Criterion Theatre

The Criterion Theatre was part of Fox West Coast Theatres chain for many years. It opened around 1925, it seated 1200 people in a very wide auditorium. When it opened the rear Loge seats were large leather seats. This theatre had an organ, which was later sold in the 50's. When this theatre opened it had a Spanish revival decor. In the early 40's, the theatre had it's first remodel. In this remodel the theatre was reseated with American Bodiform seats, which will be in the theatre for the next 50 years. Also in this remodel the theatre would lose 4 large chandeliers and change the general lighting in the house. The next remodel would happen in around 1965 to go with the New Mall. In that remodel The Criterion would get a new two sided marquee and lose the vertical Criterion sign. During the 60's the theatre was operated by National General Theatres, which was Fox West Coast Theatres later company. In the early 70's NGT would sell the chain the Mann Theatres. Mann would drop the Criterion in the late 70's. During the 80's the Criterion would become an independent theatre. Also during this time as an independent it ran double features for the price of .49 cents. Shortly after that Metropolitan theatres leased the house and the El Miro theatre. For the next few years both houses ran spanish films. In the late 80's the Criterion theatre was razed to make way for Mann Theatre's New State of the Art 6 plex. The old Criterion theatre building, was made up of two buildings. The front building housed the marquee and the Criterion apartments, then the theatre was located on the back half of the lot. When Mann built the new theatre, they did the same thing. But in the Northridge earthquake the apartment part of the building was damaged. For the next 4 1/2 years the apartments sat unused. During this time the apartment part of the building was gutted and rebuilt. The theatre enlarged the lobby and added a few retail stores on the mall level. Today the Criterion theatre, like the earlier Criterion presents the best Hollywood has to offer.

Though I don't know the present status of the organ from this theatre, it can be heard on the album, "Million Dollar Echoes," by the late Gaylord Carter.

The marquee of this theatre can be seen in the early half of "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure", with the program "Cartoon Cavalcade" showing.

Many of the theatre organs that were in Fox West Coast Theatres were sold in the early to mid 60's.

Oh it was the biggest and most well appointed theater in Santa Monica! I remember it from the early 50's & 60's. The stage was so large that when other theaters had to renovate in order to install the new cinemascope screens, the Criterion installed theirs easily and it looked as though it had always been there. The Criterion had plush red seats and ushers to open doors, it had a real "powder room" for ladies to sit down on sofas, or at large mirrors for "repair" work. It played only first-run movies and special attractions like 3-D or a midnight show on Halloween. I remember the feeling of immense space entering the main auditorium, but not a lost feeling; the thick carpets, comfortable seats and 60 ft. screen (seen only when the film began and the curtains parted) gave one a sense of being a part of something important. E.L.

There was a time during the 80s when they were showing the double bill for 49 cents and on Tuesdays Free Popcorn. I wondered how the hell they could do that. I went.

I remember going there as a kid in the 60's, before and after the construction of the 3rd Street pedestrian mall. My mom would drop us off on Saturday afternoons for the matinee. As I recall, at the time it was 25¢ for the kids' Saturday matinee, and 50¢ if it was a double features. (This was for first-run pictures, and included all of the usual pre-feature cartoons, etc.)

I'm sorry to hear that the old theater was razed. We moved away in 1971, and I've never been back, though I have great memories of the place. It was huge and beautiful, and the Saturday matinees were the only time our parents would let us go to the Criterion - since it was an all-kid audience and it didn't matter how much noise we made.

It's fun for me now, years later, to point out the Criterion marquee to my own son, when we watch "Pee-wee's Big Adventure" together...

I remember seeing Bridge on The River Kui when I was in Jr High.

The Los Angeles Times carried an article about the Criterion headlined "Santa Monica theater will open soon" in its December 30th, 1923 issue, so the theater must have opened early in 1924. An article in the Santa Monica Outlook of August 4th, 1923, announced that the theater's organ had been ordered.

I went there as a kid in the '70s when it would show family films like the Disney/Kurt Russell movies or "Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster." Then, in the early '80s (83-84) I worked across the street from it at J.J. Newberry's. By then the theater was showing double-features for .99, then it went down to triple-features for .49. On one Christmas weekend they showed the "Ten Commandments" for free. I don't know how they made a profit. I went a few times to see the (mostly terrible) movies they showed like Lucio Fulci's "7 doors of death" (aka "The Beyond"). It was a real grindhouse experience complete with bums and delinquents heckling the screen, the audience and each other. Management did not seem to care that this once-great theater was now given to the dregs...

Look for the Criterion at the far end of the Promenade:

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics32/00050683.jpg

There are several pictures of the Dome Theater on the Ocean Park Pier that are listed on the LA Library website. If this theater is listed here under a different name, please let me know.

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics49/00044402.jpg

Never mind the comment above. The Fox Dome is already listed. Here are some pictures of the Criterion from the LA Library:

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics18/00028801.jpg

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics18/00028802.jpg

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics18/00028803.jpg

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics18/00028806.jpg

ken mc, thanks so much for the links to those photos - the place really was as huge as I'd remembered it as a kid. I hope that someone can turn up some photos of the old lobby someday, too. Thanks also for pointing out the LA Public Library web site as a source of great old photos.

There was another smaller old theater down the mall from the Criterion I worked at the summer of 1977. They had the same owner or management company. I remember the Criterion was way more lavish and beautiful than the one I worked at. We had dollar matinees that would have lines of sr.citizens down the block. I was sitting in the box office when the newspaper guy was going up and down the mall hawking his papers saying Elvis had died.

The smaller old theater would be the El Miro later Cinema then Cinema on the Mall and Cine Latino before it closed.

Here is another photo of the former Criterion Theater.

Tearing up the promenade in 1965:
http://tinyurl.com/39lb5b

I grew up in Santa Monica and went to the Criterion quite often when it was a Single Screen Mann theatre. Lots of Disney films but distinctly remember seeing a double feature of "Jaws" and "The Great Waldo Pepper" in Febraury 1976. Late 70's/early 80's it was a 49 cent theatre that changed its second run double features every week. I remember going EVERY Friday during the Summer of 1979 to see the latest double feature, and did not care what was showing.

I remember that double feature of "Jaws" and 'Waldo Pepper" at the Criterion. The Criterion had a nice large Scope screen. The Criterion, Meralta (Culver City), Holiday (Canoga Park) were the 49 cent houses and for a short time the former Pacific Beverly Hills Theatre tried it at .99 cents.

Film going was more fun back in the 70's than it is now. Usually I ended up seeing most films 2nd run "after the Westwood/Hollywood" debuts. Usually a double feature, and there were re-issues a year later. I cannot tell you how many times the Monica Twins had "Young Frankenstein". I saw it at the Monica's when it went 2nd run after the Avco, then again with re-issues at the same theatre. Films were not so over-hyped, and over-produced back then. Now it is too much overload and films are on DVD almost right out of the theatre. DVD is now what the 2nd run used to be.

The Criterion played it during that time as a double feature, but the print they got was a very splicey one.

Here is an early sixties photo:
http://tinyurl.com/2sara9

Here is a 1925 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/6nfug6

1980 Photo

1981 Photo

The 1981 photo is when theatre was leased by Metropolitan Theatres along with the Cine on the Mall (aka: El Miro).

That linked photo that Lost Memory posted on Dec 22, 2006 is more "new" Criterion than "old" Criterion. Like the El Miro down the street, it was so modified that it earned a new page here.