Bryan: The only picture of the Pismo Theatre I can find in the web is this tiny one at Cinematour, but the building certainly looks as though it would have been there in 1945. I only ever went through downtown Pismo Beach once, in the late 1960s, and the theatre was called the Pismo then, but it was a very small town, and there were many theatres in nearby cities such as San Luis Obispo and Santa Maria, so I doubt that Pismo Beach would ever have supported two movie houses. Also, scottfavareille makes reference to art deco details in the auditorium, which suggests a 1920s or 1930s origin for the building, so it seems likely that the Pismo and the Ward’s were the same theatre.
This theatre apparently hosted a number of live music performances. I’ve come across web references to a Grateful Dead concert there as early as 1976. There is also a listing of an appearance by Blue Oyster Cult at the Central Coast Theatre in 1988. The most recent reference I can find is on the site of a local band called 10 High, which performed there (though they called it the Pismo Theatre— maybe the name reverted to the original before the theatre closed) in 1994.
I’ve also found a reference to the Pismo Theatre in a Rocky Horror usenet group (no date mentioned), so it must have been the local venue for that cult movie.
Opened as Loew’s Theatre, New Years Eve, 1917. The architect was Thomas W. Lamb. Although the auditorium was demolished, the lobby was not, and now houses a restaurant.
The Los Angeles is one of the few downtown theatres which has two balconies. I only saw the second balcony opened once, when the theatre was four-walled for an exploitation movie called “Poor White Trash” in about 1963.
That is the Sierra Theatre in Susanville, California. This picture from the U.C. Davis collection gives the location. Susanville is the county seat of Lassen County, and is about 90 miles northwest of Reno, Nevada. The Sierra Theatre may still be open, but it is not yet listed n Cinema Treasures.
Oroville State Theatre. It’s still standing, and it’s been largely restored (I don’t think they’ve finished restoring the balcony yet.) I’ve actually never been to the Oroville State, even though it’s only about twenty miles from where I live.
ken mc: What you have there is an aerial view of the El Monte Drive-In on Lower Azusa Road. The Cinema Treasures entry on the El Monte Drive-In mistakenly attributes the design to William Glenn Balch. W.G. Balch and his father, Clifford Balch did design the Starlite Drive-In in South El Monte, but both the Tumbleweed and the El Monte Drive-In were designed by S. Charles Lee.
ken mc: I’m wondering if maybe this isn’t the El Rey Theatre (opened as the Majestic in 1905) in Chico, California. It was called the American from 1939 to 1946, and the street looks very much like Chico’s 2nd Street. The building is the right shape, too. I see another theatre is across the street, and on its side wall is painted a sign with “CHIC…” visible. I’ve never heard of an Empire Theatre existing in Chico, but it’s a definite possibility.
OK, I’ve just found the small early picture of the Majestic/El Rey at the top of this page, and the building next door to the theatre in that picture appears to be the same one that appears in the picture you’ve found. Now I’m convinced. That’s the El Rey, probably some time about 1939-1940.
Ken Layton is correct about the music in many public domain films still being under copyright. The music departments of the movie studios were often more careful to renew their copyrights on all their holdings than were the people responsible for overseeing the copyrights on the movies themselves. Also, studios sometimes used music under license from a composer or an outside publisher, and those copyrights are often still in effect, and the exhibition of those movies is still subject to the terms of those license agreements, even though a film itself may have fallen into the public domain. It’s wise to be careful when dealing with public domain movies, since the images and the musical score were almost invariably copyrighted separately.
University of Calgary Press has published a book about the city’s history from 1912 to 2005, in which the Lougheed Building and the Grand Theatre are prominently featured: Calgary’s Grand Story. (The page displays a very small picture of the interior of The Grand, as featured on the book’s cover.)
The clearest picture I’ve found of the Majestic is this excellent scan_01.jpg) of a frame from Harold Lloyd’s “Safety Last” which shows the theatre in the background. The scan is from the excellent Dr. Macro’s High Quality Movie Scans. I haven’t had a chance to peruse much of the site, but I expect that it might contain at least a few other scans of scenes from early movies shot on the streets of Southern California which might contain glimpses of other theatres.
Jeane Mari: The Bruce Torrence Collection has pictures of Ken Murray’s Blackouts (with Marie Wilson) at the Vine Street El Capitan. The biggest hit record of “Got a Date with an Angel” was probably the one by Hal Kemp and his orchestra, but I doubt that they could have fit onto the back of a truck.
The actual date of the fire which gutted the El Rey was August 5th, 1975. The event was reported in the Los Angeles Times the next day.
