There is a small photo of the marquee of the Bill Robinson Theatre on this page at the Western States Black History and Research Center website. It’s part of a large collection of photos and memorabilia assembled by the late Mayme A. Clayton. Eventually there’s to be a library to house the collection, but so far only a few pictures have been digitized for display on the website.
I’m not sure which of the two locations of the Bill Robinson is depicted in this photo, but it is labeled as having been taken c1942, so it’s more likely to be the former Tivoli Theatre at 4219 Central Avenue than the former Casino Theatre (which is not yet listed at Cinema Treasures) at 4319 Central Avenue.
I don’t know if this is the same place or not, but the Motion Picture Herald of February 27, 1932, had a small item saying that Frank Pratt had taken over the lease on the Garden Theatre, Belvedere Gardens, East Los Angeles. The name Belvedere was historically applied to a good-sized swath of the unincorporated east side, though, including some commercial districts along First and Third Streets and Brooklyn Avenue, so Garden Theatre might have been an early name of some other theatre in the area.
The United Artists is the nearest theatre in this night photo of Broadway north from 11th Street during the parade celebrating the arrival of electricity from Boulder (now Hoover) Dam, 9 October, 1936.
The information accompanying this photo gives the date as 1955, but looking at the cars on the street I’d guess it’s as much as a decade earlier- probably the early post-war years. Anyway, here’s a view of Broadway with the Loew’s State vertical sign prominently featured.
The demolition took place in 1920? Was the entire building demolished or was it just the auditorium section? In the c1920 photo from the library collection the commercial part of the building looks to be in excellent shape. All the later pictures I’ve seen of the place are from after it got that deco/streamline modern remodeling, which had to have been done in the 1930s at the earliest. Nothing looking like that facade would have been built as early as 1920. If the whole building was new in 1920, then there ought to be pictures of it somewhere.
Fred Miller was quite active in the business. In 1923 he built the Gateway Theatre in Glendale, and in 1925 the Figueroa Theatre.
He also had something to do with the Carthay Circle. The California Index has a card headed with his name citing an article about the Carthay Circle in the magazine California Graphic of July 24, 1926. And then there’s a card citing an article in the trade publication Exhibitors Herald-World from February 16, 1929, about Fox-West Coast retaining Fred Miller as manager of the Carthay Circle after they have taken over operation the theatre. I can’t find any reference specifically naming the actual owner of the theatre before Fox took over, so it may or may not have been Miller. Maybe there’s a Times article from the era that would tell.
And apparently Miller didn’t remain as manager of the Carthay Circle for very long after the Fox takeover. Another card from the California Index cites an L.A. Times article of May 18, 1930 (part III, page 9) which was headed “Pioneer theatre man reenters field.” That’s the most recent reference to him I’ve seen, so I don’t know how his return went.
Way back in December of 2005, I linked to a photo from the USC digital archives showing this block before the California was built, but which showed the earlier Miller’s Theatre down the block. The picture has been moved here. Unfortunately, USC has abandoned the scroll feature they once had, so the amount of detail viewers can get is now limited, but you can still make out the Miller’s marquee and rooftop sign on the dark, three story building at far right.
ken mc: The articles you quote must refer to the Clune’s Broadway Theatre which later became the Cameo Theatre. Despite what the L.A. Conservancy’s database says, I don’t think there was ever a theatre on this site at 601 S. Broadway, unless it was a storefront nickelodeon.
Has anyone contacted the New York Public Library to let them know that their photo caption misidentifies the Ohio Theatre as the United Artists? Errors such as that are pretty common on the Internet, unfortunately. Not every institution will respond to notification about mistakes on their websites, either. The Library of Congress website has never corrected any of the caption errors I’ve told them about, but the L.A. Public Library has corrected several such errors in their on-line photo collection after I’ve informed them about them by e-mail. I’ve never contacted the New York library, so I don’t know if it would do any good or not.
