Liberty 3 Cinemas
4266 Gage Avenue,
Bell,
CA
90201
4266 Gage Avenue,
Bell,
CA
90201
1 person
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Far West Theatres Inc., Fox West Coast Theatres
Architects: Julian T. Zeller
Styles: Oriental
Previous Names: Alcazar Theater, Bell Theater, Liberty Theater
Nearby Theaters
The Alcazar Theater was opened by the L. Lou Bard chain Far West Theatres Inc. in 1925. It was later taken over by Fox West Coast Theatres.
It was later known as the Bell Theater and finally the Liberty Theater when it was tripled on August 12, 1977. It was closed in the 1980’s and demolished.
Contributed by
William Gabel
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Recent comments (view all 31 comments)
It was changed, but not correctly, I don’t think. It should be Cinemas instead of Theaters.
I use to go to the ALCAZAR when I was a kid. From 1956 to 1960 it was a beautiful theater. Halloween was my favorite time with a real coffin and a live person in it:) What great memories. I think admission was thirty five cents at that time. My how times have changed.
My buddy and me use to sneak in the Alcazar on Friday nights in the late 60’s there was so much crud on the floor are shoes use to stick to it. Saw the movie Klute
there with Jane Fonda. It was my first nipple! God how we loved that place!
I worked at the Alcazar from 1952-1957 changing the marquee and as doorman. I started at .75 an hour as doorman and split $6 three ways for a year changing the marquee. Eventually I endured the departure of my friends and got the whole $6 a week for learning how to spell correctly actors names and titles (correctly). I remember my most difficult title word was “Pharaohs” for the movie “The Land of the Pharaohs.” Most difficult name was Barbara Stanwyck. I was so dedicated to the job that I started changing the California Theatre in Huntington Park also. It paid $10 a week. I got free passes for my friends too. Sometimes I’d charge them a cheaper price than the ticket… Mr. Rankin was the projectionist and I’d have to bring down the out going film in big cans. The theatre manager would have us paint the theatre lobby occasionally and change the posters. The posters had to be sent back after use, but I had to keep my favorite movie posters, “East of Eden” and “Rebel Without a Cause.” I continued changing marquees all over L.A. until 2007. I worked at the Universal CityWalk Cinemas from 1987 to 2007 and was being paid $330 weekly. Among all the other employments I had at the same time, I made more money changing marquees, than acting, directing, teaching, TV cue-cards, chicken truck driving, and modeling… I even have an old Alcazar check that was never cashed for $6.
I too used to go with my friends in the 70s. Things were so simple and fun. Great memories. I used to work across the street at Atlantic Lumber just behind the Dairy store. Does anyone have or know where I can find photos of Atlantic Lumber?
The story posted by kencmcintyre “Theater fight Ends In Death Of Two Youths” is totally false. The two boys who were murdered were my Dads friends. My Dad was there with them when the murders took place. Robert Haney and Billie Bogard did not block the doors in the washroom or say “We don’t like surfers around here”. They weren’t even together when they were stabbed. George Escobedo was a guy who you could say who was a little strange. He had a screw lose. My Dad knew him as well and told me he had always been on the weird side. My Dad and Robert Haney were standing next to each other in the lobby of the movie theatre and Escobido stabbed Robert Haney in the back. He stabbed Billie Bogard in the washroom. Haney and Bogard were not together when they were stabbed. They did not fuel the fire to any type of fight. It was done by Escobido because Escobido was in my own opinion, mentally disturbed. I just wanted to set the record straight on this story. The two guys who were murdered were good boys and friends of my Dads. They should not have lost their lives and then lied about.
All are very interesting comments, but CHinz1978 comment adds to the “Macabre” feeling I have of the theater, I was fortunate to watch The Excorsist, Rosemary’s Baby, Beyond the Door and other horror and Sci-Fy flicks at The Alcazar like The Omega Man, Andromeda Strain and Soylent Green. Urban Legand states some kids were killed there but that’s all I ever knew. What I am actually commenting on is this, My family and I went to the Alcazar starting about 1965-66, when my brothers and I were about 7-10 years old, mom and dad would drop us off and we’d see movies like Jungle Book, Lady and the Tramp and Song of the South. We would sit anywhere we wanted too, then The Sylmar Quake hit in February of 1971, the theater did ok as far as any heavy damgage concerns but after that the huge and beautiful chandelier I was once in awe of I was now terrified of, after looking up at it during the first movie back since the quake I shriked with terror about the thought of that thing coming down on me and never sat under it again. Like I said, “The macabre feeling” about the Alcazar is rooted in me from a youngster, and that’s what I love most about my connection with it.
A footnote to the stabbing incident: George Escobedo, 15 had moved from San Antonio TX in 1964 to live with his sister in Huntington Park. He was well known to juvenile authorities in Texas, and had been involved in a stabbing there as well, according to news reports of the Alcazar murders. In 2008, a 59 year old George Escobedo was killed by fellow gang members in San Antonio.
This reopened as a triplex cinema on August 12th, 1977.
Grand opening ad in Spanish posted.