California Theatre

810 S. Main Street,
Los Angeles, CA 90014

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Showing 26 - 50 of 77 comments

patinkin
patinkin on November 4, 2007 at 7:54 pm

What death threats did you receive gerew, I’m curious.

patinkin
patinkin on November 4, 2007 at 7:50 pm

“ when the folks there, that fateful day, were there at the invitation of the owners. Just like you.”

But given permission ( and the keys) a week earlier. Appernetly he TRUSTED us a bit more, wouldnt you say?

Steve Needleman didnt need prodding from any johnny-come-lately so-called preservationist group to do what he did. The Needlemans have been doing that all along. Steve’s restoration, and indeed, the ownership and upkeep of the Orpheum predates any drives by the LAHTF, LAC, CRA, and Historical groups. My beef is not against ANY legit historical preservation outfit that seeks to save any and all the architecturally and historicaly significant buildings in Los Angeles. There are huge gaps in our architectural history, which in turn, I believe, negatively affects our overall quality of life.
There have been times when I misspoke, and I have apologized…..such as the time I blamed a Hollywood historical group of breaking of some details from the Hollyhock House. That was done, as I found out later, done by a rogue member( the man in the red cap and infamous west-side antiques dealer), my arch-nemesis, my Beloch, for these past 30 years. You seem to have good intentions, but are equally naive of the inner workings of city government and special interest groups. And I have seen one too many details and pieces wind up in the living rooms of these self same “preservationists”. The same whose shrill voices we hear at the meetings. The sane who file use blackmail to secure a bit of memorabilia for themselves and decor.
The only legacy that was brought about by the destruction of the California was that we have another parking lot downtown and several parties claiming to be Indiana Jones( only ONE JONES here pal, and thats been me for the past 30 years!) St.Vibiana might be a victory, has the taxpayers of L.A. not been forced to pay so that it would be turned over private ownership/enetprise as a private MTV-like venue…believe me, had I known THAT would happen….better that it be demolished!!!!
I have a bone to pick you might say….yeah, you might say. Preservation has been my calling ever since my dad took us all to dinner one Sunday, and we returned to our apartment( my dad was the manager), only to discover the two giant aqua blue oil jars on the front stoops had been stolen. We found one later that week in a west-side antique shop, priced at $1200 no less!
The owner of that shop, I might add, has been one of the leading “preservationists” in Los Angeles for the past 20 years.

hillsmanwright
hillsmanwright on November 4, 2007 at 7:10 pm

IF an injunction was filed with the court, it definitely was not filed by the LAHTF, LAC, CRA, Cultural Heritage or other public players in the drama. A reporter for the Downtown News, who covered the theatre beat at that time, backed a pick-up to the demolition site and got the central metal arch with “California” from the marquee and two capitals from the front facade terra cotta columns. One went to NJ with a pal of his and the other, who knows? 10 years ago, the marquee piece found its way to Heaven or Las Vegas, a neon prop house still extant in Mar Vista. The huge murals, added later, of Santa Ana and ?, thanks largely to Al Nodal,made their way to the Latino Museum collection. I should be able to dig up more info next week as to what else is around and where. Part of the final settlement that was reached with the Needlemans by the City of Los Angeles, through their agents, the Cultural Heritage Commission and the CRA, was that artifacts would be saved and displayed at the building that replaced the theatre. Of course, this didn’t happen. For a time, there was a display window built into the Main st. facade where photos and a brief hitory were on display. This is no longer the case. Perhaps, you could get the Needlemans and the CRA to consider getting that display back up. We could work together to locate any “pieces” appropriate for display. The two balcony chandelier bowls – about four feet across – are in storage in Hollywood. We might even be able to track down the facade pieces that would fit into the display niche. So yes, the “preservationists” have “preserved” what others would have consigned to the scrap heap. The box office was gone by the time I got there. There was a gaping hole in the roof and workmen were on site throwing roofing material through the hole to a large pile in the orchestra floor. Who knows what else is out there? It’s hard to understand your use of “pilfer”, when the folks there, that fateful day, were there at the invitation of the owners. Just like you. Bottom line: Steve Needleman did a woderful thing for this city when he used family funds to do a partial Orpheum restoration. The theatre looks great, seems to be very busy and sets an example for what is possible with the rest of the theatres. If that is the legacy of the demolition of the California, it all didn’t come out too badly, after all.

