Villa Glen Theatre
404 N. Central Avenue,
Glendale,
CA
91203
404 N. Central Avenue,
Glendale,
CA
91203
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I have re-established “Bijou Memories” and have updated all of the original articles with new photos and much more info. You can read about the Villa-Glen and it’s convoluted history at; https://bijoumemories.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-villa-glen.html Enjoy.
I hung out there as a kid. Grew up in Burbank. We always thought it was an old Mortuary…
I was manager in late 1970 early 1971 for the lessor by the name of Jay. I remember the cinemas connection to the club. We had a low cost last run policy and Jay had a knack of picking popular films such as Steve McQueens “Bullit” which we played to sold out shows. The projection booth was encased in fire resistant metal which also made it a shock hazard operating the projectors. The death of the boy from the booth fire gave the cinema a haunted aspect that was felt by people in the booth and in the front of the auditorium where the victim was supposably found.
I lived in Glendale for quite some time and did a lot of walking down to the Galleria via Central. I could swear the Tuesday Afternoon Club was at Myrtle and Central before it closed, where the “Professional Development Center” is today. I found this online, but the picture does look more like the Lexington corner:
http://sites.google.com/site/losangelesmoviepalaces/glendale#TOC-Tuesday-Afternoon-Theatre
I remember when TAC closed its doors. But then I was more confused when I saw the plaque later across the street!
I found a couple of photos of the building in the Los Angeles Public Library collection:
An undated view of the front of the building:
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics22/00060666.jpg
An undated view showing the stagehouse:
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics22/00060665.jpg
The building is listed as the Tuesday Afternoon Theatre in the Glendale city directories for 1960, 1962, 1964, 1968, 1969 and 1970 with an address of 408 N. Central.
The 1972 directory lists it as the Villa Glen at 404 N. Central. There’s no listing in the 1977 directory.
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So, 1977?
And read the rest of that to see just how worthless Glendale preservation ordinances are. Elks: “Oh, we allowed our official historical landmark building to get so run down that we can’t afford to repair the results of our criminal neglect, so please declare it to be no longer a landmark so we can tear it down and leave it as an empty lot while we build a new lodge elsewhere.” Glendale: “Sure!!”
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Chunigucresque?? :-D Actually, it’s spelt correctly in the scanned document, but the transcription leaves something to be desired. OCR fail.
So was it built with a balcony or not? My sig. other doesn’t remember one, but that was 25 years ago.
There might be more info at the Glendale Public Library, since apparently the Tuesday Afternoon Club founded the library.
The Glendale Symphony Orchestra performed there in 1924. There’s a program book listed amongst the Glendale Library’s Special Collection items.
[quote]Glendale Symphony Orchestra Association presents the Glendale Symphony Orchestra, Tuesday Afternoon Club Auditorium, Monday evening, March 15, 1924.
March 15, 1924, 6 p. program
GDL Central Library Special Collections 785.06 G 1924 In Library[/quote]
I see that the “official” web site is defunct. That site (Bijou Manager) had several pages about several other theaters in Glendale and the San Fernando Valley as well as the page about the Villa Glen.
The information that the building started out as a clubhouse built n 1923 is interesting. That would account for the wooden seats it had, which were mentioned at the now-vanished web site. That site was also the source of the 1978 closing date. It might have been wrong.
Knowing the building’s origin as the Tuesday Afternoon Club has allowed me to track down the name of the architect in the California Index. The building was designed by Alfred F. Priest, who was also the architect of the 1920 Glendale Theatre.
Southwest Builder & Contractor of March 31, 1922, provided the following description of the plans for the club building: “Auditorium and balcony to seat 900, banquet room, parlors, palm room, tea room, library, service department,; Spanish Style … cost $70,000.”
Thanks to Dan M and -DB for helping to fill the gaps in the Villa Glen’s history.
Here’s where the plaque is located. That’s the correct location, right?
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The 1975 cornerstone removal date seems wrong for a Villa Glen demolition date, especially if the building operated as a mortuary (?) for a year or so after the theater closed, before it was finally demolished. Hmm.
There’s a plaque at the site that reads:
SITE OF TUESDAY AFTERNOON CLUB
Established in 1898
Organized in 1904
Incorporated in 1908
Dedication of building in 1923
Cornerstone moved to a new site in 1975
Historic [Glendale seal] Landmark
Looking at blurry historic aerial photos, there’s only the one building on that corner, right where my significant other remembers the Villa Glen being located, and that it never really looked like a theater. So could it be that it was built as a community clubhouse with an auditorium for meetings, then they decided to make some money by showing movies there the rest of the week?
While I was going through Los Angeles Times database (1881-1986)
I disovered some interesting information for the Villa Glen theater:
The first movie listing was in 1932 it was called The Show Shop Theater.
1934 The city of Glendale Bans the showing of “Elysia”, a so called “Nudist Film” at the Show Shop.
January 5th, 1944; a projection booth fire kills a young boy.
Somewhere between August and September 1946 the name was changed to the Arcade Theater.
In 1954 the Arcade drops from the theater listings.
1970 was the first listing I found for the Villa Glen.
Does anyone have any information about the time peroid between 1954 and 1970?
Here is a blurb from the Pasadena Star-News dated 7/24/74:
Two musical films, “100 Men and a Girl” and “Phantom of the Opera.” will be screened Friday at 1 p.m. at the Villa Glen Theatre in Glendale. Deanna Durbin buffs will enjoy “100", which was released in 1937.
You could see the Duke at the Villa Glen in February 1973, according to this LA Times ad:
http://tinyurl.com/yr89so
Further Villa Glen confusion here: /theaters/2182/
The only descriptions of the theatre that I have are from people who were there in the 1970s. I never saw it myself. The people who operated the theatre in the 1970s believed it to be very old, the wooden seats being one indication of that. Central Avenue is a secondary commercial street parallel to, and two blocks west of, Brand Boulevard. Early in the city’s history, it was expected to be the main commercial street (thus the name) and Brand Boulevard was expected to be a broad, residential avenue.
The extension of the Pacific Electric interurban line along Brand Boulevard reversed the intended order. It is possible that the theatre dates from the silent era, but was closed for extended periods of time, due to its somewhat out-of-the-way location. It’s also possible that it was merely an older commercial building cheaply converted (perhaps with used seats) to a theatre sometime in the 1940s.
Film Daily Yearbooks; 1950 and 1952 list this as the Arcade Theatre, 404 North Central Avenue, Glendale with a seating capacity of 652.
Strangely, it is not listed as either the Villa Glen or Arcade in editions of F.D.Y. that I have for 1940 or 1943, yet the above description states it probably dates from the silent era.