Comments from Joe Vogel

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Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Regent Theatre on Mar 6, 2008 at 4:02 pm

The Regent (operating as the National) and the Banner were certainly both open at the same time in 1915, according to the Times article from that year Ken cited on July 2, 2007. We know that the Banner has been at 458 S. Main in recent times (I saw it there myself.) The questionable caption (almost certainly containing an error in the address) cites events from 1918 and (presumably) 1922.

But, while there are sources from before 1918 and after 1922 proving the Banner to have been located south of the Regent at those times, this information does not preclude the possibility of the Banner’s owner having gotten hold of the lease on the National, moved his operation there for a few years, and then, due to another reversal of fortune, having to return his business and its name to its previous location.

Signage of theatres was usually of a sort easily moved in those days. Due to shadow in this 1920s photo, the Banner’s signage can barely be made out, but it looks like the same small board (minus the neon which was obviously added later) seen in this night view from 1965. The Regent, though, had a spiffy little marquee in the 1920s (on which the name is not readable in this view, alas.)

So, while it seems most likely that the caption writer (or the source the caption writer used) got the address of the Banner wrong, none of the evidence at hand is conclusive. That’s why I suggest checking a city directory from about 1919-1921. If the directory shows that the Banner was not at the Regent’s address, or that the National or Regent was at the Regent’s address, then the caption is certainly wrong. Ads from the period showing addresses for either theatre would do as well.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Astro Theatre on Mar 6, 2008 at 2:22 pm

LM: The source for Martin as architect of the Cozy must be the caption to the 1955 photo linked from his previous comment. However, given the questions that have arisen about the accuracy of the information in the caption for a photo of the Regent Theatre in what appears to be the same book, a corroborating source would be nice— especially given the fact that the assessors info for the Cozy’s building gives a construction date of 1905. If the theatre opened in 1927, it must have been only a conversion of existing space.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Million Dollar Theatre on Mar 6, 2008 at 12:34 am

I recall the dropped ceiling of the lobby being there in the early 1960s. It was the sort of cheap modernizing job that was done to many old theatres. Most of the original ceiling decor is probably still there in the Million Dollar, as it usually is in the others. The main point of putting in a dropped ceiling is so you won’t have to go to the expense of actually removing a lot of heavy, decorative plasterwork, and you can cheaply run wiring and duct work through the newly concealed space.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Las Palmas Theatre on Mar 5, 2008 at 11:50 pm

This building was erected in 1927, according to assessor’s information.

An item in Daily Variety for June 18, 1941, indicates that at that time this was a playhouse operating under the name Hollywood Troupers Theatre.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Central Theatre on Mar 5, 2008 at 9:40 pm

I’m now wondering where that building with the arched windows was (or is) located. It looks familiar, but I can’t quite place it.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Regent Theatre on Mar 5, 2008 at 9:27 pm

I wondered about the caption myself. The address for the Banner on its CT page is 458 S. Main, but I suppose it’s possible that the Regent was once called the Banner. Theatre operators would sometimes take the name with them when they moved to a new location (Woodley’s Optic, for example), especially in the early days.

Incidentally, the assessors information for the Regent building gives a construction date of 1914, so the caption can’t be referring to an earlier building at the same address. I guess somebody should check the city directories from the era.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Orpheum Theatre on Mar 5, 2008 at 8:51 pm

I think just about everybody knows that teatro is only the Spanish word for theater, so in a way it seems pointless to add it, but then Teatro (capitalized) Whatever did appear in advertising and (in some cases) on the signage, so it is historically accurate. I guess that adds up to me being indifferent.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Orpheum Theatre on Mar 5, 2008 at 8:20 pm

I think almost all the downtown theatres were advertised with “Teatro” in their names if and when they ran Spanish language movies. Here’s photographic evidence of Frank Fouce’s Teatro California, and of El Nuevo Teatro Rialto, and I recall the Million Dollar advertised as El Teatro Million Dollar. I’m pretty sure the Mason, State, Globe, United Artists, and others were advertised as “Teatro…” as well. The same was true for neighborhood theatres throughout the region. Not all of them got signs out front, or cloth banners, but Teatro Whatever was what they were in their ads.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Central Theatre on Mar 5, 2008 at 7:50 pm

Ken: The 1973 picture is not the Central’s building. It has arched windows on the top floor, while the Central’s building had square-topped windows. Also, the building to the left of it is too low to be the 5-floor Bradbury Building, and the building to the right has a light well on the side, which the Cozy’s building didn’t have. The State library probably mislabeled this photo.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Palace Theatre on Mar 4, 2008 at 9:25 pm

I never before noticed how much the terrazzo of the Palace looked like the lower part of a giant clown’s face, with the nostrils just below the box office, and then… would that be a bristly moustache, or a mouth full of teeth like giant piano keys?

Can’t sleep. Palace will eat me!

