The first People’s Theater I quoted above must have been a different place. The Dime Museum (whatever that was), which it replaced, was near 1st and Main…plus it says South Main instead of North Main. It must have been near the plaza.
(Sept. 11, 1888)
About 8 o'clock last night a couple of pistol shots, fired in rapid succession, were heard in the tent of the California Dime Museum, on Main street, near First, immediately following which a rather handsome young woman rushed out of the then and up Main street, screaming, “I’m shot, I’m shot!” The street was filled with people, and in a few minutes a crowd of about 500 people had gathered about the tent, anxious to learn the cause of the shooting………
There are many crime incidents at 523 S. Main during the 40’s, but for some reason, none of the articles mention the name of the theater at the time. Later on I found an article about this guy being found sane and going to San Quentin.
(June 2, 1945)
Convicted of four counts of arson, including the charge that he set fire to two pianos in a theater at 523 S. Main St. last March 5, Frank James Russell, 24, from New York, faced interogation by a psychiatrist. Russell’s fate when he goes before Superior Judge Walter S. Gates on June 26 for a hearing on probation and sentence will depend to a large extent on the report of Dr. Marcus Crahan, the psychiatrist, who has been appointed to investigate the mental quirks that cause Russell to start fires. He said he was bored with the show.
(Sept. 24, 1909)
One of the largest and most important deals in Los Angeles business property consummated this year was put through yesterday when John C. Mordough, a retired banker and lumber merchant, of the City of Mexico, purchased through the agency of R.A. Rowan & Co., the property at Nos. 521-523-525 South Main street, known as the Peoples Theater building. H.J. Woollacott, the seller, received $225,000 for his holding, or at the rate of over $3600 a front foot. The site is improved with a three-story brick building, containing two stores and the People’s Theater on the ground floor, and a rooming-house on the two upper floors. The lot fronts 61 1/3 feet on Main and extends back 165 feet to an alley. The present rents are said to be $15,000 a year, which will pay Mr. Mordough 6 per cent on his investment. Mr. Mordough came to Los Angeles frist with the Shrine convention in 1907, as one of the delegates of the Anezeh Shrine of the City of Mexico. He was so impressed with the bustling and hustling way of the city that he immediately made a loan of $50,000 on a Broadway lot. Since then he has visited the city frequently and has loaned through R.A. Rowan & Co., several hundred thousand dollars. Mr. Woollacott, the seller, purchased the holding many years ago, while it was still residence property, at $800 a front foot. He erected the present building four years ago at a cost of $46,000.
(Feb. 11, 1908)
“The Great Fer-Don certainly has the best for the people, no matter what he does,” said one man at the People’s Theater last night. “‘The Hottest Coon in Dixie’ is as good singing show as ever I have seen.” Which seemed to be the general verdict of all who attended the show last night. Never in the history of the People’s Theater, which is located on South Main Street, between Fifth and Sixth streets, have there been such crowds as are now being entertained nightly by the Great Fer-Don’s company of entertainers…(long article)..Demonstrations upon the lame and deaf are permformed free upon the stage at the People’s Theater every night except Sunday.
(Sept. 2, 1906)
NEW PEOPLE’S THEATER-523 South Main St.
All This Week—Every Afternoon—Every Night
Ethel Tucker Stock Co. Presents
“Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"
Daily Matinees, 10cents; Evenings, 10, 20, and 30cents
This at least places a People’s Theater on North Main Street. Has anyone heard of the Dime Museum?
(May 13, 1889)
The People’s Theater opened Saturday night to a good sized audience. The theater is built and operated on the cheap plan and has grown out of the old Dime Museum on North Main street. The management has put in a stock company of a very ordinary caliber, which opened in the old drama The Streets of New York. Another good house turned out last night and seemed to enjoy one of the most mediocre performances ever given outside of a country town.
I wonder if this could be the same People’s Theater. This is from an advertisement for People’s Store. Unfortunately, no address is given.
(May 26, 1889)
A great old time all day tommorow, and tickets to the theater free. FREE. Two thousand tickets of admission to the People’s Theater will be distributed to lady patrons only who purchase the amount of $1. Four hundred tickets for Monday’s performance and 400 for each succeeding night; all will be given away tomorrow…….
Here’s and article about the original plans for this theater from the LA Times.