The El Rey was built by William Peters. San Francisco architects Mark T. Jorgensen and Otto A. Deichmann prepared the plans, according to the Better Theatres section of The Motion Picture Herald, October 17th, 1936. The theatre probably opened in 1937.
I’ve come across a contradiction in the Los Angeles Public Library’s database. Though text entries give the location of the Silent Building as 733 S. Hill Street (the theatre entrance was at the right end of the building), the data accompanying a a picture of the building gives an address of 730 S. Hill Street, which would put the building on the east side of the street. If the address on the west side of the street is correct, then the buildingis gone. If the address on the west side of the street is correct, then the building might well still exist.
The Granada was financed by C.W. Post of the Post Cereal family. It was originally designed in a Spanish architectural style, but much of the interior was remodeled in 1937 in the art deco style. The original proscenium was still intact as of 1993, and a plaster letter “P” for Post could be seen at the tops of the flanking columns. Though it was operated in its last years by Metropolitan Theatres, it opened as a West Coast Theatres house, and had been a Fox-West Coast house from the late 1920s into the 1960s.
Source: abstract of a paper from the Wilmington Historical Society, available in PDF format from the L.A. Public Library.
I had completely forgotten about that Broadway entrance to the Metropolitan! There was originally an entrance on Hill Street, as well, but only the Sixth Street entrance remained when I first saw the theatre. The L.A. Library has a photo of the interior of the Broadway entrance to the Metropolitan.
Southwest Builder & Contractor of January 9th, 1925, revealed that the plans for the Lyric Theatre were being prepared by the firm of Wilson, Merrill and Wilson, 128 S. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles. The building was to be 70' x 150' and the projected cost was $75,000. The owners and operators would be National Theatres.
If the Park Theatre was operating during the silent era, then it was not the T&D, plans for which (by San Francisco architect Albert A. Larsen) were announced in The Los Angeles Times on November 24th, 1929.
From Southwest Builder and Contractor, issue of 10/27/1928:[quote]“San Luis Obispo— Mrs. W.B. Martin has secured a permit for reconstruction the El Monterey Theater. The cost will be $20,000.”[quote]
Bryan: The only picture of the Pismo Theatre I can find in the web is this tiny one at Cinematour, but the building certainly looks as though it would have been there in 1945. I only ever went through downtown Pismo Beach once, in the late 1960s, and the theatre was called the Pismo then, but it was a very small town, and there were many theatres in nearby cities such as San Luis Obispo and Santa Maria, so I doubt that Pismo Beach would ever have supported two movie houses. Also, scottfavareille makes reference to art deco details in the auditorium, which suggests a 1920s or 1930s origin for the building, so it seems likely that the Pismo and the Ward’s were the same theatre.
This theatre apparently hosted a number of live music performances. I’ve come across web references to a Grateful Dead concert there as early as 1976. There is also a listing of an appearance by Blue Oyster Cult at the Central Coast Theatre in 1988. The most recent reference I can find is on the site of a local band called 10 High, which performed there (though they called it the Pismo Theatre— maybe the name reverted to the original before the theatre closed) in 1994.
I’ve also found a reference to the Pismo Theatre in a Rocky Horror usenet group (no date mentioned), so it must have been the local venue for that cult movie.
The City of Kingston’s web site displays plans for the future of the Grand Theatre.
This entry needs to be updated:
Opened as Loew’s Theatre, New Years Eve, 1917. The architect was Thomas W. Lamb. Although the auditorium was demolished, the lobby was not, and now houses a restaurant.
The current appearance of the United Artists Pasadena can be seen in this picture.
The Los Angeles is one of the few downtown theatres which has two balconies. I only saw the second balcony opened once, when the theatre was four-walled for an exploitation movie called “Poor White Trash” in about 1963.
That is the Sierra Theatre in Susanville, California. This picture from the U.C. Davis collection gives the location. Susanville is the county seat of Lassen County, and is about 90 miles northwest of Reno, Nevada. The Sierra Theatre may still be open, but it is not yet listed n Cinema Treasures.
Oroville State Theatre. It’s still standing, and it’s been largely restored (I don’t think they’ve finished restoring the balcony yet.) I’ve actually never been to the Oroville State, even though it’s only about twenty miles from where I live.
TexasEscapes has a few small pictures and a brief essay about Electra’s Grand Theatre.
ken mc:
There was the Fox Cinemaland on Harbor Boulevard in Anaheim, but the entry here says it was demolished.
ken mc: What you have there is an aerial view of the El Monte Drive-In on Lower Azusa Road. The Cinema Treasures entry on the El Monte Drive-In mistakenly attributes the design to William Glenn Balch. W.G. Balch and his father, Clifford Balch did design the Starlite Drive-In in South El Monte, but both the Tumbleweed and the El Monte Drive-In were designed by S. Charles Lee.
ken mc: I’m wondering if maybe this isn’t the El Rey Theatre (opened as the Majestic in 1905) in Chico, California. It was called the American from 1939 to 1946, and the street looks very much like Chico’s 2nd Street. The building is the right shape, too. I see another theatre is across the street, and on its side wall is painted a sign with “CHIC…” visible. I’ve never heard of an Empire Theatre existing in Chico, but it’s a definite possibility.
