Town Theatre

444 S. Hill Street,
Los Angeles, CA 90013

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Additional Info

Previously operated by: Far West Theatres Inc., Pussycat Theatres

Architects: Albert Carey Martin

Styles: Art Deco

Previous Names: Bard's Hill Street Theatre, Pussycat Theatre

Nearby Theaters

Town Theatre exterior

Bard’s Hill Street Theatre opened in October 1920 as one of the chain of L. Lou Bard’s chain Far West Theatres Inc. It was renamed Town Theatre on March 23, 1935. It is noted as being the first in the chain of Pussycat Theatre’s, when it converted to adult movies on February 4, 1966.

It was closed in September 1985, and later razed to make way for a McDonalds.

Contributed by William Gabel

Recent comments (view all 56 comments)

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on February 1, 2009 at 7:10 pm

Finally! Although the building is over two hundred feet distant, and the scan is a bit blurry, here is a photo of Bard’s Hill Street Theatre in the 1920s. The detail in the image is not too good, but it looks as though the theater had the same sort of fancy facade that Bard’s 8th Street had before it became the Olympic.

The photo is from the Dorothy Peyton Gray Transportation Library and Archive.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on April 26, 2009 at 6:15 pm

The Town can be seen on the right in this 1939 photo from the USC archives:
http://tinyurl.com/d5g63w

jflundy
jflundy on April 29, 2009 at 10:09 am

Here is a 1946 photo. It may have been posted before on one of the dead links above but I post it below:
View link

William
William on July 9, 2009 at 11:31 am

The feature films playing in Joe Vogel’s post from Jan 30th, 2009 are
“Confidential Agent” (1945 from WB) Charles Boyer, Lauren Bacall & Peter Lorre. The second feature was “Two O'Clock Courage” (1945 from RKO).

Meredith Rhule
Meredith Rhule on November 19, 2009 at 7:38 pm

No matter where a projectionist worked, they could always pick up extra money by working the Midnight shift at a Pussycat theater. This booth was itty-bitty, but it was clean and ran great! I remember, well, I think I remember, the booth was painted a dark green. Heck, for all I know, maybe it was black. Wow, the first Pussycat.

TLSLOEWS
TLSLOEWS on April 21, 2010 at 9:39 pm

Nice 1946 photo.

Nathan
Nathan on November 10, 2015 at 2:56 am

Here’s a link to a shot of the Town in October ‘55 — https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5668/22294085863_54e106057f_o.png

From the Getty Archives, Leonard Nadel Collection, under “Traffic, Land Use, Housing and Street Conditions, Shopping”

rivest266
rivest266 on August 9, 2016 at 6:33 pm

February 4th, 1966 grand opening ad as Pussycat in the photo section.

rivest266
rivest266 on September 10, 2019 at 7:59 pm

Reopened as Town on March 23rd, 1935. No grand opening ad appeared in the LA Times.

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