(March 15, 1925)
BLUMENTHAL TO PUT THEATER ON LA BREA STREET
La Brea avenue is soon to boast its first. Announcement of plans for the new playhouse, which will cost $150,000, were made yesterday by A.C. Blumenthal, who has just completed negotiations for the purchase of the northwest corner of Ninth street and La Brea avenue. The site has a frontage on La Brea of 140 feet, with a Ninth-street frontage of 134 feet. According to architectural and engineering plans which Mr. Blumenthal is now having prepared, the new structure will contain a theater auditorium to seat 1200 people in addition to nine large store rooms. The theater will be of the latest “Class A” construction containing the latest theatrical inovations, including a fifty-foot stage. A.C. Blumenthal & Co. Inc., also announce leases closed for the account of William Fox on the Norton leasehold on Hill street, between Sixth and Seventh streets. Calling for a gross rental of $125,000, Leighton Industries, Inc., has secured a five-year lease on the store-room at 618 South Hill street.
(July 10, 1977)
As a concerned citizen I note with dismay Sylvie Drake’s report that the American Theater, formerly known as the Lindy Opera House and originally constructed in 1928 as the Ritz Theater on Wilshire and La Brea Avenues, has been condemned to the wrecking crews by its current owner. United States Life Savings Co. The theater is to be replaced by a parking lot.
I am sad, disheartened and not a little angry that this action is transpiring. I understand that U.S. Life has made some effort to make a financial go of keeping the building but apparently failed. Though I am fully cognizant that U.S. Life has every legal right to dispose of its property, I think that this action evidences a gross insensitivity toward an artistic facility that once proudly served the aesthetic and cultural needs of the public. I was under the impression, perhaps mistaken, that businesses, agencies, and corporations devoted to public service and serving the needs of the community had a moral obligation in the very least to sustain and support traditional values. U.S. Life gets a black mark for gross negligence, lack of creative moral leadership and general civic irresponsibility in the disposing of the Lindy Opera House in such a cavalier manner. I believe a society does not requite itself by saying, “It isn’t turning a profit!” On the contrary, any society and most of all ours is not to be judged by the corpulencey of its profit margins but by the length and breadth of its vision. Some in the past have had that vision. Just over 20 years ago James Doolittle did much in saving the then-dark Huntington Hartford Theater and the Greek Theater in the form of the Greek Theater Assn. Just recently the Nederlanders have returned to Los Angeles the resplendent old vaudeville house, the Pantages Theater. In an 11th hour attempt to do the impossible I exhort those individuals who gave us the Music Center to use their influence, prestige, and civic stature to help us save the Lindy Opera House.
CHARLES DIAZ-HANSEN
Chairman
Committee to Save the Lindy Opera House
Here’s an article describing the change to the Lindy Opera House from the LA Times:
(Feb. 20, 1963)
The Ritz Theater on Wilshire Blvd. at La Brea, which has been used only infrequently since early 1960, will reopen as an opera house for the presentation of grand and light opera, musical comedy, concerts and concert galas. The 1,320-seat house, operated for many years by Fox West Coast Theaters, has been subleased from them by the Lindy Pen Co. for its subsidiary, the Lindy Opera Co. The deal is understood to be for four years. Sidney Linden, president of Lindy Pen Co. reports that the exact date and attraction have not yet been set. The theater will be renamed the Lindy Opera House.
Can anyone read the sign on the side of the building on the far right of this photo? All I can make out is Grand Ave. Theater. I dont put much faith in the dating of these photos, but if this is really 1912, it should be either Walker or Mozart if its even the correct theater.
I’ll have to read about Sarah’s leg….I don’t know if this link will work, but you can see a sign for the Mozart Theater at the far left. This picture says it is looking east, but it is actually more north east. You can see Clune’s in the background.
I understand your frustration ken. Today I went on the bus down Wilshire and saw that big hole where Coulter’s was and then saw the shell of the Cocoanut Grove…the Ambassador is completely gone along with all of the bungalows…pretty disgusting. Also, I live one block from where the Carthay Circle Theater was and have to look at the ugly twin office buildings that replaced the theater and its grounds almost every day.
Joe has good eyes. The Mozart changed names to the Strand Theater in 1916. This theater fills in the gap between 1916-1918 or thereabouts. The name changed to the Strand in 1916, but it gets very difficult to weed through the articles beginning in the 20’s since there was a Strand on Catalina, in Pasadena, at Moneta & Vernon, and just about every other major city in the country at that time. But at least we can add the name of Strand replacing the name Mozart in 1916. Here’s the articles:
(Feb 17, 1916)
The new Strand Theater, formerly known as the Mozart, on Grand avenue near Seventh street, will open Sunday afternoon. The policy of showing eleven reels of first-run feature photoplays has been adopted. Sarah Bernhardt will be seen in the opening attraction in “Jeanne Dore,” a highly dramatic spectacle dealing with the ups and downs of Parisian life, and Harry D. Carey, well-known local matinee idol, will appear in “A Knight of the Range,” declared by critics to be one of the best western melodramas ever produced. The house is being remodeled this week in order properly to stage these big productions. There will be a large orchestra.