patinkin
patinkin on November 4, 2007 at 4:56 pm

gerew, your memory of the California/Orpheum timeline is skewed, at best.
As for your statement that ,“ many of the pieces removed are still in storage awaiting proper display and re-use”…your own people have told me that those pieces, they FEW and insignificant ones you were able to pilfer, ARE on display currently….in select members households and backyards, perhaps maybe even YOURS???
I have no beef with the current preservationists, only with the lackey looters and the blackmailers of 20 years ago and no amount of shrill whining by gerew will change that.By the way….I saw and read with MY OWN eyes the legal papers concerning the injunctions, you sniveling wiggler.
I personaly knew the Needlemans and that family really hated your guts, for not negotiating in good faith, for the injunction, for the hundreds of thousands lost in the course of the delay.
By the way….who the heck got the ticket booth….it wasnt the “Man in the red cap”, who made off with several pieces of the interior detail (no doubt bound for west-side art dealers), it wasnt the Needlemans, it wasnt Cleveland Wrecking, the foreman at the time was a frend of mine…..so who got the booth???? I had already loosened it from the substrate and some turd-suckers ripped it off during the night. All I found was broken piece of the “parrot” Hispano-Moresque tiles the next morning who would cause such damage to those wonderful tiles???
Perhaps some…..“preservationists”?????

hillsmanwright
hillsmanwright on November 2, 2007 at 12:59 am

For the record and to correct gross misrepresentations posted on the loss of the California by garagehero, here we go. The LA Historic Theatre Foundation was formed as an all-volunteer organization dedicated to the protection, preservation, rehabilitation and sustenance of Southern California’s historic theatres. Among the founding members were John E. Miller, David Cameron and Tom Owen – the three grand old men of LA’s theatres and Hillsman Wright, who was responsible for saving the Memphis Orpheum in the late 1970’s. The LA Conservancy’s first Last Remaining Seats series in 1997 was organized and executed by a committee of 8, 6 of whom were founding LAHTF members. At the same time, more theatres closed on Broadway than in any year since the Great Depression. Very simply, these theatre aficionados believed a specialized organization was required to address the crisis, raise awareness and protect the structures. Their position was to oppose the demolition and/or substantial alteration of any of the Broadway District theatres (there were 17 then) until a comprehensive study could be conducted to determine the best approach for saving and using the theatres for the benefit of all. For whatever reason, LA was far out of the mainstream of the major national theatre rehab movement. Maintaining a close relationship with and employing the freely offered advice and expertise of theatre members and professionals of the League of Historic American Theatres (LHAT), the LAHTF was chartered to own, operate, program, preserve and raise public awareness. The LAHTF immediately nominated all theatres in the Broadway district not previously designated as LA Cultural Historic Landmarks. Like most toothless and largely un-enforced local landmark ordinances, in the event of a proposed demolition, the best that could be hoped for was a temporary delay to try to convince the owners of the benefits of saving their theatre or to find a buyer who would. The California was given this protection. No court injunctions were ever filed by the LAHTF or anyone else. While DENMARST, run by the Needleman sons, owned the California, the primary player was their father Jack, who at that time was reputed to be the largest private property owner in downtown LA. His historic buildings primarily housed the garment manufacturing business. Along the way, he acquired buildings that just happened to have theatres in them, which were generally operated by Metropolitan Theatres. Money was not a limiting circumstance with this family and the statement that the family lost “hundreds of thousands of dollars in construction delays” is simply false. There was never an either/or choice between the Orpheum and California rehabs. Steve Needleman rehabbed the Orpheum years later – after the death of his father and after Metropolitan no longer operated the Orpheum. The LAHTF never contacted the Needlemans demanding a pay-off. Garagehero must be referring to a large contribution made to the LA Conservancy during this time by Jack Needleman. As far as the stripping of the California is concerned, the LAHTF was contacted by the Needleman family after demolition of the roof had begun. In what was viewed as a conciliatory gesture and with only one day’s notice, the LAHTF was offered any and all objects remaining in the building that could be removed the next day for their own preservation and disposition. Many of the “pieces” removed are still in storage awaiting proper display and re-use. One wonders what public benefit has been or will be derived from the “pieces” removed by garagehero and his crew and we must question who the true “looters” are.
The comments above argue eloquently for the historic importance of the California beyond its beautiful terra-cotta facade. Roxy! In LA! Unfortunately, Graumann’s Million Dollar Theatre on Broadway opened soon after the California and even Roxy could not alter the movement of the theatre district westward to Broadway.
The LAHTF has been largely responsible for saving dozens of historic theatres throughout Southern California. It hosted two national historic theatre conferences – on Broadway – to bring the best practices and national expertise available to bear on the extraordinary opportunities this collection of theatres offers to LA, the nation and the world. LAHTF members were drawn from throughout LA, Southern California, and even internationally (New Zealand and England). Garagehero does himself, the theatre district, this web site and thousands of historic theatre aficionados around the world a grave disservice by disseminating what can only charitably be called misinformation about the struggle to save the California. Rather than impugn the efforts of knowledgeable, public-spirited preservation advocates, such as the volunteers of the LAHTF, garagehero would likely be better served by seeking the facts rather than trusting what is clearly a fading, highly prejudiced and faulty memory of events. Disclaimer: like garagehero, gerew is getting older and 18 years after the events discussed above may have missed a detail or two. However, gerew was there for the hearings, the hassles, the “stripping”, and even the death threats. Full disclosure: gerew was a founding member of the LAHTF Board.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on October 29, 2007 at 7:05 am

