Granada Theatre
632 N. Avalon Boulevard,
Wilmington,
CA
90744
632 N. Avalon Boulevard,
Wilmington,
CA
90744
2 people
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For updates on this theater please visit: www.facebook.com/wilmingtongranadafriends The Friends of the Granada Theater are starting a campaign to get this theater reopened as an indie movie house and performance art center. We are working closely with the city of Los Angeles and residents of Wilmington.
We were able to shoot the Granada last week, and although it’s not the most elaborate theater we’ve seen, it is more charming in person than the listing pictures suggest.
We tried to give it some pizzazz in hopes of finding someone who will be attracted to it’s potential – I think the biggest challenge will be getting the neighborhood and community to embrace it.
You can see our take on the theater here:
http://southonspring.com/historic-theatre-for-sale/
The Granada is for sale right now, and the realtor is trying to find a preservation minded buyer. contact: Monica Garcia Realtor – Historic Properties Specialist RE/MAX Real Estate Specialists CalBRE #01957104 C: 562.572.3617
Here is the listing: http://www.loopnet.com/lid/18877103
The owner’s son showed us around and even lowered the advertising curtain! We promised not to take pictures of it, but it is a real treasure! It is in amazing shape, well maintained and clean. The whole theatre is in good shape in my opinion. Let’s find a good buyer for it!
I got in to the Granada the other day and tried to snapped off a photo of the interior but got caught! I got one but it’s way fuzzy. Not sure why they are such a pain about pictures. I told them I was with the LAHTF (LA Historic Theatre Foundation) and just wanted to document that it was still there and looked good and that we where happy the church was taking such good care of it. But my words were lost in translation as the man in charge did not speak english and the young man was not saying as much as I was for sure. I will not stop trying.
It did not look Art Deco really except for a little bit of painting and the terrazzo out front, but the spanish decor is still there and I forgot to look for the “P” for Post at the proscenium as the glowing cross on the stage was distracting.
I was a seven-year-old kid in 1949 living in Wilmington CA. Every Saturday, weather permitting, my parents allowed me to walk to the Granada Theater with my buddies to see the Serial movies and cartoons. We were constantly getting into trouble sneaking into the balcony and throwing chewed Jujubes and spit-wads at the kids below! More than once the Theater manager called our parents to come and get us. The most memorable event of a day at the Granada was to flatten the popcorn boxes and throw them like todays Frisbee and see who could cast a shadow on the screen for the longest time. Another version of this game was to see who could deposit a flat popcorn box on one of the two small balconies on either side of the stage under the fancy grille-work. I could never have imagined what was behind that grille-work. Little did I know I would spend thousands of future hours over my adult lifetime lovingly restoring, repairing and owning wonderful Theatre Pipe Organs! Pipe Organs and old movie theatres have been my passion for many years and it all sort of started at the Wilmington Granada! Anyone know what happened to the Granada Organ?
Here is the theater curtain in the 1930s, with ads for local businesses:
http://tinyurl.com/pe9lyn
No go on the auditorium photos. The minister or whatever he was wouldn’t allow it. Here are the rest of the photos:
http://tinyurl.com/lfzdqx
http://tinyurl.com/l65d6a
http://tinyurl.com/lar8sv
http://tinyurl.com/nglws5
http://tinyurl.com/n2dgdq
http://tinyurl.com/kjrqp8
http://tinyurl.com/n5eqaf
http://tinyurl.com/ltzftd
http://tinyurl.com/n4ew2z
http://tinyurl.com/mfsrq7
I’m in the theater, but the church person told me to wait for the service to finish before taking pics of the interior. There are a half dozen people or so being preached to. Not much has changed inside since the movie days. I will post the pictures later.
Here are some 1983 photos:
http://tinyurl.com/m9x35l
http://tinyurl.com/kjs3z4
“Pare de Sufrir” means “Stop the suffering”, or something close to it.
Great photos Ken. I used to attend those kids matinees during the early 60s. The theatre management used to have ticket drawings for prizes as they would tell us before entering the lobby to be sure and hold on to our half of the ticket stub. Funny but I can remember many of the films I saw there, Good Neighbor Sam, Father Goose, Cleopatra, Elmo & the Detectives, Voyage to the Seventh Planet, Fail Safe, Huckelberry Finn, Incredible Mr Limpett, Pinocchio. I can even remember the intermission music, Exodus and Moon River.
The Granada had childrens' matinees in 1960:
http://tinyurl.com/2rqpbb
Here are the photos:
http://tinyurl.com/2ooypq
http://tinyurl.com/3xbhsb
http://tinyurl.com/2vj639
http://tinyurl.com/3bd8s7
http://tinyurl.com/2m9qsf
This is a nice little theater in Wilmington, still in use as a church as noted above. I believe the last incarnation before its religious conversion was the Teatro Granada as the marquee still says Teatro. I will try and take some photos soon.
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.
According to an article in the May 3rd, 1925, issue of the Long Beach Press-Telegram, the architect of the Granada Theater was W. J. McCormack.
Incidentally, Wilmington was once a seperate incorporated city, but has been, since about 1910, a district of the City of Los Angeles. Along with nearby San Pedro, also once an independent city, it is connected to Los Angeles by the famous “shoestring,” a strip of territory about a half mile wide extending south several miles from the main part of the city. The annexation of the two harbor area cities allowed Los Angeles to arrange the costly improvements needed to make San Pedro Bay into a modern, deep-water port early in the 20th century.
Now being operated by the Iglesia Universal as a church.
The Granada Theatre is located at 632 Avalon Blvd..
I used to go there as a kid in the 60s. They ran kiddie matinees on weekends. I saw many Disney and beach party films there. There was a small balcony that seated about 200.