Park Theatre
710 S. Alvarado Street,
Los Angeles,
CA
90057
710 S. Alvarado Street,
Los Angeles,
CA
90057
8 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 31 comments
kencmcintyre on December 12, 2009 at 8:15 pm article below:
I just saw A PATCH OF BLUE again, and you catch a glimpse of the exterior theater in one of the scenes. The theater you see a lot of in the scenes where Gordon is teaching Salina how to navigate the streets alone is the LAKE.
The Alvarado Theatre probably opened in 1914 around the time the Times published the drawing Ron Pierce found. This item appeared in Southwest Contractor and Manufacturer of November 8, 1913:
April 6th, 1966 grand opening ad in photo section.
If anyone has any stories about going to/ working at this threatre, I would love to hear them. I am chronicling the histories of adult theatres in the US. Please contact me at Thanks!
Hi Scott! thank you so much for the link! It’s wonderful information – am learning so much through this site! Recently met some of my “long lost” family, and will pass this on to them as well. This is more information than I ever expected! Thanks again – can hardly wait to get to CA for a tour of these theaters, especially the Alex, named after my father.
lwmulder, check out www.RialtoSouthPasadena.com to see a picture of ol' grandad! As you find info on him, if any pertains to the Rialto, please drop a line to the South Pasadena Chamber of Commerce.
My grandfather was CL Langley, whom I never knew. However, I am anxious to learn more about him, and the various theaters with which he was associated. I am particularly interested in hearing from JohnnyVegas, as I believe we are related. Claude Alexander Langley, for whom the Alex Theater in Glendale is named, is my father. Joseph Langley, mentioned by ken mc, was my great uncle. Am planning a trip from TX to CA soon, and want to tour as many of the West Coast Theaters as possible. Thanks!!
If I remember correctly the structure that stands at this address has nothing to do with the old Alvarado/Park Theater. The old structure was burned down during the 1992 Riots.
To Johnny Vegas – would like to learn more about these theaters and the Langleys PLEASE! Contact me directly at Thank you so much!
Here is a part of a February 1968 article in the LA Times:
The theaters where girlie films are shown range from the moderate comforts of the Paris, next door to P.J.’s on Santa Monica, to drab downtown houses. In this case, drabness of surroundings does not equal blueness of films-all theaters are subject to the same laws and the ones with the grimmest décor show the cheapest, oldest and fuzziest films.
Cluny’s Movies, on Alvarado, shows what appear to be blown-up 8 mm. mail order films (made for home viewing) so that the girls look like they are doing their thing underwater. At least at the Cluny the price is right: $1.50 for a couple of hours of what is essentially a low-grade girlie magazine come to pseudo-life.
The Park, down the block, is 50 cents up the scale. It has what it cleverly calls its “Little GAL-lery-Last Six Rows on the Left for Ladies Only.†(Most theaters don’t cater to single ladies at all.) It was here that I saw Hot Bed, written by Big Daddy Epstein III. Other theaters on about this level include the Vista on Sunset, the Apollo Arts on Hollywood, the Monica, down from the Paris. In the dark, it’s hard to tell them apart.
You have a good memory, William!
I worked some of the Local 150 houses in LA. I remember his name from that time. I just happened upon your above comment and it just came to me.
William: yes, my dad’s name was Jay. Did you know him? My grandfather’s name was Barney
DavidBland was your dad’s name Jay?
Per the post by ken mc, Joseph Langley was the manager of the Alvarado and the brother of C. L. Langley, whose Southwest Theater Co.(precurser) to West Coast Theaters, Inc.)owned the Alvarado.
My father and grandfather owned the Alvarado theater from the mid 1950s until they sold it in the early 1960s (to an outfit I remember as “Shan Sales”, or something like that). I worked there as a boy, too, and my father paid me $1.25/hour!
The new owners renamed it the Park, tried to make a go of it showing regular Hollywood movies but couldn’t, then converted it to a gay porn theater, which we thought did OK for some time. After selling the theater, my father sold appliances but also worked as a relief projectionist at many theaters in LA. One day he got a call from the union asking if he was OK working at a gay porn place — the Park! My Dad laughed and said he was OK with it.
The area around Westlake Park was solidly middle class when my family bought the theater. Unfortunately for us, the rise of TV, the building of the freeways and the general decline of downtowns there and across America doomed this endeavor.
I checked out the interior today. Nothing interesting, certainly not like the Westlake. Here are two exterior photos:
http://tinyurl.com/2f3utw
http://tinyurl.com/2cmmwl
OK, thanks.
I think I can open a subalbum in photobucket. There is max of 1000 pictures in each album, apparently. Do me a favor, go the Granada page (West Hollywood theater) and see if that link works as well. Perhaps it only affects me as I cannot open the 1970 link on this page. Thanks.
They might have worked right after I posted them, but then I deleted some entries as I had exceeded the max allowed in that album. I have to go back and restore the ones I deleted.
It looks like I deleted some of my recent photobucket entries by mistake. This message will come up on some other pages as well. I will go back and fix the problem when I have a chance.
Here is a 1970 ad:
http://tinyurl.com/2ad35x
Here is a January 1958 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/2n5wxg
Bad guys in May 1924, from the LA Times:
Carey Wilson and George H. Cowdrey pleaded not guilty to charges of robbery at their arraignment yesterday. Cowdrey is also charged with the murder of Joseph Langley, manager of the Alvarado Theater, on September 20, 1923. Langley was shot down in the street by a man who snatched the theater cash box from his hands. Wilson and Cowdrey stand accused of the robbery of the Sultan Baths, Parsons Garage and a street-railway motorbus.