California Theatre

In it's later years this theatre ran Spanish movies. Before it closed the California theatre was part of the Pussycat theatre chain. The theatre has been razed.

Part of the early '80s Richard Gere film "Breathless" was shot here.

Razing of the theatre began in 1989. The facade and marquee looked just like the above photo right until the end.

what is the address

To answer the previous user's question in general: The California was on Main St., a block or so Southeast of the Broadway theatre district.

Main Street was the original theatre district for Downtown LA, and when it was eclipsed by the bigger palaces on Broadway, became a burlesque and cut-rate movie district, though the California maintained a degree of class longer than its neighbors.

The California Theatre was located at 810 S. Main Street.

The street address should be changed from Market to Main Street.

The California Theatre opened in 1918 as Miller's California Theater, the architect was A.B. Rosenthal and it had a seating capaicty of 1,650. It was at this theatre, leased at the time (1919) to Sam Goldwyn, that the famous showman 'Roxy' Rothaphel was brought in to manage the stage shows, prior to him moving to New York>>>but that's another story.

The actual opening date of the California Theater was 24th December 1918. It closed as a Pussycat Theater in January 1988.

Hello from Colorado!
My God Father owned the Pussycat Chain. I am collecting ANY memrobilia to save befor all is lost. I would really like to find a old Pussycat Marquee..you know, the oval w/ the Ms. Pussycat and "It's a Pussycat Theatre". If you have any information, please let me know.
Thanks!
tbdavid@msn.com
970.309.3991

Does anyone know what happened to the ticket box? It was completely covered with Batchelder tiles, with two tile parrots on either side and aluminum frames and detailing for the windows and molding.
I had hired two fellows to help me take it when they were demolishing the building, but someone swiped it during the night/early morning. Cleveland Wrecking and the L.A. theatre Conservancy , who were also after it , also dont know what happened to it. I have a feeling it wound up in some west-side backyard.

Here are two photos that I found of the California Theatre:
http://www.geocities.com/los_angeles_coast/CaliforniaTheatreMainSt.jpg

http://www.geocities.com/los_angeles_coast/CaliforniaTheatreMainStAud.jpg

A low rise retail unit named '8th & Main' (with parking on the roof) has now been built on the land previously occupied by the California Theatre.

Here is a photo from 1918, courtesy of the LA Library:

http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015260.jpg

CALLING ALL THEATRE / MOVIE ENTHUSIASTS!!!

T'he Los Angeles Theatre' on South Broadway, LA is playing host to the UK television show 'Dead Famous LIVE'. We are currently looking for people who would like to come along as part of the studio audience.

'Dead Famous LIVE' is a studio entertainment show all about Hollywood History and the paranormal. We will be welcoming celebrity guests on to the show and investigating famous locations around Hollywood which are rumoured to be haunted including the Los Angeles Theatre itself.

This is an invaluable chance to get access to the Los Angeles Theatre, the place where Charlie Chaplin's 'City Lights' premiered in 1931 and to have a thoroughly great day out! (And its free!!)

We're transmitting 'Live' back to the United Kingdom so expect it to be exciting and fun!

We will be filming on three days from 11th - 13th November between 11.30am - 4pm. If you are interested in coming on one or all of these days then email me for tickets!

george.hughes@twofour.co.uk

I look forward to your responses!

A William Reagh photo:

http://helios.library.ca.gov/soca/reagh/1990-0657.jpg

I walked by 810 S. Main the other day. There is a small nondescript building occupying the site, with a few retail businesses on the ground floor. No comparison.

I watched the 1983 version of "Breathless" last night. One scene takes place in the projection room and then in the audience. The seats were green, and the interior looked worn down. The film playing during the scene was "Gun Crazy", a noir classic from 1949. Later on, Richard Gere and Valerie Kaprisky (a babe) leave the theater, and there is a shot of the neon marquee, but not of the exterior of the theater. That's about it.

Before Miller's California Theatre was built, there was a Miller's Theatre a few doors farther south on Main Street. It can be glimpsed in this ca1917 photograph from the USC digital archive. The theatre's rooftop sign is just below right center of the picture, and the top of the marquee just below that. A building on the left side of the street features a large, painted ad for the theatre on its wall.

This interior photo from 1919 is labeled only "Interior stage of Miller's Theater". I don't know to which Miller's Theater the LA Library is referring.

http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015414.jpg

I thought they saved the building's exterior when it was demolished. Not the case?

Spanish movie premiere:
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics18/00028668.jpg

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics07/00013128.jpg


And yet another one from the prolific LAPL database. Complete with trolley.

