Arcade Theatre
534 S. Broadway,
Los Angeles,
CA
90013
534 S. Broadway,
Los Angeles,
CA
90013
24 people
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Opened in 1910 with some vauville acts. Fitst movie on 30/4/1927 was “The red kimono”.
Great article, Matt! I especially appreciate the photos taken. Very haunting, and yet serene in the visibility that aside from the removal of the seats, the place hasn’t been touched. Hopefully a restoration and career as a movie palace will ensue.
I visited the Arcade a while back. Check out a short write up and some photos at After the Final Curtain
Apparently, at some point before Wurlitzer theatre pipe organ opus 1057 was installed in 1927, this organ had a two-manual Smith theatre pipe organ, at least according to Junchen’s “Encyclopedia of the American Theatre Organ”, pg. 628. No further details are given, but I would assume Wurlitzer took the organ in on trade(?)
?? I have a capacity listing of 800 for the Arcade. That was possibly a result of S. Charles Lee’s 1938 remodeling with 1,400 being the original capacity. Looks like from one of the photos that much of the original ornate décor (at least of the proscenium) survived the 1938 remodeling.
This theater celebrates its 100th birthday this Saturday.
it’s opening was September 25, 1910
im wondering whats on the upper floors of the arcade.the floors were probably used as office space when it was still fully in use.would like to see pictures of the upper floors,but there dont seem to be any available in the interwebs.does anyone got pictures of the upper floors?
1911:
http://tinyurl.com/yak4jgl
Great old photos.
Here is a photo taken today:
http://tinyurl.com/ndpg2z
Here is a night shot:
http://tinyurl.com/dy567v
Here is another 1983 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/d27oyg
Here is a 1938 photo from the USC archive:
http://tinyurl.com/dbqgqf
Here is a 1983 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/c99wzp
Posting to get this theatre back on my “notifications” list….
I attended the Conservancy’s tour yesterday and was horrified to see the interior of the Arcade. It hurt to look at it. It was a feeling I felt just for the Arcade; the conditions of the other theatres on Broadway vary quite a bit but none of the others screamed “helpless” as the poor Arcade did.
Cool to see current interior shots of this theatre. Looks like its too far gone to make it financial viable to restore. In the current economy, the gentrification of Broadway will stall and these old theatres will continue to decay.
Here is a photo taken yesterday:
http://tinyurl.com/5ogox2
OK, the billboard is on the Cameo next door. Same issue, though.
Has anyone noticed that the ad on the billboard is for a show that ended in May 2006? Who are they marketing to? Procrastinating art lovers?
http://tinyurl.com/6jafj2
The interior photos were too dark. Here is one of them:
http://tinyurl.com/4t5p64
Outside:
http://tinyurl.com/4cgxre
I took a few photos of the auditorium today, but I didn’t actually go down into the space. The owner of the electronics store was kind enough to let me look into the back, so I wasn’t going to start rummaging around. I will post the photos later.
There’s a nice ahot of the Arcade at night about 90 seconds into this video:
http://tinyurl.com/53befw
I’ve seen that mis-captioned photo before, and notified them of the error, but they’ve never fixed it. At least the USC archive has fewer mis-captioned photos than the L.A. library does.