Plaza Theater
12788 Hawthorne Boulevard,
Hawthorne,
CA
90250
12788 Hawthorne Boulevard,
Hawthorne,
CA
90250
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Mr. Mcintyre you mention a Cal Theater in Hawthorne. Can you provide info as to where it was located and when it was in operation?
There was an ad for the Plaza in the Torrance Herald in June 1942. The Plaza called itself “The Friendly Family Theatre”. The phone number was 299. Adult tickets were 30 cents, and child tickets were 11 cents.
Correction, the item was dated June 1949, not 1948.
This is from Boxoffice magazine in June 1948:
Sherrill Corwin and Lester Blumberg took over active operations of the Plaza and Cal Theaters in Hawthorne, having acquired controlling interest in the two houses from E.S. “Ned” Calvi.
I should point out that this section of Hawthorne Boulevard is now a two block stretch of closed department stores. Very depressing. I think one of the stores is being converted into county offices.
A large LA Times ad promoting development in Hawthorne included a sketch of the new Plaza Theater. The date was 1/17/26.
http://tinyurl.com/5z2jqd
The LAPL just posted a batch of photos from 1971:
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics48/00073963.jpg
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics48/00073964.jpg
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics48/00073965.jpg
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics48/00073967.jpg
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics48/00073968.jpg
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics48/00073969.jpg
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics48/00073971.jpg
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics48/00073972.jpg
An intermittently reliable source states that J.J. Frankenfelder designed the Plaza in 1926. This is unconfirmed, however.
I went to the Plaza theater from the time I was 10 years old until I left Hawthorne when I was 18. Also went back when I visited my relatives. I would go get chinese food in Inglewood and hit the movie at the Plaza….It was allowed back then…That started in 1943, many moons ago.
Here is a November 1929 photo from the LAPL:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics32/00050637.jpg
Here is another photo from the site linked by LM in the preceding post. If you scroll all the way to the right in the older photo, you can see the Plaza:
http://cougartown.com/streetscene2.html
A subsequent article about the theater owners' appeal of the jury verdict states that the last film was shown at the Plaza on December 31, 1964. The last ownership group bought the theater in 1965 but never re-opened it to show films. The Plaza was torn down in 1971.
Here is an article from the LA Times dated 3/5/72:
Condemnation Settlement OKd by Jury
A Superior Court jury has made an award of $80,000 in a condemnation suit involving the Community Redevelopment Agency and the owners of the former Plaza Theater. The theater, built in 1928 as a legitimate theater and later converted to a movie house, was located at 4355 Plaza Square and has been torn down.
Owners of the land produced expert testimony that the land was worth $400,000. Agency experts placed the value at $73,200. The site is included in a 36 acre, $11 million redevelopment project near Hawthorne and El Segundo Boulevards. Planned for an eventual commercial regional shopping center, the project is expected to include a Montgomery-Ward store, a J.C. Penney store and a third department store.
Advertised in the LA Times on 1/22/50. The Cal theater in Hawthorne is also advertised, but doesn’t appear to be listed on CT.
The Plaza opened on 28th November 1927. It was demolished in August 1971
Images of the Plaza can be seen here: http://cougartown.com/plaza.html
The Film Daily Yearbook, 1941 gives a seating capacity of 891.
Located at 126th Street and Acacia. In the 1940s, it cost 25¢ to see films here.
Losing the Plaza was the beginning of the end for Hawthorne. One by one all of the great hangouts have been demolished, leaving only a crime-ridden, homogenized urban strip mall, indifferentiable from any other.