Here are some additional photos, apparently from 1918 to 1928:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015259.jpg
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015261.jpg
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015265.jpg

Here is another photo, probably from the 1940s:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics07/00013128.jpg

Sorry, that was a duplicate of someonewalksinla's post. Apologies.

Before they razed it I was able to take out about twenty seats from the interior. Me and my crew were let in by the owners, and were given permission to take anything we could remove. We almost took some of the curtains, but on closer inspection, they were pretty much decayed and moldy from severe leaks. The leaking roof also destroyed the Grand piano in the orchestra pit.We removed all of the spots, and parts of the projector and about 50 35MM film reels.Sometime during its shutdown and being boarded up before it was demolished, homeless bums snuk in and completely trashed the place...starting fires inside the Grand Piano....defecating/urinating everywhere....trash and food and needles all over....it was a real mess.We walked the catwalk over the stage(three stories high, verry scarry), and thats where we saw how messed up the 5 or 6 curtains were. One of the curtains had a magnificent painting on it, a pastoral scene, most likely from its days as a vaudeville house, but the lousy water had ruined it. Each of those curtains weighed about 1000 lbs., very heavy! Another looked like the curtains in the stage from the original King Kong. We did manage to prepare the beautiful ticket booth for removal. It was aluminum trimmed, curved glass, with Batchelder Tiles with a Palm/Parrott motif.During the night, someone swiped it. My sources in Cleveland Wrecking dont know what happened to it, and the L.A. Thetatre Conservancy, who also had the hots for it, denied taking it. I tell ya something, theatre fans, I'm getting closer to finding it now that I found a "little birdie"...and you know, it will feel great when I finally set it up in my backyard, but it will be nothing like the satisfaction I'll get when I rip the guy's head off who took it.....

That's an interesting story. I think sometimes we have romantic ideas about some of these old theaters, but the reality is that some can be saved and others have to be demolished for practical, safety and financial reasons.

You know, Ken, if the owners were only able to hold out for a few years more, it could have been saved. There were certain political and finacial situations involving the owners , which seemed intractable at the time ...but which later proved to be of no consequence. But of course, to what purpose? It wasnt the big beautiful type of palace found on Broadway. It had a semi-interesting facade, and a mostly plain interior. Still, I would have much preferred it taken over as a Mexican Bazaar or Korean church than be demolished.

Here's another interesting story, concerning the California. You know how everyone thinks the Theatre Conservancy is such an altruistic bunch of folks....well...think again!! When it was announced that it would be sold and razed, the Theatre Conservancy filed an injunction to stop the demolition. Back and forth the owners, the city, and Conservancy haggled over its fate. It was costing the owners a pretty penny to have their construction/demolition/business plans delayed by the injunction.One day, the owners received a call from the top people at the Conservancy. It seem that the Conservancy folks would let the owners demolish the building under one condition.....that the Conservancy would be given dibs at taking out any architecturaly significant fixtures, lights, seats, curtains, equpiment....objects'd'art, etc, even the ticket booth. The owners, needless to say were enraged that the only reason for the injuction had been to allow the L.A. Theatre Conservancy the rights to plunder, and not to save the theatre....but they agreed, in order to proceed with their business. Of course the double-cross took place when the owners gave me the keys a full week before the Conservancy was to receive them. This was the owners way of getting a bit of revenge, and it was a good one. When the Conservancy guys walked in a week later, almost everything had been stripped by me and my crew. We watched the amusing scene from across the street at Joey's Coffee Shop....the Conservancy guys had brought a bunch of west-side yuppies in TWO U-HAUL trucks!!!! HAHA!! You should have been there!!!!

What is being referred to as the Los Angeles Theatre Conservancy is actually the Los Angeles Conservancy. At the time of the demolition of the California Theatre, there was another organization, the Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation, which had been formed a few years before and which desparately tried to prevent the demolition, but lacked the clout of the LAC. Also, the less than sterling performance of the LAC in this instance (essentially by it's executive director at that time) was not well received by the membership and board of that organization. For that, and a number of other reasons, the responsible individuals were sacked and the organization has since gotten back on track as a highly effective advocate for preservation in the L.A. area. It's annual film series, Last Remaining Seats, has continued to bring public attention to the remaining theatres on Broadway and has, I believe, had much to do with their continuing preservation and even, in several cases, their restoration as viable performance spaces.

Still...you should have been there.

