Jeane Mari: The Bruce Torrence Collection has pictures of Ken Murray’s Blackouts (with Marie Wilson) at the Vine Street El Capitan. The biggest hit record of “Got a Date with an Angel” was probably the one by Hal Kemp and his orchestra, but I doubt that they could have fit onto the back of a truck.
The actual date of the fire which gutted the El Rey was August 5th, 1975. The event was reported in the Los Angeles Times the next day.
The El Rey was built by William Peters. San Francisco architects Mark T. Jorgensen and Otto A. Deichmann prepared the plans, according to the Better Theatres section of The Motion Picture Herald, October 17th, 1936. The theatre probably opened in 1937.
I’ve come across a contradiction in the Los Angeles Public Library’s database. Though text entries give the location of the Silent Building as 733 S. Hill Street (the theatre entrance was at the right end of the building), the data accompanying a a picture of the building gives an address of 730 S. Hill Street, which would put the building on the east side of the street. If the address on the west side of the street is correct, then the buildingis gone. If the address on the west side of the street is correct, then the building might well still exist.
The Granada was financed by C.W. Post of the Post Cereal family. It was originally designed in a Spanish architectural style, but much of the interior was remodeled in 1937 in the art deco style. The original proscenium was still intact as of 1993, and a plaster letter “P” for Post could be seen at the tops of the flanking columns. Though it was operated in its last years by Metropolitan Theatres, it opened as a West Coast Theatres house, and had been a Fox-West Coast house from the late 1920s into the 1960s.
Source: abstract of a paper from the Wilmington Historical Society, available in PDF format from the L.A. Public Library.
I had completely forgotten about that Broadway entrance to the Metropolitan! There was originally an entrance on Hill Street, as well, but only the Sixth Street entrance remained when I first saw the theatre. The L.A. Library has a photo of the interior of the Broadway entrance to the Metropolitan.
Southwest Builder & Contractor of January 9th, 1925, revealed that the plans for the Lyric Theatre were being prepared by the firm of Wilson, Merrill and Wilson, 128 S. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles. The building was to be 70' x 150' and the projected cost was $75,000. The owners and operators would be National Theatres.
If the Park Theatre was operating during the silent era, then it was not the T&D, plans for which (by San Francisco architect Albert A. Larsen) were announced in The Los Angeles Times on November 24th, 1929.
From Southwest Builder and Contractor, issue of 10/27/1928:[quote]“San Luis Obispo— Mrs. W.B. Martin has secured a permit for reconstruction the El Monterey Theater. The cost will be $20,000.”[quote]
The Reel Joy was operating as early as February, 1928, when it was mentioned in the 2/11/1928 issue of Exhibitor’s Herald and Moving Picture World.
The magazine Architect and Engineer, issue of February 1938, reported that work had begun on a remodeling of the theatre, to plans prepared by Oakland architects Miller & Warnecke.
RAGNAR: As near as I’ve been able to puzzle it out from the limited, scattered sources available to me, this is the relationship of the various theatre circuits which became Fox-West Coast: T&D was a San Francisco-based theatre circuit, owned by Fred Dahnken and William G. Turner. It began sometime early in the 20th century. There was some association with a circuit called Southwest Theaters, operated by C.L. Langley, who was also the managing director of T&D. Langley was also associated in some way with West Coast Theaters. In the 1920s, a partnership called West Coast-Langley operated theatres in Pasadena, among other places.
Eventually, all these companies were joined in a series of deals and mergers, under the West Coast Theaters banner, and by 1929, William Fox (who had opened his first nickelodeon in Brooklyn in 1904, and began producing movies in 1913 in order to have a reliable source of product to exhibit in his chain of theatres in the east) had acquired a controlling interest in the chain, which then became Fox-West Coast Theaters.
It was partly the debt Fox incurred in wiring several hundred theatres for sound that led to his bankruptcy in 1930. He then lost control of both the studio and the theatres, which in 1935 came under the control of Darryl Zanuck’s 20th Century Pictures.
I haven’t been able to discover the relationship of T&D Junior to Fox. Some theatres attributed to that company’s ownership were built quite a while after the merger of TD&L with Fox, and were operated by Fox-West Coast in later years.
