No theaters are listed on this stretch of Avalon Boulevard in the 1929 City Directory, but the Avalon Theatre is listed at 5244 Avalon Boulevard in the 1936 directory, and at 5258 Avalon in the 1938 directory, then at 5256 Avalon in the 1942 directory.
None of these addresses are currently in use, but the building at the northeast corner of Avalon and 52nd Place has an address of 5224, so something numbered 5244-5258 would probably have been on the southeast corner of Avalon and 52nd Place, a lot now listed as 5250 S. Avalon and occupied by a building (currently containing a church) built in 1936. The residential complex south of it, built in 1985 and occupying three lots, has an address of 5270 S. Avalon. In the 1956 Los Angeles Street Directory, 5250 Avalon is listed as the Mount Pisgah Baptist Church, and the next address south of it is the Avalon Fountain Grill, at 5260 Avalon. There is no Avalon Theatre listed.
It seems that there’s been some adjusting of addresses on this block over the years, and it’s possible that the church at 5250 S. Avalon is located in the former Avalon Theatre, (even though the building now doesn’t look much like a theater in the Google Maps street view.) If this is true, then the Avalon must have opened in 1936, the year this building was erected, and is not demolished. Also, it’s a pretty small building, so the 450 seats mentioned by Harry Lime in the first comment above would be more likely than the 650 currently given.
Boxoffice Magazine issue of March 2, 1935, ran an item saying that Matty Radin, operator of the Cameo and Acme theatres in New York, as well as the Auditorium Theatre in Baltimore and the Majestic Theatre in Boston, had converted the Belasco in Washington to a movie house, and that it would feature foreign films. His other theatres were all showing foreign films, and the Belasco was to be the fifth theater in a proposed chain of twelve cinemas bringing foreign films to eastern and mid-western cities.
I’ve been unable to find out if Radin was able to fulfil his plans for expansion, but there are a couple of references to his New York theaters in articles published by the New York Times in the late 1930s. Apparently he ran a lot of Soviet movies during the period, and The Times refers to him as “Tovarich” and “Commissar” Radin.
The Blue Mouse got an Art Moderne makeover in the mid 1930s, according to an item in Boxoffice Magazine’s issue of March 9, 1935. A photo shows the new facade, featuring a building-wide marquee that sported the name “John Hamrick’s BLUE MOUSE Theatre” with Blue Mouse in block letters and the rest in cursive script, all set with neon. The article says that the entire project was handled by a theatrical outfitting company from Seattle called B.F. Shearer Company.
I just noticed that although the President website gives 111 Broad Street as the address, and their map on this page shows it in the block north of 2nd Street, the Google Maps link places this address south of 3rd Street. Somebody in Manchester needs to get on Google’s case about their mis-location of the town’s addresses.
Although the New Georgia Encyclopedia article on architects Tucker & Howell refers to this house as the Manchester Theatre, I think the builder must have decided to name it the President before it opened. Also, it was open by 1935. Perhaps the encyclopedia’s construction dates of 1935-1937 refer to alterations in the latter year?
In any case, an article about the President Theatre appears in the Modern Theatre section of the November 16, 1935, issue of the trade publication, Boxoffice Magazine, with a small photograph of the exterior. It says President on the vertical sign.
The facade of the building featured four bays, defining three shop fronts and the theater entrance in an end bay. Above the theater entrance was a masonry and plaster tower painted in stripes and bands of black and white, and the theater’s vertical sign was attached to it. The tower was surmounted by a large ornamental lantern. The facade, box office and vestibule were covered in black and white Carrera glass.
The lobby featured a color scheme of red, black and silver, and had a terrazzo floor. Walls and ceilings of the auditorium (which was at right angles to the entrance, and had a small balcony) were covered in custom-made, fluted panels of Celotex (a synthetic board made of sugar cane residue.) The article doesn’t mention a color scheme in the auditorium.
The article names Oscar S. Oldknow, of Atlanta, as the owner of the building. Oldknow had become vice president of Fox Theatres in 1930, but I’ve been unable to find how long he remained associated with that company. By 1936, he had a house in Bel Air, California, which had been designed by theater architect S. Charles Lee. I don’t know if Oldknow had moved to California permanently by that time, or was prematurely bi-coastal.
