Fox Criterion Theatre
642 S. Grand Avenue,
Los Angeles,
CA
90017
642 S. Grand Avenue,
Los Angeles,
CA
90017
10 people
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Cabart Theaters Corp, Fox West Coast Theatres
Architects: William J. Dodd
Firms: Dodd & Richards
Styles: Neo-Classical
Previous Names: Kinema Theater, Criterion Theatre
Nearby Theaters
Opened as the Kinema Theater on December 15, 1917. By 1922 it had been equipped with a Robert Morton theatre organ which had a 5 manual console. It was taken over by West Coast Theatres and renamed Criterion Theatre on September 26, 1923 when it was reopened with the world premiere of the Charles Chaplin directed “A Woman of Paris” starring Edna Purviance. By June 1938 it had been renamed Fox Criterion Theatre when it had been taken over by Fox West Coast Theatres.
This theater was located at W. 7th Street and S. Grand Avenue – about four blocks away from the hustle and bustle of Broadway. The Criterion Theatre hosted the West Coast premiere of “The Jazz Singer”.
It was razed in 1941 and replaced by an office building.
Contributed by
William Gabel
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Recent comments (view all 60 comments)
Here is the LA theater lineup in 1908. It wasn’t until a few years later that they started differentiating between live theaters and movie theaters:
http://tinyurl.com/2bnoph
Thanks! Yep, I meant Tally’s New (ie first) Broadway as the candidate for first movie theatre on Broadway.
I’m now finding LA Times references to ‘Tally’s Kinema’ in late 1919… (Viz, Dec 5: ‘During his weekly executive session with the staffs of his two theaters, the Broadway and the Kinema…’)
Could this have been the ‘handsome and comfortable picture house’ he was dreaming about to the Times a year before (see my quote under Tally’s Broadway. But the quote makes it sound like he was intending to build a theatre, not take one over. And then – could he have retired in the ‘20s, and then resumed control of the Kinema? 'Tis most byzantine…
Indeed, he announced his acquisition on Sep 24 1919 (after which it is noted that he and his son Seymour locked their desks and went on a hunting trip to the mountains). On his way out he stated that the policy of the theater is to be materially advanced in every respect, with several changes to the stage and interior, as well as the front of the house, already being contemplated.
Post hunt, the famous Compani Tipica, Mexicana Orchestra, under direction of Miguel Lerdo de Tejada, Mexico’s greatest composer, was unveiled for an unlimited engagement at both Tally’s Kinema and Broadway theaters…
Thomas Tally’s off-and-on relationship with the Kinema/Criterion must have had a long run. I find numerous references in the California Index to a situation in 1935 in which it appears that Tally lost control of the theatre then regained it. However, in 1929 the house was clearly under Fox management, as on February 7 of that year The Times reported that its name would be changed to Fox Criterion (this was the period when William Fox put together the chain he would control for only a few years.) If Tally had hold of the place in 1919, then he must have lost it at least twice, altogether.
A reissue of D.W. Griffith’s classic “The Birth of a Nation” (1915) played at the Criterion about 1926, as evidenced by a Los Angeles Times ad (see link below). Unfortunately, I do not have the exact date of the ad, but I am guessing 1926 since the ad says that Rudolph Valentino in “The Son of the Sheik” (1926) is ending. And yes, that is a picture of a Klansman in the ad for “The Birth of a Nation”. That film was based on a novel called “The Clansman: An Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan”. Hmmm … I am so glad times have changed.
Here is the link to the LA Times Ad for “The Birth of a Nation” at the Criterion, probably 1926:
View link
Here is a January 1928 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/4o743f
Here is a 1925 ad from the LAT:
http://tinyurl.com/mgyvnu
Great history and photos and vintage ads.
At Google Books there is a November 15, 1919, issue of The Moving Picture World with a reference to Tally’s Kinema in Los Angeles, so Thomas Tally was definitely the operator of the house at that time.
Opening as Criterion on September 26th, 1923
Criterion theatre opening Wed, Sep 26, 1923 – 29 · The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, California) · Newspapers.com