Loyola Theatre
8610 S. Sepulveda Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90045
8610 S. Sepulveda Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90045
18 people
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CALLING ALL THEATRE / MOVIE ENTHUSIASTS!!!
T'he Los Angeles Theatre' on South Broadway, LA is playing host to the UK television show ‘Dead Famous LIVE’. We are currently looking for people who would like to come along as part of the studio audience.
‘Dead Famous LIVE’ is a studio entertainment show all about Hollywood History and the paranormal. We will be welcoming celebrity guests on to the show and investigating famous locations around Hollywood which are rumoured to be haunted including the Los Angeles Theatre itself.
This is an invaluable chance to get access to the Los Angeles Theatre, the place where Charlie Chaplin’s ‘City Lights’ premiered in 1931 and to have a thoroughly great day out! (And its free!!)
We’re transmitting ‘Live’ back to the United Kingdom so expect it to be exciting and fun!
We will be filming on three days from 11th – 13th November between 11.30am – 4pm. If you are interested in coming on one or all of these days then email me for tickets!
.uk
I look forward to your responses!
Here is another current color photo of the former Loyola Theater.
I have driven by this theater countless times over the years. It wasn’t demolished, which is a small victory given LA’s history of obliterating landmarks like the Atlantic Richfield building downtown.
I live in westchester and i love the loyola theater, its so beautiful. they should make it back into a movie theater. My grandfather and his sister used to work there when they were teens.
Stripped out=All vestiges of the theatre interior have been removed.
What does stripped out mean? Is there anything left of the interior, or did they gut the place to the four walls?
Does anyone know how to get in touch with these offices? I am writing an article on historic buildings that have been made into offices, and I’d like to include this. Thanks. Jill Herbers
I should add that the box office and the extensive terrazzo sidewalk are also still there.
It still looks awsome, though. Even for a medical office. I mean, have you seen one that cool before?
OK Thanks Kenroe.
The auditorium (all seating was on one floor) has been stripped out and is now office for a medical center. The marquee and some neon (no longer lit) is still there.
br91975,
As I’ve thought many times, what’s gone is gone, and there’s nothing we can do about it.
How is the auditorium now used? Is the original marquee still there?
What a knock-out of a theatre; why didn’t it survive?
This theatre is one of some 200 that could be described as “Skouras-ized For Showmanship” which is the title of the ANNUAL of 1987 of the Theatre Historical Soc. of America. In the late 1930s through the 1950s, there occurred on the west coast of the United States a phenomenon known as the ‘Skouras style’ in recognition of the oversight of the Skouras brothers in their management of several cinema chains. They employed a designer by the name of Carl G. Moeller to render their cinemas/theatres in a new style best described as ‘Art Moderne meets Streamlined.’ The then new availability of aluminum sheeting at low cost was the principal material difference to this style allowing for sweeping, 3-dimensional shapes of scrolls to adorn walls and facades in an expression that would have been much more expensive and not at all the same in plaster. With the use of hand tinted and etched aluminum forms, the designers could make ornaments in mass production that allowed much greater economies of scale. The ANNUAL also show in its 44 pages how some 20 theatres were good examples of this combining of aluminum forms with sweeping draperies heavily hung with large tassels, and with box offices and facades richly treated with neon within the aluminum forms. Few of these examples survive today, but it was a glorious era while it lasted, and this collection of crisp b/w photos is a fitting epitaph by the late Preston Kaufmann.
PHOTOS AVAILABLE:
To obtain any available Back Issue of either “Marquee” or of its ANNUALS, simply go to the web site of the THEATRE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA at:
www.HistoricTheatres.org
and notice on their first page the link “PUBLICATIONS: Back Issues List” and click on that and you will be taken to their listing where they also give ordering details. The “Marquee” magazine is 8-1/2x11 inches tall (‘portrait’) format, and the ANNUALS are also soft cover in the same size, but in the long (‘landscape’) format, and are anywhere from 26 to 44 pages. Should they indicate that a publication is Out Of Print, then it may still be possible to view it via Inter-Library Loan where you go to the librarian at any public or school library and ask them to locate which library has the item by using the Union List of Serials, and your library can then ask the other library to lend it to them for you to read or photocopy. [Photocopies of most THSA publications are available from University Microforms International (UMI), but their prices are exorbitant.]
Note: Most any photo in any of their publications may be had in large size by purchase; see their ARCHIVE link. You should realize that there was no color still photography in the 1920s, so few theatres were seen in color at that time except by means of hand tinted renderings or post cards, thus all the antique photos from the Society will be in black and white, but it is quite possible that the Society has later color images available; it is best to inquire of them.
Should you not be able to contact them via their web site, you may also contact their Executive Director via E-mail at:
Or you may reach them via phone or snail mail at:
Theatre Historical Soc. of America
152 N. York, 2nd Floor York Theatre Bldg.
Elmhurst, ILL. 60126-2806 (they are about 15 miles west of Chicago)
Phone: 630-782-1800 or via FAX at: 630-782-1802 (Monday through Friday, 9AM—4PM, CT)
I grew up in Westchester and have so many memories of going to the Loyola Theatre in the 60’s and 70’s. During the summer, Marina Federal Savings used to sponsor free kid’s matinees each Wednesday. We’d buy our candy first at Savon’s Drug Store across the street. The bathrooms at the Loyola were really great- you’d walk down a few steps on either side behind the snack bar and I remember the bathrooms seemed real fancy (to a kid, at least!). The theatre itself was huge, there was lots of red velvet. I remember being at the theatre as a teenager in ‘77 and learning that Elvis had just died. I went back as an adult in the early 80’s and saw a double feature of Fiddler on the Roof and Doctor Zhivago- that was an all day event! That was my last visit to the Loyola and I’ll never forget it.
Many people including Los Angeleans don’t realize that Westchester is not a city but a neighborhood within the city limits of Los Angeles.
This was without a doubt one of the most magnificent movie theaters in Los Angeles County.
I fondly (and now tearfully) recall going to see movies there around 1960, and, like the Academy, was a very classy place.
The ushers wore uniforms even in the 1960s, and the lobby was to die for if you love Art Deco Moderne! As the photo above shows, it was best appreciated at night, when the colorful neon would transform that ‘ugly duckling’ tower into a beautiful ‘swan’. This theater should have been put on the National Register of Historic Places, like the nearby demolished Carthay Circle Theater.
If they were we would be able to enjoy their spectacular beauty today, as much as the classic films shown inside on their screens.
The last film to play at the Loyola Theatre was a special screening of “Ben Hur”.
This is where I saw “War Of The Worlds,” when it first came out. It was on a south/east corner, and on the north/east corner across the street was a Tiny Naylor’s drive in restaurant.
The Loyola is now the office of Loyola Professional Building, and can still be found on 8800 S. Sepulveda Blvd., on the corner of Manchester
There is a wonderful photo of this theater in Ticket To Paradise.