Southwest Builder and Contractor of July 11, 1914, named the Fresno architectural firm of Swartz, Hotchin and Swartz as those who prepared the plans for remodeling the armory into Theatre Visalia for Spaulding, Mitchell and Levi. An issue of the same magazine from May, 1913, had mentioned two Los Angeles architects as being engaged for the project, but that deal must have fallen through.
Jack, you are correct that Variety has long called indoor movie theatres “hardtops” to distinguish them from “ozoners” or “passion pits” (Variety nomenclature for drive-ins.) Variety has always had a language of its own, and even has its own name for that language, and now features a web page with a handy glossary of its terms: Slanguage. Many terms originated at Variety have made their way into general use (“sex appeal” being an example), and there are others that deserve to. I’m particularly fond of “sprocket opera” for film festival, and “zitcom” for a T.V. comedy aimed at a teenage audience.
Burgundy soda was sold from the soft drink machine at the Garfield Theatre in Alhambra, too. I hadn’t thought about that in ages, but I used to buy it every time I went to a movie there, as that was the only place I knew of where it was available. It had a nice, subtle grape flavor, not as sweet as the concord grape based sodas that were more common in those days, as I recall. Heh. I guess I was a budding wine snob, even at twelve years old. I remember now that I used to wish that I could get burgundy soda outside the theatre, because I thought it would make a great flavor for a float. Thanks for the reminder of a long forgotten delight, Watcher.
ken mc: It turns out that the Tally’s New Broadway Theatre in the picture you discovered is listed on Cinema Treasures, under its final name, the GarnettTheatre, at 554 S. Broadway.
Having seen the 1929 picture of the Arcade Building, I’m sure that Tally’s New Broadway is the Garnett. The lot between the Arcade Building and Silverwood’s store on the corner of 6th Street looks to be about the right size for this theatre.
I’ve never seen the Conservancy’s theatres database, but I’m sure they have had access to a lot of information about the city’s buildings. One reason I can think of for an error is that often, permits were issued for planned buildings and then those plans were never carried out, but the records remain in the city’s files, with no indication that the building wasn’t built. It’s possible that a theatre was planned for this site, but not built, and the Conservancy’s researchers didn’t follow through to find the age of the building which now stands on this site.
If that address is immediately south of the Broadway Arcade Building, then it probably is the Garnett. I think the Arcade Building was completed in 1927, and the theatre would have been its next door neighbor, assuming it was still there by then. Here is a photo of the Broadway end of the Arcade Building dated 1929, showing the commercial building which replaced the theatre next door.
The Los Angeles Public Library photo collection contains a picture (revealed by Cinema Treasures user ken mc, by the way), of Tally’s New Broadway Theatre, clearly showing the location as being in the 500 block of Broadway, on the east side of the street, just north of 6th Street (this can be seen by the presence of a sign in the background on the wall of the Hotel Hayward, which was at the southwest corner of 6th and Spring.) If this theatre at 428 Broadway was also Tally’s New Broadway, it must have been given that name after the Tally’s New Broadway in the 500 block was closed. I have no idea when that latter event took place, though.
I typed “southeast corner” at the beginning of that first comment. I meant southwest corner, of course. The corner location was occupied by Owl Drug Company, beginning at latest in the early 1920s, and it was still there in the 1960s. I was in the store many times.
Addition: The library also has a picture of the building which occupied this site before the Norton Block was built. The corner store of this building, which would have been 601 S. Broadway, was occupied by a saloon. (The library mistakenly identifies the picture as having been taken in 1911, but other information there indicates the likely year to have been 1906.)
There was another Broadway Theatre nearby, however. Another picture at the library shows Tally’s New Broadway Theatre in the 500 block of South Broadway, on the east side, just north of 6th Street. The location is easily identified by the sign on the wall of the building in the background, which was the Hayward Hotel, at the southwest corner of 6th and Spring. The library identifies this picture as having been taken in 1909, and it seems accurate in this case.
This raises some question about the claim that the Broadway Theatre at 428 South Broadway was Tally’s New Broadway. If it was, then it must have taken that name after the Tally’s New Broadway in the 500 block was closed. This Tally’s New Broadway is not yet listed at Cinema Treasures.
