Saban Theatre

Here is a set of photographs taken in November 2002:
http://flickr.com/photos/kencta/525103149/
http://flickr.com/photos/kencta/525103943/
http://flickr.com/photos/kencta/525021880/
http://flickr.com/photos/kencta/525024352/
http://flickr.com/photos/kencta/525025736/
http://flickr.com/photos/kencta/525108907/
http://flickr.com/photos/kencta/525109823/
http://flickr.com/photos/kencta/525111063/

It is interesting to compare them with the original 1931 images of the Fox Wilshire posted above by ken Mc on January 12 2006.

Does anyone know if there were various offices in the upper reaches of the theatre building? I was adopted (1942)and today I received my birth certificate. The certificate has a Dr. Haworth as the attending doctor and his address: (Fox Wilshire Theatre Bldg.). Out of curiosity I wonder if this is where my parents took my brother and me to all our doctor appointments. I remember Dr. Haworth and the inside of his office but never knew where it was.
Thanks in advance.

Though Nederlander does not own the Wilshire Theatre anymore…the three year contract will keep the Broadway shows coming into the Wilshire. A two week run of the show, Legends, just ran there in January. A future show is in the works.

Temple of the Arts is working on raising $20million to restore the theatre which was neglected by Nederlander. After the Theaters rigging upgrade, and very upsetting interior paint job in 1981, very little care and money was put into the building to keep it in good shape. But with new owners, comes new life, and the theatre is slowly being brought back to a smoother working order to attract interested clients.

On Dec. 4th, the Wilshire brought back the movies by hosting the premier of Dreamgirls(the Wilshire’s first premier in 30 years). With that, the theatre now has a cinemascope screen again. Oasis Christian Center holds their services in there every Sunday and they are supplying a small lighting rig and a full scale rock and roll audio system. Commercials, theatre, tv shows and musical acts have all come in, and more frequently. With this gain in interest…we will all hopefully see the restore sooner than later. The owners say that the first step in restoring will be a facelift to the exterior.

If anyone happens to know what happened to the chandeliers…please let me know.

Vanda – I tried to email you but the email bounced. Can you email me? Thanks,
erin

Erin: I’m a writer doing research on a related subject and have some info about Howard Sheehan. Please email me and I’ll be glad to share what I’ve learned.

Hi. I was doing some research into my family history & found this website when trying to find out more about my great-grandfather, Howard Sheehan. He was either the president or vice-president of Fox West Coast Theaters. I don’t know much about him but would like to learn more. Unfortunately, my grandmother (his daughter), Claire Sheehan, has dementia & can’t communicate any longer. When I was a child, she had told me that her dad had lived in the penthouse of a theater that he’d built but I never had any idea what a grand theater it was! I’m finally learning about this at age 35 & when the people who could have told me about it are mostly gone. If you know anything about my great-grandfather, please let me know how to find out more. Thanks!

Don’t forget the Wiltern Theatre too as a Art-Deco treasure, that’s still in use.

After reading many of the above posts I am so pleased to learn that the Wilshire is still standing and that it is the Warner in Beverly Hills that is gone though a theatre with the name WARNER especially in the Hollywood area should never have been demolished!

From the Los Angeles Times, 12/14/61: a groundbreaking gay movie:

View link

Here is their site.

View link

It a nice size house to see a show and a movie.

What I remember of the house was that it had a flat screen during that time. The only curved screen in that house was when “This is Cinerama” was reissued in 1973 and was a move-over from the Cinerama Dome. It played from May 23 to June 12 1973. They installed a curved screen in front of the flat screen.

One of my all-time favorite theaters, I grew up ten minutes from there. I saw many wonderful shows there, including Let’s Make Love, Birdman of Alcatraz, To Kill A Mockingbird, Exodus, Sound of Music, The Five Pennies, Sand Pebbles, Madding Crowd, and hundreds of others.

I grew up around the corner from this theatre and vaguely recall seeing “The Goodbye Girl” back in the late 70’s. Also in the early 80’s saw the band Spandau Ballet and in 1996 saw Penn & Teller live.