Roxie Theatre

518 S. Broadway,
Los Angeles, CA 90013

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Additional Info

Previously operated by: Metropolitan Theatres

Architects: John Montgomery Cooper, Simeon Charles Lee

Styles: Art Deco

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News About This Theater

Roxie Theatre

Built on the site of 1,600 seat Quinn’s Superba Theatre of 1914 (it has its own page on Cinema Treasures). The Roxie Theatre was the last theatre to be built on S. Broadway in downtown Los Angeles. It opened November 25, 1931 with Bebe Daniels in “Honor of the Family” & Laurel & Hardy in “Come Clean” plus Eda Edson and Her Orchestra. It has an Art Deco style façade with a stepped roof line, angular grillwork and chevron ornament topped by a vertical sky-sign spelling out the name of the theatre. The Roxie Theatre had 1,637-seats in orchestra and balcony levels. The auditorium is long and narrow and apart from the plaster moulded proscenium arch, is mainly decorated by flat murals in abstracted botanical forms combining the romance of nature with the energy of the machine age. The stage is only 15ft deep, and as the theatre was specifically built for movies, the stage was hardly used. It was equipped with an organ (make unknown).

Architect Simeon Charles Lee made some alterations to the building in 1939-1940 and in 1948 he designed a new sidewalk ticket office. The sidewalk has a spectacular terrazzo sunburst.

In its final years Metropolitan Theatres ran the Roxie Theatre from January 29, 1978 as a Spanish-language house. The Roxie Theatre was closed in summer of 1989. Since closure its front entrance has been vandalised and converted into retail use. The auditorium has been sealed off and remains empty. In May 2016 the building was ‘For Lease’.

The Roxie Theatre has been designated an Historic-Cultural Landmark.

Contributed by William Gabel

Recent comments (view all 52 comments)

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on April 20, 2010 at 4:43 am

Here is the Roxie looking better than usual:
http://tinyurl.com/y5re637

BillCounter
BillCounter on March 8, 2011 at 6:41 pm

A great 30s view with the Roxie marquee still using milk glass letters:
View link

It’s in post #9 on a Jalopy Journal Forum:
View link

Anyone have any idea what archive this photo comes from? I can’t make out the title on the marquee but it appears it’s something with Kay Francis.

socal09
socal09 on June 8, 2011 at 8:16 pm

The Roxie looks pretty sad these days especially now that some moron went and graffitied over the Roxie letters on the tower above the theatre. I’m not sure what you do with all these old cinemas on Broadway now that everyone stays home with VOD and Netflix.

vokoban
vokoban on January 14, 2012 at 6:00 am

Here are a few photos I took today of the Roxie: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vokoban/6693424923/in/photostream http://www.flickr.com/photos/vokoban/6693425389/in/photostream/

drb
drb on January 15, 2012 at 9:54 am

The Roxie, or at least a good shot of its terazzo and a few glimpses of the marquee, is seen in “The Muppets” (the 2011 movie), as seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WWWTW1P8rQ

spectrum
spectrum on April 23, 2015 at 2:56 am

There is a facebook page for the Roxie Theatre – run by someone advocating for the theatre’s restoration. Includes some nice current interior photos. A little dilapidated but definitely restorable. The page is at:

www.facebook.com/roxietheatre

Matt Lambros
Matt Lambros on February 9, 2019 at 1:52 am

I photographed the Roxie a few years ago. Check out some photos and a short write up at After the Final Curtain

rivest266
rivest266 on March 14, 2021 at 8:04 pm

The Roxie started its Spanish-language policy on January 29th, 1978. Grand opening ad posted.

El Roxie inició su política en español el 29 de enero de 1978. Se publicó un anuncio de inauguración.

rivest266
rivest266 on March 14, 2021 at 8:11 pm

Grand opening ad from Evening Post Record posted in the photo section.

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