The 6 story building at the southeast corner of 6th and Broadway was originally called the Norton Block, and was completed by 1908. I have seen it pictured in old postcards. The L.A. Public Library has photos of it. Here is a full view from the 1920s, before the art deco style remodeling. Here is a view down Broadway with the lower part of the Norton Block at the right. This picture must have been taken in the late ‘20s, as the Los Angeles Theatre down the block does not yet exist. I think it’s unlikely that this building ever contained a theatre. If there ever was a theatre in the building, it must have occupied only a small part of the ground floor, which is filled with the columns supporting the floors of offices above.
AJG:
The L.A. Library web site is available to everyone, but the articles in various papers and magazines I mentioned above are not themselves available on the Internet. The library’s California Index of the Regional History Database contains only a large number of scanned index cards, some with a brief synopsis of the article content. (Reach the California Index from the main page by placing your cursor ove “Library Resources” and then selecting “Regional History” which will open a page with a link to the Index.) You can also sometimes find a bit of information attached to the historic photos in the library’s Photo Collection.
I think that the L.A.Times does indeed require a fee to access their archives. I’ve never used them, so I don’t know what the fees are (I’d imagine they are fairly steep— most newspapers charge quite a bit for that service), nor do I know how far back they go. The Times itself goes back to the 19th century, but their offices were blown up in 1910 and earlier issues may have been lost.
I tried entering both “Helen Wolf” and “Helen DeWolf” in the California Index search box, but there is no mention of her. There aren’t even very many mentions of Sid Grauman, and most of those have to do with the Chinese Theatre.
I’m not sure where you might find the information you’re looking for about your family. If you do a Google search on “vaudeville” you’ll get a load of results, and there are probably some sites that could at least give you some pointers about possible sources of information.
My main interest in theaters is the buildings themselves, especially those around Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley, where I grew up. I have some memories of theatres there which I decided to contribute to this site, and then I discovered that I could dig up a bit more information about them by poking around on the Internet.
A book titled Before the Nickelodeon, by Charles Musser (University of California Press, 1991) Gives the Grand Theater’s seating capacity as 1311 (as of 1896, two years after it became the first Los Angeles home of the Orpheum Vaudeville Circuit), giving as its source Julius Cahn’s Official Theatrical Guide (New York, 1896.) This seems about right, judging from pictures I’ve seen of the theatre’s interior. It was a good-sized house, with two balconies.
Musser’s book also reveals that on July 6th, 1896, the Grand was the scene of the first theatrical exhibition of moving pictures in Los Angeles, when several short Edison films were shown, fresh from their west coast premier at the San Francisco Orpheum. The projectionist at this event was none other than William S. Porter, who would later go on to become one of the first successful directors of silent films.
The book quotes the almost giddy description of the event which was published by the Los Angeles Times:[quote]
“The theatre was darkened until it was as black as mid-night. Suddenly a strange whirling sound was heard. Upon a huge white sheet flashed forth the figure of Anna Belle Sun [sic ], whirling through the mazes of the serpentine dance. She swayed and nodded and tripped it lightly, the filmy draperies rising and falling and floating this way and that, all reproduced with startling reality, and the whole without a break except that now and then one could see swift electric sparks. Then the picture changed from the grey of a photograph to the color of life and next came the fairy-like butterfly dance. Then, without warning, darkness and the roar of applause that shook the theatre; and knew no pause till the next picture was flashed on the screen. This was long, lanky Uncle Sam who was defending Venezuela from fat little John Bull, and forcing the bully to his knees. Next came a representation of Herald Square in New York with streetcars and vans moving up and down, then Cissy Fitzgerald’s dance and last of all a representation of the way May Irwin and John C. Rice kiss. Their smiles and glances and expressive gestures and the final joyous, overpowering, luscious osculation was repeated again and again, while the audience fairly shrieked and howled approval. The vitascope is a wonder, a marvel, an outstanding example of human ingenuity, and it had an instantaneous success on this, its first exhibition in Los Angeles. A representation of Niagara Falls is now on its way [from the] East, where it was first exhibited only two weeks ago, and this will be added to the bill on Thursday evening.”[/quote]
The Los Angeles Herald of July 14th noted that at least 20,000 people attended the Grand during the first week of this exhibition, and that perhaps a further 10,000 had been turned away for lack of space.
