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.
Listed in the 1929 City Directory as the Pico. The 700 W. block begins at Figueroa, and the 900 block began at Georgia Street, so this place must have been closer to Figueroa than to Georgia. The 1923 ad ken mc linked to must have been for a different theater.
The best candidate for the El Sereno Theater to which the organ was delivered is probably still the Cameo, which opened in 1924. However, it’s listed under the name Cameo in the 1925 city directory page ken mc linked to in his October 18, 2008 comment on the Aloha Theatre page. No El Sereno Theater is listed in that directory. It seems unlikely that they’d have opened as the El Sereno and changed the name to Cameo only few months later. My best guess is that the owners of the Cameo didn’t choose the theater’s name until construction was well advanced and the organ already delivered.
I would guess it was already a nightclub in 1967 then, and it had an adult movie theatre as one of its attractions. But it doesn’t appear at all- not even among the porn movies- in the listings of the L.A. Times for February 10, 1971, the earliest Times listings I have at hand.
The place was called Carolina West Century Lounge (a.k.a. Century Theatre) when it was reviewed for this web site, surely within our current decade (Internets being fairly new and all.) After reading the description of what goes on there, I urgently desire never to visit it, and especially not to touch anything within it.
I still suspect the building of having been built as a bowling alley, if it wasn’t a nightclub from the beginning. It’s all wrong (and in the wrong location) for a big movie theater.
The L.A. County Assessor’s office gives a construction date of 1940 and an effective construction date of 1949 for the building at 3355 N. Eastern Avenue. Unless they’ve made a mistake (it’s been known to happen), this was not the El Sereno Theatre which got an organ in 1924. As I said in an earlier comment, this building does look like it was built in the 1930s or 1940s, even on its back and side walls, so the assessor’s office is probably right about the date.
The Assessor’s Office says this 30,000 square foot building was built in 1959. It doesn’t look to me like it was ever a movie theater. I don’t remember there being one in that area, either.
This house was still listed as the Garden Theatre in the 1929 Los Angeles City Directory.
The L.A. County Assessor’s office gives an original construction date of 1935 for the building at this address, but judging from the photo linked in Lost Memory’s comment of August 10, 2007, I’d say the Assessor’s office is in error. The style of the brickwork on that facade was very popular in the 1910s, and I’ve never seen it used on any building erected as late as 1935. The building probably does date from 1914.
I wonder if this could be the same house advertised in the Los Angeles Times movie listings of November 9, 1914, as Gore’s Theatre. Operated by Mike Gore, it was located at 9th and Georgia Streets.
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.
Listed in the 1929 City Directory as the Pico. The 700 W. block begins at Figueroa, and the 900 block began at Georgia Street, so this place must have been closer to Figueroa than to Georgia. The 1923 ad ken mc linked to must have been for a different theater.
The best candidate for the El Sereno Theater to which the organ was delivered is probably still the Cameo, which opened in 1924. However, it’s listed under the name Cameo in the 1925 city directory page ken mc linked to in his October 18, 2008 comment on the Aloha Theatre page. No El Sereno Theater is listed in that directory. It seems unlikely that they’d have opened as the El Sereno and changed the name to Cameo only few months later. My best guess is that the owners of the Cameo didn’t choose the theater’s name until construction was well advanced and the organ already delivered.
I would guess it was already a nightclub in 1967 then, and it had an adult movie theatre as one of its attractions. But it doesn’t appear at all- not even among the porn movies- in the listings of the L.A. Times for February 10, 1971, the earliest Times listings I have at hand.
The place was called Carolina West Century Lounge (a.k.a. Century Theatre) when it was reviewed for this web site, surely within our current decade (Internets being fairly new and all.) After reading the description of what goes on there, I urgently desire never to visit it, and especially not to touch anything within it.
I still suspect the building of having been built as a bowling alley, if it wasn’t a nightclub from the beginning. It’s all wrong (and in the wrong location) for a big movie theater.
The L.A. County Assessor’s office gives a construction date of 1940 and an effective construction date of 1949 for the building at 3355 N. Eastern Avenue. Unless they’ve made a mistake (it’s been known to happen), this was not the El Sereno Theatre which got an organ in 1924. As I said in an earlier comment, this building does look like it was built in the 1930s or 1940s, even on its back and side walls, so the assessor’s office is probably right about the date.
In fact, now that I think about it, this building looks like one of those big bowling centers that began popping up all around L.A. in the 1950s.
The Assessor’s Office says this 30,000 square foot building was built in 1959. It doesn’t look to me like it was ever a movie theater. I don’t remember there being one in that area, either.
This house was still listed as the Garden Theatre in the 1929 Los Angeles City Directory.
The L.A. County Assessor’s office gives an original construction date of 1935 for the building at this address, but judging from the photo linked in Lost Memory’s comment of August 10, 2007, I’d say the Assessor’s office is in error. The style of the brickwork on that facade was very popular in the 1910s, and I’ve never seen it used on any building erected as late as 1935. The building probably does date from 1914.
I wonder if this could be the same house advertised in the Los Angeles Times movie listings of November 9, 1914, as Gore’s Theatre. Operated by Mike Gore, it was located at 9th and Georgia Streets.