I was in this house a couple of times for projection equipment service calls for my employer, Walnut Properties/Pussycat Theatres. If I remember correctly, the projection booth was on the main floor. Does anyone know if that was the original location of the projection booth? or was it moved there in the latter days of the house? I'm very sorry I never got the chance to explore this wonderful old house as I did so many of the other old houses that the company ran.

The California Theater was also once home to radio station KNX which moved there in 1922 from the home of Fred Christian who founded the station in 1920 as 6ADZ, later KGC. The KNX call letters were assigned the station when it moved to the theater. The Los Angeles Times reported on June 24, 1922...

"Those who listened in between 9:15 and 10 p.m. Thursday and Friday nights on 510 meters may have been surprised to have heard KNX, the California Theater station, on the air. Two splendid programs were given at this time by special permission wherein music from the California Theater fifty-piece orchestra was sent out very successfully.

"Heretofore the transmission of orchestra music has not been done to advantage in Los Angeles, but apparently the new microphones used by KNX are adequate for the purpose. Reports state the orchestra went our almost perfectly.

"Even Wally Reid, who recently installed a receiving set at his home in Belvedere, phoned in to express his appreciation. The microphones used were of special design and placed in the center of the balcony in such a position as to be in the center of sounds coming from the stage which was fifty feet away."

The projector could have been on the second floor at one time, behind the upstairs office. There seemed to be a newer wall facing the stage that could have been covering the old projection area. One thing of note, there was a piano in the upstairs office, probably from the vaudeville days. This was too damaged to save. The projection booth as it was when the building was demolished, was on the first floor behind the snack bar, and you had to walk up three concete steps to get in, so it was a little more elevated from the ground floor, on a built-up concrete slab. The second floor office area was a real pip. The windows faced out on Main street,unfortunately, the buildings across the street obscured the view of the skyline, but still, it was a great little space. I managed to salvage( hey, that rhymes) 5 really nice 1940's vintage metal bookcases from this office, as well as Stickley desk (it was pretty much well thrashed but cleaned up and restored well), a Stickley office chair , two metal office chairs(60s vintage), and a 60 vint metal desk. There was also on big wooden shelf unit that had a Lifetime decal on the inside, but it was a total loss. Bums had used it as a toilet/fireplace.

We took out the original fixtures which were pretty nice once I took about 5 layers of paint off. I remember that weekend, I had a 102 fever. Oh, and I also stripped all the lenses off the projector. WE were going to take the projector( those things are MONSTERS!), but the fellow that was supposed to dismantle it flaked out at the last minute. The last time I saw it Cleveland Wrecking had flattened it. I got the door knobs and push plates as well. If I hadn't had that damned fever, I would have taken more seats, those were hard to take out. I needed a chisel and hammer to bust them off the cement floor. One more thing. The tiles on the sides of the ticket booth were not Batchelder, as I once thought. I researched it a little more and now I think they were Taylor. But here's the thing, Taylor and most of the tileries that made the "Parrot" tile murals, date from the late 1920's or later and the theatre was built in 1918, so I figure the tiles were added at a later date. In my opinion, the aluminum facing was probably added in the 1940's. Hey Michael Linder...outstanding story...it seems that there was more to the California than met the eye. Damn, too bad they knocked it down. We can never let down our guard when it comes to saving what is left. When I walk around a European city, a city back east, or even a NorCal town, the layers of history just smack you in the face. here in L.A., there are these huge gaps in the continuity. Thank God we still have our old downtown.

Thanks glovedude. I always had a feeling that the projection booth was originally somewhere else in the house. As I say, I really regret that I never had the time to explore this theatre.

Hey, there was a theatre in the Cypress park area of L.A., catty-cornered from Nightengale Middle school. It had been used as a sweat shop or warehouse for years, now I believe its a store or restaraunt. It still has its original Moorish facade. I wonder if anyone knows anything about it, I mean, what it was in its heyday. Its on 3232 North Figueroa. Hey, do I get credit for finding a new/old theatre? Do I get anything?

No credit. The theatre in question is the former Fox Arroyo Theatre.

http://cinematreasures.org/theater/3480/

Not even a bag of popcorn???

ok........you can have butter too.......... :)

Hooray!!! Hey William, I'll try and upload a new photo on the Fox Arroyo today. Its got a new business inside, and I believe they changed the address from the original 3236 to 3232, but I am not sure so I'll go by there today. I saw the comments by Joe Vogel on the theatre link. Its true that this place is surrounded by a great many historical residences, and not just Heritage Square. Highland Park/Cypress Park was one of the first suburbs of Los Angeles and has a plethora of interesting buildings , houses and sites of historical interest spanning many periods. And its an area blessed with several nice theatres, like the Highland further up Fig, and the Rialto in South Pas.