I didn’t realize Sarah Bernhardt had a limb amputated:
(Feb 21, 1916)
The Strand Theater on Grand avenue, near Eighth street, opened yesterday with Sarah Bernhardt’s latest film play, “Jeanne Dore,” which is an excellent vehicle for the great artist’s powers. “Jeanne Dore” is nevertheless a very unpleasant play, its quality being compensated for only by the fact that Bernhardt does some tremendously convincing acting. And this despite the fact that the picture was made shortly after the amputation of her limb, and the evident fact that she is weak and therefore does not move about much.
(Dec. 8, 1918)
FOR MUSICIANS ONLY
Professional School of Picture Playing.
Strand Theater, Grand Avenue.
The art of playing to pictures with dramatic and musical intelligence. Class and individual lessons with actual moving picture. Course includes Orchestral Pipe Organ, Piano, Violin, Conducting, Repertoire, Interpretation of Pictures, Accompanying, Improvisation, Transposition, Picture Cueing and Scoring.
This article has a few inaccuracies (the address, building date, and lack of a mention of the Mozart) but at least it gives a fairly reliable demolition date. It’s interesting that this theater most likely started out as a movie house and then went to live performance and then back to movies.
(July 4, 1946)
FINAL CURTAIN TO FALL AT OLD GRAND THEATER
It was the entertainment center of Los Angeles 35 years ago, celebrated artists treading its boards before bejeweled audiences. Now, it’s showing old movies advertised for their spiciness. And on Saturday, the final curtain will be rung down at the old Grand Theater, 750 S. Grand Ave. It’s going to be a parking lot. Built in 1907 by the late George W. Walker, the theater was known for years as the Walker Auditorium and was the home of the stage hits of the day. Then, its name was changed to the Orange Grove Theater and musical hits were staged there. Before being renamed the Grand Theater and converted into a motion-picture house about 10 years ago, it was known briefly as the Actors Theater. Principal historian of the old theater is Joseph H. Jones, the elderly elevator operator. He went to work there 18 ½ years ago when some of its grandeur still remained. The theater building is a six-story structure housing offices and meeting rooms. All tenants except present operators of the theater have vacated as wreckers prepare to take over next week.
Once again there is a name change for this theater:
(May 19, 1935)
The new Grand International Theater, formerly the Orange Grove, on South Grand avenue, will open Thursday night with the American premier of the Swedish feature picture, “The Song to Her,” with Martin Ohman, grand opera star, as the singing lead of the production. According to J.L. Johnson of the new Grand International group, which is buying theaters on coast for exhibiting foreign pictures only, the theater will be renovated and remodeled throughout for the premiere.

By 1937, they dropped ‘International’ and this theater became known simply as the Grand Theater. From 1935 until about a week before the demolition, the theater showed first run foreign films with a few American silent movie revivals including Son of the Sheik. Most of the films were Russian, Swedish, Polish, French and even a few Balinese movies.
I guess they showed movies occasionally again here, although not blockbusters yet:
(May 22, 1927)
Orange Grove
“The Naked Truth,” a hygiene film indorsed by doctors and health promoters throughout the country, is showing for a limited engagement at the Orange Grove Theater for women only.

This is when the name changed to the Actors' Theater. This one would last until early 1935.
(Nov. 24, 1929)
It is dangerous to want things too much, for we so often get them. but no one could persuade Ruth Renick that it isn’t sumptuously enthralling to have one’s dreams come true. The first materialization of this dream will be seen when the new Actors' Theater produces “The Passing of the Third Floor Back,” starring Henry B. Walthall and Ruth herself at the old Orange Grove on December 2. Over a year ago, Ruth Renick began cogitating upon this dream. Her Actors' Theater was to mean so much, and combine a school of acting, voice music, elocution as well as the production of fine old plays and new ones alternately…with casts made up of well-known actors, and the audience composed of mostly actors, too.
This is the first mention of the name Orange Grove Theater:
(Aug. 21, 1924)
A step toward making Los Angeles a self-sufficing theatrical center, independent of the East even for major musical-show attractions, has been taken through the incorporation of the Orange Grove Theater Company. Harry Carroll, song writer, Orpheum headliner and producer of musical shows in New York is at the head of it. Carroll reached Los Angeles Monday from Denver after completing part of an Orpheum circuit tour in that city. He had been seen at the local Orpheum a few weeks ago. His arrival marks the beginning of the final stages of preparation for the opening of the new theater. It is the former Fine Arts Theater on Grand avenue, near Seventh street. The opening has been set for the night of Thursday, Sept. 4.