The Cody/San Fernando Theatre was designed by architect A. Godfrey Bailey. His completion of the preliminary plans was announced in the April 2, 1924 issue of Southwest Builder & Contractor.
The photo to which Lost Memory linked above has been moved. It is now located here. It should be noted that there is a discrepancy in dates from the two sources. The caption information with the photo claims that the theatre was already open in 1923, a conclusion apparently based on the fact that the movie advertised on the marquee had been released in that year.
Architect Bailey also did a 1924 remodel of the Cameo Theatre on Broadway in downtown Los Angeles.
The Hippodrome was essentially two buildings, as is the case with many theatres. The commercial building in front,which also contained the theatre lobby, was the part that wasn’t demolished until 1984. The auditorium structure was demolished much earlier, and was replaced by an open parking lot. After the Westminster was razed there was a clear view from both Main and 4th Streets to the location where the Hippodrome’s auditorium had stood .
What happened to the Hippodrome is essentially the same thing that happened to the Garfield Theatre in Alhambra, except that the Garfield’s foyer and lobby were enclosed for retail space, not left open as a driveway. But in both cases, the auditoriums were torn down and the surrounding commercial buildings were left standing.
You can see aerial views of the Garfield before and after its auditorium’s demolition at Microsoft’s TerraServer. The 2004 Urban Areas photo shows the surviving retail building and the parking lot, and the 1994 aerial photo shows when the theatre was still there. Unfortunately the Hippodrome was entirely demolished long before either of the aerial photos of its site available at TerraServer were made.
The Hippodrome was essentially two buildings, as is the case with many theatres. The commercial building in front,which also contained the theatre lobby, was the part that wasn’t demolished until 1984. The auditorium structure was demolished much earlier, and was replaced by an open parking lot. After the Westminster was razed there was a clear view from both Main and 4th Streets to the location where the Hippodrome’s auditorium had stood .
What happened to the Hippodrome is essentially the same thing that happened to the Garfield Theatre in Alhambra, except that the Garfield’s foyer and lobby were enclosed for retail space, not left open as a driveway. But in both cases, the auditoriums were torn down and the surrounding commercial buildings were left standing.
You can see aerial views of the Garfield before and after its auditorium’s demolition at Microsoft’s TerraServer. The 2004 Urban Areas photo shows the surviving retail building and the parking lot, and the 1994 aerial photo shows when the theatre was still there. Unfortunately the Hippodrome was entirely demolished long before either of the aerial photos of its site available at TerraServer were made.
Ken: I think the Main Street Hippodrome was the only theatre in Los Angeles ever to use that name, so the article probably is about this theatre. The date for demolition does seem about right,and it did make way for a parking lot.
Ken mc: By 1966 the State had been part of the Corwins' Metropolitan Circuit for at least a few years. The photo is interesting for other reasons too, though. Look how tidy the street and sidewalk are. There are a couple of scraps of paper in the gutter, but those white spots on the sidewalk are probably from dust specks on the photograph negative. That’s how I remember Broadway and most of downtown being through the 1960s. When I returned in the early 1980s, after more than a decade’s absence, the street was one long strew of trash, most of it from fast food places, and somebody had virtually paved the sidewalks with dried chewing gum.
Ken: That picture you linked to today shows the Hill Street side of the building. That fancy decoration around the second floor windows was continuous only on the Hill Street side. On the 6th Street side, only the end window got that ornate frame. See the 1944 photo you linked to on March 9.
The windmill is gone, the blades having been taken down in the 1950s when that particular branch of Van de Kamp’s closed. The mill-shaped tower remained a number of years after that, but was finally removed. I believe the rest of the building is still there, though, including its extended window bay above which the windmill stood.
