Hippodrome Theater
314 S. Main Street,
Los Angeles,
CA
90013
314 S. Main Street,
Los Angeles,
CA
90013
7 people
favorited this theater
Showing 51 - 75 of 180 comments
Joe, I thought the 1907 photo was interesting. The Hotel Leonide building is still standing, a hundred years later. The building on the east side a bit north (with the turret) was the post office.
Pretty amazing photo Joe. From looking at how closely packed that block was I guess it makes sense that they would have used the same footprint of the previous building. You can see the New Star and many others in that photo. I think its the only picture I’ve seen of the Empire.
I remember now that I’d previously seen that picture I linked to, but it had never dawned on me that the Panorama Building was in it. I was focusing on Main Street or on the overall view, and didn’t notice the details off to the side.
Here’s a ca.1910 aerial photo showing the Hippodrome site vacant except for what might be either rubble or construction materials (the dark, round thing might even be the remains of the panorama’s foundation), so I’m sure the whole rear portion of the Panorama Building was demolished to make way for the Hippodrome’s auditorium, but I’ve wondered myself if the front building that later housed the Main Street Gym wasn’t merely remodeled from the earlier building on the site.
The Empire is still pretty much a mystery. So fa it hasn’t appeared among the movie houses advertised in newspapers of the time, or in the lists of movie houses in early city directories unearthed so far. Maybe it was exclusively a live venue. Its odd location probably accounts for its early demise as a theatre of any sort though. A few blocks east and it probably could have survived as a neighborhood movie house for quite a while, and up the block at the corner of Main it would have been solidly ensconced at the head of the theatre district that didn’t begin to undergo serious shrinkage until the 1940s.
it’s interesting that on the map showing the Hippodrome, the Empire Theater (on 3rd) now says private garage. That map is from 1923.
sorry, i think those are reversed…
These are from above but here they are again for easy comparison:
Hippodrome
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Panorama Building
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I wonder if they actually demolished the building. Maybe they left the side walls (like the Linda Lea). The building outline on the Sanborn map from the Panorama period lines up exactly with the Hippodrome. Even the long hall/driveway entrance is the same as well as the front retail buildings.
I must have stopped getting e-mail notifications of new comments on this page several months ago. I’ve missed about three months of comments.
Anyway, here’s news about the Panorama Building, which preceded the Hippodrome Theatre on the Main Street site. It turns out that Panoramas were a huge business in the 19th century, and many cities had buildings erected specifically for their display. Here’s a fairly long and detailed review of a 1997 book about this vanished form of what today would probably be called infotainment.
Almost as good, I finally tracked down a photo which shows at least the top and part of the south side of the big, round Panorama Building itself, here at the USC digital archive, not surprisingly. The Panorama Building is a couple of blocks distant in this view, at far right, partly concealed by the Westminster Hotel and other buildings along East 4th Street.
The photo dates from New Year’s Day of 1907, so it was taken during the building’s last era, when it was being used as a skating rink. According to the Los Angeles Daily Journal of August 15, 1907, Adolph Ramish had been issued a permit to demolish the structure.
I saw that. Not polite.
I found a chunk of brick from the southwest corner of the block and took it home. I’m letting myself believe that it was part of the Westminster Hotel. Be careful looking over the fence….there are piles of human you-know-what all around the perimeter. I almost ruined my shoes.
I was walking around this site today. Fascinating to see the brick foundations Vokoban mentioned above. Too bad we can’t get in the hole and look for artifacts. I don’t think anyone is paying any attention to this.
I’ve been watching them dig up the parking lot where the Hippodrome and the Westminster Hotel once stood for the past few weeks. It’s fascinating because it looks like an archaeological dig. After they removed the parking lot and started digging down, all of the foundations for these buildings have appeared and are now being demolished. I guess the buildings had basements because there are deep trenches with brick walls that are being demolished. There are huge piles of ancient bricks and broken up concrete walls all over the lot now. I wish I could get a couple of those bricks for a souvenir.
Here is a 1925 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/2b32ye
I just buy my bus pass and I’m happy.
So I lose my usual parking spot, and I end up shoehorned into the northern corner of the lot,which is all that is left not to mention that the price went from $7 to $8. I have been wronged.
All those ghosts probably ran across the street to the Turkish Baths.
They have torn up the rest of the parking lot at 4th and Main for the Medallion. I was there today and saw a couple of vokoban’s suicides wailing and gnashing their teeth.
I already drove down Pico last month. Do I have to go back for this one?
Lucyb:
There’s a building on Spring Street between 8th and 9th that used to be a taxi dance hall, looks like. Even though it was recently renovated to some degree, it still has signs on the outside advertising “Dancing.” The street level space is empty, but the upper floors are occupied and home to the Los Angeles Garment & Citizen newspaper.
Here’s a satellite images of 2698 W. Pico. The red marker is supposed to be the address, but I don’t have a lot of faith in those markers.
View link
I wish they had a way to search addresses on here. Maybe if you do it by keyword?
I don’t know how he does it, but Joe Vogel usually knows if its been listed.
Sorry…I messed up the address. It should be 2698 W. Pico.
Lost Memory, maybe this is the theater that is referred to on the website you linked. It’s from one of those Paramount Week theater listings from the LA Times. I don’t know if its on CT under a different name.
(Sept. 6, 1925)
NEW STAR THEATER, 2968. W. Pico St.
Sept. 6-7-Raymond Griffith in “Paths to Paradise"
Sept. 8-9-James Cruze’s "Welcome Home"
Sept. 10-11-Florence Vidor in "Grounds for Divorce"
Sept. 12-Antonio Moreno and Mary Miles Minter in "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine”
It probably is. It seems like a lot of places added ‘new’ for awhile. Makes everything confusing with all of these same and similar names.