This page still needs updated for the new website (which has a history section and a dandy photo gallery) that Lost memory linked to on May 3, and to include the architectural firm of Tucker & Howells (currently misidentified as Howell and Tucker in the intro.)
The California Index at the L.A. Library web site has cards making reference to two theatres in Healdsburg. An item about one of them appeared in the April, 1950, issue of Architect & Engineer, and this card says only that Gale Santocono had prepared plans for a theater to be built at Healdsburg. No name is given for this house.
There are two cited items about the other theater, called the Plaza. The April, 1930, issue of Architect and Engineer announced plans for the Plaza by architect Norman R. Coulter, for Redwood Theatres. The project was to cost $100,000. That a theater called the Plaza was actually built in Healdsburg is confirmed by an article in Motion Picture Herald, January 2, 1932, which said that L.H. Killingsworth was the new manager of the house.
The Raven is probably one or the other of these two theaters. The cards in the index don’t give addresses for either project, so I can’t sort them out. Has anyone got an old Film Daily Yearbook or other source with an address for the Plaza Theatre?
An extensive remodeling of this theatre to an Art Deco style was noted in the February 8, 1936 issue of Box Office magazine. Architect for the re-design was Larry P. Larsen.
A card in the California Index says that the opening of the Majestic Theatre is mentioned in the April, 1910, issue of Grizzly Bear, which was a regional monthly magazine. The owner of the building was named Jake Zemansky.
The Sacramento section of an 1898 California telephone directory lists Jake Zemansky as the proprietor of an establishment called The Palm, at 225 K Street. Whatever The Palm was, it must have been a classy joint of its type, since it had a telephone in 1898. And, apparently, it was profitable enough that Jake could afford to build this fancy nickelodeon in 1910.
This multiplex was designed by the firm Behr Browers Architects, of Westlake, California. Among the firm’s many other cinema designs are the Brenden Theatres Vacaville 16 in Vacaville, California, and the Brenden Theatres Modesto 18 in Modesto, California.
All the Brenden Theatres I can find photos of (including this one) have the name Brenden Theatres on their marquee, rather than the names of the towns in which they are located. The local names appear to be used only in advertising and on the company web site, to differentiate between the various Brenden Theatres locations. For example, the Modesto Bee lists this theater under the name Brenden Modesto 18.
This theatre was designed by the Westlake, California firm Behr Browers Architects. The firm also designed the Brenden Theatres in Las Vegas and the Brenden Theatres in Vacaville, California. They may have designed other Brenden multiplexes as well, but I’ve been unable to confirm this. This page says that the project architect for the Brenden Modesto 18 was Andrew E. Althaus. I don’t know if that means he was the lead designer, or just the project manager, though.
Photos of the Brenden Modesto 18 and the Brenden Theatres in Las Vegas are featured in the portfolio on display at the Behr Browers Architects web site. Behr Browers also designed the six screen addition to the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, and the renovation of the Criterion Theatre in Santa Monica, California, among other cinema projects.
The L.A. County Assessor’s office gives the original construction date of the building at 314 S. Myrtle Avenue as 1919, with an effective construction date of 1950, indicating a major remodeling at that time. I still have some question as to whether or not the Monrovia is the same theater as the one that opened as the Colonial in early 1920. That opening date would fit well with the 1919 construction date of the Monrovia Theatre’s building.
Are there any old Film Daily Yearbooks listing the both the Colonial and the Monrovia at the same time, or showing an address for the Colonial that differs from that of the Monrovia? The name Monrovia was in use for this theater at least as early as 1941.
J.C. Kuert’s purchase of the Mission Theatre was announced in the July 18, 1914, issue of Southwest Contractor & Manufacturer. Looks as though either Mr. Cornell’s purchase fell through, or it didn’t take him long to decide that the theater business was not for him after all.
I wonder if that photo can actually be as early as 1914? Some of the cars look a bit advanced for that date. But clearly, the Empress Theater in the photo is the same the building (or at least the front of the building) that became the Hippodrome. If the Crest web site is right about the construction date of the Empress, that would push the building of the Hippodrome back to 1912, and, if Hippodrome is to be an aka for the Crest, then Empress Theater should also be an aka.
And most likely they began showing movies in this theater no later than 1920, since an organ was installed that year. I don’t think pure vaudeville houses ever bothered to install organs.
