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.
You can move Ray’s Garden up a year or back a year, I guess, to 1918:
Dec. 4, 1918
Ray’s Garden Theater, formerly Miller’s, does not belie its name. It is now as new and nice, as spick and span as the painter, the varnisher and the decorator can make it. Moreover, it is presenting, this week, an expurgated edition of a Theda Bara vamp story.
Here are some listings for 523 S. Main over the years. LAT=Los Angeles Times article and all other dates are from the city directory.
New People’s [1906 LAT]
People’s [1908 LAT, 1909 LAT]
Century [1916]
Omar [1918 LAT, 1920]
Moon [1923 LAT, 1925, 1930, 1930 LAT, 1936, 1942 listed as both Moon & Gayety]
Gayety [1942]
Here are some los angeles street address directory listings for the Galway. All of these dates list it at 514 S. Main. That would be a lot of typos. Maybe the entrance was at 518 and then moved later to 514.
Here are some more city directory listings for this address. Does your source for Ray’s Garden give the address? I’d like to add it to my list if the address is given. LAT=Los Angeles Times Article…other dates are from los angeles city directories.
Miller’s [1914 LAT, 1915, 1916, 1920, 1925]
Triangle [1930]
These are instances where the Optic shows up in print with a date and an address. LAT=Los Angeles Times, LASAD=Los Angeles Street Address Directory and the rest of the dates are Los Angeles City Directories:
ladouglas has access to a 1928 Sanborn of the Plaza area and apparently 513 & 515 appear as one building that says ‘moving pictures’. That would explain the jumping around of the entrance and leads me to believe that 513 wasn’t a misprint.
I don’t know if this link will work but it is a reverse type directory by address of Main street from 1956. If you hit the next page button it will continue to South Main:
If you’re in the Garnier block building and feel any strange presence, it might be old John McKay:
LA Times
(Feb 4, 1902)
John H. McKay, a carpenter, 40 years of age, was found dead in his room at a lodging-house, No. 511 ½ North Main street, at 2:30 o'clock yesterday afternoon. An open gas jet and the strong odor of illuminating gas showed the cause of his death. There is nothing, however, to indicate that the man committed suicide; but from information furnished the deputy Coroner it appears that he was the victim of a dangerous practice of turning the gas off and on at the meter at times which suited the pleasure of his landlady, who hoped to economize in her gas bills.
ladouglas…if you send me your email I’ll send you a PDF overlay with the 1906 Sanborn on top of a current satellite image…it might clear up some confusion about this area. My email is
I can also send you the PDF of the Paramount listing from 1923 showing the Estella.
Is there evidence of a Teatro Hidalgo in the 500’s? I must have missed that. I just thought that at first we thought it was the same as the Estella but then the 373 address kept showing up for Hidalgo. The building listed in 1906 as ‘Garnier Block’ contains 507, 509, 511 & 511 ½. I assume that’s the building that I now see with no roof when I go by there. The next building to the north contains 513 & 513 ½.
(April 19, 1924)
Up Main street among the business houses patronized by the Mexican population the lenten color persisted. El Teatro Hidalgo, usually given over to motion-picture drama of love or adventure, had a religious picture and the posters depicted the tragedy of the Cross. Beneath a huge cardboard crucifix sat a young man with a megaphone who cried: “Death and passion of Christ.”
(Nov. 8, 1931)
Teresa Bodrero to Teatro Hidalgo, Ltd., 373 North Main street, term 9 years.
(June 2, 1918)
Among many other cosmopolitanisms, Los Angeles now harbors a real Mexican theater. Located in the heart of Sonoratown, it is housed in the Teatro Hidalgo, which, translated into plain, unassuming English, means simply the Exalted Theater……With the 3x5 stage of the exalted playhouse at No. 371 North Main street, the Mexican company finds itself somewhat restricted in the presentation of dramatic spectacles…..The house itself is one of the stand-bys of lower Los Angeles, and has seen every variety of service, from burlesque and motion pictures to an animal show and high-class foreign theatricals.
