Broadway Theatre
428 S. Broadway,
Los Angeles,
CA
90013
428 S. Broadway,
Los Angeles,
CA
90013
16 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 59 comments
A little trivia: I worked at the Broadway from 1954-1956 as an usher, doorman, and assistant manager: I remember when the side marquees read (Line 1) GENTLEMEN (Line 2) PREFER BLONDES and (line 3) BLOWING WILD and a cop came by and told us we had to change it – Seems like someone had complained about our “dirty” marquee… .
Nice photos.
I think it’s great when these classic houses upgrade to Spanish language format.
Here is an expanded view of the photo at the top of the page, from the LAPL:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015242.jpg
Here is the theater building today:
http://tinyurl.com/pjtqlg
Here is a 1983 night shot:
http://tinyurl.com/cjeh9o
Here is a 1939 photo from USC:
http://tinyurl.com/ccya44
This site has a 1980 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/djyzpt
It probably shouldn’t be added to Cinema Treasures, as it’s open only two nights a month, but the Broadway Theatre now has a cinematic neighbor of sorts called the Angel City Drive-In. It’s located at 240 W. 4th Street (corner of Broadway), on the upper level parking lot.
The place started out as the Million Dollar Drive-In, on August 25, 2007, and was originally located in the parking lot south of the Alexandria Hotel on Spring Street, with the movie projected onto the wall of the hotel. They soon changed the name to Angel City Drive-In, and the move to 4th Street seems to have been made in 2008.
They use a portable screen which appears to be mounted on the wall of the Judson Rives Building, and the projector will be perched atop a car. Here’s a weblog post from April 13, 2008, which includes a couple of photos of the impromptu drive-in.
There are many references to the Angel City Drive-In on the Internet, and the project has obviously attracted enough patronage to keep it going for two years now. There will never be a movie shown in the Broadway Theatre again, but it’s an interesting twist of fate that there are now movies being shown on the outside wall of its building.
Double feature on July 7, 1971, per the LA Times: “Las Piranas” and “Pacto Diabolico”.
Yesterday.
Here is an exterior photo:
http://tinyurl.com/49lzky
I know. I was updating what was going on with the conversion.
The retail conversion is done, and the two stores are open for business. Both have drop ceilings, no sign that it was a theater space. One is a shoe store and I forget what the other one was.
The auditorium has been split into two retail spaces, so adios Broadway.
Looks like apartments up top and retail on the ground floor. Here is a photo taken today:
http://tinyurl.com/33o3mk
I was poking around there today. Whatever kind of retail being planned is proceeding rapidly. Today some automatic doors were installed in the entrance. I could see the auditorium, and it looks like it’s been completely stripped.
This theatre was opened by Joseph Corwin, founder of the Metropolitan Theatres circuit. Metropolitan’s page says that Joseph Corwin opened the Broadway, his first theatre in Los Angeles, in 1923. Thus it was always operated by Metropolitan, and was never Tally’s New Broadway.
As far as I’ve been able to determine, the only “New Broadway” theatre that ever existed on Broadway was Tally’s New Broadway Theatre at Broadway near 6th, which is the one listed at Cinema Treasures as the Garnett Theatre. That the Garnett was called Tally’s New Broadway is undeniable from the photographic evidence.
From the Los Angeles Times, November 24 1918:
’T.L. Tally, while not ready to say much about it in detail, announces that with the closing of the war and the bright outlook for pictures, his new theater will soon be no longer a mere dream. That it will be one of the handsomest and most comfortable picture houses in the country, with the finest music obtainable, one needs only to know the conduct of Tally’s Broadway to believe.'
But by the time of a career-retrospective feature (Times, October 27 1929, which says he has been retired ‘a few’ years) there is no mention of him having built anything after his ‘new’ Broadway, next door to the May Company (ie at 833).
The space looks pretty large today, as I was peeking the other day. I still can’t get into the building, however.
That big marquee and only 400 seats?
I had seen this LAPL photo before, but today I noticed the Broadway in the background. The photo is dated 1967:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics22/00045998.jpg
I will be downtown next week. I am curious to see how the renovation is going. I assume it will be retail space.
This building is now known as the Judson C. Rives building. Don’t know exactly when that name was applied, because, apparently, originally it was the Broadway Central building. Amazing they were able to cram a theater into this space.
Very cool. I can see Sabino’s jewelry with a Broadway theatre sign below.