I guess it opened on time:
(Aug. 31, 1924)
The form of amusement long desired by Los Angeles playgoers, a musical revue, will be given them with the opening, Friday, of “Harry Carroll’s Pickings,” at the newly-named Orange Grove Theater, Grand avenue near Eighth.

This is when the Orange Grove merged ownership with the Majestic:
(June 12, 1926)
The Majestic and Orange Grove theaters were merged into one organization yesterday when a deal was closed by Michael Corper, Ralph Spence, Will Morrissey and Arthur Freed. Corper will officiate as director-general of both theaters, holding a controlling interest over all productions which Spence and Morrissey are to stage at the Majestic. Morrissey, it was announced, will open at the Majestic Sunday evening, the 20th inst., with a new edition of his Music Hall Revue….
This name for the theater only lasted a short time. It sounds as though they spent a lot of money to fizzle out. After 1910, the name returns to the Walker Theater until 1912 when it changes to the Mozart Theater.
(March 03, 1910)
A change is in prospect at the Walker Theater, on Grand avenue, just south of Seventh street. C.A. Quintard has taken the house on a lease for ten years, and will commence today to make extensive alterations, which will amount, practically, to tearing out and completely rebuilding the inside of the theater. It will be known in the future as the Nielsen Theater, and it will be opened on April 2 by a stock company headed by Miss Hortense Nielsen, a sister of Alice Nielsen. First-class stock performances are promised, and it is probable that a number of high-class plays, notable among which are several Ibsen, Jones and Pinero plays, will be done at the remodelled theater. The company, it is said, will number several well-known players in its list, and rank and file will be of good sort. The Walker Theater has had a varied history since its opening. It was utilized as a sort of musical comedy stock house, was devoted to vaudeville, and recently has been occupied by the LeMoyne stock company.
(April 13, 1910)
Hortense Nielsen, supported by Mace Greenleaf and a good sized company, is offering for her second week in the new Nielsen Theater, Seventh and Grand avenue, “Frou Frou,” Augustin Daly’s comedy. Especial attention has been paid to the mounting of the production. Mr. Greenleaf has the role of Sartoris, and the rest of the people are happily assigned. “Frou Frou” will hold the boards for the remainder of the week, with matinees tomorrow and Saturday.
Here is the opening of the Walker Theater. I presume this is the same space that would become the Mozart.
(Dec 18, 1908)
The Walker Theater on Grand avenue, between Seventh and Eighth streets, opposite the postoffice, will give its first performance next Monday evening. The new theater is in the new six-story Walker Auditorium Building, which contains, in addition to the theater, assembly halls, lodge halls and studios. The theater has a seating capacity of 900, and is tastefully decorated in quiet tints in the art nouveau manner, with much ornamental staff in gules and rosettes. The color scheme is green and gold-brown, touched with gold. The parquet and balcony are fitted with opera chairs, and it is intended to reserve all seats. The main lobby of the theater occupies the entire sixty feet of frontage. It is to be brilliantly lighted, and decorated with ornamental staff work and tinting. The color scheme of the lobby will be in different shades of restful greens, which will be carried over to the pagoda-shaped box office directly in the center of the lobby. The theatrical attractions of the Walker will be vaudeville and moving pictures. The management believes that this is the first time a building has been especially designed for this sort of entertainment. The lessee and manager, J. Harry Pleper, has just returned from the East, bringing with him the latest and best devices used in up-to-date moving-picture theaters. The Walker has secured the Sullivan & Considine vaudeville circuit, which is a guarantee that some of the best “stunts” to be had will be shown there. In addition, the programme will have first-run motion pictures, travellettes, and illustrated songs by singers of genuine merit. An orchestra has been engaged.
Thanks Joe, as you probably noticed, the only empty gap from opening to closing is from 1916-1923, so I’ll try to find something on the Strand. Maybe it will close the gap or maybe it will turn up a few more names. The Grand International is definitely the same theater. The reason I know is that there are a few mentions of it as previously the Orange Grove and when it drops the International part and becomes the Grand the same thing is mentioned as well as the address. It never shows up with the ‘Internationale’ spelling and the name changes to just Grand only two years later. It seems unlikely that the Criterion would use almost the same name at the same time period, in such close proximity, but I’ll do some searching on it.
I guess a dime museum was basically a freak show that cost a dime to get in.
The first People’s Theater I quoted above must have been a different place. The Dime Museum (whatever that was), which it replaced, was near 1st and Main…plus it says South Main instead of North Main. It must have been near the plaza.
