Sierra Madre Playhouse

87 W. Sierra Madre Boulevard,
Sierra Madre, CA 91024

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rivest266
rivest266 on October 3, 2019 at 2:03 pm

LA Times ads for the Wistaria started to appear in 1940 and renamed Sierra Madre on February 5th, 1943.

LouRugani
LouRugani on December 4, 2011 at 4:30 pm

That’s Thomas Mitchell in the photo, doing a scene as a doctor for the TV series ‘Screen Directors Playhouse’. He was heading to the one-story art deco building next door, which is still there.

Ross Care
Ross Care on April 16, 2011 at 8:55 pm

I would love to have seen those films there!

Matt Hormann
Matt Hormann on December 1, 2010 at 9:22 pm

According to old L.A. Times Independent Theater Guide listings, it was known as the Bogart Theatre from 1968 to 1971, and showed art house films like Closely Watched Trains and Ingmar Bergman’s The Touch.

Ross Care
Ross Care on August 2, 2010 at 8:17 pm

Do they still show films here?
Here’s an evening shot:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/39527581@N07/
There also a shot of the BODY SNATCHERS square, down the street from the theater, in the same album.

CaptVonKrapp
CaptVonKrapp on July 18, 2009 at 8:40 pm

I read once that a L.A. TV host used to hold annual screenings of “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” at this theater where his fans would show up and shout along with Alfonso Bedoya when he did the “Badges? Badges?!” bit!

SteveKosareff
SteveKosareff on January 17, 2009 at 2:14 pm

Since a significant part of the original “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” was shot in Sierra Madre, does anybody know if the film’s premiere or a special screening took place at the Sierra Madre Theater in 1956?

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on January 9, 2009 at 6:15 pm

This is from Boxoffice magazine, January 1946:

LOS ANGELES-Harold Stein, owner of the Boulevard Theater here and co-owner of the Ritz in Inglewood, is taking over the Wisteria in Sierra Madre from George Tiderik. Stein will change the name of the showplace to the Sierra Madre.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on December 7, 2007 at 8:58 pm

One thing I find very interesting about the c1946 photo of linked by TC is that there’s a dog lounging on the sidewalk in front of the theatre. Yep, that’s Sierra Madre, alright!

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on June 11, 2007 at 6:08 pm

Advertised as the Wistaria in 1940, per the LA Times.

wcalaway
wcalaway on February 11, 2006 at 12:38 pm

TC’s photo must have been later than 1942 – To Each His Own was released in 1946.

teecee
teecee on September 20, 2005 at 9:03 am

Old photo from 1942. The movie The Great Mans Lady was filmed in the town:

View link

Ken Roe
Ken Roe on July 7, 2005 at 11:25 am

In the 1940 edition of the Film Daily Yearbook it is listed as the Wisterial Theatre (closed). The 1943 edition of F.D.Y. has it open, same name with 400 seats.

It had been re-named the Sierra Madre Theatre by 1952 and that years edition of Film Daily Yearbook gives a seating capacity of 390.

GaryParks
GaryParks on April 8, 2003 at 1:43 pm

I do know this theatre was in use as a movie house in the early 1930s, because my mother lived in Sierra Madre at the time and saw her first movie there, a Charles Ferrel and Janet Gaynor picture, called “Seventh Heaven.”