From the LA Times, 9//5/90:

The owners of the California Theatre-real estate investors and brothers Steve, Mark and Dennis Needleman-contend that they cannot rehabilitate the theater. They said they plan to convert the theater grounds at Main and 8th streets into a parking lot.

[Hillsman Wright]'s group disagrees. The foundation, which envisions the theater as part of a revived downtown entertainment district, argues that a rehabilitated California Theatre could spur economic growth in the surrounding neighborhood.

The California Theatre, the beaux-arts movie palace that was once a gem of the city's downtown theater district, is to be razed late this week and the site used for a parking lot. Some preservationists believe the owners are not trying hard enough to save the structure at Main and 8th streets, above. But the owners contend it cannot be rehabilitated.

Thanks for the posting, Ken MC, I have the same one around here somewhere. I'm sure you'll agree that it just goes to show how limited , as far as telling the whole story, that the snippet-journalism of media can be. For insatnce, the California was never considered a gem of the theatre district. Certainly the facade was beautiful, but if was a mere concrete box inside. Second, the so-called Hillsman-Wright group never really meant to rehabilitate the theatre, but merely wanted to loot and carry away as many architectural details as possible, or use the theatre for their own purpose, in essence, using the law to steal private property under the guise of historic preservation. As for the assertion that the Needlemans were not trying hard enough to preserve the structure, this is a definite canard and misreprentation of the truth, as we know now. The Needlemans, who at the time were known as the DENMARST company, were not a hugely wealthy limited, but a mediun-sized real
estate business. Tye were faced with a choice of rehabilitating the
Orpheum, a REAL and BONAFIDE movie palace, and the California, a water and earthquake damaged building that could have taken several million to re-hab. The Needlemans chose to rehab the Orpheum, which has now been brought back to its glory days, and IT has become THE centerpiece of the center-city rehabilitation. The Hillsman Wright group did manage to blackmail the Needlmans by slapping the Denmarst company with so many legal injunctions, which ended up costing the Needlemans hundreds of thousands of dollars in construction delays.
The so-called "preservationists" contacted Denmarst with the blackmail offer, in which Hillsman Wright, the Historic Theatre Preservation group and their cronies would drop all injunctions and the Needlemans were free in demolishing the theatre if the Needlemans would pay a donation/bribe of several hundred thousand dollars. This the Denmarst did, if only to stop bleeding money and resources. One of the stipulations was that the "Theatre Conservancy" agency would have first dibs on all the interior objets d'art, architectural details, seats, projector, lights, curtains, etc....however, the Needlemans, to their credit, gave me the keys a week before , and my crew and I were able to STRIP the theatre before the Conservancy folks got to it.In any case, kudos to landowners like the Needlmans, who are the REAL HEROES of downtown revitalization, and not these west-side blackmailers and artsy-fartsy looters!!!

Under new management (LA Times, 11/8/19)

Golden success crowns the Goldwyn regime at the California at last night's brilliant opening of that theater under the new management, with Geraldine Farrar in "Flame of the Desert" as the feature, be any criterion. Crowds swarmed to the doors long before the house opened at 3 o'clock, and waited in two block-long lines up and down Main street.

Christmas Day, 1918 (LA Times):

HAIL TO THE CALIFORNIA.
The Beautiful New Miller Theater Holds a Merry Christmas Eve.

Miller's wonderful new motionpicture theater is open at last! All Los Angeles has been awaiting the great event, and last night, Christmas Eve, Main street was the most brilliant thoroughfare of our town, ablaze with lights, thronged with automobiles, jammed with pedestrians--and lights, machines and people were all focussed on one spot, the handsome white facade of the splendid new California Theater.

Way back in December of 2005, I linked to a photo from the USC digital archives showing this block before the California was built, but which showed the earlier Miller's Theatre down the block. The picture has been moved here. Unfortunately, USC has abandoned the scroll feature they once had, so the amount of detail viewers can get is now limited, but you can still make out the Miller's marquee and rooftop sign on the dark, three story building at far right.