(Sept. 11, 1888)
About 8 o'clock last night a couple of pistol shots, fired in rapid succession, were heard in the tent of the California Dime Museum, on Main street, near First, immediately following which a rather handsome young woman rushed out of the then and up Main street, screaming, “I’m shot, I’m shot!” The street was filled with people, and in a few minutes a crowd of about 500 people had gathered about the tent, anxious to learn the cause of the shooting………
There are many crime incidents at 523 S. Main during the 40’s, but for some reason, none of the articles mention the name of the theater at the time. Later on I found an article about this guy being found sane and going to San Quentin.
(June 2, 1945)
Convicted of four counts of arson, including the charge that he set fire to two pianos in a theater at 523 S. Main St. last March 5, Frank James Russell, 24, from New York, faced interogation by a psychiatrist. Russell’s fate when he goes before Superior Judge Walter S. Gates on June 26 for a hearing on probation and sentence will depend to a large extent on the report of Dr. Marcus Crahan, the psychiatrist, who has been appointed to investigate the mental quirks that cause Russell to start fires. He said he was bored with the show.
This might clear up some confusion:
(Sept. 24, 1909)
One of the largest and most important deals in Los Angeles business property consummated this year was put through yesterday when John C. Mordough, a retired banker and lumber merchant, of the City of Mexico, purchased through the agency of R.A. Rowan & Co., the property at Nos. 521-523-525 South Main street, known as the Peoples Theater building. H.J. Woollacott, the seller, received $225,000 for his holding, or at the rate of over $3600 a front foot. The site is improved with a three-story brick building, containing two stores and the People’s Theater on the ground floor, and a rooming-house on the two upper floors. The lot fronts 61 1/3 feet on Main and extends back 165 feet to an alley. The present rents are said to be $15,000 a year, which will pay Mr. Mordough 6 per cent on his investment. Mr. Mordough came to Los Angeles frist with the Shrine convention in 1907, as one of the delegates of the Anezeh Shrine of the City of Mexico. He was so impressed with the bustling and hustling way of the city that he immediately made a loan of $50,000 on a Broadway lot. Since then he has visited the city frequently and has loaned through R.A. Rowan & Co., several hundred thousand dollars. Mr. Woollacott, the seller, purchased the holding many years ago, while it was still residence property, at $800 a front foot. He erected the present building four years ago at a cost of $46,000.
I don’t really know what to say about this one:
(Feb. 11, 1908)
“The Great Fer-Don certainly has the best for the people, no matter what he does,” said one man at the People’s Theater last night. “‘The Hottest Coon in Dixie’ is as good singing show as ever I have seen.” Which seemed to be the general verdict of all who attended the show last night. Never in the history of the People’s Theater, which is located on South Main Street, between Fifth and Sixth streets, have there been such crowds as are now being entertained nightly by the Great Fer-Don’s company of entertainers…(long article)..Demonstrations upon the lame and deaf are permformed free upon the stage at the People’s Theater every night except Sunday.
Here’s an advertisement with an address:
(Sept. 2, 1906)
NEW PEOPLE’S THEATER-523 South Main St.
All This Week—Every Afternoon—Every Night
Ethel Tucker Stock Co. Presents
“Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"
Daily Matinees, 10cents; Evenings, 10, 20, and 30cents
This at least places a People’s Theater on North Main Street. Has anyone heard of the Dime Museum?
(May 13, 1889)
The People’s Theater opened Saturday night to a good sized audience. The theater is built and operated on the cheap plan and has grown out of the old Dime Museum on North Main street. The management has put in a stock company of a very ordinary caliber, which opened in the old drama The Streets of New York. Another good house turned out last night and seemed to enjoy one of the most mediocre performances ever given outside of a country town.
I wonder if this could be the same People’s Theater. This is from an advertisement for People’s Store. Unfortunately, no address is given.
(May 26, 1889)
A great old time all day tommorow, and tickets to the theater free. FREE. Two thousand tickets of admission to the People’s Theater will be distributed to lady patrons only who purchase the amount of $1. Four hundred tickets for Monday’s performance and 400 for each succeeding night; all will be given away tomorrow…….
I think there is some stuff I put on the Optic page that should be on this page. I’ll have to weed through it.
I took some good photos of this building a few weeks ago. If anyone wants them I’ll send.
Here’s and article about the original plans for this theater from the LA Times.
