Cameo Theatre

The Cameo theatre seated 600 people . This theatre started it's life as a Nickelodeon it the early days of the movies. In it's later years the Cameo ran a grind policy (Thats it opens at 9am till around 5am, the next day. That's four features, run twice.) The last chain to run the Cameo was Metropolitan Theatres in the mid 90's. Before that Pacific theatres ran the Cameo and the nearby Tower theatre. The Cameo theatre was one of the longest run of any theatre (1911 till mid 90's).

The architect was Alfred F. Rosenheim. It was originally known as "Clune's Broadway". I recently toured this theater... The lobby is now used for a retail store. The auditorium is used for storage for the store. The seats have been removed. However, the balcony and stage are still intact.

On the below comment the Cameo doesn't have a balcony. The two theatres next to this theatre have balconies (Roxie & Arcade). All three theatres are now used as stores.

The Cameo opened on October 10, 1910 as Clunes's Broadway and had an original seating capacity of 775.
It operated continuously until it closed after showing movies on Sunday, December 3, 1991.
It was built as one of the first "movies only" theatres in the country.
In its last years, it attracted drunks and homeless who would sleep there until the movies ended at 4:00am.
The lobby has been divided into tiny retail stores.
The intact auditorium is used for storage.

During the early 30's the Cameo was operated by Fox West Coast Theatres , along with a few other Downtown houses: Loew's State, Palace, Tower , Pantages, United Artists. And later the Los Angeles Theatre.

I wonder if Bobby Popita, the regular projectionist there, is still alive today. I used to be his relief in the late 70s. Seems like he was there forever.

The last time I saw him was over Beverly Center and he was learning to fix TV's.

Yea, Chester and Bobby went to the Beverly Center, and I do recall Bobby learning to fix TVs also. I think I had a brain dump there for a minute. Working in the Beverly Center projection room is like working in a maze of tunnels. One projector actually reflects with a mirror down to the floor where another mirror sends the image out to the screen. What the heck is that???

Before the remodel for the theatres upstairs they had two of those. Working Beverly Center was like working in a submarine. Remember the stairs?

That is a better description...submarine. :) hehehe

William:
Drop me a line. Want to ask you about doing screening in the city. Perhaps you can give me some tips. Thanks!
webmaster@MrMarketing.info

On a recent Los Angeles Conservancy tour I went inside the Cameo Theatre. The lobby is now an electronics store. The auditorium has had its seats removed and is still used for storage.

In 1941 the Marquee of the Cameo crashed to the siedwalk on Broadway. See photo at this link:

http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater3/00015864.jpg

The front part of the marquee bearing the Cameo name was lit up this morning. Looked like almost all of the bulbs were working.

Look at the great line on the marquee for the other theatre. "An all sarong show" with the features Swamp Woman and Jungle Man.

Robert, that would be the Arcade Theater. The Cameo is sandwiched between it and the Roxie.

The July 4, 1924 edition of the Southwest Builder and Contractor notes that architect A. Godfrey Bailey had produced "plans for remodeling theatre at 528 S. Broadway for Wm Cutts; work to consist of removing toilets and enlarging foyer." On Page 50, Col 1.

Here is a picture of the Cameo and Arcade, circa 1983, courtesy of the LA Library:

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics21/00030133.jpg

Fairly recent photo:
http://www.gmrnet.com/graphics/theatr1l.jpg

An expanded version of the last picture, courtesy of you-are-here.com:

http://www.you-are-here.com/theatre/cameo2.html

From the California State Library:

http://helios.library.ca.gov/soca/laci/1991-0719.jpg

Here is another modern photo of the former Cameo Theater.

I took a Conservancy tour of this theatre yesterday. The owner of the electronics store nicely let us go back into the auditorium, which is being used as a storage room.

The space was not in bad shape. The walls were painted a salmon color, much soiled, of course, and very dark. The decorative pilasters were a greenish color. The scones and plaster ornament still held the traces of gold. The theatre features a coffered ceiling, and a skylight our docent called a lunette? Or moonlight something? that had been painted over, probably during WWII, she guessed. The whole ceiling was black, whether from paint or dirt I'm not sure. As someone said above, this theatre has no balcony.

The screen was still up - it appears to have been hung in front of the proscenium, I guess to provide the right proportion for modern films. Our docent had a blow-up of a colored postcard that showed the original proscenium. We couldn't get on the stage at all.

It was a lovely, understated classical space, not opulent at all, but very charming.

The tour was definately worth taking; I want to take it again. I advise anyone taking the tour to bring a good flashlight with new batteries, and if you can figure out how to take photos in low light, please do so. We also saw the Arcade, the Los Angeles, the Million Dollar, the Warner and the Orpheum. We came tantalizingly close to sneaking into the Palace, too! Will update those theatre pages.

Here is a 1961 photo:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/spnb1/00017154.jpg

This is a recent photo of the Cameo Theater.

