Deluxe Theatre

Ponderpig: In 1923, your father and grandmother would have gone to the De Luxe Theatre on Alvarado Street. This house on Jefferson Avenue was then called the Favorite Theatre. The De Luxe Theatre on Alvarado Street was in operation by 1914, and continued at least into 1927. It does not appear in the 1929 city directory, so it had closed by then. My guess would be that it was unable to survive the competition from the new Westlake Theatre, which opened at 636 Alvarado in 1926. I’ve been unable to find any indication that a theater ever operated in this location again.

Note that this means that the earlier comments about the organ that was installed in the De Luxe Theatre in 1921 also pertain to the Alvarado Street house, not this Jefferson Boulevard house.

The Alvarado Street De Luxe is not yet listed at Cinema Treasures. I’ve submitted it for inclusion. A page for it should appear within a day or two, when a link to it will show up in the “Newest Theaters” section on the home page.

The earliest listing I can find for a theater at 1873 Jefferson Boulevard is in the 1923 city directory, in which it is listed as the Favorite Theatre (it might have opened earlier, but I don’t have access to directories between 1915 and 1923.) By 1926, it was listed as the St. Andrews Theatre, which is also listed as in the 1927 and 1929 directories. No theater is listed for the address in the 1932 directory, but by 1936 it was open again as the De Luxe Theatre.

This brief item from The Moving Picture World of July 29, 1916, reveals that this house was called the St. Andrews Theatre both before and after it was called the Favorite Theatre: “LOS ANGELES, CAL—The St. Andrews theater at 1873 West Jefferson street is now being conducted by F. B. Hanawalt.”

coldercase: Discovering the program at a given neighborhood theater on a given date is apt to be very difficult, if not impossible. As you’ve discovered, neighborhood theaters typically didn’t advertise in the metropolitan daily papers during the silent era.

Like small town theaters, neighborhood houses usually changed programs twice a week, and some theaters would have a monthly program printed up and distributed from the theater and from neighborhood stores. Some theaters did smaller weekly programs instead. In both cases, theaters would offset the cost by selling advertising space to local businesses.

These programs were undoubtedly thrown out by most people at the end of the month, though I’m sure a few pack rats saved a few of them, but if any have survived to this late date I’m not aware of them. Even if any copies have survived, there’s no telling where they might be. There are undoubtedly some programs in the hands of collectors of movie-related ephemera, but the odds that programs from any of these three theaters are among them are very small, and the chances of any of them being from August, 1924, vanishingly small.

By the 1920s a few districts of Los Angeles had daily or weekly neighborhood newspapers, but I’m not aware of any that were published for the area around these three theaters. Someone at the public library might know for sure if there was one or not, though even if there was there’s no guarantee that its archive still exists, or that any of these theaters advertised in it.

It’s also very unlikely that the business records of any of these theaters have survived, or the records of the distribution companies that provided films to them, though those records would certainly have told which theaters had which films on any given date.

As the Realart/New University was very close to the USC campus, I had hoped that there might be an ad for it in the school’s student newspaper, but in the three issues of The Southern California Trojan from August, 1924, that the USC Digital Library has online the only movie theater advertised was the California, at Main and 8th downtown.

I can’t think of any other sources that might have the information you want, but one thing that’s certain is that these neighborhood theaters would not have been showing first-run movies from the important studios. Big movies from big studios wouldn’t have been available to them until weeks or even months after they had finished their runs in larger theaters. Whatever they were showing in August, 1924, would have been something that had been shown in the downtown theaters earlier that year, unless they were movies from the “poverty row” studios (usually adventure films or westerns) that typically never got shown at the major theaters.