(Don’t mind me. I probably just need medication. Or I’ve been at the computer too long)

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Gentry Theatre on Mar 4, 2008 at 8:45 pm

Prison Break was released in Denmark on February 9 of 1939, under the title Oprør i fængslet.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Gentry Theatre on Mar 4, 2008 at 8:16 pm

Army Girl received three Oscar nominations. Prison Break was snubbed by the Academy.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Gentry Theatre on Mar 4, 2008 at 8:00 pm

Army Girl was released in August of 1938.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Roxie Theatre on Mar 4, 2008 at 7:48 pm

Here’s a b&w photo of Broadway in 1943. Click on it to get to a page with an enlarging feature. There is a high-angled view of the Roxie’s marquee at far right, and it’s probably the original marquee. Click it a few times to make it big enough to see the detail. It’s all covered in neon.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Reel Northgate Theatre on Feb 29, 2008 at 9:17 pm

Northgate Reel Theatre showtimes and such can be found online at this page.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about El Capitan Theatre on Feb 29, 2008 at 6:08 pm

In 1932, El Capitan had a lobby card proclaiming “Free Beer”, and they’d apparently switched their regular doors for saloon-style swinging doors. The wall looks to have been covered with some sort of woody paneling to suggest a cheap saloon’s facade, and there are people in Victorian costume.

What event could have brought on such a display? The sign above the doors reveals that it was the 1932 movie The Wet Parade, an anti-alcohol screed which, from the descriptions I’ve read, may have been the “Reefer Madness” of the Prohibition era— albeit a tad more sophistocated, perhaps, due to its having been based on a novel by Upton Sinclair. I’d dearly love to see it.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Esquire Theatre on Feb 29, 2008 at 6:00 pm

Also, I should point out that the Google Maps link at top will not display the correct location of this building until Cinema Treasures gives it the correct address of 419 N. Fairfax Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90036.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Esquire Theatre on Feb 29, 2008 at 4:57 pm

419 N. Fairfax is not in the City of West Hollywood, but within the corporate limits of the City of Los Angeles. Everyone I know has always called that area the Fairfax district.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about High Street Arts Center on Feb 27, 2008 at 10:43 pm

How about some more confusion regarding Moorpark’s theatre? The California Index has cards referencing Southwest Builder & Contractor articles dated March 21 and July 18, 1930. The first article says that at a meeting of the local Chamber of Commerce they had discussed the feasibility of having a movie theatre erected in town. The second article announced that “Don Mentor is clearing the site and work will be started at once on a new theater building.” No location is mentioned on the cards. The index contains no other cards making reference to theatres in Moorpark.

My guess would be that there was only ever the one theatre operating in Moorpark in those days, and either the authors of the High Street Arts Center’s website got the date when the new building replaced the original wooden structure wrong, or the person who typed the cards for the California Index got the same wrong year on two cards. Odds of the latter event seem slim, so I’d surmise the actual construction date to be 1930.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Los Angeles Theatre on Feb 26, 2008 at 10:48 pm

In regard to the cylindrical objects in the mens room, I don’t recall them being there in the 1960s. I suppose they might have been spittoons, or maybe places to discard cigar or cigarette butts (I believe such devices were called silent butlers), but their tops were pretty close to the floor for either of those functions. It’s an interesting mystery.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Rio Theater on Feb 25, 2008 at 5:00 pm

Opening of the Rio Theatre at Blythe was announced in Motion Picture Herald’s issue of May 1, 1937. It was built by W.J. Shurtleff and leased to operator Robert Dunagan.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about West Side Theatre on Feb 23, 2008 at 11:52 pm

Box 6, folder 16 of the S. Charles Lee papers concerns a Newman Theatre in Newman, California. Could that be this house under an earlier name? (The Lee website doesn’t provide any photos or drawings of the Newman Theatre.)

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Sierra Theatre on Feb 23, 2008 at 11:44 pm

The Sierra Theatre was apparently designed by none other than S. Charles Lee, in 1938, for an owner named Frank Panero. An article in Southwest Builder and Contractor of May 20, 1938 announced that Lee was preparing the plans for the theatre, giving the projected cost as $25,000, but claiming a seating capacity of merely 350, which would be rather small for a building of the Sierra’s size.

The website for the S. Charles Lee collection at UCLA contains no photos or drawings of the Sierra, but the finding aid reveals that information on the theatre can be found in Box 6, folder 15 of the collection, and either plans or renderings or both are in the collection’s oversized folder 250.

The finding aid also reveals the existence of a Lee-designed (or perhaps remodeled) Wasco Theatre in Wasco, California (a few miles from Delano), also designed for Frank Panera. No photos or drawings of the Wasco on the website, either, but here’s a photo of it from the Kern County Library’s collection. The Wasco now houses a church.

Also, note that the Lee website uses the spelling “theatre” for all the theatres he designed. It is also the spelling on the marquee of the Wasco.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about Paramount Theatre on Feb 21, 2008 at 10:43 pm

A correction to my above post: Joseph Woollett represented the 5th, not the 4th, generation of the Woollett family to practice architecture.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel commented about California Theatre on Feb 21, 2008 at 10:29 pm

A search on “Theaters California Glendale” at the picture catalog of the California State Library will fetch seven early photos of the interior of this theatre, as well as a dozen of the Capitol Theatre down the street, and one William Reagh shot of the Alex to boot.