Meralta Theatre

Here is an LA Times blurb from 2/24/83. “Sure, we demolished the theater, but we named the office building for it, so we’re square, right?”

Culver Rebuilds
$4-Million Plaza on Old Meralta Theater Site First Major Project in Once-Ignored Downtown

Demolition has started on an entire block of old buildings in downtown Culver City to make way for the first of three major redevelopment projects—a $4-million, three-story office building called Meralta Plaza.

In the 1930s I lived three blocks from the Meralta. At ages six-seven my little brother and I attended the ten-cent Saturday afternoon matinee with a newsreel, previews, cartoon, main feature, and our favorite, the weekly serial with cliffhangers and the works. The Meralta introduced me to Franz Liszt’s beautiful “Les Preludes.” To this day when I hear it in the concert hall I see Flash Gordon’s rocket-ship mockups wobbling into outer space on invisible strings. It was the ticky-tacky 2001 Space Odyssey of its day. One preview scared the pants off of me when a giant genie, played by Rex Ingram, shot up from a bottle uncorked by Indian boy actor Sabu. The following week I went for more terror at “The Thief of Bagdad [sic],” an all-time favorite that I’ve seen several times since. One day my brother and I went AWOL from Pacific Military Academy up in the Cheviot Hills, walked three miles to see a picture show at the Meralta. I still don’t know how the Commandant found us, marched in Gestapo-style, and personally hauled us back to the school, where corporal punishment was no issue. We got swats (not too hard), an hour of standing at attention against the wall, and a full day of litter pickup on the campus grounds. So sad to see the old movie house dead and gone.

Here is a January 1983 photo, around the time the theater closed:
http://tinyurl.com/ctzlje

I went to the Meralta many times growing up in the mid/late 60’s in Culver City. I saw a live show with the 3-Stooges there one summer as well….Those were fun times!

I can add just a bit more…When I moved to L.A. in mid 1980 the Meralta was one a group of four “second run” movie theaters showing two recent movies for 99 cents. (I think the other three were The Criterion in Santa Monica, The Sherman in the valley, and The Warner in Beverly Hills. People told me that in the late 1970’s it had been two movies for 49 cents. The World on the east edge of Hollywood near Gower was not part of the group, but often showed three movies for a dollar or two. I think the Clinton on La Brea was also a bargain second run theater in that era.)