Warrens Theatre

401 W. 7th Street,
Los Angeles, CA 90014

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Showing 51 - 75 of 82 comments

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on October 18, 2006 at 10:14 am

Interesting. Thanks.

William
William on October 18, 2006 at 9:58 am

ken mc, No those stairs were put in when there was a Burger King operating in the former lower lounge area of the theatre. There was once a free standing box office and then where the stairs are was once just tiles/ walk way to the front doors of the theatre.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on October 18, 2006 at 9:05 am

I took a tour around the exterior yesterday, but I couldn’t get into the building itself. Underneath the main entrance are stairs which lead to an exit presumably used for overflow theater crowds.

Patsy
Patsy on September 3, 2006 at 10:35 am

Joe: The building is architecturally…beautiful!

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on September 2, 2006 at 8:13 pm

Here is a contemporary picture of the Theatre Jewelry Center.

BhillH20
BhillH20 on September 2, 2006 at 7:50 pm

The entire building and auditorium still exist from 1920 to the present day!

Patsy
Patsy on September 2, 2006 at 7:31 pm

This Warner is listed as “closed” so does the theatre building still exist?

GWaterman
GWaterman on July 23, 2006 at 6:40 pm

Must also say —– the comment above about people who do business at the jewelry mart not noticing the magnificence —– someone in my tour group made a similar remark. I wouldn’t jump to such a conclusion. Perhaps some people don’t notice, but I think people who work there everyday must be aware of the heritage of the building, as anyone who works in an historic building might. I appreciate the fact that theaters that have been used as warehouse or retail space have been preserved at least, and have not been demolished.

GWaterman
GWaterman on July 23, 2006 at 6:35 pm

Can someone fix the width of this?

Anyway — this was the last theatre we toured yesterday on our Conservancy tour. It was, of course, the hottest day on record in LA, and B'way was quite the place to be when it’s 102 degrees!!!!

It feels very surreal to walk into the jewelry market, and then see the giant torch over the proscenium and realize you’re standing in a theatre. They’ve added a dreadful 70’s or 80’s-ish tivoli light chandelier right in the center of the ceiling, but the wonderful murals are still visible. The decorative plasterwork is all painted white and gold, which I doubt was the original color scheme, but you can still see the wonderful details. They don’t let you take photos inside, due to the sensitivity of the current use.

Wonderful place!!

UKuser
UKuser on November 2, 2005 at 3:49 am

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!

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on October 28, 2005 at 5:05 pm

The gist of the articles describing the demise of the Wax Museum is an inexplicable lack of interest in Harold Lloyd and other decades-dead stars by today’s youth. Hard to figure.

Ken Roe
Ken Roe on October 21, 2005 at 3:35 pm

William;I accept your local knowledge on the distribution situation in L.A. theatres is greater than mine. Apologies:)

William
William on October 21, 2005 at 2:42 pm

That’s not that true about Columbia Pictures not playing at Warner houses. Columbia Pictures did not have a theatre chain of their own. So would have played films from other studios from time to time. Once this theatre became a Warner property, it played many time opposite the Warner Hollywood house. One of the many Columbia outlets in Downtown Los Angeles was the old RKO Hillstreet Theatre (long gone). Look at the old Paramount Downtown Theatre it played many Warner titles in the 50’s and it was a Publix Theatre.

Ken Roe
Ken Roe on October 21, 2005 at 1:07 pm

Jenni;Rita Hayworth worked mainly for Columbia Pictures which would not have played at a Warner Brothers theatre. She did make a couple or so films for Warner Bros. in the early 1940’s but these were not starring roles.

Best Wishes with your project. I look forward to viewing it.

jennilong
jennilong on October 21, 2005 at 12:30 pm

Hello,

I work as researcher for a UK production company called Twofour Productions who produce a series called Dead Famous which is a biographical look into the lives of Hollywood’s most glittering stars we are in our third series and have covered the lives of John Lennon, Grace Kelly, Alfred Hitchcock, Buddy Holly and Howard Hughes to name a few. Our programme is aired on the Biography and A&E channels over in the US and is made for Living TV here in the UK. What sets Dead Famous apart from other shows is that we also focus on the paranormal and actually try to make contact with the person who we are investigating. We are filming in Los Angeles in our next visit in the next few weeks and we are investigating Rita Hayworth and are hoping to film at the Warner Hollywood Pacific Theatre on .

We are looking at locations relating to Hayworthâ€\s films and her time in LA and we also would like to incorporate this with filming at some haunted locations that are also relate to her. Which is why we are interested with in the theatre as it is where the famous stars attended their film premieres and is also apparently haunted by Sam Warner!

Therefore I am emailing Cinema Treasures to see if anyone knows anymore about the history of the theatre in connection with Rita Hayworth, and whether anyone worked there in the past and has had experiences of seeing Sam.

If anyone would like to provide any information please contact me at my email .uk I would be happy to hear from you.

All the Best.

stevebob
stevebob on October 20, 2005 at 3:31 am

During the Metropolitan years, this theater was called WARRENS (not WARREN). Just a minor detail perhaps worth mentioning.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on October 19, 2005 at 8:03 pm

1947, from the UCLA collection:

View link

William
William on April 18, 2005 at 8:18 pm

This theatre opened as the second Pantages Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles on August 16, 1920. The first one being located on Broadway and later renamed the Arcade Theatre. This theatre reopened as the Warner Downtown Theatre with the premiere of “Golddiggers of Broadway” in the fall of 1929.

Mark1
Mark1 on July 26, 2004 at 9:35 am

In between its use as a movie theatre and before it became the jewelry mart, it spent some time as the Church of Compassion (I think that’s it), and in place of WARREN it spelled COMPASSION in giant gold letters. I believe that may have been Rev. Moon’s congregation.

edward
edward on March 2, 2004 at 7:50 pm

Present day view of the unique circular marquee of the former Warner Theatre:
View link

Knatcal
Knatcal on February 24, 2004 at 3:43 pm

The Warner Brothers Downtown Theatre is sadly one of those theaters that has had the ground floor totally changed to make away, in this case for a jewelry mart, for retail space. You can still see the intact balcony if you walk to the back of the jewelry mart. The Westlake Theatre is another sad case of this phenomenon.