That’s a splendid Sullivanesque building. It’s a rare style for a theater, especially in California. The only other Sullivanesque theater in the state I can think of offhand is the more elaborately decorated Pickwick Theater in San Diego.
I notice that, in the circa 1912 photo, there’s an Orpheum sign on the roof. Issues of the regional entertainment magazine, The Rounder, dated September 30, 1911, October 28, 1911, and November 18, 1911, all have items about Orpheum Vaudeville shows being presented at the Diepenbrock Theatre.
Something to be noted in the circa 1910 photo is that the street has quite a few road apples on it, and there’s not a car in sight. This makes me suspect that the photo (and thus the building) is actually a bit earlier than 1910. The Sullivanesque style of architecture was past its peak of popularity by the end of the 1900s, too, so the building is more likely to have been built earlier in the decade.
The Diepenbrock family have been prominent in Sacramento since the 19th century. There is still a large Sacramento law firm called Diepenbrock Harrison. Given the rarity of this surname in the U.S., it seems quite likely that this theater was erected by an ancestor of the various Diepenbrocks currently on the staff of that firm. I wonder how much they’d charge to tell us something about it? (/lawyer joke)
Tom DeLay’s comment of October 5, 2005, says that the organ for the Hippodrome was shipped on February 28, 1920. If it went directly to the theater then the Hippodrome was most likely opened in that year. The Crest’s official web site gives no date for construction of the Hippodrome, but only says that it converted from vaudeville to movies in the late 1920s.
The Crest web site also says that the Hippodrome’s predecessor theater, the Empress, was built in 1912 and opened in 1913. But there’s a card in the California Index headed “THEATRES—SACRAMENTO—GRAND THEATRE” that cites an item published in the regional entertainment paper, The Rounder, issue of February 3, 1912, saying “Jim Post buys the lease on the Empress Theatre, formerly the Grand.”
If this was the same Empress Theatre that was torn down to make way for the Hippodrome, then the building was older than the authors of the Crest web site think it was. And if the Empress was an older theater, merely renamed, its demolition in 1919 would make more sense than if it had been newly built in 1912.
Plans for a new theater on American Avenue at the corner of Bunce Avenue (actually called Bunce Way, which was an alley half a block north of Ocean Avenue) were announced in the June 11, 1920 issue of Southwest Builder & Contractor. It was being designed by the firm of Walker & Eisen. Early references to this theater in the L.A. Library’s California Index call it either the Empire Theatre (apparently its opening name) or the Mission Theatre (on cards citing articles from 1924 about an enlargement of the stage and proscenium, with plans by Long Beach architect H.L. Gogerty.)
In the early 1960s, I often went to the Los Feliz Theatre a couple of blocks up Vermont, and I don’t remember seeing the Studio at all. It must have been gone by then. The County Assessor says the building on the site now was built in 1969.
The County Assessor doesn’t give information for this exact address. Most of the block is taken up by a huge parcel with the address 18305 Colima Road- apparently a shopping center containing four buildings, three of which have construction dates of 1964 and one of which dates from 1990. All the other addresses on the block (fronting directly on Colima Road) are higher or lower (18307, 18389, 18391) than the theater’s address.
The 5th Avenue is listed in the Independent Theatres section of the Times issue of February 10, 1971, but I can’t find it in the August 24, 1986 issue. I guess it was gone by then.
This stretch of Colima Road was once called Fifth Avenue, by the way.
The Los Angeles County Assessor’s Office gives an original construction date of 1934 for the building at 1822 N. Vermont, and the Los Feliz Theatre is listed at this address in the 1936 Los Angeles City Directory.
I attended the Los Feliz many times in the early 1960s, and probably saw more foreign films there than at any other theater aside from the Cinema, on Western Avenue. The Los Feliz never seemed as self-consciously arty as the Cinema. It was more like a friendly neighborhood movie house that happened to show art films. I’m glad it’s still there, even if triplexed.
No theaters are listed on this stretch of Avalon Boulevard in the 1929 City Directory, but the Avalon Theatre is listed at 5244 Avalon Boulevard in the 1936 directory, and at 5258 Avalon in the 1938 directory, then at 5256 Avalon in the 1942 directory.