I also have a vague memory of the big sign atop the Garfield’s fly tower being lit up with hundreds of little light bulbs, until the mid-1950s, but maybe wishful thinking has caused me to imagine having seen that. I know the sign itself was there for ages, and the painted mural and lettering on the back of the fly tower, flaking and fading away year after year. That photo from the USC collection shows only the top of the moon, and not the sailing ship that was silhouetted against it. I’d love to see a picture of the whole thing.
I suspect that the large upstairs space which eventually became the Main Street Gym might have started out as a dance hall. See this 1928 photo (it’s the same one ken mc linked to on March 24.) The picture is a bit blurry, but it looks as though the small blade sign attached to the near end of the theatre building says “Dancing”. Maybe somebody with better eyesight than mine can make it out.
The “Auto Park” advertised on the theatre’s former main blade sign and marquee occupied the space where the auditorium (demolished in the late 1940s) had stood. The ground floor of the Adolphus Theatre Building, except for the long lobby which became the parking lot entrance, continued to be used as retail space for many years. I have no memory of a basement in the building, but almost every downtown building did have one and it seems unlikely that this building would be an exception to the rule.
Patsy: Temple was the original name of the theatre which is listed on Cinema Treasures under its final name, El Rey. It was demolished following the Northhridge earthquake in 1987, as was the nearby Alhambra Theatre (Alhambra Twin Cinemas. Alhambra’s other known old theatre, the Granada/Coronet/Capri was destroyed following an earlier earthquake, in 1971. I’ve come across one reference to another very early (c1912) movie theatre in Alhambra, possibly called the Supurba, but can’t pin down any details about it.
Interestingly enough, the architect originally employed to design the Garfield was John Walker Smart, who did in fact design the DuPuy castle now owned by Phil Spector. Eventually it was L.A. Smith who designed the Garfield.
The Roosevelt Theatre at 8th and Vermont, renamed Chotiner’s Parisian Theatre in the 1930s, is listed here as the Fox Parisian.
There is a small photo of the marquee of the Bill Robinson Theatre on this page at the Western States Black History and Research Center website. It’s part of a large collection of photos and memorabilia assembled by the late Mayme A. Clayton. Eventually there’s to be a library to house the collection, but so far only a few pictures have been digitized for display on the website.
I’m not sure which of the two locations of the Bill Robinson is depicted in this photo, but it is labeled as having been taken c1942, so it’s more likely to be the former Tivoli Theatre at 4219 Central Avenue than the former Casino Theatre (which is not yet listed at Cinema Treasures) at 4319 Central Avenue.
I don’t know if this is the same place or not, but the Motion Picture Herald of February 27, 1932, had a small item saying that Frank Pratt had taken over the lease on the Garden Theatre, Belvedere Gardens, East Los Angeles. The name Belvedere was historically applied to a good-sized swath of the unincorporated east side, though, including some commercial districts along First and Third Streets and Brooklyn Avenue, so Garden Theatre might have been an early name of some other theatre in the area.
This theatre is located in the city of Torrance, not Los Angeles.
The United Artists is the nearest theatre in this night photo of Broadway north from 11th Street during the parade celebrating the arrival of electricity from Boulder (now Hoover) Dam, 9 October, 1936.
The information accompanying this photo gives the date as 1955, but looking at the cars on the street I’d guess it’s as much as a decade earlier- probably the early post-war years. Anyway, here’s a view of Broadway with the Loew’s State vertical sign prominently featured.
Rats! Screwed up the code for the picture link.
1920 photo from the library collection.
The demolition took place in 1920? Was the entire building demolished or was it just the auditorium section? In the c1920 photo from the library collection the commercial part of the building looks to be in excellent shape. All the later pictures I’ve seen of the place are from after it got that deco/streamline modern remodeling, which had to have been done in the 1930s at the earliest. Nothing looking like that facade would have been built as early as 1920. If the whole building was new in 1920, then there ought to be pictures of it somewhere.
The Galway at 518 S. Main is listed.