(March 15, 1925)
BLUMENTHAL TO PUT THEATER ON LA BREA STREET
La Brea avenue is soon to boast its first. Announcement of plans for the new playhouse, which will cost $150,000, were made yesterday by A.C. Blumenthal, who has just completed negotiations for the purchase of the northwest corner of Ninth street and La Brea avenue. The site has a frontage on La Brea of 140 feet, with a Ninth-street frontage of 134 feet. According to architectural and engineering plans which Mr. Blumenthal is now having prepared, the new structure will contain a theater auditorium to seat 1200 people in addition to nine large store rooms. The theater will be of the latest “Class A” construction containing the latest theatrical inovations, including a fifty-foot stage. A.C. Blumenthal & Co. Inc., also announce leases closed for the account of William Fox on the Norton leasehold on Hill street, between Sixth and Seventh streets. Calling for a gross rental of $125,000, Leighton Industries, Inc., has secured a five-year lease on the store-room at 618 South Hill street.
(July 10, 1977)
As a concerned citizen I note with dismay Sylvie Drake’s report that the American Theater, formerly known as the Lindy Opera House and originally constructed in 1928 as the Ritz Theater on Wilshire and La Brea Avenues, has been condemned to the wrecking crews by its current owner. United States Life Savings Co. The theater is to be replaced by a parking lot.
I am sad, disheartened and not a little angry that this action is transpiring. I understand that U.S. Life has made some effort to make a financial go of keeping the building but apparently failed. Though I am fully cognizant that U.S. Life has every legal right to dispose of its property, I think that this action evidences a gross insensitivity toward an artistic facility that once proudly served the aesthetic and cultural needs of the public. I was under the impression, perhaps mistaken, that businesses, agencies, and corporations devoted to public service and serving the needs of the community had a moral obligation in the very least to sustain and support traditional values. U.S. Life gets a black mark for gross negligence, lack of creative moral leadership and general civic irresponsibility in the disposing of the Lindy Opera House in such a cavalier manner. I believe a society does not requite itself by saying, “It isn’t turning a profit!” On the contrary, any society and most of all ours is not to be judged by the corpulencey of its profit margins but by the length and breadth of its vision. Some in the past have had that vision. Just over 20 years ago James Doolittle did much in saving the then-dark Huntington Hartford Theater and the Greek Theater in the form of the Greek Theater Assn. Just recently the Nederlanders have returned to Los Angeles the resplendent old vaudeville house, the Pantages Theater. In an 11th hour attempt to do the impossible I exhort those individuals who gave us the Music Center to use their influence, prestige, and civic stature to help us save the Lindy Opera House.
CHARLES DIAZ-HANSEN
Chairman
Committee to Save the Lindy Opera House
Here’s an article describing the change to the Lindy Opera House from the LA Times:
(Feb. 20, 1963)
The Ritz Theater on Wilshire Blvd. at La Brea, which has been used only infrequently since early 1960, will reopen as an opera house for the presentation of grand and light opera, musical comedy, concerts and concert galas. The 1,320-seat house, operated for many years by Fox West Coast Theaters, has been subleased from them by the Lindy Pen Co. for its subsidiary, the Lindy Opera Co. The deal is understood to be for four years. Sidney Linden, president of Lindy Pen Co. reports that the exact date and attraction have not yet been set. The theater will be renamed the Lindy Opera House.
I think this is the same house on the southeast corner of 7th and Grand during happier times.
View link
Can anyone read the sign on the side of the building on the far right of this photo? All I can make out is Grand Ave. Theater. I dont put much faith in the dating of these photos, but if this is really 1912, it should be either Walker or Mozart if its even the correct theater.
View link
I’ll have to read about Sarah’s leg….I don’t know if this link will work, but you can see a sign for the Mozart Theater at the far left. This picture says it is looking east, but it is actually more north east. You can see Clune’s in the background.
View link
I understand your frustration ken. Today I went on the bus down Wilshire and saw that big hole where Coulter’s was and then saw the shell of the Cocoanut Grove…the Ambassador is completely gone along with all of the bungalows…pretty disgusting. Also, I live one block from where the Carthay Circle Theater was and have to look at the ugly twin office buildings that replaced the theater and its grounds almost every day.
Joe has good eyes. The Mozart changed names to the Strand Theater in 1916. This theater fills in the gap between 1916-1918 or thereabouts. The name changed to the Strand in 1916, but it gets very difficult to weed through the articles beginning in the 20’s since there was a Strand on Catalina, in Pasadena, at Moneta & Vernon, and just about every other major city in the country at that time. But at least we can add the name of Strand replacing the name Mozart in 1916. Here’s the articles:
(Feb 17, 1916)
The new Strand Theater, formerly known as the Mozart, on Grand avenue near Seventh street, will open Sunday afternoon. The policy of showing eleven reels of first-run feature photoplays has been adopted. Sarah Bernhardt will be seen in the opening attraction in “Jeanne Dore,” a highly dramatic spectacle dealing with the ups and downs of Parisian life, and Harry D. Carey, well-known local matinee idol, will appear in “A Knight of the Range,” declared by critics to be one of the best western melodramas ever produced. The house is being remodeled this week in order properly to stage these big productions. There will be a large orchestra.