Here is a 1919 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/36733j

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on July 14, 2007 at 10:30 am

According to the LA Times, Fred Miller began showing “talkie films” in Spanish in August 1930.At that time the theater was called the “California International Theater”.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on June 16, 2007 at 10:13 am

If you go to the Banner theater page, you will read an article in the LA Times from the mid 30s about Skid Row and how bad it was at that time. Kind of surprising.

patinkin
patinkin on June 16, 2007 at 9:12 am

I cant get those last photos. Concerning the Latino films…latinos were allowed on Main by that time. Old-timers tell me that latinos and blacks were not allowed on Broadway or the surrounding city center until after the 1940s. One old latino gent told me that if you were black or latino, you needed a permission slip to be in the area from your employer or you would be arrested, escorted out, or beat-up by the police and passers-by. But by the 50s, this was no longer deemed feasable or proper, and much of downtown opened up to blacks and latinos. Interesting to note, in some John Fante and Raymond Chandler novels set in the 40s, the area bordering Main was already looked upon as run-down and even referred to as “skid-row”.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on June 3, 2007 at 9:21 am

Interesting that the theater was already showing Latino films in 1950. On January 22, the features were “Pecado de Laura” and “Novia del Mar”.

patinkin
patinkin on May 27, 2007 at 11:04 am

Check out the long gone old-world fountain where Main separates from Spring in that photograph. That disappears from the record around the 30s. Those are the little touches that make a city, a city. Many of our landmarks or architectural details disappeared during the development madness of the 60s and 70s. There are huge gaps in the natural architectural progression of our city, but luckily and inexplicably in some cases, so much has survived. I remember back in the 70s and 80s, so many buildings near the historic core and older neighborhoods were demolished( many of these structures built in the 1890-1900s) and no effort was made to salvage any important details. I remember wrecking balls smashing into two-story high stained glass windows and ornate neon marquees with a mechanical indifference that was mirrored in the eyes of developers. That “look” is STILL there. If the city would relax some of the square-footage and commercial tax issues that hamstring preservation efforts, without having commercial entertainment and private parties ( bogus preservation groups)taking advantage of it at the expense of the taxpayers, THAT would go a long way to putting the profit of developers in a permanent back-seat to the interests of the public. It is our birth-right.Citizens of European cities, residents of Boston, San Fran, San Diego, New York, and cities , towns and hamlets across the country can take a walk on their streets and witness layers of historical architecture. We still have most of our layers. Unless dictated by extraordinary circumstances, there should be zero demolition of any historic structure,especially of theaters.
(Yes Kenny, I guess the Cal was a “gem”…..for about 6 months anyway, or until the REAL palaces were built up on Broadway).

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on May 26, 2007 at 8:48 pm

Way back in December of 2005, I linked to a photo from the USC digital archives showing this block before the California was built, but which showed the earlier Miller’s Theatre down the block. The picture has been moved here. Unfortunately, USC has abandoned the scroll feature they once had, so the amount of detail viewers can get is now limited, but you can still make out the Miller’s marquee and rooftop sign on the dark, three story building at far right.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on May 26, 2007 at 6:18 pm

Christmas Day, 1918 (LA Times):

HAIL TO THE CALIFORNIA.
The Beautiful New Miller Theater Holds a Merry Christmas Eve.