Check out the long gone old-world fountain where Main separates from Spring in that photograph. That disappears from the record around the 30s. Those are the little touches that make a city, a city. Many of our landmarks or architectural details disappeared during the development madness of the 60s and 70s. There are huge gaps in the natural architectural progression of our city, but luckily and inexplicably in some cases, so much has survived. I remember back in the 70s and 80s, so many buildings near the historic core and older neighborhoods were demolished( many of these structures built in the 1890-1900s) and no effort was made to salvage any important details. I remember wrecking balls smashing into two-story high stained glass windows and ornate neon marquees with a mechanical indifference that was mirrored in the eyes of developers. That "look" is STILL there. If the city would relax some of the square-footage and commercial tax issues that hamstring preservation efforts, without having commercial entertainment and private parties ( bogus preservation groups)taking advantage of it at the expense of the taxpayers, THAT would go a long way to putting the profit of developers in a permanent back-seat to the interests of the public. It is our birth-right.Citizens of European cities, residents of Boston, San Fran, San Diego, New York, and cities , towns and hamlets across the country can take a walk on their streets and witness layers of historical architecture. We still have most of our layers. Unless dictated by extraordinary circumstances, there should be zero demolition of any historic structure,especially of theaters.
(Yes Kenny, I guess the Cal was a "gem".....for about 6 months anyway, or until the REAL palaces were built up on Broadway).

Interesting that the theater was already showing Latino films in 1950. On January 22, the features were "Pecado de Laura" and "Novia del Mar".

Here is a 1935 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/2f29k2

Another view, same date:
http://tinyurl.com/2zr9rv

I cant get those last photos. Concerning the Latino films...latinos were allowed on Main by that time. Old-timers tell me that latinos and blacks were not allowed on Broadway or the surrounding city center until after the 1940s. One old latino gent told me that if you were black or latino, you needed a permission slip to be in the area from your employer or you would be arrested, escorted out, or beat-up by the police and passers-by. But by the 50s, this was no longer deemed feasable or proper, and much of downtown opened up to blacks and latinos. Interesting to note, in some John Fante and Raymond Chandler novels set in the 40s, the area bordering Main was already looked upon as run-down and even referred to as "skid-row".

If you go to the Banner theater page, you will read an article in the LA Times from the mid 30s about Skid Row and how bad it was at that time. Kind of surprising.

According to the LA Times, Fred Miller began showing "talkie films" in Spanish in August 1930.At that time the theater was called the "California International Theater".

Interesting article on PUSSYCAT....

http://www.sdreader.com/php/cover.php?mode=article&showpg=1&id=20070621

The California was not a drive-in:
http://tinyurl.com/2ltuyj

A Robert-Morton theater organ was installed in Miller's California Theater in 1917.

Here is a 1919 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/36733j

For the record and to correct gross misrepresentations posted on the loss of the California by garagehero, here we go. The LA Historic Theatre Foundation was formed as an all-volunteer organization dedicated to the protection, preservation, rehabilitation and sustenance of Southern California's historic theatres. Among the founding members were John E. Miller, David Cameron and Tom Owen - the three grand old men of LA's theatres and Hillsman Wright, who was responsible for saving the Memphis Orpheum in the late 1970's. The LA Conservancy's first Last Remaining Seats series in 1997 was organized and executed by a committee of 8, 6 of whom were founding LAHTF members. At the same time, more theatres closed on Broadway than in any year since the Great Depression. Very simply, these theatre aficionados believed a specialized organization was required to address the crisis, raise awareness and protect the structures. Their position was to oppose the demolition and/or substantial alteration of any of the Broadway District theatres (there were 17 then) until a comprehensive study could be conducted to determine the best approach for saving and using the theatres for the benefit of all. For whatever reason, LA was far out of the mainstream of the major national theatre rehab movement. Maintaining a close relationship with and employing the freely offered advice and expertise of theatre members and professionals of the League of Historic American Theatres (LHAT), the LAHTF was chartered to own, operate, program, preserve and raise public awareness. The LAHTF immediately nominated all theatres in the Broadway district not previously designated as LA Cultural Historic Landmarks. Like most toothless and largely un-enforced local landmark ordinances, in the event of a proposed demolition, the best that could be hoped for was a temporary delay to try to convince the owners of the benefits of saving their theatre or to find a buyer who would. The California was given this protection. No court injunctions were ever filed by the LAHTF or anyone else. While DENMARST, run by the Needleman sons, owned the California, the primary player was their father Jack, who at that time was reputed to be the largest private property owner in downtown LA. His historic buildings primarily housed the garment manufacturing business. Along the way, he acquired buildings that just happened to have theatres in them, which were generally operated by Metropolitan Theatres. Money was not a limiting circumstance with this family and the statement that the family lost "hundreds of thousands of dollars in construction delays" is simply false. There was never an either/or choice between the Orpheum and California rehabs. Steve Needleman rehabbed the Orpheum years later - after the death of his father and after Metropolitan no longer operated the Orpheum. The LAHTF never contacted the Needlemans demanding a pay-off. Garagehero must be referring to a large contribution made to the LA Conservancy during this time by Jack Needleman. As far as the stripping of the California is concerned, the LAHTF was contacted by the Needleman family after demolition of the roof had begun. In what was viewed as a conciliatory gesture and with only one day's notice, the LAHTF was offered any and all objects remaining in the building that could be removed the next day for their own preservation and disposition. Many of the "pieces" removed are still in storage awaiting proper display and re-use. One wonders what public benefit has been or will be derived from the "pieces" removed by garagehero and his crew and we must question who the true “looters” are.
The comments above argue eloquently for the historic importance of the California beyond its beautiful terra-cotta facade. Roxy! In LA! Unfortunately, Graumann's Million Dollar Theatre on Broadway opened soon after the California and even Roxy could not alter the movement of the theatre district westward to Broadway.
The LAHTF has been largely responsible for saving dozens of historic theatres throughout Southern California. It hosted two national historic theatre conferences - on Broadway - to bring the best practices and national expertise available to bear on the extraordinary opportunities this collection of theatres offers to LA, the nation and the world. LAHTF members were drawn from throughout LA, Southern California, and even internationally (New Zealand and England). Garagehero does himself, the theatre district, this web site and thousands of historic theatre aficionados around the world a grave disservice by disseminating what can only charitably be called misinformation about the struggle to save the California. Rather than impugn the efforts of knowledgeable, public-spirited preservation advocates, such as the volunteers of the LAHTF, garagehero would likely be better served by seeking the facts rather than trusting what is clearly a fading, highly prejudiced and faulty memory of events. Disclaimer: like garagehero, gerew is getting older and 18 years after the events discussed above may have missed a detail or two. However, gerew was there for the hearings, the hassles, the "stripping", and even the death threats. Full disclosure: gerew was a founding member of the LAHTF Board.

