State Theatre
703 S. Broadway,
Los Angeles,
CA
90014
703 S. Broadway,
Los Angeles,
CA
90014
23 people
favorited this theater
Showing 51 - 75 of 156 comments found
Here is a screen shot from the 1988 film “Colors”:
http://tinyurl.com/yv95ju
You can see the marquee in the film “Action Jackson” (around 51 minutes in). The film takes place in another city, but they used Downtown Los Angeles for select location shots.
Ken: with the big camera I had around my neck that day. I’d surely have been chased out. If I ever go back, I will take your advice. Thanks again.
You’re welcome, Bill. You can easily go inside and walk around as long as you don’t start taking pictures. Then you get chased out.
If you can’t tell the diffrence between between a theater and a theatre you’ve got not class that’s all I can say.
Ken, thanks for taking those photos last summer. In January I walked down Broadway and saw the outsides of all the great theaters, but was too scared to actually try going inside any of them. Maybe I should have, if you got into the State. Anyway, thanks again for posting pictures of where “Forbidden Planet” opened in 1956.
stevebob, that small vertical sign before it was blanked out said “Seiko” and was blue in color for the watch store at the corner at one time. The store was LeRoys. The State has not had any other signage other than the marquee for decades on the building. When it had a Big A feature playing the companies sign department put up a large display above the marquee.
It would be great for entertainment to return to the Loew’s State. The emphasis on spelling of theater vs theatre is annoying.
This was another case of “r” before “e” in the last two letters of the “t” word— Loew’s State Theatre (not Loew’s State Theater). The more famous Loew’s State Theatre in Times Square, New York City, also used “re” at the end of the “t” word.
ken mc’s photo of 3/23 seems to show a grey metal vertical sign, apparently blank, hanging on the very edge of the building at Seventh and Broadway. I don’t recall seeing that before, and am guessing that it’s connected with the “Catedral” in some way.
What does it — or did it — say?
Here is a March 2008 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/yqczk2
Like he said.
Yeah, were a tag team. Is that a problem for you?
Why is it that whenever “ken mc” posts an ad or image, “Lost Memory” seems to follow almost immediately with a comment? Are they a team? Perhaps they should be nominated in the current poll about favorite funsters.
Forsaking All Others was released in December of 1934.
Here is a January 1935 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/23sge8
It’s a convention here at Cinema Treasures to list a theater by the name by which it’s currently, or was most recently, known. (Not everyone agrees with the sensibility of this policy; a post on the Loew’s Capitol page points out, for instance, that it was known simply as the Capitol for most of its life until the final few years.)
Consistency, though, would seem to suggest that this theater be listed here as “The State” and, secondarily, also known as “Loew’s State.” It passed into Metropolitan’s hands nearly 50 years ago, after all, and at that time all indications of the former association with Loew’s were removed. Signage from that point forward read “The State,” and — so far as I am aware — it became generally known thenceforth as “The State.”
While those who share our special interest know this theater was once Loew’s State, there are generations of people now who never knew it by that name and quite possibly never even heard it referred to as such.
In the current issue of Reminisce there is a letter on the Reminisent page that talks about this theatre. It reads as follows: “Clayton Durbin, a Los Angeles native now living in Wichita Kansas, added that the Loew’s State Theatre on the left of the photo (photo in the Aug/Sept issue) and the KRKD radio tower on the right are still on Broadway. He noted that many dignitaries were honored in parades through that intersection.”
Here is a close-up view from October 2007.
Here is a 1954 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/25mvlx
In “the old days,” the Loew’s circuit, which headquartered in New York City, had only a few theatres on the West Coast, so it turned over the management to those that did. But Loew’s got a percentage of the boxoffice takings, and the theatres were guaranteed a steady flow of MGM releases.
At different times during it’s history the State Theatre was operated by different chains while being known as the Loew’s State. Fox West Coast Theatres operated and booked other UA Theatres during the 30s & 40s till the 1950’s. The United Artists Theatre Downtown was operated by Publix Chain.
Here is a 1953 ad showing the State as part of the UA chain:
http://tinyurl.com/265sz3
A Moller theater organ opus 3140 size 3/18 was installed in the Loew’s State Theater in 1921 at a cost of $9000.
Here is a July 1957 ad for the United Artists State from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/2crl3l