Fred Miller was quite active in the business. In 1923 he built the Gateway Theatre in Glendale, and in 1925 the Figueroa Theatre.
He also had something to do with the Carthay Circle. The California Index has a card headed with his name citing an article about the Carthay Circle in the magazine California Graphic of July 24, 1926. And then there’s a card citing an article in the trade publication Exhibitors Herald-World from February 16, 1929, about Fox-West Coast retaining Fred Miller as manager of the Carthay Circle after they have taken over operation the theatre. I can’t find any reference specifically naming the actual owner of the theatre before Fox took over, so it may or may not have been Miller. Maybe there’s a Times article from the era that would tell.
And apparently Miller didn’t remain as manager of the Carthay Circle for very long after the Fox takeover. Another card from the California Index cites an L.A. Times article of May 18, 1930 (part III, page 9) which was headed “Pioneer theatre man reenters field.” That’s the most recent reference to him I’ve seen, so I don’t know how his return went.
Way back in December of 2005, I linked to a photo from the USC digital archives showing this block before the California was built, but which showed the earlier Miller’s Theatre down the block. The picture has been moved here. Unfortunately, USC has abandoned the scroll feature they once had, so the amount of detail viewers can get is now limited, but you can still make out the Miller’s marquee and rooftop sign on the dark, three story building at far right.
ken mc: The articles you quote must refer to the Clune’s Broadway Theatre which later became the Cameo Theatre. Despite what the L.A. Conservancy’s database says, I don’t think there was ever a theatre on this site at 601 S. Broadway, unless it was a storefront nickelodeon.
Has anyone contacted the New York Public Library to let them know that their photo caption misidentifies the Ohio Theatre as the United Artists? Errors such as that are pretty common on the Internet, unfortunately. Not every institution will respond to notification about mistakes on their websites, either. The Library of Congress website has never corrected any of the caption errors I’ve told them about, but the L.A. Public Library has corrected several such errors in their on-line photo collection after I’ve informed them about them by e-mail. I’ve never contacted the New York library, so I don’t know if it would do any good or not.
Ken: The Imperial/UA is still operating as the Market Street Cinema.
The Cody/San Fernando Theatre was designed by architect A. Godfrey Bailey. His completion of the preliminary plans was announced in the April 2, 1924 issue of Southwest Builder & Contractor.
The photo to which Lost Memory linked above has been moved. It is now located here. It should be noted that there is a discrepancy in dates from the two sources. The caption information with the photo claims that the theatre was already open in 1923, a conclusion apparently based on the fact that the movie advertised on the marquee had been released in that year.
Architect Bailey also did a 1924 remodel of the Cameo Theatre on Broadway in downtown Los Angeles.
The Hippodrome was essentially two buildings, as is the case with many theatres. The commercial building in front,which also contained the theatre lobby, was the part that wasn’t demolished until 1984. The auditorium structure was demolished much earlier, and was replaced by an open parking lot. After the Westminster was razed there was a clear view from both Main and 4th Streets to the location where the Hippodrome’s auditorium had stood .
What happened to the Hippodrome is essentially the same thing that happened to the Garfield Theatre in Alhambra, except that the Garfield’s foyer and lobby were enclosed for retail space, not left open as a driveway. But in both cases, the auditoriums were torn down and the surrounding commercial buildings were left standing.
You can see aerial views of the Garfield before and after its auditorium’s demolition at Microsoft’s TerraServer. The 2004 Urban Areas photo shows the surviving retail building and the parking lot, and the 1994 aerial photo shows when the theatre was still there. Unfortunately the Hippodrome was entirely demolished long before either of the aerial photos of its site available at TerraServer were made.
The Hippodrome was essentially two buildings, as is the case with many theatres. The commercial building in front,which also contained the theatre lobby, was the part that wasn’t demolished until 1984. The auditorium structure was demolished much earlier, and was replaced by an open parking lot. After the Westminster was razed there was a clear view from both Main and 4th Streets to the location where the Hippodrome’s auditorium had stood .