A Los Angeles Times article of August 27th, 1972, mentioned that the Fox Covina had first opened on June 29th, 1969 and that at that time it seated 814. The 1972 article was headlined “Covina to get new showplace” and probably announced the expansion of the house into a triplex. The theatre was located in the Oak Tree Plaza shopping center, and was operated by National General Cinemas.
As for the Monrovia, I haven’t been able to find any references to it by that name. The California Index of the Regional History database on the L.A. Public Library web site contains references to several theatres in Monrovia, some of which may not have been built. The earliest references are to a 900 seat brick theatre to have been built on East Lemon Street in 1911. The architect named for this theatre was Herbert Alban Reeves.
There are also references to a theater planned in 1923, to be financed by Marco Hellman, and to be located at the corner of White Oak (probably an earlier name of Foothill Boulevard) and Encinitas Avenue. I don’t know if either of these projects was actually built.
There is also a single mention of a theatre planned by a Mr. F.C. Thompson, announced in the April 15th, 1921 issue of Southwest Builder and Contractor. No address, architect or theatre name is given.
At least three theatres besides the Lyric (which opened as the Lyric) are mentioned by name in the database. They are the Myrtle, the Mission, and the Colonial. No details are given about the first two, (though I suppose we can assume that the Myrtle was on Myrtle Avenue), but the Colonial existed before 1921, as the first reference to it is from that year, when Southwest Builder and Contractor of April 22nd announced that it was being remodeled. The Colonial was mentioned again in the L.A. Times of February 21st, 1926, on the occasion of its sale to a new owner, and again in the Times of March 21st that year, when plans for another remodeling were announced.
I don’t know if any of this will be of any help, but I’m now several hundred miles from Monrovia myself, and must depend on the scant references available on the Internet for my information.
Jeane Mari: The Bruce Torrence Collection has pictures of Ken Murray’s Blackouts (with Marie Wilson) at the Vine Street El Capitan. The biggest hit record of “Got a Date with an Angel” was probably the one by Hal Kemp and his orchestra, but I doubt that they could have fit onto the back of a truck.
The actual date of the fire which gutted the El Rey was August 5th, 1975. The event was reported in the Los Angeles Times the next day.
The El Rey was built by William Peters. San Francisco architects Mark T. Jorgensen and Otto A. Deichmann prepared the plans, according to the Better Theatres section of The Motion Picture Herald, October 17th, 1936. The theatre probably opened in 1937.
I’ve come across a contradiction in the Los Angeles Public Library’s database. Though text entries give the location of the Silent Building as 733 S. Hill Street (the theatre entrance was at the right end of the building), the data accompanying a a picture of the building gives an address of 730 S. Hill Street, which would put the building on the east side of the street. If the address on the west side of the street is correct, then the buildingis gone. If the address on the west side of the street is correct, then the building might well still exist.
The Granada was financed by C.W. Post of the Post Cereal family. It was originally designed in a Spanish architectural style, but much of the interior was remodeled in 1937 in the art deco style. The original proscenium was still intact as of 1993, and a plaster letter “P” for Post could be seen at the tops of the flanking columns. Though it was operated in its last years by Metropolitan Theatres, it opened as a West Coast Theatres house, and had been a Fox-West Coast house from the late 1920s into the 1960s.
Source: abstract of a paper from the Wilmington Historical Society, available in PDF format from the L.A. Public Library.
I had completely forgotten about that Broadway entrance to the Metropolitan! There was originally an entrance on Hill Street, as well, but only the Sixth Street entrance remained when I first saw the theatre. The L.A. Library has a photo of the interior of the Broadway entrance to the Metropolitan.
Southwest Builder & Contractor of January 9th, 1925, revealed that the plans for the Lyric Theatre were being prepared by the firm of Wilson, Merrill and Wilson, 128 S. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles. The building was to be 70' x 150' and the projected cost was $75,000. The owners and operators would be National Theatres.
