Granada Theatre
303 N. Euclid Avenue,
Ontario,
CA
91762
303 N. Euclid Avenue,
Ontario,
CA
91762
4 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 35 comments
Who could forget the Granada’s “Free Show” on Saturday mornings? You could go to various merchants in town, Butler Brothers Department store being one of them..and get a ticket for a free show. The shows started at 10:00AM and featured maybe a half a dozen cartoons…plus a full length feature. I believe they also ran several serials. It was a great way to meet all your friends from school and have a very enjoyable coupe of hours.
Hi,we just saw Some Like it Hot with Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon Friday nite – you can see how beautiful the theatre must have been in it’s hey day – I believe they’re showing Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein this Saturday night – tickets were only $3! Hoping they’ll be able to have enough interest to keep it going.
There are some late 2008 photos on this site:
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Hello,
My name is Dylan I and a few others currently work with at the Granada. The Church who bought it Centro Diplomatico lost it and owed quite a pretty penny on i, and it is now now under the control of a bank. Myself and a group of my friends along with the current building managers are working on restoring the Granada to its original form. We will be holding an event there August 7th for those interested. We are a group of 1930s and 40s enthusiasts intent on bringing glory back to this old gal. We are looking for past employees to come by and give us advice on what it looked like back in the day. please call the numbers at the bottom of the attached flyer. We want to talk to you very much!
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AllieE. I liked the candy also, but not the hot dogs. It would be fun to have a reunion of all the people who worked there over the years. I drove by the place today and it really looks funny with out the box office, even though I know the box office has been gone for a long time. Maybe some day. Pat C
Pat C. ~ great memory to remember those names after all these years. I don’t remember any of my co-workers or manager. I had to have worked there 1967-68. But what I do remember is selling and eating my favorite candy at the theatre and that was…“Flicks”. Chocolate wafers made by Ghirardelli and they sold for a whopping 5 cents!
Hey, AllieE. When did you work at the Granada? I worked with Sue Hoppy, Terry La Porte, Mike Pruitt, Connie Hoppy , Nancy Deecey and some I can’t remember. Pat C
I grew up in Ontario from 1952 to 1971. I actually worked at the Granada Theatre when I was a teenager in the late 60’s. I was an usherette and candy girl. Loved to shock the kids neckin' in the back row with my flashlight. Can’t say I wasn’t one of them in my younger day. The interior of the theatre was pretty amazing even back then. Was friends with the Albrecht’s who owned the jewelry store next door. In fact, my future husband got my engagement ring there and stayed with them when he was in visiting me from L.A. I only remember the Ritz Theatre, which was located on the east side of Euclid. But, as far as I remember they were both legitimate movie houses, not a porno theatre. I ended up moving over to work at the Fox Theatre in Pomona. I was the cashier in the box office outside, when it was a real “box†office in the forecourt. Used to get phone calls from wierdos across the street at the rundown Orange Hotel, talking dirty and telling me they could see me from their windows. Probably why they eventually moved the box office inside. Left Ontario in 1971, but eventually came back to my roots.
The Ontario Public Library has a section down in the basement full of old news papers. I once saw a bunch of stories and pictues of the Granada from the late 20’s. I’m sure one of the pictures has the box office in it. One day while changing ligh bulbs at the Granada, one of our guys jumped up on the candy counter and put his butt right through the glass top. We all panicked and ran to the nearest glass store and bought a new piece of glass. No one said anything and it went un discovered for a long time until one day someone was cleaning and saw small shards of glass in the corners of the counter below the glass top. It was our secret. Pat C.
Pat, great stories!
Jacob, is there any way of getting a schedule of films?
The Granada is now showing vintage movies on friday and saturday night. There’s people that show up in 30’s and 40’s suits and uniforms (myself included) that hang around and create a time warp sort of experience. It’s absolutely amazing and I would highly reccomend it for anyone trying to get the old school downtown onterio thing going for themselves.