Miller’s wonderful new motionpicture theater is open at last! All Los Angeles has been awaiting the great event, and last night, Christmas Eve, Main street was the most brilliant thoroughfare of our town, ablaze with lights, thronged with automobiles, jammed with pedestrians—and lights, machines and people were all focussed on one spot, the handsome white facade of the splendid new California Theater.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on May 26, 2007 at 6:16 pm

Under new management (LA Times, 11/8/19)

Golden success crowns the Goldwyn regime at the California at last night’s brilliant opening of that theater under the new management, with Geraldine Farrar in “Flame of the Desert” as the feature, be any criterion. Crowds swarmed to the doors long before the house opened at 3 o'clock, and waited in two block-long lines up and down Main street.

patinkin
patinkin on May 26, 2007 at 12:51 pm

Thanks for the posting, Ken MC, I have the same one around here somewhere. I’m sure you’ll agree that it just goes to show how limited , as far as telling the whole story, that the snippet-journalism of media can be. For insatnce, the California was never considered a gem of the theatre district. Certainly the facade was beautiful, but if was a mere concrete box inside. Second, the so-called Hillsman-Wright group never really meant to rehabilitate the theatre, but merely wanted to loot and carry away as many architectural details as possible, or use the theatre for their own purpose, in essence, using the law to steal private property under the guise of historic preservation. As for the assertion that the Needlemans were not trying hard enough to preserve the structure, this is a definite canard and misreprentation of the truth, as we know now. The Needlemans, who at the time were known as the DENMARST company, were not a hugely wealthy limited, but a mediun-sized real
estate business. Tye were faced with a choice of rehabilitating the
Orpheum, a REAL and BONAFIDE movie palace, and the California, a water and earthquake damaged building that could have taken several million to re-hab. The Needlemans chose to rehab the Orpheum, which has now been brought back to its glory days, and IT has become THE centerpiece of the center-city rehabilitation. The Hillsman Wright group did manage to blackmail the Needlmans by slapping the Denmarst company with so many legal injunctions, which ended up costing the Needlemans hundreds of thousands of dollars in construction delays.
The so-called “preservationists” contacted Denmarst with the blackmail offer, in which Hillsman Wright, the Historic Theatre Preservation group and their cronies would drop all injunctions and the Needlemans were free in demolishing the theatre if the Needlemans would pay a donation/bribe of several hundred thousand dollars. This the Denmarst did, if only to stop bleeding money and resources. One of the stipulations was that the “Theatre Conservancy” agency would have first dibs on all the interior objets d'art, architectural details, seats, projector, lights, curtains, etc….however, the Needlemans, to their credit, gave me the keys a week before , and my crew and I were able to STRIP the theatre before the Conservancy folks got to it.In any case, kudos to landowners like the Needlmans, who are the REAL HEROES of downtown revitalization, and not these west-side blackmailers and artsy-fartsy looters!!!

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on May 21, 2007 at 12:33 pm

From the LA Times, 9//5/90:

The owners of the California Theatre-real estate investors and brothers Steve, Mark and Dennis Needleman-contend that they cannot rehabilitate the theater. They said they plan to convert the theater grounds at Main and 8th streets into a parking lot.

[Hillsman Wright]’s group disagrees. The foundation, which envisions the theater as part of a revived downtown entertainment district, argues that a rehabilitated California Theatre could spur economic growth in the surrounding neighborhood.

The California Theatre, the beaux-arts movie palace that was once a gem of the city’s downtown theater district, is to be razed late this week and the site used for a parking lot. Some preservationists believe the owners are not trying hard enough to save the structure at Main and 8th streets, above. But the owners contend it cannot be rehabilitated.

patinkin
patinkin on April 10, 2007 at 8:56 am

Hooray!!! Hey William, I’ll try and upload a new photo on the Fox Arroyo today. Its got a new business inside, and I believe they changed the address from the original 3236 to 3232, but I am not sure so I’ll go by there today. I saw the comments by Joe Vogel on the theatre link. Its true that this place is surrounded by a great many historical residences, and not just Heritage Square. Highland Park/Cypress Park was one of the first suburbs of Los Angeles and has a plethora of interesting buildings , houses and sites of historical interest spanning many periods. And its an area blessed with several nice theatres, like the Highland further up Fig, and the Rialto in South Pas.

William
William on April 10, 2007 at 8:39 am

ok……..you can have butter too………. :)

patinkin
patinkin on April 10, 2007 at 8:22 am

Not even a bag of popcorn???

William
William on April 10, 2007 at 6:02 am

No credit. The theatre in question is the former Fox Arroyo Theatre.

/theaters/3480/

patinkin
patinkin on April 9, 2007 at 7:07 pm

Hey, there was a theatre in the Cypress park area of L.A., catty-cornered from Nightengale Middle school. It had been used as a sweat shop or warehouse for years, now I believe its a store or restaraunt. It still has its original Moorish facade. I wonder if anyone knows anything about it, I mean, what it was in its heyday. Its on 3232 North Figueroa. Hey, do I get credit for finding a new/old theatre? Do I get anything?

danwhitehead1
danwhitehead1 on April 9, 2007 at 7:05 pm

Thanks glovedude. I always had a feeling that the projection booth was originally somewhere else in the house. As I say, I really regret that I never had the time to explore this theatre.