OK, I’ve just found the small early picture of the Majestic/El Rey at the top of this page, and the building next door to the theatre in that picture appears to be the same one that appears in the picture you’ve found. Now I’m convinced. That’s the El Rey, probably some time about 1939-1940.
Ken Layton is correct about the music in many public domain films still being under copyright. The music departments of the movie studios were often more careful to renew their copyrights on all their holdings than were the people responsible for overseeing the copyrights on the movies themselves. Also, studios sometimes used music under license from a composer or an outside publisher, and those copyrights are often still in effect, and the exhibition of those movies is still subject to the terms of those license agreements, even though a film itself may have fallen into the public domain. It’s wise to be careful when dealing with public domain movies, since the images and the musical score were almost invariably copyrighted separately.
University of Calgary Press has published a book about the city’s history from 1912 to 2005, in which the Lougheed Building and the Grand Theatre are prominently featured: Calgary’s Grand Story. (The page displays a very small picture of the interior of The Grand, as featured on the book’s cover.)
Here is a decent picture of the Barron Building, taken during the time the theatre was closed.
The architect of the Uptown was John A. Cawston, of the firm of Stevenson, Cawston & Stevenson.
Here is a brief essay about the Barron Building, courtesy of the Calgary Public Library.
The clearest picture I’ve found of the Majestic is this excellent scan_01.jpg) of a frame from Harold Lloyd’s “Safety Last” which shows the theatre in the background. The scan is from the excellent Dr. Macro’s High Quality Movie Scans. I haven’t had a chance to peruse much of the site, but I expect that it might contain at least a few other scans of scenes from early movies shot on the streets of Southern California which might contain glimpses of other theatres.
Jeane Mari: The Bruce Torrence Collection has pictures of Ken Murray’s Blackouts (with Marie Wilson) at the Vine Street El Capitan. The biggest hit record of “Got a Date with an Angel” was probably the one by Hal Kemp and his orchestra, but I doubt that they could have fit onto the back of a truck.
The actual date of the fire which gutted the El Rey was August 5th, 1975. The event was reported in the Los Angeles Times the next day.
The El Rey was built by William Peters. San Francisco architects Mark T. Jorgensen and Otto A. Deichmann prepared the plans, according to the Better Theatres section of The Motion Picture Herald, October 17th, 1936. The theatre probably opened in 1937.
I’ve come across a contradiction in the Los Angeles Public Library’s database. Though text entries give the location of the Silent Building as 733 S. Hill Street (the theatre entrance was at the right end of the building), the data accompanying a a picture of the building gives an address of 730 S. Hill Street, which would put the building on the east side of the street. If the address on the west side of the street is correct, then the buildingis gone. If the address on the west side of the street is correct, then the building might well still exist.
The Granada was financed by C.W. Post of the Post Cereal family. It was originally designed in a Spanish architectural style, but much of the interior was remodeled in 1937 in the art deco style. The original proscenium was still intact as of 1993, and a plaster letter “P” for Post could be seen at the tops of the flanking columns. Though it was operated in its last years by Metropolitan Theatres, it opened as a West Coast Theatres house, and had been a Fox-West Coast house from the late 1920s into the 1960s.
Source: abstract of a paper from the Wilmington Historical Society, available in PDF format from the L.A. Public Library.
I had completely forgotten about that Broadway entrance to the Metropolitan! There was originally an entrance on Hill Street, as well, but only the Sixth Street entrance remained when I first saw the theatre. The L.A. Library has a photo of the interior of the Broadway entrance to the Metropolitan.
Southwest Builder & Contractor of January 9th, 1925, revealed that the plans for the Lyric Theatre were being prepared by the firm of Wilson, Merrill and Wilson, 128 S. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles. The building was to be 70' x 150' and the projected cost was $75,000. The owners and operators would be National Theatres.
If the Park Theatre was operating during the silent era, then it was not the T&D, plans for which (by San Francisco architect Albert A. Larsen) were announced in The Los Angeles Times on November 24th, 1929.
From Southwest Builder and Contractor, issue of 10/27/1928:[quote]“San Luis Obispo— Mrs. W.B. Martin has secured a permit for reconstruction the El Monterey Theater. The cost will be $20,000.”[quote]