I didn’t realize Sarah Bernhardt had a limb amputated:
(Feb 21, 1916)
The Strand Theater on Grand avenue, near Eighth street, opened yesterday with Sarah Bernhardt’s latest film play, “Jeanne Dore,” which is an excellent vehicle for the great artist’s powers. “Jeanne Dore” is nevertheless a very unpleasant play, its quality being compensated for only by the fact that Bernhardt does some tremendously convincing acting. And this despite the fact that the picture was made shortly after the amputation of her limb, and the evident fact that she is weak and therefore does not move about much.
(Dec. 8, 1918)
FOR MUSICIANS ONLY
Professional School of Picture Playing.
Strand Theater, Grand Avenue.
The art of playing to pictures with dramatic and musical intelligence. Class and individual lessons with actual moving picture. Course includes Orchestral Pipe Organ, Piano, Violin, Conducting, Repertoire, Interpretation of Pictures, Accompanying, Improvisation, Transposition, Picture Cueing and Scoring.
This article has a few inaccuracies (the address, building date, and lack of a mention of the Mozart) but at least it gives a fairly reliable demolition date. It’s interesting that this theater most likely started out as a movie house and then went to live performance and then back to movies.
(July 4, 1946)
FINAL CURTAIN TO FALL AT OLD GRAND THEATER
It was the entertainment center of Los Angeles 35 years ago, celebrated artists treading its boards before bejeweled audiences. Now, it’s showing old movies advertised for their spiciness. And on Saturday, the final curtain will be rung down at the old Grand Theater, 750 S. Grand Ave. It’s going to be a parking lot. Built in 1907 by the late George W. Walker, the theater was known for years as the Walker Auditorium and was the home of the stage hits of the day. Then, its name was changed to the Orange Grove Theater and musical hits were staged there. Before being renamed the Grand Theater and converted into a motion-picture house about 10 years ago, it was known briefly as the Actors Theater. Principal historian of the old theater is Joseph H. Jones, the elderly elevator operator. He went to work there 18 ½ years ago when some of its grandeur still remained. The theater building is a six-story structure housing offices and meeting rooms. All tenants except present operators of the theater have vacated as wreckers prepare to take over next week.
Once again there is a name change for this theater:
(May 19, 1935)
The new Grand International Theater, formerly the Orange Grove, on South Grand avenue, will open Thursday night with the American premier of the Swedish feature picture, “The Song to Her,” with Martin Ohman, grand opera star, as the singing lead of the production. According to J.L. Johnson of the new Grand International group, which is buying theaters on coast for exhibiting foreign pictures only, the theater will be renovated and remodeled throughout for the premiere.

By 1937, they dropped ‘International’ and this theater became known simply as the Grand Theater. From 1935 until about a week before the demolition, the theater showed first run foreign films with a few American silent movie revivals including Son of the Sheik. Most of the films were Russian, Swedish, Polish, French and even a few Balinese movies.
I guess they showed movies occasionally again here, although not blockbusters yet:
(May 22, 1927)
Orange Grove
“The Naked Truth,” a hygiene film indorsed by doctors and health promoters throughout the country, is showing for a limited engagement at the Orange Grove Theater for women only.

This is when the name changed to the Actors' Theater. This one would last until early 1935.
(Nov. 24, 1929)
It is dangerous to want things too much, for we so often get them. but no one could persuade Ruth Renick that it isn’t sumptuously enthralling to have one’s dreams come true. The first materialization of this dream will be seen when the new Actors' Theater produces “The Passing of the Third Floor Back,” starring Henry B. Walthall and Ruth herself at the old Orange Grove on December 2. Over a year ago, Ruth Renick began cogitating upon this dream. Her Actors' Theater was to mean so much, and combine a school of acting, voice music, elocution as well as the production of fine old plays and new ones alternately…with casts made up of well-known actors, and the audience composed of mostly actors, too.
