Sierra Madre Playhouse
87 W. Sierra Madre Boulevard,
Sierra Madre,
CA
91024
87 W. Sierra Madre Boulevard,
Sierra Madre,
CA
91024
2 people
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LA Times ads for the Wistaria started to appear in 1940 and renamed Sierra Madre on February 5th, 1943.
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.
I would love to have seen those films there!
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.
Where the Pods Were:
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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.
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!
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?
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.
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!
Advertised as the Wistaria in 1940, per the LA Times.
TC’s photo must have been later than 1942 – To Each His Own was released in 1946.
Old photo from 1942. The movie The Great Mans Lady was filmed in the town:
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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.
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.”