What happened to the Hippodrome is essentially the same thing that happened to the Garfield Theatre in Alhambra, except that the Garfield’s foyer and lobby were enclosed for retail space, not left open as a driveway. But in both cases, the auditoriums were torn down and the surrounding commercial buildings were left standing.
You can see aerial views of the Garfield before and after its auditorium’s demolition at Microsoft’s TerraServer. The 2004 Urban Areas photo shows the surviving retail building and the parking lot, and the 1994 aerial photo shows when the theatre was still there. Unfortunately the Hippodrome was entirely demolished long before either of the aerial photos of its site available at TerraServer were made.
Ken: I think the Main Street Hippodrome was the only theatre in Los Angeles ever to use that name, so the article probably is about this theatre. The date for demolition does seem about right,and it did make way for a parking lot.
Ken mc: By 1966 the State had been part of the Corwins' Metropolitan Circuit for at least a few years. The photo is interesting for other reasons too, though. Look how tidy the street and sidewalk are. There are a couple of scraps of paper in the gutter, but those white spots on the sidewalk are probably from dust specks on the photograph negative. That’s how I remember Broadway and most of downtown being through the 1960s. When I returned in the early 1980s, after more than a decade’s absence, the street was one long strew of trash, most of it from fast food places, and somebody had virtually paved the sidewalks with dried chewing gum.
Ken: That picture you linked to today shows the Hill Street side of the building. That fancy decoration around the second floor windows was continuous only on the Hill Street side. On the 6th Street side, only the end window got that ornate frame. See the 1944 photo you linked to on March 9.
The theatre on the west side of Hill Street between 7th and 8th was the Alhambra.
The windmill is gone, the blades having been taken down in the 1950s when that particular branch of Van de Kamp’s closed. The mill-shaped tower remained a number of years after that, but was finally removed. I believe the rest of the building is still there, though, including its extended window bay above which the windmill stood.
I also have a vague memory of the big sign atop the Garfield’s fly tower being lit up with hundreds of little light bulbs, until the mid-1950s, but maybe wishful thinking has caused me to imagine having seen that. I know the sign itself was there for ages, and the painted mural and lettering on the back of the fly tower, flaking and fading away year after year. That photo from the USC collection shows only the top of the moon, and not the sailing ship that was silhouetted against it. I’d love to see a picture of the whole thing.
The Apollo/Star burned in December of 1976. Here’s a photo of the event from the L.A. Times.
I suspect that the large upstairs space which eventually became the Main Street Gym might have started out as a dance hall. See this 1928 photo (it’s the same one ken mc linked to on March 24.) The picture is a bit blurry, but it looks as though the small blade sign attached to the near end of the theatre building says “Dancing”. Maybe somebody with better eyesight than mine can make it out.
The “Auto Park” advertised on the theatre’s former main blade sign and marquee occupied the space where the auditorium (demolished in the late 1940s) had stood. The ground floor of the Adolphus Theatre Building, except for the long lobby which became the parking lot entrance, continued to be used as retail space for many years. I have no memory of a basement in the building, but almost every downtown building did have one and it seems unlikely that this building would be an exception to the rule.
Patsy: Temple was the original name of the theatre which is listed on Cinema Treasures under its final name, El Rey. It was demolished following the Northhridge earthquake in 1987, as was the nearby Alhambra Theatre (Alhambra Twin Cinemas. Alhambra’s other known old theatre, the Granada/Coronet/Capri was destroyed following an earlier earthquake, in 1971. I’ve come across one reference to another very early (c1912) movie theatre in Alhambra, possibly called the Supurba, but can’t pin down any details about it.
Interestingly enough, the architect originally employed to design the Garfield was John Walker Smart, who did in fact design the DuPuy castle now owned by Phil Spector. Eventually it was L.A. Smith who designed the Garfield.