Cameo Theatre

528 S. Broadway,
Los Angeles, CA 90013

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rivest266
rivest266 on September 7, 2019 at 3:44 pm

This reopened as the Cameo theatre on August 1st, 1924. Grand opening ad posted.

DavidZornig
DavidZornig on October 22, 2016 at 12:45 pm

Circa 1999/2000 photo added, photo credit Cat Murray.

JCharles
JCharles on December 19, 2013 at 7:49 pm

In the book Xerox Ferox, writer Jimmy McDonough describes the Cameo as being the “most extreme” theatre he ever set foot in, describing it as “Calcutta with four walls and a movie screen.” (pg. 147)

ScottyA
ScottyA on October 18, 2013 at 5:54 pm

I just uploaded a photo I took in 1984! I worked on a low-budget film that eventually ended up on a quadruple feature, at the Cameo. I was scared to go inside, but the jam-packed marquee cracked me up.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on April 10, 2013 at 7:09 pm

I’ve uploaded a 1910 photo of Clune’s Broadway Theatre to the photo section. It looks like the theater was not open yet when the photo was taken, though construction had apparently been completed.

drb
drb on June 16, 2011 at 4:31 pm

The Facebook page for the Tropico Station blog has a recent interior photo of the Cameo in the photo album, misidentified as the Roxie. You might need a Facebook account to see it.

View link

drb
drb on July 28, 2010 at 7:41 am

Have we seen this one? From the H.A.M.B. forum
View link

DonSolosan
DonSolosan on May 16, 2010 at 7:20 pm

And another bad link, Re: the info. That’s why I hate linking to other websites, particularly the library!

The image is still viewable, and the info has been added to the image at the top of the page.

TLSLOEWS
TLSLOEWS on May 16, 2010 at 6:31 pm

Another fallen marquee.

DonSolosan
DonSolosan on October 31, 2009 at 6:05 pm

The link above has gone bad. Here’s the image:

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics18/00028729.jpg

and the info:

View link

DonSolosan
DonSolosan on July 28, 2009 at 7:24 pm

The profile photo at the top of the page is described as “circa 1970, courtesy of William Gabel.”

This photo also appears in the LA Public Library digital collection. They list the photographer as Anne Knudsen and give the date as 1981.

View link

Velostigmat
Velostigmat on July 26, 2009 at 12:41 am

I just heard today that the Cameo got a pipe organ in 1914. Does anyone know anything about that?

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on April 26, 2009 at 2:59 pm

Here is a 1939 photo from the USC archives:
http://tinyurl.com/c9w6c4

monika
monika on March 25, 2009 at 6:35 pm

Posting to get this theatre back on my “notifications” list….

monika
monika on February 21, 2009 at 1:27 pm

Here is a video I took with my phone of the Cameo’s marquee lights this January:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FtN2g5_FGk

Velostigmat
Velostigmat on January 27, 2009 at 10:01 pm

oops. pp. 128-129 in the 1994 paperback edition!

Velostigmat
Velostigmat on January 27, 2009 at 9:59 pm

Here’s a quote from a book I just reread:

“Clune’s Theater in Los Angeles opened on 10 November 1910. It seated nine hundred and had three projectors plus two stereopticons (at a time when having two projectors was already the sign of a high-class house.) For an admission price of ten and twenty cents (for loge seats at the back), one got five full reels of licensed films on the first run, two illustrated songs, and one "song specialty,” adding up to a program of an hour and a half. If those were really full reels, that means the projectionist at Clune’s speeded them up at a tremendous rate. An eight-piece orchestra and two singing booths, one on each side of the scree, were available for music."

Bowser, Eileen. The Transformation of Cinema: 1907-1915. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1990

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on December 2, 2008 at 7:39 pm

The show on the billboard ended in May 2006.
http://tinyurl.com/6jafj2

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on March 16, 2008 at 9:23 pm

The bottom right photo shows the box office circa mid 70s:
http://tinyurl.com/2rp4wl

nickb
nickb on January 28, 2008 at 10:35 pm

A feature in the Times in October 1927 concerning the opening of HL Gumbiner’s new Tower Theatre mentions that Gumbiner owned and operated the Cameo Theater (‘with success’) before launching the Tower.

He had previously presided over Gumbiner Theatrical Enterprises in Chicago, with up to 14 small theaters.

nickb
nickb on January 28, 2008 at 10:30 pm

From the LA Times, July 20 1924:

ARTISANS BUSY REBUILDING NEW CAMEO THEATER
“The best and most luxuriously appointed ‘small’ theater on Broadway when the renovations are completed.”
That’s the promise of O.D. Cloakey, manager of the Cameo Theater, the newly named film playhouse, which takes the place of the old Clune’s Broadway.
A half-hundred carpenters, electricians, decorators and upholsterers are in possession of the place now. The auditorium is a chaos of wreckage, but out of this chaos William Cutts is devising a new orderliness from which will rise a new theater adequately equipped to take its place alongside Broadway’s best.
Its old seating capacity of 800 will be slightly increased by the new space arrangement. A larger orchestra pit is being made to make room for the sixteen players who will be directed by Theodore Henkel, newly appointed musical director. The projection-room will be widened.
A suite of drawing and sitting-rooms is being fitted out in luxurious style on the second floor, where women patrons will find quiet, comfort and opportunity for rest.'

Etc. Plans were to reopen sometime in July 1924 with a Wallace Beery super-feature, ‘The Signal Tower’.