Here is a January 2007 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/y3bkc5

Recent pic:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k79/hollywood90038/dwntwnCameoMar22200701.jpg

Now that so many people are moving back to Downtown to live, why is nobody playing movies in any of these theatres on a regular basis???

Come on! I'm very glad that most of them are still around, and most of them could be fixed up with too great an effort, but using the space as retail stores is just a crying shame. These are historic theatres!

I urge to city of L.A. to take over at least one of these old theatres (like was done for the Egyptian) and get some NGO to come in start showing films there on a regular basis again! It's shame the way all of Broadway has gone to seed.

And it's shocking how nice it looked as late as the 1970's, compared how horrible it looks today.

Spent many a day at the Cameo in the late 80's, watching Dracula prince of darkness, 5 bronze men, ten to midnight, ect, ect, remember the bums who lived there in their regular seats, shouting and swearing at the screen, drunk on short dogs of nighttrain and mad dog 20/20, pissing in the aisles, panhandling me for my last dollar, i never ventured into the cameo restroom without a knife at the ready as you never knew what awaited you in that shithouse, YES, those were the days,i remember sneaking in candy and food cause i didn't trust the Cameo snack bar staff with their open Heroin tracked marked arms to sell me something good,when i left at 8pm or so i smelt like cigarettes and stale wine and left the cameo denizens to another all night party. I miss the place.

Here is an undated photo:
http://tinyurl.com/2pfnra

Here is a recent close-up view of the Cameo Theater.

Here is a January 1915 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/2gxd73

That was a little before my time. Have anything newer?

From the LA Times, July 20 1924:

ARTISANS BUSY REBUILDING NEW CAMEO THEATER
"The best and most luxuriously appointed 'small' theater on Broadway when the renovations are completed."
That's the promise of O.D. Cloakey, manager of the Cameo Theater, the newly named film playhouse, which takes the place of the old Clune's Broadway.
A half-hundred carpenters, electricians, decorators and upholsterers are in possession of the place now. The auditorium is a chaos of wreckage, but out of this chaos William Cutts is devising a new orderliness from which will rise a new theater adequately equipped to take its place alongside Broadway's best.
Its old seating capacity of 800 will be slightly increased by the new space arrangement. A larger orchestra pit is being made to make room for the sixteen players who will be directed by Theodore Henkel, newly appointed musical director. The projection-room will be widened.
A suite of drawing and sitting-rooms is being fitted out in luxurious style on the second floor, where women patrons will find quiet, comfort and opportunity for rest.'

Etc. Plans were to reopen sometime in July 1924 with a Wallace Beery super-feature, 'The Signal Tower'.

A feature in the Times in October 1927 concerning the opening of HL Gumbiner's new Tower Theatre mentions that Gumbiner owned and operated the Cameo Theater ('with success') before launching the Tower.

He had previously presided over Gumbiner Theatrical Enterprises in Chicago, with up to 14 small theaters.

From yesterday:
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff204/hollywood90038/CameoFeb16200802.jpg

The bottom right photo shows the box office circa mid 70s:
http://tinyurl.com/2rp4wl

The show on the billboard ended in May 2006.
http://tinyurl.com/6jafj2

Here's a quote from a book I just reread:

"Clune's Theater in Los Angeles opened on 10 November 1910. It seated nine hundred and had three projectors plus two stereopticons (at a time when having two projectors was already the sign of a high-class house.) For an admission price of ten and twenty cents (for loge seats at the back), one got five full reels of licensed films on the first run, two illustrated songs, and one "song specialty," adding up to a program of an hour and a half. If those were really full reels, that means the projectionist at Clune's speeded them up at a tremendous rate. An eight-piece orchestra and two singing booths, one on each side of the scree, were available for music."

Bowser, Eileen. The Transformation of Cinema: 1907-1915. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1990

oops. pp. 128-129 in the 1994 paperback edition!

Here is a February 2009 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/cs88ok

Here is a video I took with my phone of the Cameo's marquee lights this January:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FtN2g5_FGk

Here is a photo I took last week of the Cameo.

Posting to get this theatre back on my "notifications" list....

Here is a 1983 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/cqw33t

Here is a 1939 photo from the USC archives:
http://tinyurl.com/c9w6c4

Here is a 1938 photo from USC:
http://tinyurl.com/dbqgqf

1980 Photo

1983 Photo

1983 Photo

Here are some photos taken yesterday:
http://tinyurl.com/p529w7
http://tinyurl.com/rdxaq4
http://tinyurl.com/oxwl6t

I just heard today that the Cameo got a pipe organ in 1914. Does anyone know anything about that?

The profile photo at the top of the page is described as "circa 1970, courtesy of William Gabel."

This photo also appears in the LA Public Library digital collection. They list the photographer as Anne Knudsen and give the date as 1981.

http://catalog1.lapl.org:80/cgi-bin/cw_cgi?fullRecord+23312+968+35528+2+4

The link above has gone bad. Here's the image:

http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics18/00028729.jpg

and the info:

http://photos.lapl.org/carlweb/jsp/FullRecord?databaseID=968&record=4&controlNumber=35528