If the Park Theatre was operating during the silent era, then it was not the T&D, plans for which (by San Francisco architect Albert A. Larsen) were announced in The Los Angeles Times on November 24th, 1929.
From Southwest Builder and Contractor, issue of 10/27/1928:[quote]“San Luis Obispo— Mrs. W.B. Martin has secured a permit for reconstruction the El Monterey Theater. The cost will be $20,000.”[quote]
The Reel Joy was operating as early as February, 1928, when it was mentioned in the 2/11/1928 issue of Exhibitor’s Herald and Moving Picture World.
The magazine Architect and Engineer, issue of February 1938, reported that work had begun on a remodeling of the theatre, to plans prepared by Oakland architects Miller & Warnecke.
RAGNAR: As near as I’ve been able to puzzle it out from the limited, scattered sources available to me, this is the relationship of the various theatre circuits which became Fox-West Coast: T&D was a San Francisco-based theatre circuit, owned by Fred Dahnken and William G. Turner. It began sometime early in the 20th century. There was some association with a circuit called Southwest Theaters, operated by C.L. Langley, who was also the managing director of T&D. Langley was also associated in some way with West Coast Theaters. In the 1920s, a partnership called West Coast-Langley operated theatres in Pasadena, among other places.
Eventually, all these companies were joined in a series of deals and mergers, under the West Coast Theaters banner, and by 1929, William Fox (who had opened his first nickelodeon in Brooklyn in 1904, and began producing movies in 1913 in order to have a reliable source of product to exhibit in his chain of theatres in the east) had acquired a controlling interest in the chain, which then became Fox-West Coast Theaters.
It was partly the debt Fox incurred in wiring several hundred theatres for sound that led to his bankruptcy in 1930. He then lost control of both the studio and the theatres, which in 1935 came under the control of Darryl Zanuck’s 20th Century Pictures.
I haven’t been able to discover the relationship of T&D Junior to Fox. Some theatres attributed to that company’s ownership were built quite a while after the merger of TD&L with Fox, and were operated by Fox-West Coast in later years.
Southwest Builder and Contractor of July 11, 1914, named the Fresno architectural firm of Swartz, Hotchin and Swartz as those who prepared the plans for remodeling the armory into Theatre Visalia for Spaulding, Mitchell and Levi. An issue of the same magazine from May, 1913, had mentioned two Los Angeles architects as being engaged for the project, but that deal must have fallen through.
Jack, you are correct that Variety has long called indoor movie theatres “hardtops” to distinguish them from “ozoners” or “passion pits” (Variety nomenclature for drive-ins.) Variety has always had a language of its own, and even has its own name for that language, and now features a web page with a handy glossary of its terms: Slanguage. Many terms originated at Variety have made their way into general use (“sex appeal” being an example), and there are others that deserve to. I’m particularly fond of “sprocket opera” for film festival, and “zitcom” for a T.V. comedy aimed at a teenage audience.
Burgundy soda was sold from the soft drink machine at the Garfield Theatre in Alhambra, too. I hadn’t thought about that in ages, but I used to buy it every time I went to a movie there, as that was the only place I knew of where it was available. It had a nice, subtle grape flavor, not as sweet as the concord grape based sodas that were more common in those days, as I recall. Heh. I guess I was a budding wine snob, even at twelve years old. I remember now that I used to wish that I could get burgundy soda outside the theatre, because I thought it would make a great flavor for a float. Thanks for the reminder of a long forgotten delight, Watcher.
ken mc: It turns out that the Tally’s New Broadway Theatre in the picture you discovered is listed on Cinema Treasures, under its final name, the GarnettTheatre, at 554 S. Broadway.
Having seen the 1929 picture of the Arcade Building, I’m sure that Tally’s New Broadway is the Garnett. The lot between the Arcade Building and Silverwood’s store on the corner of 6th Street looks to be about the right size for this theatre.
I’ve never seen the Conservancy’s theatres database, but I’m sure they have had access to a lot of information about the city’s buildings. One reason I can think of for an error is that often, permits were issued for planned buildings and then those plans were never carried out, but the records remain in the city’s files, with no indication that the building wasn’t built. It’s possible that a theatre was planned for this site, but not built, and the Conservancy’s researchers didn’t follow through to find the age of the building which now stands on this site.