This is the first mention of the name Orange Grove Theater:
(Aug. 21, 1924)
A step toward making Los Angeles a self-sufficing theatrical center, independent of the East even for major musical-show attractions, has been taken through the incorporation of the Orange Grove Theater Company. Harry Carroll, song writer, Orpheum headliner and producer of musical shows in New York is at the head of it. Carroll reached Los Angeles Monday from Denver after completing part of an Orpheum circuit tour in that city. He had been seen at the local Orpheum a few weeks ago. His arrival marks the beginning of the final stages of preparation for the opening of the new theater. It is the former Fine Arts Theater on Grand avenue, near Seventh street. The opening has been set for the night of Thursday, Sept. 4.
I guess it opened on time:
(Aug. 31, 1924)
The form of amusement long desired by Los Angeles playgoers, a musical revue, will be given them with the opening, Friday, of “Harry Carroll’s Pickings,” at the newly-named Orange Grove Theater, Grand avenue near Eighth.

This is when the Orange Grove merged ownership with the Majestic:
(June 12, 1926)
The Majestic and Orange Grove theaters were merged into one organization yesterday when a deal was closed by Michael Corper, Ralph Spence, Will Morrissey and Arthur Freed. Corper will officiate as director-general of both theaters, holding a controlling interest over all productions which Spence and Morrissey are to stage at the Majestic. Morrissey, it was announced, will open at the Majestic Sunday evening, the 20th inst., with a new edition of his Music Hall Revue….
This name for the theater only lasted a short time. It sounds as though they spent a lot of money to fizzle out. After 1910, the name returns to the Walker Theater until 1912 when it changes to the Mozart Theater.
(March 03, 1910)
A change is in prospect at the Walker Theater, on Grand avenue, just south of Seventh street. C.A. Quintard has taken the house on a lease for ten years, and will commence today to make extensive alterations, which will amount, practically, to tearing out and completely rebuilding the inside of the theater. It will be known in the future as the Nielsen Theater, and it will be opened on April 2 by a stock company headed by Miss Hortense Nielsen, a sister of Alice Nielsen. First-class stock performances are promised, and it is probable that a number of high-class plays, notable among which are several Ibsen, Jones and Pinero plays, will be done at the remodelled theater. The company, it is said, will number several well-known players in its list, and rank and file will be of good sort. The Walker Theater has had a varied history since its opening. It was utilized as a sort of musical comedy stock house, was devoted to vaudeville, and recently has been occupied by the LeMoyne stock company.
(April 13, 1910)
Hortense Nielsen, supported by Mace Greenleaf and a good sized company, is offering for her second week in the new Nielsen Theater, Seventh and Grand avenue, “Frou Frou,” Augustin Daly’s comedy. Especial attention has been paid to the mounting of the production. Mr. Greenleaf has the role of Sartoris, and the rest of the people are happily assigned. “Frou Frou” will hold the boards for the remainder of the week, with matinees tomorrow and Saturday.
Here is the opening of the Walker Theater. I presume this is the same space that would become the Mozart.
(Dec 18, 1908)
The Walker Theater on Grand avenue, between Seventh and Eighth streets, opposite the postoffice, will give its first performance next Monday evening. The new theater is in the new six-story Walker Auditorium Building, which contains, in addition to the theater, assembly halls, lodge halls and studios. The theater has a seating capacity of 900, and is tastefully decorated in quiet tints in the art nouveau manner, with much ornamental staff in gules and rosettes. The color scheme is green and gold-brown, touched with gold. The parquet and balcony are fitted with opera chairs, and it is intended to reserve all seats. The main lobby of the theater occupies the entire sixty feet of frontage. It is to be brilliantly lighted, and decorated with ornamental staff work and tinting. The color scheme of the lobby will be in different shades of restful greens, which will be carried over to the pagoda-shaped box office directly in the center of the lobby. The theatrical attractions of the Walker will be vaudeville and moving pictures. The management believes that this is the first time a building has been especially designed for this sort of entertainment. The lessee and manager, J. Harry Pleper, has just returned from the East, bringing with him the latest and best devices used in up-to-date moving-picture theaters. The Walker has secured the Sullivan & Considine vaudeville circuit, which is a guarantee that some of the best “stunts” to be had will be shown there. In addition, the programme will have first-run motion pictures, travellettes, and illustrated songs by singers of genuine merit. An orchestra has been engaged.
Thanks Joe, as you probably noticed, the only empty gap from opening to closing is from 1916-1923, so I’ll try to find something on the Strand. Maybe it will close the gap or maybe it will turn up a few more names. The Grand International is definitely the same theater. The reason I know is that there are a few mentions of it as previously the Orange Grove and when it drops the International part and becomes the Grand the same thing is mentioned as well as the address. It never shows up with the ‘Internationale’ spelling and the name changes to just Grand only two years later. It seems unlikely that the Criterion would use almost the same name at the same time period, in such close proximity, but I’ll do some searching on it.