Glockner's Automatic Theatre

262 S. Main Street,
Los Angeles, CA 90012

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tovangar2
tovangar2 on October 10, 2015 at 9:06 am

The Electric/Lyric/Glockner building (I think) may be viewed in this image:

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics26/00047646.jpg

tovangar2
tovangar2 on October 7, 2015 at 5:32 pm

Thank you so much. I could not decipher the name on the LADBS building permit.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on October 7, 2015 at 1:00 pm

The third partner was Joseph Sturm. The February 10, 1910, issue of The Nickelodeon had this item:

“Los ANGELES, CAL.—J. O. Kaiser, Joseph Sturm and E. J. Talley have leased the property at 266-268 South Main street for ten years at a total rental of about $60,000 and will erect a moving picture theater thereon.”
(E.J. Tally was the brother of Thomas Tally, of Tally’s Electric Theatre.) However, according to Bill Counter’s web site Historic Los Angeles Theatres, when the Liberty opened in early 1911 it was operated by the partnership of Kaiser, Sturm & Hughes, so Tally had apparently dropped out of the partnership by then. Also according to Counter, Sturm had been a partner with Kaiser in the Wonderland Theatre at 315 S. Main Street (listed both at Counter’s site and at Cinema Treasures under its later name, the Jade Theatre.)

tovangar2
tovangar2 on October 7, 2015 at 11:57 am

Oh, sorry, just three theaters. The Plaza Theater was on N Main

tovangar2
tovangar2 on October 7, 2015 at 11:12 am

So there were four theaters on the east side of the 200 block of S Main? That sure sounds a lot more fun than what’s there now.

Do you know who the third partner was for the Liberty, besides Kaiser and Tally? Thx

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on October 6, 2015 at 9:12 pm

tovangar2: The 1910 project at 266 S. Main was the Liberty Theatre.

tovangar2
tovangar2 on October 6, 2015 at 8:25 pm

The LA Department of Building and Safety’s permits are now online http://ladbs.org/LADBSWeb/online-building-records.jsf. One can search by address. There is a permit for a “motion picture theater” dated March 10, 1910 by architect Albert C Martin for owners “Kaiser, [indistinct] and Tally. The address given is 266-268 S Main. The dimensions were 30' X 140'

HughMN
HughMN on February 3, 2010 at 3:16 pm

The Electric Theater had its name changed to the Lyric when they added “refined vaudeville” acts to augment the motion pictures. An LA Times advertisement from July 20, 1903 lists the new name, with T.L. Tally identified as manager. According to some sources Tally sold his theater around this time and spent the next year on the road, presenting a print of “The Great Train Robbery” around the country. So the Electric appears to have been exclusively a motion picture theater for a little over a year, from on or about April 17, 1902 until on or about July 20, 1903.

reluctantpopstar
reluctantpopstar on May 11, 2008 at 3:48 pm

Here’s a photo of a 1908 LA city directory. This was posted by another user in the discussion of the Optic Theater. Here, the Lyric Theater is listed, so it was already going by the Lyric at that date, and had not yet become Glockner’s. Didn’t seem to be Talley’s Electric Theater for very long.

View link

reluctantpopstar
reluctantpopstar on May 11, 2008 at 3:39 pm

As the site of the first motion picture theater, this location should definitely be hailed as a landmark.

A new garage for the LAPD motorpool is being built on the site. As a concession to the neighborhood residents, some retail stores are being placed on the street front. A nice brass plaque commemorating the location’s history would fit nicely on the building.

Right now, it’s just a broken old sidewalk. Recognition of the site’s history would add more to the neighborhood, maybe even more business for the Imaginasian Center across the street.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on March 29, 2008 at 12:26 am

Everything on this side of the block between the cathedral and 3rd Street has been bulldozed.

vokoban
vokoban on November 30, 2007 at 10:21 am

Here is something from the classifieds:
(April 5, 1902)
FOR SALE-BUY SOMETHING TO MAKE money with, selling out a prices to please anyone, phonographs, kinetoscopes, picture machines, projectoscopes, electric fans, electric motors, reostat, fine oak record cabinet; sheet music 5 cents per copy. TALLY’S, 262 S. Main st.

vokoban
vokoban on August 22, 2007 at 7:59 pm

This almost sounds like one of us….
(Jan. 5, 1949)
HELP! HELP!
May I call to your notice a two-story brick building at 262 S. Main St., close to the northeast corner of 3rd and Main. The ground floor has been remodeled to house several stores. Between them a narrow stairway ascends to the second floor which is occupied by the “Veterans' Hotel.” The faded baroque facade of brick is ornamented with scrolls and lions' heads. But what i want to know is-what does it mean when at the second-floor level the masonry says:
Wm. Glockner’s Automatic Theater.
This suggests something which could have come between variety and movies. I cannot verify this for nothing remains of the theater. There is no clue, neither footprints in the cement sidewalk, nor dainty slippers suitable for drinking champagne, nor black lace drawers to dance the can-can in. Perhaps had I searched for an alley and a stage door, I should have learned something. Can some Times reader explain this mystery?
STEWART McKEE, Los Angeles.