If that address is immediately south of the Broadway Arcade Building, then it probably is the Garnett. I think the Arcade Building was completed in 1927, and the theatre would have been its next door neighbor, assuming it was still there by then. Here is a photo of the Broadway end of the Arcade Building dated 1929, showing the commercial building which replaced the theatre next door.
The Los Angeles Public Library photo collection contains a picture (revealed by Cinema Treasures user ken mc, by the way), of Tally’s New Broadway Theatre, clearly showing the location as being in the 500 block of Broadway, on the east side of the street, just north of 6th Street (this can be seen by the presence of a sign in the background on the wall of the Hotel Hayward, which was at the southwest corner of 6th and Spring.) If this theatre at 428 Broadway was also Tally’s New Broadway, it must have been given that name after the Tally’s New Broadway in the 500 block was closed. I have no idea when that latter event took place, though.
I typed “southeast corner” at the beginning of that first comment. I meant southwest corner, of course. The corner location was occupied by Owl Drug Company, beginning at latest in the early 1920s, and it was still there in the 1960s. I was in the store many times.
Addition: The library also has a picture of the building which occupied this site before the Norton Block was built. The corner store of this building, which would have been 601 S. Broadway, was occupied by a saloon. (The library mistakenly identifies the picture as having been taken in 1911, but other information there indicates the likely year to have been 1906.)
There was another Broadway Theatre nearby, however. Another picture at the library shows Tally’s New Broadway Theatre in the 500 block of South Broadway, on the east side, just north of 6th Street. The location is easily identified by the sign on the wall of the building in the background, which was the Hayward Hotel, at the southwest corner of 6th and Spring. The library identifies this picture as having been taken in 1909, and it seems accurate in this case.
This raises some question about the claim that the Broadway Theatre at 428 South Broadway was Tally’s New Broadway. If it was, then it must have taken that name after the Tally’s New Broadway in the 500 block was closed. This Tally’s New Broadway is not yet listed at Cinema Treasures.
The 6 story building at the southeast corner of 6th and Broadway was originally called the Norton Block, and was completed by 1908. I have seen it pictured in old postcards. The L.A. Public Library has photos of it. Here is a full view from the 1920s, before the art deco style remodeling. Here is a view down Broadway with the lower part of the Norton Block at the right. This picture must have been taken in the late ‘20s, as the Los Angeles Theatre down the block does not yet exist. I think it’s unlikely that this building ever contained a theatre. If there ever was a theatre in the building, it must have occupied only a small part of the ground floor, which is filled with the columns supporting the floors of offices above.
ken mc:
The Capitol in Long Beach is listed on Cinema Treasures under its final name, the Tracy.
AJG:
The L.A. Library web site is available to everyone, but the articles in various papers and magazines I mentioned above are not themselves available on the Internet. The library’s California Index of the Regional History Database contains only a large number of scanned index cards, some with a brief synopsis of the article content. (Reach the California Index from the main page by placing your cursor ove “Library Resources” and then selecting “Regional History” which will open a page with a link to the Index.) You can also sometimes find a bit of information attached to the historic photos in the library’s Photo Collection.
I think that the L.A.Times does indeed require a fee to access their archives. I’ve never used them, so I don’t know what the fees are (I’d imagine they are fairly steep— most newspapers charge quite a bit for that service), nor do I know how far back they go. The Times itself goes back to the 19th century, but their offices were blown up in 1910 and earlier issues may have been lost.
I tried entering both “Helen Wolf” and “Helen DeWolf” in the California Index search box, but there is no mention of her. There aren’t even very many mentions of Sid Grauman, and most of those have to do with the Chinese Theatre.
I’m not sure where you might find the information you’re looking for about your family. If you do a Google search on “vaudeville” you’ll get a load of results, and there are probably some sites that could at least give you some pointers about possible sources of information.
My main interest in theaters is the buildings themselves, especially those around Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley, where I grew up. I have some memories of theatres there which I decided to contribute to this site, and then I discovered that I could dig up a bit more information about them by poking around on the Internet.