gerew, your memory of the California/Orpheum timeline is skewed, at best.
As for your statement that ," many of the pieces removed are still in storage awaiting proper display and re-use"...your own people have told me that those pieces, they FEW and insignificant ones you were able to pilfer, ARE on display currently....in select members households and backyards, perhaps maybe even YOURS???
I have no beef with the current preservationists, only with the lackey looters and the blackmailers of 20 years ago and no amount of shrill whining by gerew will change that.By the way....I saw and read with MY OWN eyes the legal papers concerning the injunctions, you sniveling wiggler.
I personaly knew the Needlemans and that family really hated your guts, for not negotiating in good faith, for the injunction, for the hundreds of thousands lost in the course of the delay.
By the way....who the heck got the ticket booth....it wasnt the "Man in the red cap", who made off with several pieces of the interior detail (no doubt bound for west-side art dealers), it wasnt the Needlemans, it wasnt Cleveland Wrecking, the foreman at the time was a frend of mine.....so who got the booth???? I had already loosened it from the substrate and some turd-suckers ripped it off during the night. All I found was broken piece of the "parrot" Hispano-Moresque tiles the next morning who would cause such damage to those wonderful tiles???
Perhaps some....."preservationists"?????

IF an injunction was filed with the court, it definitely was not filed by the LAHTF, LAC, CRA, Cultural Heritage or other public players in the drama. A reporter for the Downtown News, who covered the theatre beat at that time, backed a pick-up to the demolition site and got the central metal arch with "California" from the marquee and two capitals from the front facade terra cotta columns. One went to NJ with a pal of his and the other, who knows? 10 years ago, the marquee piece found its way to Heaven or Las Vegas, a neon prop house still extant in Mar Vista. The huge murals, added later, of Santa Ana and ?, thanks largely to Al Nodal,made their way to the Latino Museum collection. I should be able to dig up more info next week as to what else is around and where. Part of the final settlement that was reached with the Needlemans by the City of Los Angeles, through their agents, the Cultural Heritage Commission and the CRA, was that artifacts would be saved and displayed at the building that replaced the theatre. Of course, this didn't happen. For a time, there was a display window built into the Main st. facade where photos and a brief hitory were on display. This is no longer the case. Perhaps, you could get the Needlemans and the CRA to consider getting that display back up. We could work together to locate any "pieces" appropriate for display. The two balcony chandelier bowls - about four feet across - are in storage in Hollywood. We might even be able to track down the facade pieces that would fit into the display niche. So yes, the "preservationists" have "preserved" what others would have consigned to the scrap heap. The box office was gone by the time I got there. There was a gaping hole in the roof and workmen were on site throwing roofing material through the hole to a large pile in the orchestra floor. Who knows what else is out there? It's hard to understand your use of "pilfer", when the folks there, that fateful day, were there at the invitation of the owners. Just like you. Bottom line: Steve Needleman did a woderful thing for this city when he used family funds to do a partial Orpheum restoration. The theatre looks great, seems to be very busy and sets an example for what is possible with the rest of the theatres. If that is the legacy of the demolition of the California, it all didn't come out too badly, after all.

