Hippodrome Theatre

The Hippodrome Theatre was located at 320 S. Main Street.

A photo dated 1946 of this theater can be seen here. According to the marquee, the movie playing was "Road to Utopia".

The Los Angeles Daily Journal of August 15, 1907, announced that Adolf Ramish would demolish the Panorama Building at 320 South Main Street and construct a theater to be called the Adolphus on the site.

The auditorium itself must have been demolished before 1961, as a Los Angeles Times article on August 13th of that year was headlined "Site of Hippodrome Sold."

Whenever the auditorium was razed, I know that the building containing its entrance remained for many years. In the mid 1960s, the area once occupied by the auditorium was used as a car park, and the old lobby was the driveway through which it was entered. I don't know when that building was demolished, but the last time I remember seeing it was about 1965. I know that it was gone by 1982.

Originally opened as the Adolphus Theater on 27th November 1911. It was essentially a vaudeville theater but did screen a first run motion picture after the interval as the 2nd part of the show. It was fitted with a Moller 3Manual/14Rank theater pipe organ which accompanied the motion picture.

It was re-named Hippodrome Theater from 31st August 1913 and continued until closing in the late 1940's. The reinforced concrete constructed auditorium was demolished in the late 1940's and became a car parking lot, but the frontage and the 60feet long outer lobby were retained. This became used as the Main St Gymnasium on the 2nd floor for many year, until even this part of the theater was finally demolished.

I went by the site a couple of years ago and it was still a vacant lot.

I just stumbled across this listing. I worked at 425 S. Main for years (yes, RTD) and I vaguely remember the Main Street Gym being just down the block for the first year I was there -- the building had caught my notice because the architecture was somewhat distinctive compared to the stuff remaining around it. It was soon gone, though and we often parked our cars on the site.

I had no idea there had once been a theater there.

The LA Library online database has a series of pictures of this theater and the adjoining buildings. The first picture from the 1920's shows the Adolphus and the Westminster Hotel on the corner of 4th and Main. The next picture is from 1950. The theater is now a parking garage with the Main Street Gym upstairs. The last picture appears to be from the late 1960s or early 1970s and shows the theater/parking structure standing alone, in disrepair. I imagine it was demolished shortly after.
If you look at the 1950 picture and note the location of the fire hydrant, you can stand by the same hydrant today and see by the cutout in the sidewalk where the entrance to the garage was. I know this is a little overboard, but by the time I moved to LA in 1984, all of the interesting buildings were already torn down.

Here are some pictures, courtesy of the LA Library:

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics09/00014094.jpg

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics09/00014006.jpg

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics09/00014114.jpg

Here is another interesting shot:

http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015200.jpg

There was an article in the newspaper last year concerning the purchase of the lot between 3rd and 4th on Main. Apparently some housing units are to be built there. Nothing has happened as of yet as I just parked on the lot today.

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!

The building was demolished in November 1984, according to the LA Times.

Here is the location today:
http://tinyurl.com/yxverb

You can see the theater in this 1957 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/2vf82e

The theater is on the left in this 1928 photo:
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics35/00067234.jpg

Here is an overlay map that I made using a 1906-1923-1950 Sanborn Map. It's confusing knowing what part of the map comes from what date, but it shows the Hippodrome smack in the middle of the block. This is sad since this whole block is now demolished other than three small buildings on Los Angeles street. If anyone knows of any other theaters that were on this large block, let me know so I can look for them on the full size map. Here's the link:

http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=491725037&size=l

Hippodrome was demolished in 1984. The Westminster was probably demolished in the sixties. It was looking pretty shabby by 1955 or so.

I'm wondering if the building on 3rd a bit west of Los Angeles Street, labeled "PRIV. GARAGE" on the Sanborn, might not be the building of the Empire Theatre that was just about in that location according to the 1909 Birds-eye map? The way the entrance is set up, and the area at the back of the building that looks as though it might have been a fly tower, suggest a conversion from theatre to garage.