None of these addresses are currently in use, but the building at the northeast corner of Avalon and 52nd Place has an address of 5224, so something numbered 5244-5258 would probably have been on the southeast corner of Avalon and 52nd Place, a lot now listed as 5250 S. Avalon and occupied by a building (currently containing a church) built in 1936. The residential complex south of it, built in 1985 and occupying three lots, has an address of 5270 S. Avalon. In the 1956 Los Angeles Street Directory, 5250 Avalon is listed as the Mount Pisgah Baptist Church, and the next address south of it is the Avalon Fountain Grill, at 5260 Avalon. There is no Avalon Theatre listed.
It seems that there’s been some adjusting of addresses on this block over the years, and it’s possible that the church at 5250 S. Avalon is located in the former Avalon Theatre, (even though the building now doesn’t look much like a theater in the Google Maps street view.) If this is true, then the Avalon must have opened in 1936, the year this building was erected, and is not demolished. Also, it’s a pretty small building, so the 450 seats mentioned by Harry Lime in the first comment above would be more likely than the 650 currently given.
Boxoffice Magazine issue of March 2, 1935, ran an item saying that Matty Radin, operator of the Cameo and Acme theatres in New York, as well as the Auditorium Theatre in Baltimore and the Majestic Theatre in Boston, had converted the Belasco in Washington to a movie house, and that it would feature foreign films. His other theatres were all showing foreign films, and the Belasco was to be the fifth theater in a proposed chain of twelve cinemas bringing foreign films to eastern and mid-western cities.
I’ve been unable to find out if Radin was able to fulfil his plans for expansion, but there are a couple of references to his New York theaters in articles published by the New York Times in the late 1930s. Apparently he ran a lot of Soviet movies during the period, and The Times refers to him as “Tovarich” and “Commissar” Radin.
The Blue Mouse got an Art Moderne makeover in the mid 1930s, according to an item in Boxoffice Magazine’s issue of March 9, 1935. A photo shows the new facade, featuring a building-wide marquee that sported the name “John Hamrick’s BLUE MOUSE Theatre” with Blue Mouse in block letters and the rest in cursive script, all set with neon. The article says that the entire project was handled by a theatrical outfitting company from Seattle called B.F. Shearer Company.
I just noticed that although the President website gives 111 Broad Street as the address, and their map on this page shows it in the block north of 2nd Street, the Google Maps link places this address south of 3rd Street. Somebody in Manchester needs to get on Google’s case about their mis-location of the town’s addresses.
Although the New Georgia Encyclopedia article on architects Tucker & Howell refers to this house as the Manchester Theatre, I think the builder must have decided to name it the President before it opened. Also, it was open by 1935. Perhaps the encyclopedia’s construction dates of 1935-1937 refer to alterations in the latter year?
In any case, an article about the President Theatre appears in the Modern Theatre section of the November 16, 1935, issue of the trade publication, Boxoffice Magazine, with a small photograph of the exterior. It says President on the vertical sign.
The facade of the building featured four bays, defining three shop fronts and the theater entrance in an end bay. Above the theater entrance was a masonry and plaster tower painted in stripes and bands of black and white, and the theater’s vertical sign was attached to it. The tower was surmounted by a large ornamental lantern. The facade, box office and vestibule were covered in black and white Carrera glass.
The lobby featured a color scheme of red, black and silver, and had a terrazzo floor. Walls and ceilings of the auditorium (which was at right angles to the entrance, and had a small balcony) were covered in custom-made, fluted panels of Celotex (a synthetic board made of sugar cane residue.) The article doesn’t mention a color scheme in the auditorium.
The article names Oscar S. Oldknow, of Atlanta, as the owner of the building. Oldknow had become vice president of Fox Theatres in 1930, but I’ve been unable to find how long he remained associated with that company. By 1936, he had a house in Bel Air, California, which had been designed by theater architect S. Charles Lee. I don’t know if Oldknow had moved to California permanently by that time, or was prematurely bi-coastal.
This page still needs updated for the new website (which has a history section and a dandy photo gallery) that Lost memory linked to on May 3, and to include the architectural firm of Tucker & Howells (currently misidentified as Howell and Tucker in the intro.)
The California Index at the L.A. Library web site has cards making reference to two theatres in Healdsburg. An item about one of them appeared in the April, 1950, issue of Architect & Engineer, and this card says only that Gale Santocono had prepared plans for a theater to be built at Healdsburg. No name is given for this house.