" when the folks there, that fateful day, were there at the invitation of the owners. Just like you."

But given permission ( and the keys) a week earlier. Appernetly he TRUSTED us a bit more, wouldnt you say?

Steve Needleman didnt need prodding from any johnny-come-lately so-called preservationist group to do what he did. The Needlemans have been doing that all along. Steve's restoration, and indeed, the ownership and upkeep of the Orpheum predates any drives by the LAHTF, LAC, CRA, and Historical groups. My beef is not against ANY legit historical preservation outfit that seeks to save any and all the architecturally and historicaly significant buildings in Los Angeles. There are huge gaps in our architectural history, which in turn, I believe, negatively affects our overall quality of life.
There have been times when I misspoke, and I have apologized.....such as the time I blamed a Hollywood historical group of breaking of some details from the Hollyhock House. That was done, as I found out later, done by a rogue member( the man in the red cap and infamous west-side antiques dealer), my arch-nemesis, my Beloch, for these past 30 years. You seem to have good intentions, but are equally naive of the inner workings of city government and special interest groups. And I have seen one too many details and pieces wind up in the living rooms of these self same "preservationists". The same whose shrill voices we hear at the meetings. The sane who file use blackmail to secure a bit of memorabilia for themselves and decor.
The only legacy that was brought about by the destruction of the California was that we have another parking lot downtown and several parties claiming to be Indiana Jones( only ONE JONES here pal, and thats been me for the past 30 years!) St.Vibiana might be a victory, has the taxpayers of L.A. not been forced to pay so that it would be turned over private ownership/enetprise as a private MTV-like venue...believe me, had I known THAT would happen....better that it be demolished!!!!
I have a bone to pick you might say....yeah, you might say. Preservation has been my calling ever since my dad took us all to dinner one Sunday, and we returned to our apartment( my dad was the manager), only to discover the two giant aqua blue oil jars on the front stoops had been stolen. We found one later that week in a west-side antique shop, priced at $1200 no less!
The owner of that shop, I might add, has been one of the leading "preservationists" in Los Angeles for the past 20 years.

What death threats did you receive gerew, I'm curious.

Hello

Just wrote two long responses, which the site apparently ate. Been to the last picture show at the NuWilshire (1931) designed by Cooper, who also did the Roxie. Our favorite death threat was left on the answering machine. I still have the tape. It's hilarious! Die Yuppie Scum, we know where you live, watch your back, etc. The death threat was one thing, being called a Yuppie was unendurable. The LAPD thought it was funny, too, though there was not much they could do for us. But that was so many years ago. AS far as I'm concerned, Steve has committed a perfect act of contrition with the Orpheum. May he and it grow and prosper. I shook his hand and told him the same on more than one occasion. How can we go forward from here and make the rest of Broadway happen?

I'm sure Steve washed his hand with Clorox after that...yikes!!!
But seriously....Why were they threatening you? I was threatened with a gun once while collecting old balustrades from a demolished West Adams manse. The dude was a picker for antique dealers.

Hey gerew, you said the fellow called you a "yuppie"? Maybe it was Charles Bukowski, that dude hated yuppies and gays with a vengeance
and I guess you had the bad luck to fit the bill on both counts....just kidding...I had an anonymous caler threaten me once, not with death, but with pain. He said he was from J & S Salvage, and he accused me of taking the infamous booth( I lied just to piss him off and told him that I had, HA!). The boob tells me that "we will meet in a dark alley someday". Can you believe that??? Hey, maybe it was a come-on and not a threat. HAHA! What a wiggler. I checked with my pals at Cleveland Wrecking, and guess what, no "J&S Salvage" existed. He called me few times after that and in his increasingly irrational threats he accused me of stealing plants from the Hollywood Bowl...WTF???? Like I said....what a wiggler.
So dude....keep up the good work....you seem like one of the good ones.

Hey gerew....(just to rub it in)....I got about 50 seats ( the originals, not the later replacements downstairs) from the California in my mother's basement....want to swap for something????

