United Artists Theatre
606 E. Colorado Boulevard,
Pasadena,
CA
91101
606 E. Colorado Boulevard,
Pasadena,
CA
91101
6 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 32 comments
The UA launched October 22, 1931 with William Haines with “New Adventures of Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford.”
The theater and adjacent shops have been subdivided for several different tenants, including Sweetgreen, an urgent care, gym, and a couple other health/wellness spaces. Art Deco style signage has been used for most of the tenants.
The poster display boxes and terrazzo in the entryway remain intact and now serve as a shady entryway and patio seating area. I’m still sad about the demo of the beautiful ceiling lights in the entryway, but overall its nicely done and the features that are left are easily accessible to the public, so yay!
The front of the old UA has now reopened (June 16, 2020) as a sweetgreen restaurant.
Building sold in October 2018, link below.
https://www.pasadenastarnews.com/2018/10/19/pasadenas-artistry-theater-building-sold-for-5-3-million/
Sad news. I noticed that the (likely original) lightbulb covered entryway ceiling has recently been demolished. The space still has not found a tenant.
After Angel’s School Supply closed, the new owner applied for and received local landmark status for this building. BlankSpaces coworking was set to become the tenant, and judging by the pictures on their Facebook page, the name “blank space” was appropriate since the interior was just a big, white box. Not a trace of theater left. The deal appears to have fallen through, as the building was put back up for lease a few weeks ago. It is still being marketed as a coworking space but in my dreams, I’d love to see it utilized in a way that was accessible to the public- perhaps even with a restoration of the front entrance. Swoon
View link
angels art supply at least restored original facade, removed that awful look from the 80’s View link
Fox West Coast gave up the United Artists in Pasadena in 1950 as part of the consent decree. Boxoffice of February 2 that year listed twelve FWC houses in California that had gone to UA, finally severing the relationship that had existed between the two chains. The other eleven houses were: State and United Artists, Los Angeles; Capitol and California, Glendale; United Artists in Inglewood, Long Beach, and Berkeley; Long Beach in Long Beach; Mission, San Jose; Varsity, Palo Alto, and California, Richmond.
FWC was operating the Pasadena UA at least as early as 1937, according to items I’ve seen in Boxoffice, but I’m pretty sure it was a UA-operated house from 1950 until it closed. I also recall the Washington Theatre in Pasadena being a UA house in the 1960s.
Thanks Zubi.
Here are some photos taken today:
http://tinyurl.com/oezskr
http://tinyurl.com/oqgpgo
http://tinyurl.com/o3oebn
I don’t remember ever seeing the original facade of the United Artists. The first time I saw a movie there, about 1961, it had already been clad in that aluminum skin seen in the 1980s photos. The entire house had been renovated, with new seats, carpeting, drapes, and all new fixtures in the rest rooms. It still had new theater smell.
Boxoffice Magazine ran an item about the renovated theater in its February 6, 1961, issue, which said that U.A. had spent $250,000 on the changes. Of considerable surprise to me is the news that the house had been reseated as part of the renovation, reducing capacity to 756. The last time I went to a movie there, in the 1980s, by which time I was taller than I’d been in the early 1960s, the seating had seemed very cramped to me. It must have been incredibly cramped before the renovation.
As I’d been to that part of Pasadena a few times earlier, I must have seen the U.A. before the aluminum skin was put on the facade, but I don’t remember it. As aluminum skins went, it wasn’t a bad one, but I’m still grateful that Angel’s school supply peeled it off and restored the original detailing underneath.
Here is a 1981 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/cosvpy
I went to the UA in Old Town a few times in the 1980s. Nothing to write home about. That part of Pasadena had not yet turned into Gap Paradise as it is today.
The U.A. Marketplace isn’t listed yet. Neither is the ex-AMC Old Town 8 multiplex that Laemmle recently closed. I think the U.A. opened in late 1986, because construction was underway when I was last in Pasadena in August that year. It closed in 2004. The AMC opened late in 1991. A Boxoffice article I’ve lost track of said it had about 2000 seats.
I saw something about an independent operator planning to reopen the 8-plex this year, but I’ve lost track of that too. If they do then something else is bound to close. The whole region from Glendale to Monrovia is saturated with theaters, and it will get worse when (or if) AMC’s 14 screen in Atlantic Times Square opens in Monterey Park.
Is the UA Marketplace even listed on CT? I drove by yesterday and there was a Tiffany’s at that spot, but I wasn’t sure if that was a new building or a remodel.
Here is an October 4, 1960 ad from the Pasadena Independent:
http://tinyurl.com/58ae8m
Here are the CA library photos:
http://tinyurl.com/5gbudd
http://tinyurl.com/6knn2e
http://tinyurl.com/6aegjn
Here is a 1946 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/6qfr8e
Here are some April 2008 photos:
http://tinyurl.com/6625yc
http://tinyurl.com/59t9xc
http://tinyurl.com/5f6b9z
http://tinyurl.com/5douk4
http://tinyurl.com/5veg6o
Are there no theaters in Old Town now? By that I mean west of Fair Oaks. I know the UA closed but I thought there was another theater around there. Gordon Biersch was showing old movies on the wall a couple of summers ago, but I don’t think that counts.
gencin: This page is not about the UA Marketplace 6 multiplex at Colorado and Delacey in Old Town. It’s about the earlier UA single-screen which was about ¾ of a mile east of there, on Colorado near Madison. This theatre was closed when UA opened the Marketplace 6, which was about 1987, I think. The Marketplace 6 is closed now, too, since 2004, while the AMC 8 screen in Old Pasadena is still open, but no longer operated by AMC. For the last few years it’s been operated as the Laemmle One Colorado Cinemas. Laemmle also has the Playhouse 7 multiplex at Colorado and El Molino.
The big dog in Pasadena now is the Pacific Theatres multiplex, the Paseo 14 at 336 East Colorado, where the J.C. Penney store used to be when the Paseo was still Plaza Pasadena. It was the Paseo 14, opened in 2001, that led Regal to shut down the Marketplace 6 and AMC to pull out of its Old Town operation.
As of this date, Cinema Treasures doesn’t yet have pages for the UA Marketplace 6, or the AMC/Laemmle One Colorado Cinemas, or for the Pacific Paseo 14. That early triplex that used to be on Rosemead near the Pacific Hastings is missing, too. The Laemmle Playhouse 7 is listed, though.
This was a cool little multiplex. The staff was really friendly. I wrote to United Artists about this once and they sent me free passes. Couldn’t believe (being where it’s located) it closed. Did they close the AMC 8 Old Pasadena? I lived in Burbank, CA back in the 90’s and loved going to all the different theaters on Colorado-UA, AMC 8, The State, Colorado…now all people have is the same crappy multiplex every week…Yuck!
Go to the picture catalog and enter United Artists in the search engine if you want to see the photos.
There are three photos on this page from the CA State Library:
http://tinyurl.com/3yno54
Here is the United Artists Pasadena in 1996: View link