Garmar Theater
2325 Whittier Boulevard,
Montebello,
CA
90640
2325 Whittier Boulevard,
Montebello,
CA
90640
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I remember the promotions they used to do at Saturday matinees. Our neighborhood theater, the Garvey, would sometimes have drawings from the ticket stubs, usually with just small prizes, but sometimes more valuable things. I never won anything myself, but my older sister actually won a bicycle in one of those drawings.
Things like that kept the theaters packed on Saturdays. Even at only ten cents a ticket for kids, the Garvey probably took in seventy or eighty dollars from ticket sales on a typical Saturday afternoon, and two or three times as much from sales of candy and popcorn and drinks, where the profit margin was much higher. They could easily afford to give away a few prizes- at least until television took away too much of their audience.
Yes, I used to go to the Vogue theater in Montebello. My cousin Rupert called me re. this commentary. I lived a block away from the Garmar. Every Saturday the Garmar had the “Crazy Races”, as you entered you would get a ticket with a number on it. Midway in the day’s program they would have a ‘keystone cops style’ “race” which was humorous and always ended with one of the contenstants ‘winning’. I never was a winner in those races, but they were funny and the winner always won popcorn, drinks and entrance to the shows. They had two glassed in rooms. If your mother asked, you could go in them for a much quieter movie with no sticky floors. I remember seeing “Them” in 3-D and “Forbidden Planet” in the early 50’s. I also remember seeing them build the place and putting up the circular pieces on the front of the building. No one could figure out just what that place was going to be…remember this was in 1950! Many wonderful memories of that place for me.
The Vogue theater usually carried second hand, older or B type movies. I remember going to it occasionally but not too often. It was small and later turned into a Travel Agency, among other small businesses. Westerns, older not-prime-time movies and such was their forte. The cost was 25 cents, not the 50 cents like the Garmar! Wow, two movies, a cartoon, and on Saturdays a “Crazy Race”, all for that!!
rupert:
Thanks for that interesting bit of information. I lived not to far from Montebello myself in those days, (though I only went to a movie at the Garmar once, in the early 1960s) and I always wondered where the name came from.
Did you ever attend Montebello’s other theater in the 1950s, the Vogue, on the north side of Whittier Boulevard a mile or so east of the Garmar? I was there a couple of times, and remember only that it was a tiny place, probably built in a converted retail space, and the back rows of seats were on risers so that you had to step up from the aisle to reach them. I think there was only one aisle, so it was almost like the small theaters in a modern multiplex.
The Vogue hasn’t been posted on Cinema Treasures yet, and I was thinking of doing it, but it would be better if someone who had a clearer memory of the place did it.
My uncle lived a few blocks from the Garmar, and when I visited in the early to mid-1950’s as a young boy I would go there – I remember seeing Annie
Get Your Gun or Calamity Jane, and The Charge At Feather River which was in 3-D. I remember the soft drink dispenser, which was probably a new invention because it never worked properly and only partially filled the cup, usually with carbonated water. Anyway, I’m writing this because somehow my family knew the owner and he said that the theater was named after his two sons, Gary and Mark. (Gar – Mar) Rupert Yessayian
I saw the following movies: Scanners, Stripes, Take this job and Shove it, and bill murray’s Meatballs.
Anybody know the origin of the name “Garmar”?
This is the theatre where my sister saw her first ‘non drive-in’ movie in around 1961. All my cousins took her with them [i was too young]. The movie was ‘Flower Drum Song’. Later on when I was able to go to the Garmar the only thing I recall is that it had one of those glassed-in baby rooms where mothers could take the screamin tyke.
The Garmar Theatre opened on March 29th, 1950. It was a concrete and plaster structure, the house has a Lamella roof. The front is trimmed in copper and stainless steel with green and coral circular neon on the facade above the double marquee. Th walls of the lobby and foyer are done in pastel colors with tone on tone carpeting covering the floor and indirect lighting. The front of the candy counter and doors leading to the green terrazzo restrooms are paneled in redwood.
The walls of the auditorium were also done in pastel shades with combed plywood sides. A special smoking room (in the days you could smoke in the theatres or in balconies of theatres) and a crying room add to patron convenience.
The Garmar Theatre was located at 2325 Whittier Blvd.
The quonset hut design was a cheaper way to build theatres in post WWII era. S. Charles Lee used the quonset hut design on other theatres like the Helix (La Mesa, Ca. 1947), Avo (Vista, Ca. 1948), Puente (Puente, Ca. 1947) and of course the Garmar (Montebello, Ca. 1949). The Colorado theatre in Pasadena, Ca. also has a quonset hut design.
The last chain to run the Garmar theatre was Pacific Theatres.