Here is a 1983 photo when the theater was showing Spanish language films:
http://tinyurl.com/crkevt
I don’t have any photos of the old theatre but I worked there in 1964 and 1965. Mr Kirk was the manager and he wore a tuxedo every day. On Wednesday nights we would hook up with other theatres in the area and have a drawing for money. They would pay us 5 bucks to change the marquis. One time I painted all the dressing rooms under the stage. I also changed light bulbs in the ceeling. You had to climb up a long ladder on the right side of the stage and go out on cat walks. You had to lay on your belly to grab the light bulbs and we always dropped one or two. One time the movie just stopped. We ran up to the projection room and found out the projectionest had his girl friend up there and lost track of the movie, if you get what I mean. It was great fun working there and I saw some good movies. Pat C.
Does anyone have photos of the front of the theatre showing the old box office, before the glass doors got put up? I would like to model it and have no idea where to look for shots of it.
Does anyone have photos of the front of the theatre showing the old box office, before the glass doors got put up? I would like to model it and have no idea where to look for shots of it.
A note to jderbish on the California Theatre. I went there as a kid once or twice, but we normally went to the Granada. The California was where the “other” people(read blacks, other minorities, and the gang types) went. There was nothing obvious like signs stating color restrictions, but it was common knowledge, although nobody ever, to my knowledge, enforced it. I remember at the shoeshine booth right next door watching the men polish shoes, snapping out a rhthym with the polishing cloth. I was fascinated, being about five or six at the time.
I do remember looking at the plain ceiling inside the theatre and seeing daylight through the planks. It wasn’t even close to the Granada as far as style went.
It became the RITZ Theatre later on, becoming a porno house. After 15 years or so, it burned down, much to the delight of local business owners and city officials, who had wanted to close it down for years. It is now dirt.
I also used to see movies at the Granada when I was a kid. I used to marvel at the neon lights (now missing) and the chase lights on the marquee, and the art deco ticket booth (anyone know where it is?) was really neat. The interior was, to me at least, rather opulent, with the red carpets, curtains, gold leaf in the lobby, and the paintings on the walls, the balcony and the chandeliers in the main theatre.
I hope there is an organization in the area that oversees restoration/remodels such as this. I’m sure the lobby area is pretty much non-original, but the classic Spanish paintings on the walls inside need to be either uncovered and restored(if they are under all the repaints), or repainted. I believe they hold a lot of significance especially with the hispanic heritage of the area.
Does anyone have photographs of the interior and exterior as it was in the 50’s-early 60’s?
There is too much heritage of the Ontario area being bulldozed in the name of progress!
I don’t mean to restore EVERYTHING back to the “good old days”, but to ignore your heritage is to neglect your future.
Here is an article from a local paper dated 8/14/08:
http://www2.dailybulletin.com/ci_10208068
the name of the theatre is centro diplimatico or something of that sort. My best friends parents currently borrow the theatre from the church and are planning on remodeling it. if anyone on here has any questions about the church or the theatre, im sure i can get answers for you. we need all the support we can get at the theatre so feel free to ask me anything.
does anyone know the name of the church that bought the theater?
Here is another LAPL photo, no date given:
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics07/00023255.jpg
The building has been sold to a new church. They are using the theater for services as well as live performances. In fact, the invited me to a performance tonight. I took some interior photos, but as always my flash let me down. I think the function should be church/live performances:
http://tinyurl.com/3jc4us
http://tinyurl.com/4ge6rt
http://tinyurl.com/3shsqq
http://tinyurl.com/3ua7zs
http://tinyurl.com/4aztpa
http://tinyurl.com/4l6yam
http://tinyurl.com/3o3wdl
http://tinyurl.com/3swf8a
http://tinyurl.com/3uorxc
Here are two photos from the LAPL, including a larger version of the photo at the top of the page:
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics07/00023258.jpg
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics07/00023257.jpg
I don’t think it’s a church anymore.
Here’s a picture from a couple days ago, very much like ChrisB’s photos.
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