Fox Figueroa Theatre

Correction: Opened on November 13th, 1925. Figueroa theatre opening Fri, Nov 13, 1925 – 28 · The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, California) · Newspapers.com

Yes I did. That was my second favorite neighborhood theater. Down the street from Manual Arts High.

Yeah, the bank has been there awhile and is the cornerstone for the housing complexes around it. The Figueroa was such a great theater, and I have so many found memories of those Sunday Afternoons only a 15 minute walk from home after church. It made life really easy for a kid when the only other alternative for a theater of this quality was downtown L.A. Although the “Academy Theater” in Inglewood was a pretty nice house as well, for a kid that was just as far away as downtown.

Growing up this was one of the local theaters within walking distance of my house, and the nicest theater in the area. Awesome architecture and it had a balcony which was unusual for a neighborhood theater. I saw “Visit To A Small Planet” with Jerry Lewis there when it opened, along with the “Curse Of Frankenstein” and many others..

The gas station is across the street from where the theater was, the location now is occupied by housing. The picture is before they built the Sports Arena. My buddy and I used to play in the construction site, riding our bikes through doing hook slides and jumps.

Another example of the occasional sloppiness of old newspaper reports: The caption of the sketch Tinseltoes just uploaded mangles architect William Sterling Hebbard’s name into W. S. Shephard.

Here is a February 1927 item in the LA Times:

Lois Moran, the heroine of the Fox Films production of David Warfield’s greatest triumph, “The Music Master”, arrived back in Los Angeles last week in time to be here for the western premiere of this picture, now at the Figueroa Theater.

Alec B. Francis has the name role in the production and other prominent members of the cast include Norman Trevor and Neil Hamilton. Other features of the Figueroa program include Salvatore Santaella’s twenty-piece orchestra on the stage in a trio of numbers and a breand new Earle Fox Van Bibber comedy called “The Speedboat Demon”.

Got gas today on the bones of the Fox Figueroa:
http://tinyurl.com/nvze9a

Here is a May 1958 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/n2vaem

I worked at the Figueroa Theater from 1949 -1954. My older sister worked there also 1946- about 1955 as a cashier and book keeper. The official address, at least during that period was 4011 S. Figueroa Blvd., Los Angeles 37, Calif.. The main lobby entrance was on the Figueroa west side of the street. The complete building structure included a drug store on the corner of Figueroa and Santa Barbara and on the opposite corner Figueroa and 40th Place was a Bank of America. Above the theater there were some offices with their main entrance on the Santa Barbara side. Also there was a nice Card and gift shop at the far west side of the theater on Santa Barbara. During the forties the theater’s manager was George Miller and his assistant manager was a young lady named Boobie. Later around 1950 J. D. Richardson became manager. His assistant manager was Bob Emory. They were wonderful to work with/for. I could go on forever talking about my experiences and friends that I met working during my youth at this wonderful theater. Don Meyers

Here is a September 1928 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/238qao

Those aerial photos clear up my puzzling childhood memory of the Fox Figueroa. I knew there was something unusual about the building’s configuration, and now I see that it was that the auditorium was set at an angle to the street. I have no idea how my memory transformed that angularity into an open corner plaza, though.

Here is an aerial photo from 1936, from the USC archive:
http://tinyurl.com/2s6q8x