I recall this place. My dad took us here when we were kids. He brought to us to several of the downtown movie houses during the 1970s. Five Fingers of Death and all that. But I remember this one for different reasons.I lived in Los Angeles until recently,but back then, I rented a space across the street from the place around the time they tore it down. Such a shame. But I know what garageguy and gerew are talking about. Oh garageguy, I know what you are trying to do. You are trying to smoke the guy out. The fellow who took the booth. You're a sly devil. Hope you catch him.Dont be to harsh with gerew, he seems like a great and sincere person, you control yourself now, boy.
My question is as follows. My family have been Angelenos since the late 1890s, and my great grandfather and grandfather both worked in movie houses. My dad was an usher too. I recall my great grandfather in moments of rare lucidity tell me stories about working in Nickelodeons. Here is my query. He told me had worked in several moviehouses that arenot listed in Cinema Treasures. One that sticks out in my mind is the Palms. I guess he worked there around 1910-1918. Its not listed, however, there are other Palms listed, but not the right one. The reason I recall this is because the family lived off of Temple street at the time, in a long demolished wooden tenement , and my dad said that greatgramps used to cross the street to go to work, so that would put it on the corner of Temple and Union or Belmont. Gramps would recall that the place , even then, was a "rowdy joint". Is it possible that it was a Nickleodeon and not a movie house? Anybody know?

Well, it seems that garagehero was right all along. The L.A. Times and the Daily News reported recently that the L.A. Conservancy just finished blackmailing the LAUSD to the tune of 10 million dollars, thats $10,000,000 that the children/students of Los Angeles will be deprived of. Here's the kicker, cinema fans...most of the students in or near downtown Los Angeles are latino, so that makes the L.A. Conservancy a RACIST organization as well. They would have never tried that in the Valley. Keep up the good work, garagehero!!!!

I'm working in a documentary film about theaters that exhibited Spanish films, like the California, anyone interested in sharing some of its history?

Mr. Patikin, I would like you to contact me
alebouza@aol.com

Here is a photo of the box office, circa mid 70s:
http://tinyurl.com/2ztsgz

Here is a 1956 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/2yhrp7

New book-length Pussycat Theatre history from the San Diego Reader:
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2008/aug/07/pussycat-theater-history-when-cathouses-ruled-ca-n/

Here is part of an LA Times story dated 3/20/22:

CALIFORNIA THEATER HELD UP

While the house was crowded with patrons, two self-asserted ex-servicemen out of work, held up the office staff of the California Theater near the busy corner of Eighth and Main streets shortly before 10 o'clock last night and robbed the office safe of $12,000.

The bandits, after gaining entrance through the cloak room by a ruse, bound the hands of S. Levy, in charge of the office, and R. Ortega, clerk in the cloakroom, with strong wrapping cord.

"We don't want your money", one declared. "It's the company's money we want. Don't be worried, we won't trouble you if you don't trouble us while we're getting it". After they took the money, the bandits fled through a door opening from the office onto Main Street. The robbery was accomplished so that no one outside of the office knew what was taking place.

Rip off the company and leave the regular people alone. Its nice to hear that some thieves had integrity. That probably wouldn't happen today.

Here's a nifty ad from May, 1930, with the theatre identified as Fred Miller's New California. A British import released in the USA by Tiffany Pictures, "High Treason" was set ten years in the future, with Los Angeles potentially the next target after New York City had been destroyed in an aerial attack. I don't know if that was actually depicted in the movie, or just advertising gone berserk.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/california530.jpg
http://www.mjsimpson.co.uk/reviews/hightreason.html

Here is a 1980 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/csnhpw

This USC photo from the late 1930s shows the back end of the theater, looking from Eighth Street:
http://tinyurl.com/d9ssbz

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

Hey everybody, local South Pas kid and amateur filmmaker, R.D.Hall, will be premiering him Noir Horror/Gangster movie at the Rialto theatre in South Pasadena on May 8th, 2009. The One-Sheet was created by another South Pas kid, local art legend, Jimi(not the tattoo artist)Martinez. Admission is free, as is the popcorn and refreshments. Whoa! Friday night at the movies!!! Lets all go support indie filmmaking...Rialto rocks!!!

1981 Photo

1983 Day Photo

Here is a 1977 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/luzk5f

This was in the LA Times in November 1918:
http://tinyurl.com/kw7ya7

I just came across a opening and deducation souvenir program for the California Theatre at Main and Eighth St. It consists of approximately 70 pages, is string-bound. My grandmother had it in her papers. She was a life-long entertainer/musician who participated in a number of stage shows and at least one movie in her later years (Blackbeards Ghost). The interior of the program is in very fine shape. The outer cover id a bit frayed at the edges, but very presentable.

Here are two more from the LAPL:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015262.jpg
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015263.jpg