There are two cited items about the other theater, called the Plaza. The April, 1930, issue of Architect and Engineer announced plans for the Plaza by architect Norman R. Coulter, for Redwood Theatres. The project was to cost $100,000. That a theater called the Plaza was actually built in Healdsburg is confirmed by an article in Motion Picture Herald, January 2, 1932, which said that L.H. Killingsworth was the new manager of the house.
The Raven is probably one or the other of these two theaters. The cards in the index don’t give addresses for either project, so I can’t sort them out. Has anyone got an old Film Daily Yearbook or other source with an address for the Plaza Theatre?
An extensive remodeling of this theatre to an Art Deco style was noted in the February 8, 1936 issue of Box Office magazine. Architect for the re-design was Larry P. Larsen.
Here is a brief article about Atlanta architects Tucker & Howell, designers of the Royal.
According to this article in the New Georgia Encyclopedia, the LaGrange Theatre was designed by the Atlanta architectural firm Tucker & Howell.
IMdB says that the movie “Times Square Lady” (which is on the poster in the undated photo Lost Memory linked to just above) was released in 1935.
This web page lists the West Theatre as one of several small town movie houses designed by the Atlanta architectural firm of Tucker & Howell.
A card in the California Index says that the opening of the Majestic Theatre is mentioned in the April, 1910, issue of Grizzly Bear, which was a regional monthly magazine. The owner of the building was named Jake Zemansky.
The Sacramento section of an 1898 California telephone directory lists Jake Zemansky as the proprietor of an establishment called The Palm, at 225 K Street. Whatever The Palm was, it must have been a classy joint of its type, since it had a telephone in 1898. And, apparently, it was profitable enough that Jake could afford to build this fancy nickelodeon in 1910.
Here are a couple of photos of the Brenden Theatres in Concord.
This multiplex was designed by the firm Behr Browers Architects, of Westlake, California. Among the firm’s many other cinema designs are the Brenden Theatres Vacaville 16 in Vacaville, California, and the Brenden Theatres Modesto 18 in Modesto, California.
All the Brenden Theatres I can find photos of (including this one) have the name Brenden Theatres on their marquee, rather than the names of the towns in which they are located. The local names appear to be used only in advertising and on the company web site, to differentiate between the various Brenden Theatres locations. For example, the Modesto Bee lists this theater under the name Brenden Modesto 18.
This theatre was designed by the Westlake, California firm Behr Browers Architects. The firm also designed the Brenden Theatres in Las Vegas and the Brenden Theatres in Vacaville, California. They may have designed other Brenden multiplexes as well, but I’ve been unable to confirm this. This page says that the project architect for the Brenden Modesto 18 was Andrew E. Althaus. I don’t know if that means he was the lead designer, or just the project manager, though.
Photos of the Brenden Modesto 18 and the Brenden Theatres in Las Vegas are featured in the portfolio on display at the Behr Browers Architects web site. Behr Browers also designed the six screen addition to the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, and the renovation of the Criterion Theatre in Santa Monica, California, among other cinema projects.
The L.A. County Assessor’s office gives the original construction date of the building at 314 S. Myrtle Avenue as 1919, with an effective construction date of 1950, indicating a major remodeling at that time. I still have some question as to whether or not the Monrovia is the same theater as the one that opened as the Colonial in early 1920. That opening date would fit well with the 1919 construction date of the Monrovia Theatre’s building.
Are there any old Film Daily Yearbooks listing the both the Colonial and the Monrovia at the same time, or showing an address for the Colonial that differs from that of the Monrovia? The name Monrovia was in use for this theater at least as early as 1941.
J.C. Kuert’s purchase of the Mission Theatre was announced in the July 18, 1914, issue of Southwest Contractor & Manufacturer. Looks as though either Mr. Cornell’s purchase fell through, or it didn’t take him long to decide that the theater business was not for him after all.
I wonder if that photo can actually be as early as 1914? Some of the cars look a bit advanced for that date. But clearly, the Empress Theater in the photo is the same the building (or at least the front of the building) that became the Hippodrome. If the Crest web site is right about the construction date of the Empress, that would push the building of the Hippodrome back to 1912, and, if Hippodrome is to be an aka for the Crest, then Empress Theater should also be an aka.
