Warner Huntington Park

An Art Deco motion picture palace. The auditorium is still intact and has a multilayered ceiling and hidden lights. Opened in 1930. The architect was B. Marcus Priteca.

anyone know the address of this theater

The address is posted above on all these listings. It's strange that this question gets asked so often. I was there yesterday and the exterior is still intact, but closed. Heard a rumor that the chandeliers were recently sold off...

Its been about alittle over 20 years since this theatre's auditorium was intact. When this theatre was twinned, Pacific Theatres made two theatres one downstairs and one in the former balcony. Out of the three theatres only the Warner San Pedro Theatre (Warner Grand Theatre) survives in a intact state. In its later years ran Spanish films on one of it's screens and the other English films with Spanish subtitles. During the 80-90's the Warner Huntington Park and the near-by California Tri-plex and the Park twin theatres would play to packed houses on weekends. All three theatre would play the same main feature. They were all within two blocks of each other. The old Fox California would play all english. The Park would play english with spanish subtitles and the Warner would play the english features with spanish subtitles. The only chandeliers were in the lobby areas and under the balcony. The main ceiling fixture in the upstairs theatre was a fixed art-deco design with hidden lights. Pacific Theatres would replace original light fixtures with newer tamperproof fixtures and leave the originals to be discarded.

The Warner Huntington Park Theatre originaly seated 1468 people.

Also known as the Huntington Theatre, the Huntington Park, and Pacific Warners 2.

I remember the Warner, the Park and the California in their better days from when I worked on Pacific Boulevard, from 1969-1975.

I also recall going to the Liberty/Bell/Alcazar on Gage Avenue in Bell in 1969, though I seem to recall it being known as the Alamo at that time; faulty memory, perhaps.

When I was a kid, I lived in San Francisco, and probably went to nearly every Saturday matinee at the Castro from 1958-1962. It was only 20 cents to get in, and maybe another 20 cents for soda AND popcorn.

From the LA Library:

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics35/00037260.jpg

Yeah, thats "The Boulevard" back in the day, all right.

Any plans on restoring The Warner? Can't let a beautiful theater go to waste, it's a mess! Every time i see it makes me wonder if there's any thing inside it, old stuff? They should restore it and make it into a museum or play old films but knowing how the people are in the city i don't think it'd be much success. Anybody agree?

The Warner Theater in Huntington Park still stands proudly along Pacific Boulevard, the crown jewel of a mostly Art Deco-Moderne style downtown that was built in the 1920's and 1930's and remains surprisingly intact. The City of Huntington Park is attempting to buy the theater from it's present owner, with intentions of turning it into a playhouse or special event theater. In spite of the fact that it has been empty for years, the Warner is probably the handsomest still-standing former movie palace in Southern California.

Warners should be restored like their sister theatre in San Pedro. Makes me sad to see it closed, few times i've seen it in years. Brings back memories going there. Worked as a door man in the 50's going to high school. Jack Warner used to preview his upcoming movies there.

There was an interview in the LA Times today with a Mr. Deramo, a chamber of commerce official. He discussed the possible purchase of the building by the city, but for a youth center, not a live theater. That would mean extensive remodeling and gutting of the interior, if it hasn't been gutted already.

The outside of it is so pretty, it reminds me of the Warner Theater in Torrington. If only the community can get together and fix it up, now that would be nice.

The Huntington Park Warner Theatre opened on November 19, 1930 according to research by Jimmie Hicks. Joe E. Brown was master of ceremonies. The opening film wa "The Life of the Party," a Vitaphone film in Technicolor.

Is this the theater featured near the end of "Ask the Dust"?
I know that most of the movie was shot in South Africa but the imdb lists LA as another filming location. Perhaps the interior shots were somewhere else but there is a brief shot of a Warner marquee.

This article is dated 11/24/29 from the LA Times. The Bank of Italy later became Bank of America.

Warners to Build Theater

Huntington Park - Probability that Warner Brothers will erect a theater here was indicated in the purchase this week of two lots on Pacific Boulevard at a price approximating $100,000. The lots which have a combined frontage of 114 feet and depth of 150 feet were owned by James O. Clutter of Los Angeles and George A. Law of San Clemente. It was reported that the purchase was made for the purpose of acquiring a theater site.

The two lots are centrally located on the east side of Pacific Boulevard south of the Chamber of Commerce offices and opposite the Montgomery Ward building. The are also near the site of the proposed Bank of Italy building.

I took some photos yesterday, which I will post later. There is a "For Lease" sign out front. The marquee has some holes in it. This theater has seen better days.