As a token of thanks, here my my research from lapl.org

Motion Picture Theatres, 1923. Alhambra 731 5 Hill Alvarado Theatre 710 S Alvarado American Theatre 452 S Bway Amusu Theatre 351.3 5 Central av Angelus Theatre 1018 ’S Central av. Arlington 2517 W Washington Banner 456 S Main Bard 446 5 Hill Bijou 4006 E 1st California 810-812 ’S Main California Theatre S Pedro 1038 S Pacific Casion Theatre 4313 S Central av Chotiner Bros 805 S Vermont av Circle Theatre 6013 Moneta-av Clune’s Broadway Theatre 528 S Bway College Theatre 447 rSHill Columbia Theatre 238 S Spring Crescent 4711 S Western av Dalton’s Broadway 534 S Bway Dayton Theatre 509 W v 28 De Luxe Theatre 656 S Alvarado Dreamland Theatre 3021 S Main Electric Theatre 212 N Main Elite Theatre 3818 South Park av Empire 2129 W Pico Empire 122 W 5th S Pedro Empress Theatre 4108 S Bway Encell Theatre 8612 Moneta av Estella Theatre X515 N Main Fairyland Theatre 1122 W tth Favorite 1873 W Jefferson Fedora'Theatre 2698 W Pico Gayety Theatre 2407 $ Central av Gem 649 S Main Globe Theatre 204 W 6th 5 Pedro Gore’s Capitol Theatre 338 5 Spring Gore’s Optic Theatre 633 5 Main Granada 7425 Sunset blvd Grand Theatre 110 5 Main 4rauman’s Hollywood Egyptian Theatre 6708 Hollywood blvd Grauman’s Metropolitan Theatre S Hill ne cor 6th Grauman’s Million Dollar Theatre Bway at 3d Grauman’s Rialto Theatre 812 S Bway Hollywood Theatre 6764 Hollywood, blvd Home Theatre 3945 S Western av Hunley O O 5115 Hollywood blvd Idle Hour The 8512 Compton av Iris 6508 Hollywood blvd Jewel 3829 Whittier blvd Jurdan Theatre 8725 S Vermont av Keystone Theatre 1522 E 1st Kinema Theatre 640 S Grand av Lankershim Theatre 5319 Lankershim blvd Lnkshm Larchmont Theatre 149 N Larchmont blvd Lark 613 S Main La Salle Theatre 1898 W Adams La Tosca Theatre 2930 5 Vermont av Liberty Theatre The 266 S Main Lincoln Theatre 2604 N Bway Loew’s State Theatre 701 S Bway Lyceum Theatre 227 S Spring Lyric 1274 W 39th Majestic 407 5 Beacon S Pedro Meralta 2035 E 1st Merryland Theatre 1015 E 7th Miller’s 842 ’S Main Mission Theatre 838 S Bway Mission 4258 Moneta av Moneta Theatre 5263 Moneta av Moon Theatre 523 S Main New Apollo 5546 Hollywood blvd: New Garrick 802 S Bway New Georgia Theatre 1002 W 9th. New Palace 4727 Moneta av Novelty Theatre 136 S Main Olympus 2014 E 1st Optic Theatre X533 .S Main Palace. Theatre 2117 W Jefferson Paramount 6.528 Santa Monica blvd Pico Theatre The 736 W =Pico Picture Theatre The 545 S Main Playhouse Theatre 12341/k W 7th Poppy 2229 Brooklyn av Princess Theatre 121 W 1st Principal Theatre 423 N Main . Realart Theatre 931 W Jefferson Regent Theatre 4012 S Vermont av Regent Theatre 448 5 Main Republic 629 5 Main Rivoli 260 Sherman Way Van Nuys Rosebud Theatre 1940 :S Central av Royal 1718 S Main Shamrock Theatre 608 S Hill Star 3029 Whittier blvd Star Theatre 2710 S5,San. Pedro Starland Theatre 21634 N' Bway Strand 4409 Moneta av Sunbeam Theatre 1408 W Pico. Sunbeam Theatre 6722 Pasadena av Sunshine Theatre 5244 South Park av Superba TheatreX518 S Bway Symphony Theatre 614 S Bway Tally’s Broadway Theatre 833 S Bway Temple Theatre 5863 S Vermont av Theatorium 1624 Sunset blvd Tivoli Theatre 4217 5 Central av Tully J J 3818 South Park av Unique 40071/EB1st United Theatre 2488 W Washington United Theatres 219 W 7th rm 1009 Vermont Theatre 4365 5 Vermont av Victoria Theatre 2570 W Pico Victoria Theatre 115 W 6th S Pedro Virginia TheatreX529 5 Main Wigwam Theatre 6010 Moneta av Wilshire Theatre 331 5 Western av Wonderland The 315 S Main

Although the item in Moving Picture World reveals that the St. Andrews Theatre was in operation in July, 1916, the house is not listed in the 1915, 1916, 1917, or 1918 city directories (I haven’t checked later directories yet.) But maybe the place was in operation before 1916, maybe even as early as 1914, and just wasn’t getting listed for some reason.

I’ve stumbled upon an item from Southwest Contractor and Manufacturer of November 22, 1913, saying that architect Frank L. Stiff had drawn plans for a one-story brick theater and store building, 40x130 feet, to be built for F. E. Bundy on Jefferson near St. Andrews Place. That makes a 1914 opening for the theater possible, even though it is not listed in the city directories for quite a few years after that.