Tiki Theatre
5462 Santa Monica Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90029
5462 Santa Monica Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90029
10 people
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New article about this theater in the LA Times 12/5/23. Link is via MSN:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/inside-the-last-porn-theater-in-los-angeles/ar-AA1l1Dby
Prior to its' cinema conversion, the building served as a market and later a liquor store.
Just an update: It’s a 30 seat theatre. Not fifty.
This opened as the Mini theatre on November 5th, 1969 with “Studio F”. Grand opening ad posted
Used to be very seedy, but a few years ago was given an upgrade. New “leather” seats, air conditioning, new projector, and a second small LCD screen. Bathroom could use a little work, but hey, it’s a porn theater.
They’ve raised their prices a little, now $13. There is still a small free parking lot in back, and meters on the street.
Mostly married/discrete guys. Those that are looking for action sit toward the back, those that aren’t sit toward the front. Every knows the game and is cool. Occasionally some drug users, but the last few times I went, didn’t see any. Perhaps the owners have been discouraging that.
I’ve had some pretty good times here.
Would anyone who used to work at this theater be willing to talk to us at Thrillist about it for an article? Email if so!
The building the theatre is housed in was built in 1919.
Interesting trivia related to this building: In the mid to late 70’s John Holmes was utilizing 5466 Santa Monica Blvd. as his business mailing address (currently the discount store located next door to the Tiki Theatre, but likely some sort of message/postal box service in Holmes' day).
Tiki culture folks provide regular reports about this theater: http://www.tikiroom.com/tikicentral/bb/viewtopic.php?topic=26718&forum=2&52
For more information on the “experience” of going to the Tiki, see this article which quotes a Yelp reviewer: http://laist.com/2012/07/19/fred_willard_arrested_for_lewd_cond.php
Fred Willard was arrested for lewd conduct last night in Hollywood when police allegedly caught him with his pants down in an adult movie theater … TMZ has learned.
According to law enforcement sources, LAPD undercover vice officers went into the Tiki Theater in Hollywood and found the 78-year-old “Anchorman” star watching last night’s feature … with his penis exposed and in his hand — aka, pulling a Pee-wee Herman.
We’re told Willard was arrested around 8:45PM and booked for lewd conduct.
It was a quick release — we’re told he was out of police custody a short while later.
As for which movie Fred was watching — there are 3 flicks in rotation at the theater … “Follow Me 2,” a XXX parody of “The Client List,” and “Step Dad No. 2.”
Willard is best known for his memorable roles in “Best in Show”, “For Your Consideration”, “American Wedding” and “Everybody Loves Raymond.”
According to IMDB, Fred is “rumored” to be in pre-production for a movie entitled … “The Yank.”
It’s a comedy.
See offsite link on www.tmz.com
To kencmcintyre, re Aug 29, 09 post: That photo is of the North side of Hollywood Blvd just east of N. Wilton Pl. That theater’s address would be 5651 Hollywood Blvd. A home decor store called Mush is located there now. http://www.m-u-s-h.com/
I worked at the Pussycat Theater on Ocean Blvd. in Long Beach for a short time in 1975. I somehow came up with the address 345 Ocean Blve by searching and checked it out on google maps and it does appear that the entire area was demolished and rebuilt. I recall that on the corner just down from it was a low rent apt bldg ran by an older Asian lady. I’m looking for any pics of the area from back in the day.
this place is truly filthy and run down. when i was there it was scummy and dark. i could see by the flickering screen crackheads scrounging around the floors for pieces of coke. they would light up and smoke whatever they would find. this continued the entire time. it stank of dirty butthole in here, big time. also worth mentioning a guest appearance from the neighborhood “lady of the night”, walking in and looking like joe namath in drag who serviced almost everyone in the theater, including my throbbing man meat. hey, whatever, a hole’s a hole and all discretion and good judgement leave you once you step foot in this den of base and disgusting human behavor. seriously the nastiest place in los angeles, not for the faint of heart. beware..
There are a couple of Tiki photos on this site:
http://tinyurl.com/nnlrxd
There is a Yahoo group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TIKItheater) where you can post comments regarding adventures you might want to experience that are not appropriate at his site. You can review the theater, the films or the people who go there.
This is a 1975 photo of the “Cinne Arts” theater in Hollywood, somewhere. If anyone can place this one, let me know.
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics31/00050068.jpg
I worked at the now-Tiki Theater in the mid-70s as a cashier/projectionist. It was known then as either the Maxi- or Mini Theater, with its partner with the other name down the street at the corner of Oxford and Santa Monica. It was seedy even then and featured several strippers and three one hour flicks. A bit of trivia: next door was a book store called the Galaxy (I worked there, too) and next door to that was a mail service where the iconic porn star John Holmes picked up hos mail. He stopped in the store several times. Nice trip down memory lane. There was a coffee shop directly across the street that is probably gone
Finding a good old fashion porn theater is the problem. A little inside is appreciated.
Where can a single girl go in L.A. for a little harmless groping if not a good old fashion porn theater?!
This is the theater you are thinking of:
/theaters/2328/
There once was a Pussycat Theatre in Ventura, CA (between LA and Santa Barbara). I don’t know its provenance, the architecture looked to be from the 1940s. I enjoyed it a lot. Went there often in high school – at 16 I could grow a beard and was never carded. (I once borrowed the $5 admission from my grandma). Lots of white collar types and some latinos. The manager once got friendly with me in the restroom. Damn I miss places like that! In the late 1980s or early 90s it became “The Mayfair” – they tried showing classic films (I think they atrted with ‘Casablanca’), but it just didn’t draw any patrons. I no longer olive thre, but last I knew the building was still thre, boarded up.
I was at this theater two weeks ago on a Monday. The movies are not bad. The worst part about this theater is that smoking of all substances is allowed which makes the air hard to breath. For those wishing to go to an adult theater as a couple, or alone, this is not a good place.
Instead, go to the pussycat/studs theater much further down the street which is smoke free. True, it is a gay movie theater; although, they do have a small room that runs straight porn. I was there on Friday and I found the theater to be very clean and worthy of being a cinema treasure. The building has a beautiful exterior, with a walk of porn outside, and a wonderfully restored lobby which includes free snacks. There are four screening rooms of porn which includes the large central room with a strip club walkway, a middle room with nice couches and fine rugs, and two smaller rooms with one showing straight porn. They charge $15.
socalfuncouple9, lovinglife where are you? Did you ever find the theaters that you were looking for?
Went to the Tiki theater yesterday,1/11/08. There was about 10 guys there, most were asleep, the movie was not bad and the place is just run down a little attention would not hurt. I had to leave when a guy sat next to me, I moved and he followed. Decided to check out the Pssycat down the road and was verry surprised at the size of the theater, unfortunently they do not cater to couples, all gay movies and all gay customers. Sure miss the Texas adult theaters. Does someone have info of an open adult theater in Long Beach or nearby.The pussycat/Studs theater was cleen and comfortable, I had no problem finding a parking spot. I also went to a place In Commerce, was a tipical adult book store, nothing special.
How would you like to be the guy buying a ticket in the photo? Forever immortalized on the internet.