State Theatre
104 E. Ocean Boulevard,
Long Beach,
CA
90802
104 E. Ocean Boulevard,
Long Beach,
CA
90802
5 people
favorited this theater
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I miss the waves on the beach you can see in that 1925 picture. We have no waves today thanks to the huge 7-mile long breakwater built to during WWII. The navy used to park ships behind the breakwater while they were waiting repair at the shipyard. Now the navy shipyard is gone (replaced by a Chinese cargo terminal) and the breakwater serves only to retain the flood of trash dumped into the sea from the LA river every time it rains. Everyone thinks Huntington Beach is “surf city”, but Long Beach was the forerunner, hosting the first national surf contest in 1938. Now the beach is empty nearly year-round. In my opinion, the breakwater slowly strangled beach attractions such as the Pike and led to the deterioration of the city through the 70’s. I live two blocks from the beach and I never put even a toe in the water.
Ken: The second of those two pictures also shows the big, blank wall of the then brand-new West Coast Theatre in the middle distance.
I work near the Pike. All of the restaurants and theaters are new. There are a few old buildings remaining, including a tattoo museum set to open in the future.
Here are two 1925 photos of the State:
http://tinyurl.com/fsewm
http://tinyurl.com/gaye6
The parking lot was still there through the 1960s and 70s. In the late 1980s, the Jergins Trust (State Theater) building was sadly torn down. In the years since, the parking lot has been taken over by the new Long Beach Convention Center. “NuPike”, later just called “The Pike” and after the Queen Mary arrived in late 1967 known as “Queen’s Park”, is now the subject of a new project where some of the historic buildings will be remodelled as shops and restaurants. Does anyone have updates on the progress of this?
Isn’t the parking lot at the bottom of the hill where they keep the merry go round from the Pike?
Here is some news on what is to be built on the empty site. A developer is ready to start construction this summer on a high rise condominium project. The units will start at 400,000 and go up from there. I hope they will save the tunnel! This property has sat vacant since our beloved Jergens Trust was torn down in the late 1980s. Here are some artists conceptions of the new project to be called “Edgewater”…
http://www.lbreport.com/images/04/edgwatr2.jpg
http://www.jrare.com/images/EdgewaterOnOcean.jpg
You can still see a little part of the old Jergens Trust building at a restaurant called “Mums” at 144 Pine Street. They have apparently preserved the old German walnut wall panelling from a penthouse law firm in their nightclub called “Club Cohiba”.
Make that “barricade.”
It’s behind a plywood bararicade. Walk down the Pine Avenue hill toward the ocean from Ocean Boulevard, and turn left when you get to the bottom. The lot where the building stood is empty. You can see the tunnel tiles on the remaining south wall.
Jerry
Actually, the Long Beach Press-Telegram ran an interesting story last year about that tunnel with pictures of it then and now.
I have looked for any evidence of the tunnel around Pine and Ocean, with no success. Any hints?
Thanks for those great photos, Christian!
The tunnel’s still there — just closed off at each end. The south end is visible. Nothing’s been built on the property yet.
When I was 8 years old mom took us kids to the State to see 101 Dalmations in 1961. To get to the State from the other side of the street we crossed under Ocean Boulevard using a tunnel.
The mural is still there on the side of the parking garage. You can walk right up to it and inspect its intricately placed tiles. I remember looking at it when it was mounted high on the MVNICIPAL AVDITORIVM. One had no idea it was so detailed when viewing it from the street level. The Jergen’s Trust Building is gone, but the subway still runs under Ocean Boulevard. You can see a little of the subway wall tile on the portion that ran through the JTB basement.
The Older auditorium was beautiful… but built of wood but a major fire trap. My grandmother was a founding member of the Long Beach Symphony Society and spent many nights in the old auditorium in the 1920s and said that the its accoustics were great, but the ocean waves were easily heard beneath the floorboards. Here is a photo of that older venue from 1929, which shows the State Theater behind it… notice this angle is looking north-east towards Ocean Blvd…. notice the rail tracks.. this was for the trolley cars whick came to the ocean at the end of the line….. within a year or two that was to become the start of a pleasure pier to drive around in your automobile and the famous “spit and argue” club… a sort of poor mans “Toastmasters”…..
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater1/00014875.jpg
The 1932 building was massive, spectacular and beautifully versitile.. it had a symphony hall as well as a “hippodrome” type of arena for events. Here are some interesting shots of that amazing building, which I was fortunate enough to see one time inside before it’s destruction for the new Pacific Terrace Theater…. in this west-facing shot, you will see the State Theater in the distance in front of the entrance to the auditorium just to the right … it was about 2 blocks further down Seaside Avenue…..
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater1/00014881.jpg
Here is the symphony hall in 1932, which was housed in the circular ocean-facing area on the south side… the painting on the ceiling was amazing…..
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater1/00014868.jpg
Here is the large “hippodrome” sized convention area in 1932, which was used for rodeos, conventions, rock concerts, basketball games and hundreds of other uses…… for many years in the late 40s through the early 60s, Long Beach was host to the “Miss International Beauty and American Beauty” pagent… it was held in this room…..