A book titled Before the Nickelodeon, by Charles Musser (University of California Press, 1991) Gives the Grand Theater’s seating capacity as 1311 (as of 1896, two years after it became the first Los Angeles home of the Orpheum Vaudeville Circuit), giving as its source Julius Cahn’s Official Theatrical Guide (New York, 1896.) This seems about right, judging from pictures I’ve seen of the theatre’s interior. It was a good-sized house, with two balconies.
Musser’s book also reveals that on July 6th, 1896, the Grand was the scene of the first theatrical exhibition of moving pictures in Los Angeles, when several short Edison films were shown, fresh from their west coast premier at the San Francisco Orpheum. The projectionist at this event was none other than William S. Porter, who would later go on to become one of the first successful directors of silent films.
The book quotes the almost giddy description of the event which was published by the Los Angeles Times:[quote]
“The theatre was darkened until it was as black as mid-night. Suddenly a strange whirling sound was heard. Upon a huge white sheet flashed forth the figure of Anna Belle Sun [sic ], whirling through the mazes of the serpentine dance. She swayed and nodded and tripped it lightly, the filmy draperies rising and falling and floating this way and that, all reproduced with startling reality, and the whole without a break except that now and then one could see swift electric sparks. Then the picture changed from the grey of a photograph to the color of life and next came the fairy-like butterfly dance. Then, without warning, darkness and the roar of applause that shook the theatre; and knew no pause till the next picture was flashed on the screen. This was long, lanky Uncle Sam who was defending Venezuela from fat little John Bull, and forcing the bully to his knees. Next came a representation of Herald Square in New York with streetcars and vans moving up and down, then Cissy Fitzgerald’s dance and last of all a representation of the way May Irwin and John C. Rice kiss. Their smiles and glances and expressive gestures and the final joyous, overpowering, luscious osculation was repeated again and again, while the audience fairly shrieked and howled approval. The vitascope is a wonder, a marvel, an outstanding example of human ingenuity, and it had an instantaneous success on this, its first exhibition in Los Angeles. A representation of Niagara Falls is now on its way [from the] East, where it was first exhibited only two weeks ago, and this will be added to the bill on Thursday evening.”[/quote]
The Los Angeles Herald of July 14th noted that at least 20,000 people attended the Grand during the first week of this exhibition, and that perhaps a further 10,000 had been turned away for lack of space.
A Los Angeles Times article of August 27th, 1972, mentioned that the Fox Covina had first opened on June 29th, 1969 and that at that time it seated 814. The 1972 article was headlined “Covina to get new showplace” and probably announced the expansion of the house into a triplex. The theatre was located in the Oak Tree Plaza shopping center, and was operated by National General Cinemas.
William:
The Lyric probably opened in 1925. See my comment on it here:
/theaters/2151/
AJG:
As for the Monrovia, I haven’t been able to find any references to it by that name. The California Index of the Regional History database on the L.A. Public Library web site contains references to several theatres in Monrovia, some of which may not have been built. The earliest references are to a 900 seat brick theatre to have been built on East Lemon Street in 1911. The architect named for this theatre was Herbert Alban Reeves.
There are also references to a theater planned in 1923, to be financed by Marco Hellman, and to be located at the corner of White Oak (probably an earlier name of Foothill Boulevard) and Encinitas Avenue. I don’t know if either of these projects was actually built.
There is also a single mention of a theatre planned by a Mr. F.C. Thompson, announced in the April 15th, 1921 issue of Southwest Builder and Contractor. No address, architect or theatre name is given.
At least three theatres besides the Lyric (which opened as the Lyric) are mentioned by name in the database. They are the Myrtle, the Mission, and the Colonial. No details are given about the first two, (though I suppose we can assume that the Myrtle was on Myrtle Avenue), but the Colonial existed before 1921, as the first reference to it is from that year, when Southwest Builder and Contractor of April 22nd announced that it was being remodeled. The Colonial was mentioned again in the L.A. Times of February 21st, 1926, on the occasion of its sale to a new owner, and again in the Times of March 21st that year, when plans for another remodeling were announced.
I don’t know if any of this will be of any help, but I’m now several hundred miles from Monrovia myself, and must depend on the scant references available on the Internet for my information.