Lido Theatre
8507 W. Pico Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90035
8507 W. Pico Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90035
6 people
favorited this theater
Showing 51 - 72 of 72 comments
so was this located near overland and pico? i cant think of any other bank of america on pico other than the one near the westside pavillion,which is a stones thrwo away from the picwood.
BK: As the “add a photo” feature is still unavailable at Cinema Treasures, the best way to share scans of your photos is to post them at a free hosting site such as Flickr and then link to them from here.
I used to recommend other hosting sites such as Webshots and Photobucket, but Flickr now has the advantage of providing many social networking features so that you can, for example, add your pictures to special interest pools for such things as movie theatres, Los Angeles architecture, and such.
I have many pix of the Lido and lots of others, but I don’t know where to put them so people can see.
I see there was a bar conveniently located adjacent to the Lido in 1945. The Ruby Room. I wonder if they sold wine made from tender grapes? Many of the Lido’s patrons probably needed a drink after seeing that sappy movie. The other feature, Wonder Man, might have left many of them already giddy, though.
Here’s a photo of the Lido from the new book titled Theatres In Los Angeles by Images of America:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vokoban/2282083496/
From the LA Times, 12/11/76
100 Rioting Youths Tear Up West L.A. Theater, 6 Arrested
About 100 youths rioted Friday night at a theater showing the black-oriented films “J.D.’s Revenge”, “Cooley High” and “Cornbread, Earl and Me”. Police said the youths threw objects through the screen, tore up seats and wrecked the box office of the Lido Theater at 8607 W. Pico Boulevard.
After the manager called police and closed the theater, the youths spilled outside and began breaking windows along Pico Boulevard. Officers said 600 to 800 persons were watching the program when a fight broke out at about 8:15 p.m. Police said older members of the audience got up on the stage and appealed to the brawling youths to quiet down, to no avail. Sx juveniles were arrested.
The Stadium was “my” childhood theater, really – I practically lived there and at the Lido. I haven’t been in the auditorium, but I was in the lobby in 1975 and it was very different.
I have been working on my wife to get me into the Stadium on a Friday night. I won’t be able to take pictures, but I would love to see the current interior.
The bank has been there at least since the year of my birth, which was 1947. Of course, it was the old-fashioned BofA in those days – I think the redesign wasn’t done until the 70s or thereabouts. For anyone who loves this area, I can only tell you that my Kritzer trilogy (which is a thinly-veiled fiction of my childhood growing up in that area in the 50s and 60s) is jam-packed with every location in that area, from the Lido, to the Stadium and the Picfair movie theaters to all the supermarkets, restaurants, and everything else. The three books are Benjamin Kritzer, Kritzerland, and Kritzer Time. End of self-serving but well-meaning post. You can read about them on amazon.
I think the bank was always on the corner. I looked at the old Sanborn map and it was there. The theater was next to it to the west where the bank parking lot is now…..I think. BofA has a long history of remodeling their own buildings into something out of Logan’s Run or Planet of the Apes. That’s why I wonder if the original bank is underneath that stucco monstrosity.
Did the bank take the place of the theater, or was the theater in the parking lot space next to the bank?
Drop me an e-mail – just click on my username and you’ll find it.
I like the cover art but I’d like to see a few plain black and white photos for the detail. I don’t know where you live but I’d be happy to scan them for you. I live at Olympic & La Cienega. It would only take a few minutes and then you could have the originals plus a cd with them on it for safekeeping. I’d also like to see if the BofA building was just covered over with 80’s slop or if it is a whole different building.
If I knew how to do it, I have many photos of the Lido, although it looks exactly like the art on the book cover, which was actually done from a photograph.
I know…I guess I didn’t word it properly…I just want to see a photo of the theater. I always eat at Nick’s across the street and stare at that parking lot.
The parking lot WAS the Lido.
I wish i could find a picture of this theater other than the one on the cover of that book. I live right around the corner and would like to see what was on the present day parking lot.
Here is a 1970 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/ypbtt7
It was great! I miss this theater! Loads of senior citizens used to come in from Fairfax to this cozy theater, mixing with the west LA potheads about as well as oil mixes with water. One time, me and a pot-smoking friend found out that there was a free matinee screening for seniors of Around the World in 80 Days and we showed up—we were polite and all, but we still got hocked to CHina by the elders (“This is for senior citizens!” one told us.) In another drug-related movie watching incident, I ate some pink hearts and saw a Woody Allen marathon and just about died laughing. (Fortunately, so was the rest of the audience.) I also went on a rather important first date there to see the Mitchum version of Farewell My Lovely. I miss the Lido…
Here is an LA Times article about the beginning of this theater:
(March 21, 1937)
COMBINED STORE, BANK, THEATER BUILDING RISING
Construction is under way on a theater, store and bank building at the northwest corner of Pico and La Cienga Boulevards for Pacific States Theaters, Inc. Contract was awarded to the Wesco Construction Company at $52,000. Architect C.A. Balch designed the structure. The building will contain a theater auditorium with seating capacity of 900, three storerooms and branch banking quarters for the Bank of America National Trust and Savings Association.
The Lido was my childhood movie theater. Its marquee adorns the cover of my first novel, Benjamin Kritzer (you can see the cover at amazon.com). Prior to it being an art house, it was a second-run house, where I saw Man Who Knew Too Much, Vertigo, Invaders from Mars (many kiddie matinees), and countless other films. I’ll post a photo of it as soon as I scan it into the computer.
This was yet another theater designed by Clifford A. Balch. It’s construction was announced in Southwest Builder & Contractor issue of 8/28/1936.