And most likely they began showing movies in this theater no later than 1920, since an organ was installed that year. I don’t think pure vaudeville houses ever bothered to install organs.
That’s a splendid Sullivanesque building. It’s a rare style for a theater, especially in California. The only other Sullivanesque theater in the state I can think of offhand is the more elaborately decorated Pickwick Theater in San Diego.
I notice that, in the circa 1912 photo, there’s an Orpheum sign on the roof. Issues of the regional entertainment magazine, The Rounder, dated September 30, 1911, October 28, 1911, and November 18, 1911, all have items about Orpheum Vaudeville shows being presented at the Diepenbrock Theatre.
Something to be noted in the circa 1910 photo is that the street has quite a few road apples on it, and there’s not a car in sight. This makes me suspect that the photo (and thus the building) is actually a bit earlier than 1910. The Sullivanesque style of architecture was past its peak of popularity by the end of the 1900s, too, so the building is more likely to have been built earlier in the decade.
The Diepenbrock family have been prominent in Sacramento since the 19th century. There is still a large Sacramento law firm called Diepenbrock Harrison. Given the rarity of this surname in the U.S., it seems quite likely that this theater was erected by an ancestor of the various Diepenbrocks currently on the staff of that firm. I wonder how much they’d charge to tell us something about it? (/lawyer joke)
Tom DeLay’s comment of October 5, 2005, says that the organ for the Hippodrome was shipped on February 28, 1920. If it went directly to the theater then the Hippodrome was most likely opened in that year. The Crest’s official web site gives no date for construction of the Hippodrome, but only says that it converted from vaudeville to movies in the late 1920s.
The Crest web site also says that the Hippodrome’s predecessor theater, the Empress, was built in 1912 and opened in 1913. But there’s a card in the California Index headed “THEATRES—SACRAMENTO—GRAND THEATRE” that cites an item published in the regional entertainment paper, The Rounder, issue of February 3, 1912, saying “Jim Post buys the lease on the Empress Theatre, formerly the Grand.”
If this was the same Empress Theatre that was torn down to make way for the Hippodrome, then the building was older than the authors of the Crest web site think it was. And if the Empress was an older theater, merely renamed, its demolition in 1919 would make more sense than if it had been newly built in 1912.
Plans for a new theater on American Avenue at the corner of Bunce Avenue (actually called Bunce Way, which was an alley half a block north of Ocean Avenue) were announced in the June 11, 1920 issue of Southwest Builder & Contractor. It was being designed by the firm of Walker & Eisen. Early references to this theater in the L.A. Library’s California Index call it either the Empire Theatre (apparently its opening name) or the Mission Theatre (on cards citing articles from 1924 about an enlargement of the stage and proscenium, with plans by Long Beach architect H.L. Gogerty.)
Ken, in the photo you linked to in your October 8 comment, I see they spell the name “Gayety” in that sign over the entrance.
In the early 1960s, I often went to the Los Feliz Theatre a couple of blocks up Vermont, and I don’t remember seeing the Studio at all. It must have been gone by then. The County Assessor says the building on the site now was built in 1969.
The County Assessor doesn’t give information for this exact address. Most of the block is taken up by a huge parcel with the address 18305 Colima Road- apparently a shopping center containing four buildings, three of which have construction dates of 1964 and one of which dates from 1990. All the other addresses on the block (fronting directly on Colima Road) are higher or lower (18307, 18389, 18391) than the theater’s address.
The 5th Avenue is listed in the Independent Theatres section of the Times issue of February 10, 1971, but I can’t find it in the August 24, 1986 issue. I guess it was gone by then.
This stretch of Colima Road was once called Fifth Avenue, by the way.
The Los Angeles County Assessor’s Office gives an original construction date of 1934 for the building at 1822 N. Vermont, and the Los Feliz Theatre is listed at this address in the 1936 Los Angeles City Directory.
I attended the Los Feliz many times in the early 1960s, and probably saw more foreign films there than at any other theater aside from the Cinema, on Western Avenue. The Los Feliz never seemed as self-consciously arty as the Cinema. It was more like a friendly neighborhood movie house that happened to show art films. I’m glad it’s still there, even if triplexed.