Garfield Theater
9 E. Valley Drive,
Alhambra,
CA
91801
9 E. Valley Drive,
Alhambra,
CA
91801
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Here is an expanded view of the above photo, from the LA Library:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater1/00014406.jpg
OOPS again—– Valley “Drive” in the address section should also be changed to Valley “Boulevard.”
The Capri has been demolished as well, but it is entirely gone. The Valley Grand Building (minus its third floor towers and attic) still exists, including the former foyer of the Garfield which is now retail space, but the auditorium and stage tower of the theatre have been replaced by a parking lot.
OOPS—-meant to say Garfield’s, not Capri’s.
Capri’s status should read “Closed/Demolished.”
ML: The Capri, which was at the southeast corner of 2nd and Main, is listed here under its original name, the Granada Theater:
/theaters/2401/
Was there ever a Capri Theatre in Alhambra in the 1960s?
The Garfield didn’t have a balcony. You must be thinking of the Monterey Theatre, on Garfield Avenue in Monterey Park, which had a section of stadium seating in the back half of the auditorium. It was the only theatre in the area that had that arrangement, and none of the theatres in Alhambra ever had a balcony of any sort.
The Garfield Theatre, less than a mile north of the Monterey, at the corner of Garfield and Valley in Alhambra, had the rest rooms upstairs, on either side of the projection room, and there were small anterooms adjacent to them that had glazed windows overlooking the auditorium. The one adjacent to the Women’s rest room was probably used as a crying room, and might have had seating- I don’t know, since I never went up there. The one next to the men’s room had no seats, though, but you would often find guys using it as a smoking room, since smoking wasn’t allowed in the auditorium itself.
We used to go there in the 70’s. It was the last of the “Balcony” theaters. If you want to REALLY see a movie, see it from the balcony. You get two shows, the one you paid for, and the entertaining crowd watching you can do, especially if you’re young. A balcony makes a movie an “experience.”
My father lived a few miles from the Garfield at the time it was built. He told me that the huge sign atop the stage house was the principle landmark in the area, and that by night, when its hundreds of light bulbs were lit, it could be seen from the upper floors of his house in Walnut Acres, two miles southeast. In those days, the Garfield was the main vaudeville house in the southern San Gabriel Valley, and all the big acts played there. The theater had a wooden floor, which was considered better for the acoustics in a room designed for live acts in the age before amplification.
The big rooftop sign was still there when I first went to the Garfield, about 1952, but it was no longer lighted at night. The front of the theater (the building in which it was located was called the Valley Grand Building, and its upper floor contained a very respectable apartment house) still looked much as it did in the picture from 1930, except for the addition of a neon marquee, probably of 1930’s vintage.
We didn’t go to the Garfield often in the following years, because it was still a high-priced, first run theater, but I do remember my first sight of the cavernous (and almost deserted) auditorium. The walls were still decorated with rough plaster work designed to look like stone. In fact, the walls were of reinforced concrete- the marks of the board forms were visible on the outside walls of auditorium and stage house. But the interior retained many of the early decorative features, including the columned proscenium which was destroyed a few years later when a Cinemascope screen was installed.
I remember the tickets at that time bore the name of the Vinnicoff (sp?) Theatre Circuit, and sometimes they would use tickets with the name of the Grove Theatre in Garden Grove, operated by the same company. In fact, as I found out later, the Edwards circuit had an interest in the theater, and I believe they came into full ownership sometime in the early 1960’s. It was about that time that the interior of the auditorium was modernized, the faux stone plaster work of the walls being clad in some tacky veneer. After that, the only interesting decor remaining was the series of six, large decorated grates in the high ceiling, from which (I imagine) chandeliers of some sort might once have hung. A new marquee of boring design replace the old neon marquee at that same time. The theater did thrive under Edwards' ownership, though, after adopting a popular price policy of fifty cents for adults and twenty cents for children, but it was so large that, in all those years, I never saw the theater as much as half full.
Even before the inside was redecorated, the outside of the Valley Grand Building was stripped of its ornate top of tile and third-floor pavilions. An earthquake that happened in the San Francisco area in 1957 had caused great consternation about potential disaster in many cities of Southern California, and the City of Alhambra quickly passed an ordinance requiring that all unanchored cornices and parapet walls, and anything else that might fall from a building in an earthquake, had to be either reinforced or removed. Removal was cheaper, and the exterior of almost every old commercial building in the entire town, including the Garfield, with its splendidly detailed Mediterranean decoration, was unceremoniously mutilated.
I only went to the Garfield once in later years, to see the appalling remake of King Kong, sometime in the seventies. That night, I saw something I had never before seen; The house was packed, with not an empty seat in sight. I believe the place had a capacity of about 1200, so it was quite a crowd. It was probably the last such the old place ever saw. A few years later, the Edwards company opened the three-screen Monterey Mall Cinemas in nearby Monterey Park, and the Garfield, much too large for the times, was leased to a company that ran Chinese movies. Now it is gone. I doubt that Alhambra will ever see its like again.
I was Assistant Manager and Relief Manager of the Garfield Theatre in Alhambra in 1943. At that time it was a part of the Alhambra Theaters Venture, a combination of all four theaters in Alhambra, California which was managed by the Edwards' Theaters Circuit. It was a beautiful theater. It had a fine Wurlitzer Theater Pipe Organ which had been used in earlier years but by the 1940’s was no longer in use. I grew up about three blocks from the theater and lived in the neigborhood for many years. It was hard to watch it deteriorate.
When the Garfield Theatre opened in 1925. It was known as Bard’s Garfield Theatre. Like other theatres in the Bard’s chain it was also an Egyptian styled theatre design. But it was modernized over the years. Before the theatre part was razed, you could still see the large painted sign with the Bard logo of a sailing on the rear of the stage house. Along with the logo it also stated that this theatre was equipped with Vitaphone sound.
I believe this was once a vaudeville house which saw an appearance of the Gumm Sisters (Judy Garland) in the early 30’s.
I was by what used to be the theatre today, October 2, 2002 and you would never know that there was a theatre there at one time. It was on the east side of south Garfield Avenue just north of Vallery Boulevard in the 1200 block. Even the large roof sign is gone, the store fronts do look much better than they have in years. But, no theatre. Store fronts take up the front of the whole complex, where once the ticket booth stood.
For those who didn’t know, The Garfield Theatre was located a few doors north of Valley Boulevard on Garfield Avenue in the city of Alhambra. I saw the slow decay of this nice theatre, and it really showed me how something that meant so much to some of us, is just – GONE. No fair.
The Garfield Theater opened in 1925. Architect was L.A.Smith.