Tower Theatre
802 S. Broadway,
Los Angeles,
CA
90014
802 S. Broadway,
Los Angeles,
CA
90014
38 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 154 comments
Article with photos of the Apple store conversion.
https://www.wallpaper.com/architecture/apple-tower-theatre-store-los-angeles-california-usa?fbclid=IwAR3YEdO6tIn6Gwn_tCegaeozZ5mb0zK1mDpmgRoZrDKOjiumTLHVYTh96hg
Several videos about the Tower Apple store have been uploaded to YouTube. Here is one of them. I don’t know if it’s the same one Rob found.
There is a YouTube tour of the place. Don’t have the tech savvy to provide a link.
Sorry, I didn’t notice rivest266’s more complete update.
The Tower theatre is currently being leased by Apple who are restoring the theatres architecture and seismically retrofitting it to become the downtown Apple store. They are restoring all of the original interior and exterior architecture and decor but using the theatre main floor as the helloing floor but still available as a performance space (they say). it’s better than just seeing this great building sitting there crumbling. I hear the new marquee will be done in the style of the original, but lightbulb “Tower” blade sign will stay. Should open in 2020 I would think. Each corner of Broadway and 8th are being restored.
Became Music Hall Downtown on August 8th, 1945. Grand opening ad posted.
Opening article and ad:
Tower theatre opening Wed, Oct 12, 1927 – 27 · The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, California) · Newspapers.com
Join the Theatre Historical Society of America as they visit this lovely theatre the morning of June 28th 2017.
October 12th, 1927 grand opening ad in photo section.
The facebook page I mentioned above is gone, but the Broadway Theatre Group has an official age for the theatre at www.towertheatrela.org
Currently, this theater is one of the four theatres owned by the Broadway Theatre Group, which was founded in 2007 to manage, restore, and preserve the historic theatres of Broadway. As of early 2016, they manage the Tower, Los Angeles, Palace and State Theatres, and have done significant restoration as well as infrastructure upgrades to all four theaters. The Tower, Palace and Los Angeles Theaters are rented out for events, performances and film shoots, while the State Theatre is leased to the Cathedral of Faith church.
The marquee of this theatre appears in the recent movie “The Avengers Grimm.”
They have a facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tower-Theatre/
No word on renovations but they are having occasional concerts and the Tower is again available for rental and film shoots.
Even for the period this place is just…insane! So rococo and over the top, gothic and renaissance with some deco sprinkled on top. I love it. Its like William Randolph Hearst took a break from the Castle and decided to build a theater.
I cant imagine how anyone was supposed to keep that much maintained short of Hearst’s money and staffing. I doubt the concert venue owners can do more with that clock than just take the broken pieces out and cover where the faces were. Assuming that even the 1971 remodel brings it up to today’s seismic requirements.
Does anyone have pics of the Indian headdress fixtures and the director/actress statues? Its what telephoto lenses were made for if they havent been covered.
The Tower theater in downtown L.A., long a filming location, will be transformed into a concert venue. Final behind-the-scenes tours of the building are scheduled for Saturday, October 27, 2012.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-tower-theater-20121026,0,7443518.story?track=rss
The only downtown theater called the Cameo that I remember was this one, the former Clune’s Broadway, north of Sixth Street, between the Arcade and the Roxie. It was open through at least part of the 1980s, showing Spanish language movies.
In the 1960s, when the Tower was still operating as the Newsreel Theatre, there was a television theater on the lower level, occupying the former lounge. It presented closed-circuit programs on a fairly large (for that time) projection screen. I don’t think they ever gave the television theater its own name, though.
I lived in LA in the early 1980s. I seem to remember that Pacific Theatres operated a small theatre at the back of the Tower called the Cameo. Can’t find any references to that. Anybody?
Again, not abandoned. It’s used as a filming location and for special events.
Passed by this theater and it too looks abandoned form the outside though its exterior is in excellent condition. The marquee was advertising a “purim party”. Yikes! Not very exciting stuff. But at least it is still there.
Mar/Apr 2011, interior seen in a Nikon commercial. Looks like a latin night club.
Newsreel & Rialto Theatres, 1953:
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A Wurlitzer model 216 pipe organ (2/10) was installed in the Tower Theatre when it opened. There has been some confusion about this Opus 1620 Wurlitzer since it is reported to have been shipped to the Garrick Theatre on Apr 23, 1927. But the Garrick had already been demolished by then to make way for the Tower. The organ remained in the Tower for only a couple of years before being moved to the Los Angeles Theatre for its opening in Jan 1931. It has subsequently gone into private hands.
Still available as a filming location.
What is the current status of this beautiful theater?
A seasonal view across 8th St., 2007:
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