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater1/00014873.jpg
Here is beautiful mosaic mural that was designed by Stanton Macdonald-Wright and placed on the facade facing Ocean Blvd. The last time I saw this in 1989, it had been saved, removed and re-installed to the entrance of the new Long Beach Mall downtown… not sure if it is still there or not… maybe someone knows… of course, most of these classic buildings are long gone from downtown Long Beach today and the waterfront has been extended well beyond where the Rainbow Pier used to be…..
http://newdeal.feri.org/smw/3.jpg
Christian:
I notice that in the second picture to which you linked, the building has a rooftop sign reading “Loew’s State.”
The old auditorium must have been knocked down at the beginning of the 1930s, or the late 1920s, as the new long Beach Municipal Auditorium (which was itself demolished in the 1960s) was opened in early 1932.
RIght you are Joe!!
Here are some great photos of the building.
The first is the Markwell Building in 1918 under construction…
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater1/00014897.jpg
The second is about 1922 or so… note the ORIGINAL Municipal Auditorium is behind it… that was torn down in the mid-1930s I believe.. maybe you can find out for sure, Joe …
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater1/00014894.jpg
Here is a photo from about 1928 with the new additon of floors under construction…
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater1/00014901.jpg
Here is a 1929 view with the building ALMOST completed… you can see the old tiles where the floors USED to end.. and in the 1960s, that line was still visible, by the way…
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater1/00014903.jpg
Here is the building looking great in the 1930s with a crowd lining up to see the stage show and “picture” (as movies were called back then)…
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater1/00014899.jpg
Here is the stage show (vaudeville) players and the marquee in the background…
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater1/00014904.jpg
The auditorium….
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater1/00014898.jpg
The Jergins Trust Building was originally called the Markwell Building. The architects were Harvey Lockridge and the Spokane-based architect Kirkland Cutter. The theater and six story office building were completed in 1919. Three additional floors were added to the building in 1929, to plans by Lockridge.
On the movie “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World”, my best guess without going back and still-framing the scene on my DVD is that it was the RIVOLI. That theater is listed here, however, it says it is on American Ave. and that street was re-named Long Beach Boulevard many years ago.
The police station used in the move was actually the YMCA on Long Beach Boulevard near 6th Avenue (and no longer used as that, if it still exsists). The Rivoli would have been in the same block or two as the YMCA. In that same scene, you will see the auto dealership across the street is Cormier Chevrolet. They are still in business, and are now located off the 405 in nearby Wilmington.
By the way, there is another theater visible in the film. During the chase scene on the long-gone Rainbow Pier, you can quickly see the “Tracy” theater, which was located on Seaside Ave. It’s also gone now.
What’s the other theatre that can be glimpsed as Spencer Tracy leaves the police department to infiltrate the group as they find out where the money is? Seen even more briefly than the State, it’s across the street from the police department adjacent to the auto dealership.
My grandmother owned an “out of town” newspaper shop on the Pine Steet side. The address was 34 south pine and the shop was called “Universal News”. It was originally located across the street in the Ocean Center Building for many years, but in 1957 she moved it to the Jergens Trust. She was standing in front of her shop during the chase scene in “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” and said the cars went around the corner and down the hill of her shop at full speed. That was in 1962. I worked for her during the summers of 1965 through 1967. I still remember watching the crowds walking over to NuPike (later Queens Park). I also remember the arcade under the building that led to the north side of Ocean Blvd. It was pretty decayed back then, but I understand it is still under there. In the arcade beneath the Jergens Trust was a stamp collecting shop run by Mr. and Mrs. Schmidt. They were German immigrants and very kind. In August of 1967 she moved the shop to 1st Street because a large Navy Locker Club wanted to use the space of several shops, but in a couple of months, she closed it and retired. She passed away in 1980. I still have a photo of the shop and THE KEY to the front door!
The State was one of the theaters I missed. I only ever saw it from the outside, on our occasional trips to Long Beach. I remember the first time I saw it, when we visited The Pike when I was about six or seven years old, and we miraculously found a parking space on Ocean Avenue. I remember walking down the hill, and seeing the theater across the street, set back behind a wide plaza bordered on the east by a balustrade. I thought it was the most splendid theater I had ever seen, and wanted to go there, but never got the chance. It’s right near the top of my list of vanished theaters I most regret not attending, along with the Figueroa and the Carthay Circle in Los Angeles.
You can see this Theater in the last chase scene of “It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World With the Nu Pike in the back ground the treacks in the front of the police dept.were the Pacifc Elct.Red Car
line on Long Beach Blvd.
And he front of the police dept was the WMCA builing also on Long Beach Blvd.
Thanks James Childs oldprojectionist
my e-mail
I saw many of films at the state I was a teenage movie buff I clearly remember seeing “summer of ‘42” in the balcony it was a bit grubby but a place to be. the horseshoe driveway is all that is left but there is talk of reopening the tunnel that would be cool.
the state was a great place…first remember seeing Here Come the Nelsons(1951)with my family there….it had an odd set up…the front had offices that faced the street…and it was necessary to go up a flight of stairs to reach the entrance to the seating part of the theater..after passing the snack bar