After looking at Ken’s reposted photo more closely it is pretty good proof of this theater’s location. You can just make out ‘40’ on the awning of the building to the right. When I looked on the Sanborn map the address for the Hidalgo, 373 N. is next door to 401 N. Main. For some reason they skipped some addresses.
The problem is that whenever it is mentioned in the newspaper, with or without an address, it is almost always called Teatro Hidalgo. I don’t know if that was just a common name people used or maybe the official business name was just Hidalgo and that’s what the city directory printed.
From 1938-1949, the California, Mason, and Roosevelt all seem to show the same movie at the same time, mostly Mexican movies.
(Aug. 3, 1942)
Today the American premiere of a Mexican feature, “Prodigal Barber,” with Fernando Soler, starts at Frank Fouce’s California and Roosevelt theaters.
There are numerous ads in the above time span with all three or a combination of two of the three theaters showing one movie.
Something is strange here….doesn’t the electric theater have its own page? 212 N. Main is listed as Electric Theater in the City Directory for these years: 1915, 1916, 1920, 1923 LAT, 1930, 1936
This article seems to say that there were two different theaters:
(Nov. 27, 1938)
Glamorous Vilma Vidal, featured in the 12-reel production, “Refugiados en Madrid,” currently showing at the California, Electric and Roosevelt theaters, has been voted in both the Argentine and in Mexico as the “actress with the perfect diction.”
I’ll buy that….I hadn’t thought of comparing a pre-city hall sanborn to a post-city hall sanborn but it might be helpful.
In the 1942 city directory, a Roosevelt is listed at 216 N. Main….strange.
Thanks
I just wondered because I can’t find anything on CT about it but it seems to have been around for a long time. It shows up in these city directories:
[1915, 1916, 1920, 1923 LAT, 1930, 1936]
Does the Electric Theater at 212 N. Main figure into any of this? Does it have a page here?
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.
You can move Ray’s Garden up a year or back a year, I guess, to 1918:
Dec. 4, 1918
Ray’s Garden Theater, formerly Miller’s, does not belie its name. It is now as new and nice, as spick and span as the painter, the varnisher and the decorator can make it. Moreover, it is presenting, this week, an expurgated edition of a Theda Bara vamp story.
Good…Is that from the LA Times?
Here are some listings for 523 S. Main over the years. LAT=Los Angeles Times article and all other dates are from the city directory.
New People’s [1906 LAT]
People’s [1908 LAT, 1909 LAT]
Century [1916]
Omar [1918 LAT, 1920]
Moon [1923 LAT, 1925, 1930, 1930 LAT, 1936, 1942 listed as both Moon & Gayety]
Gayety [1942]
Here are some los angeles street address directory listings for the Galway. All of these dates list it at 514 S. Main. That would be a lot of typos. Maybe the entrance was at 518 and then moved later to 514.
[1956,1962,1968]
The Gem is also listed in these city directories:
[1915, 1916, 1920]
Here are some more city directory listings for this address. Does your source for Ray’s Garden give the address? I’d like to add it to my list if the address is given. LAT=Los Angeles Times Article…other dates are from los angeles city directories.
Miller’s [1914 LAT, 1915, 1916, 1920, 1925]
Triangle [1930]
These are instances where the Optic shows up in print with a date and an address. LAT=Los Angeles Times, LASAD=Los Angeles Street Address Directory and the rest of the dates are Los Angeles City Directories:
1915, 1916, 1923 LAT, 1925, 1930, 1936, 1942, 1962 LASAD, 1968 LASAD
That’s a pretty long history on Main street.
ladouglas has access to a 1928 Sanborn of the Plaza area and apparently 513 & 515 appear as one building that says ‘moving pictures’. That would explain the jumping around of the entrance and leads me to believe that 513 wasn’t a misprint.