Here are the photos:
http://tinyurl.com/2fjjtm
http://tinyurl.com/25sl7b
http://tinyurl.com/yqg4tu
http://tinyurl.com/2z84hp
http://tinyurl.com/yrqu7f
http://tinyurl.com/276dht
http://tinyurl.com/2hqz38
http://tinyurl.com/29rv5w
http://tinyurl.com/2yx5cm
http://tinyurl.com/yuqcv6

This is a recent view of the Warner Huntington Park.

Wow! That is an awesome old theater! My Grandfather was there for the grand opening.

Still for lease.

Here is a December 1950 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/45omd5

Here is an excerpt from an LA Times story dated 9/18/54:

Huntington Park police were alerted to stand by for a possible riot last night after a giant picture tube burned out during the closed circuit telecast of the Marciano-Charles fight at the Stanley Warner Theater.

The theater's screen went blank at the start of the eighth round, before the knockout. Admission money had to be refunded. Paramount Downtown played to 85% of capacity. Fox Wilshire, Orpheum and Warners Downtown all reported 75% of capacity.

I remember that working there at that time as a doorman. People came out mad and demanded there money back. Most tickets were prepaid, so they couldnt refund the money, but they said to come back in the next weeks and get a full refund. They started the regular show to cool off the people, but that didnt work. It was scary.

Worked There

Worked there in the 50's.

I worked there too, afew times.

it was a great time, had 3-d movies. The change over to Cinemascope and stereo sound. Jack Warner previewed his movies there.

I got to work at four of the Warner houses in Southern California.
Hollywood Pacific (aka: Warner Hollywood)
Warner Beverly Hills
Warner Huntington Park
Wiltern

Wiltern was my favorite Warner theatre. You must have been a manager working in their theatres.

No just a projectionist.

What's your thought on the way projection booths are today? Looks like they need only one projectionest for their multi-flexs

Although the theatre and surrounding theatre have seen better days, it still is in pretty good shape inside. All the projection equipment has been removed. Two of the mezzanine chandeliers and much of the booth equipment can be seen in the Jim Carrey movie, THE MAJESTIC. Pacific rented that stuff to the studio for that production. The twinning of the theatre in the early 80's was done with some care and could be undone by someone with deep pockets.

replicmike, it all depends on how many screens in the complex. At this theatre one man could run both booths, but over at CityWalk before the Imax room it took two projectionists to run. And at some Pacific Drive-In locations that were nearby. They had one projectionist run both theatres, Studio Drive-In and Centinela Drive-In. Over in Glendale, Pacific had one man running the Roxy and Regency plus Mann's Alex Theatre. It's all in scheduling start times and timers.

Didn't the exterior for this theatre appear in Near Dark (showing Aliens)?

Growing up (during my Junior and High School days) in rival South Gate, I regularly came to Huntington Park to take in the movies at any of the three theaters that were so closely located on Pacific blvd. SG only had its drive-in and a small theater on Tweedy compared to HP's better commercial area. Later, I worked there as a part-time projectionist back in the mid-70's (I was in jr. college while my brother worked there full-time). Owned by an Armenian-American business man who also owned some other theaters (one of them might have been the Warners San Pedro). I have some fond memories of this place. When I was first there, it ran spanish-speaking or -dubbed movies. And, it had a weekly amateur night on their stage (the projectionists were then re-deployed to do the audio/microphone/spotlight support)--some of the singers were surprisingly good.

Later, the owner switched the content to popular U.S. movie releases and re-releases. It was an independent, but could, from time-to-time, get some first-run movies. My favorite of those was probably Eastwood's now recognized early great, The Outlaw Josey Wales. Heck, there were times I would go to the distributors and pick-up/return the reel cans! The two longest playing films there (during my time) were Jaws (6 weeks) and The Exorcist (4 weeks), both in re-release. They were there so long, the projectionist didn't need to watch the film cues for the changeovers. We could do it just by listening to the dialog (they played so long).

It also had roof-access from the projectionist booth. And that area served as the best location to view the annual Huntington Park Christmas Lane parade come each December. I left before the twin-screen renovation. I've been to and seen the Wiltern, San Pedro, Pantages, and other art-deco designed theaters, and the Huntington Park Warner (when it was in good shape) compared very favorably as a grand lady of movie theaters. I hope someone restores her to her previous glory.

Here is another photo of the Warner Huntington Park.

Here is a 1981 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/d554b5

1983 Photo

who owns this theatrical geme? anyone know?

The city is filled with talent, and nowhere to express it...can't we do something about that? is anyone on my page????

I'm glad I'm not the only one who remembers this beautiful lady fondly.

I've kicked around the idea the last couple of years of somehow buying the theater and showing classic films.....in similar fashion to the Bay Theater down in Seal Beach.

If only I didn't already owe so much on my college loans.