. See it here.
The Fox Cabrillo was at 115 W. Seventh, not Sixth. The Victoria was a different theatre. It’s mentioned, in passing, on a card in the California Index referencing a 1920 article.
Additionally, in the California Index I’ve come across mentions of theatres in San Pedro bearing the following names: Alhambra, Barton, Electric, Empire, Lyric, Star. and Union. No addresses or other details are given for any of them.
Virginia must be an AKA for the Star Theatre.
I see that there are four theatres named “Music Hall” listed in that 1945 ad. I wonder if they were all run by Walter Reade Theatres? I know that the Beverly Hills Music Hall was a Reade operation for a while, and they also ran the Music Hall Theatre in San Francisco, though that was in the 1960s.
That last photo is late 1928 or early 1929, I’d say, given the fact that the building is covered in signs announcing its imminent destruction to make way for the expanding May Co. Department Store.
It places the Optic at 446&½ S. Broadway.
It also give the address of Tally’s New Broadway as 254 S. Broadway, but given the evidence of historic photos confirming that it was at 554 S. Broadway, I’d guess that the newspaper listing probably has a typo.
Lots of other interesting stuff in that ad, though, including the address of the first Metropolitan Theatre at 257 E. Fifth, and of the second Los Angeles Theatre, at 340 S. Spring.
It would be nice if it differentiated between movie theatres and stage theatres, though. It’s going to be hard to tell which ones ought to be added and which ones don’t qualify.
The Redding Theatre is mentioned several times on this page of the Cascade Theatre website. According to that page the Redding Theatre was built in 1910, and the wording gives the impression that by the 1930s it was being operated by T.&D., Jr. Enterprises. (Note that the page is not entirely reliable, though, as it names the owners of T.&D. as Turner and Duncan, not the correct Turner and Dahnken.)
There’s another photo of the Redding Theatre accessible from this page at the Redding Record-Searchlight’s website.
Here’s another photo, smaller, but without the intrusive utility wires.
Ken, that was no typo. That was a spur-of-the-moment portmanteau coinage, but a Google search on the phrase indicates that I was not the first to ever use it. The results show two earlier examples.
Here’s a slightly wider version of the photo at the top of this page. The Paradise was built in 1950, a few years before the various wide-screen processes of the era were developed, so its exceptional width was not intended to accommodate them (unless architect Ted Rogvoy was presciently anticipating their development.) The building was a splendid example of Midcentury Modern design, and maybe the best theatre in that style in the Los Angeles area.
The Kim Sing Theatre has been converted to a living space/furniture showroom by a designer who now owns it. It was featured in one episode of the HGTV show What’s With That House? I remember seeing the Kim Sing before it was called the Kim Sing, back when Chinatown had not yet expanded as far west as Figueroa Street. It was running Mexican movies at the time, and I believe it was using the name Alpine Theatre (it was on Figueroa at the corner of Alpine Street.)
As the first Godzilla movie came out in 1954, and I recall the La Brea still being a Fox house at that time (it was across the street from my doctor’s office), I suspect that the Japanese language version of the movie would have first been shown at the Linda Lea, either in 1954 or 1955. It would probably have been run with English subtitles, as most of the movies shown there were. After Toho acquired the La Brea (in the late 1950s, I think), that theatre ran many of the company’s “arty” films, leaving the more popular stuff for the Linda Lea or to a Japanese language theatre (can’t remember the name) that opened up in the West Adams area. I think there might have been a Japanese movie theatre in Gardena in those days, too.
The plans for the Strand Theatre were announced in Southwest Builder & Contractor issue of March 18, 1921. The location given was the corner of Moneta (now Broadway) and Vernon. The owner was named as Ed Colter, the architect as William C. Penell. The building was described as a two story brick theatre, store and market. It was listed as the Strand Theatre, at 4409 S. Moneta Avenue, in the 1923 City Directory.
The theatre’s peripatetic front door suggests that Penell may have studied architecture at Hogwarts Academy, but this is only speculation.
The Junior Orpheum Circuit ran combination houses which featured moderately-priced shows consisting of a movie and several acts of vaudeville, presented either continuously or (usually) three times a day. Regular Orpheum Circuit theatres were two-show-a-day, all-vaudeville houses, though of course many of them soon converted to combination houses or ran only movies as vaudeville withered away.
Guys: The Mozart Theatre at 730 S. Grand was the one with all the names (Including, per the photo, Clune’s Grand Avenue Theatre.) It outlasted the Criterion. Also, the state library got both direction and date wrong on its photo. The view is south from 7th and Grand, not north, and the year has to be 1908 or later, when the building was erected.
As for the Fox Criterion, it looks as though (per ken mc’s comment of May 29 this year) that this theatre’s last operating name must have been either Tally’s Theatre or Grand Wilshire Theatre, since the original entry at top of this page says that it was razed in 1941.