I don’t know if this link will work but it is a reverse type directory by address of Main street from 1956. If you hit the next page button it will continue to South Main:
View link
I think Joe Vogel said somewhere that he used to eat at the bakery. Here’s a listing from the Los Angeles Street Address Directory, 1956, May,pg. 468:
507 N Main La Esperanza Bakery & Restaurant MI-3532
511 ½ N Main Rm 212 Sheriff’s Reserve MA 5-8621
If you’re in the Garnier block building and feel any strange presence, it might be old John McKay:
LA Times
(Feb 4, 1902)
John H. McKay, a carpenter, 40 years of age, was found dead in his room at a lodging-house, No. 511 ½ North Main street, at 2:30 o'clock yesterday afternoon. An open gas jet and the strong odor of illuminating gas showed the cause of his death. There is nothing, however, to indicate that the man committed suicide; but from information furnished the deputy Coroner it appears that he was the victim of a dangerous practice of turning the gas off and on at the meter at times which suited the pleasure of his landlady, who hoped to economize in her gas bills.
ladouglas…if you send me your email I’ll send you a PDF overlay with the 1906 Sanborn on top of a current satellite image…it might clear up some confusion about this area. My email is
I can also send you the PDF of the Paramount listing from 1923 showing the Estella.
Is there evidence of a Teatro Hidalgo in the 500’s? I must have missed that. I just thought that at first we thought it was the same as the Estella but then the 373 address kept showing up for Hidalgo. The building listed in 1906 as ‘Garnier Block’ contains 507, 509, 511 & 511 ½. I assume that’s the building that I now see with no roof when I go by there. The next building to the north contains 513 & 513 ½.
(April 19, 1924)
Up Main street among the business houses patronized by the Mexican population the lenten color persisted. El Teatro Hidalgo, usually given over to motion-picture drama of love or adventure, had a religious picture and the posters depicted the tragedy of the Cross. Beneath a huge cardboard crucifix sat a young man with a megaphone who cried: “Death and passion of Christ.”
(Nov. 8, 1931)
Teresa Bodrero to Teatro Hidalgo, Ltd., 373 North Main street, term 9 years.
Reposted from Estella Page:
(June 2, 1918)
Among many other cosmopolitanisms, Los Angeles now harbors a real Mexican theater. Located in the heart of Sonoratown, it is housed in the Teatro Hidalgo, which, translated into plain, unassuming English, means simply the Exalted Theater……With the 3x5 stage of the exalted playhouse at No. 371 North Main street, the Mexican company finds itself somewhat restricted in the presentation of dramatic spectacles…..The house itself is one of the stand-bys of lower Los Angeles, and has seen every variety of service, from burlesque and motion pictures to an animal show and high-class foreign theatricals.
After looking at Ken’s reposted photo more closely it is pretty good proof of this theater’s location. You can just make out ‘40’ on the awning of the building to the right. When I looked on the Sanborn map the address for the Hidalgo, 373 N. is next door to 401 N. Main. For some reason they skipped some addresses.
The problem is that whenever it is mentioned in the newspaper, with or without an address, it is almost always called Teatro Hidalgo. I don’t know if that was just a common name people used or maybe the official business name was just Hidalgo and that’s what the city directory printed.
I added the Teatro Hidalgo as a theater this morning. I guess it will show up soon.
From 1938-1949, the California, Mason, and Roosevelt all seem to show the same movie at the same time, mostly Mexican movies.
(Aug. 3, 1942)
Today the American premiere of a Mexican feature, “Prodigal Barber,” with Fernando Soler, starts at Frank Fouce’s California and Roosevelt theaters.
There are numerous ads in the above time span with all three or a combination of two of the three theaters showing one movie.
Something is strange here….doesn’t the electric theater have its own page? 212 N. Main is listed as Electric Theater in the City Directory for these years: 1915, 1916, 1920, 1923 LAT, 1930, 1936
This article seems to say that there were two different theaters:
(Nov. 27, 1938)
Glamorous Vilma Vidal, featured in the 12-reel production, “Refugiados en Madrid,” currently showing at the California, Electric and Roosevelt theaters, has been voted in both the Argentine and in Mexico as the “actress with the perfect diction.”