Highland Theatres
5604 N. Figueroa Street,
Los Angeles,
CA
90042
5604 N. Figueroa Street,
Los Angeles,
CA
90042
18 people
favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 40 of 40 comments
It’s fun to see these photos of how it looks now. I grew up in Montecito Heights and this was our closest theater when I was a kid. Looks pretty much the way I remember it, other than being a triplex now.
I just drove by today and couln’t believe what a gem this place is. It’s cheap, it’s a historical monument, and it’s beautiful. I used to go to a $2 theater in San Diego, but it didn’t do so well and mysteriously shut down. I really hope that this place stays charming, low priced, and open! Hopefully, if and when it starts getting more business, the prices won’t go up and bum people out. That would suck, so don’t do it! Poor people want to watch movies too. Power to the people! We should all boycott pricey theaters and only go to this one. ke ke ke.
reneei44:
I went to Monte Vista Elementary from 1963-66.
I grew up in Highland Park from 1960-1966.
I still have fond memories of when I lived in the
area, on Aldama Street above 54th.
With the financial assistance of the Highland Park Heritage Trust, the Highland Theatre¹s magnificent rooftop sign will burn brightly once again, after the replacement of more than 750 incandescent light bulbs. Originally restored and lit in the late 1990¹s through a collaboration of the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Neon Program and the Targeted Neighborhood Initiative Program, the sign is one of only three incandescent bulb signs still in use in the city. Declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1991, the Highland Theatre was constructed in 1924, from a design by the noted theater architect L.A. Smith (he also designed South Pasadena’s Rialto.) from 2003 press release by Highland Park Heritage Trust
I grew up on Mt. Washington and now live in Highland Park, just a few yards from the Highland. The Highland, as well as the Rialto in South Pasadena, were built for Clyde M. Church, who was a local banker. They were both then set up on lone term leases with a predicessor to the Mann corporation. I know that Church’s heirs still own the land under the Highland and I believe they also own the land under the Rialto. I wrote the Los Angeles City Monument nomination for the Highland in 1990 and also participated in the nomination for El Portal, in North Hollywood. When I was 10, several friends and I walked down the hill and went to the Highland to see the James Bond thriller, “Thunderball”. That was my first experiance in the original Moorish interior of the theatre. It was very impressive. I was extremely disappointed when the later operators butchered the interior around 1980. At the time of the nomination, the original chandaleir was lying on the upper balcony which is not used at this time. I’ve heard rumors that it has since been sold. Ah, that someone with both money and vision could restore this wonderful venue.
-Charlie Fisher, , 323-255-2849
The Highland Theatre is a wonderful place to watch a movie. Why spend big bucks at a comercialized movie theatre, when you can enjoy the same movie (& save cash) at the Highland. It’s unfortunate that many residents in Highland Park seek entertainment elsewhere. Highland park is a gem community that i believe is slowly starting to be discovered. Be good to your community and your community will be good to you. -Nani
The Highland Theater opened on 5th March 1925 and Norma Shearer made a personal appearance.
The plexing of this theatre was done after Mann Theatres dropped the house. So some of those early plexings in Southern California were done cheaply. Like this theatre, the California Theatre in Huntington Park, Culver Theatre in Culver City and the Academy in Pasadena.
Thats odd they put no cinemas in the balcony?
Slightly Moorish in style, this theatre seated 1450 before its triplexing. If you go past the projection rooms (which are nearly always open due to how hot they get) and up the stairs to the second-story bathrooms, there’s a doorway leading into what must have been the balcony, which may be used as storage space or some other such.
Am I the only person in LA on a fixed income? I regularly see first-run films here for $4 in the afternoon. The place is clean. The staff is civil. The neighborhood is unpretentious but safe. The parking is easy. What are you waiting for?
I used to go to this theater faithfully every week-end with friends(Hey, Robert Whittle and Joey M…Where are you now?)This theater could have rivaled any theater in Los Angeles or Hollywood at the time. I have not been back to the area in over 35 years, but have many fond memories of growing up on Monte Vista and Ave 52.
My mom lived in Highland Park in 1950 and in September of that year went into labor for me while watching the program. The show on the night of 9-13 was “The Furies” with Barbara Stanwick and “Treasure Island”… there was also a cartoon and a short subject called “In Beaver Valley” by Disney. By 5 a.m. I arrived at U.C. (called L.A. General in those days) Hospital.
This was my neighborhood movie theater when I was a kid—James Bond revivals, Billy Jack, Gone With the Wind…I was really happy to see its rooftop marquee a-blazing in the new version of The Singing Detective.
As Mr. Melnick notes, this neighborhood has been pretty rough and tumble over the years, but now Highland Park has a reputation as an artist’s ghetto, and everyone knows that artists are the yuppie shock troops, so perhaps the really beautiful old houses around here will start being rennovated…and maybe this great old theater with it.
This theatre is located not far south of Avenue 57, on North Figueroa Street, which used to be Pasadena Avenue until sometime in the 1920’s.