Joe, maybe if I look on the original 1906 Sanborn it might show up. I don't know when the Empire was built, but if its on the 1909 Birdseye it might have been around in 1906.

I have no idea if the Empire ever served as a movie theatre. It's another of those mystery theatres. The birds-eye map is the only place I've ever seen any indication that it ever existed. If the garage was converted from the theatre, though, then it was a good-sized place and must have been important in its day- whenever that day was.

A time machine would be handy.

Here's a detail from of the block from the 1906 Sanborn map. Joe was right about the Empire Theater, it became a parking garage. I can't find anything about the theater to determine if it showed movies, however. I wonder what year the Panorama building was built and when it was demolished to build the Adolphus/Hippodrome.

http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=492550033&size=l

A skating rink in LA? No wonder it went out of business.

Does anyone know what the Panorama building was used for before it became a skating rink in 1906? There are many references to 'the Panorama Building' in the LA Times going back to around 1888, but I can't figure out if it was a theater or a convention center or what. Lots of history on this spot....too bad its asphalt now.

Here's an advertisement for the opening as a skating rink:

http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=492850423&size=o

L.A. Library has this photo of the Panorama Building. Undated, but probably the 1890s. There are signs for the Panorama Book Store, a furniture store, a stable (in the center section, probably widening out at the back to an area large enough to accommodate a skating rink), and the offices of the Evening Express (probably upstairs.)

The Hippodrome is at the far end of this 1957 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/2vf82e

This 1918 photo has a caption which states that the Automatic Theater follows the Emporium, which is the first business on the left. The photo is looking south from Third, which would put the Automatic a bit before the Hippodrome:
http://tinyurl.com/ytpz9a

I watched the film "Street with no Name" last night. Quite a bit of the movie was shot in the Main Street gym, so you get a good look at the interior of the Hippodrome.

Ken, do you think the Main street gym was a replacemnent of the Hippodrome building on the same spot, or was the theater converted to the gym? Panorama Building, Panorama Skating Rink, Adolphus, Hippodrome, Main Street Gym, parking lot....how many different buildings do you think were on this spot?

The interior of the Hippodrome became the gym, I believe. It was upstairs from the parking garage, which was also converted from the Hippodrome.

I wonder if all of those scenes in the basement with the secret weapons stash was really in the building. I don't mean the weapons, just the basement.

I suspect that the large upstairs space which eventually became the Main Street Gym might have started out as a dance hall. See this 1928 photo (it's the same one ken mc linked to on March 24.) The picture is a bit blurry, but it looks as though the small blade sign attached to the near end of the theatre building says "Dancing". Maybe somebody with better eyesight than mine can make it out.

The "Auto Park" advertised on the theatre's former main blade sign and marquee occupied the space where the auditorium (demolished in the late 1940s) had stood. The ground floor of the Adolphus Theatre Building, except for the long lobby which became the parking lot entrance, continued to be used as retail space for many years. I have no memory of a basement in the building, but almost every downtown building did have one and it seems unlikely that this building would be an exception to the rule.

I wish there was an aerial photo I could find of this place since, from looking at that overlay map, it stood right in the middle of the block. The long hallway entrance is the only thing I've seen in photos. I imagine that movie was filmed in the real basement because its a pretty low budget movie and if they were already using the location it would make sense.

The movie was filmed on Main Street, at the ferry dock in San Pedro and at a sugar factory in Orange County. I visited the Merchant Marine museum at the dock a few years ago, so it was interesting to see the space when it was a functioning ferry port.

I was wondering where they filmed the ferry boat scenes....the movie seems too low budget to have gone to San Francisco to film on location.

This is from an LA Times story on 10/27/52. I didn't buy the rest of the article. It may not refer to the theater on Main Street:

The last wall of the Hippodrome Theater, onetime vaudeville house of Los Angeles, crumbled to earth yesterday in a cloud of powdery concrete to make way for a new parking lot.

Ken: I think the Main Street Hippodrome was the only theatre in Los Angeles ever to use that name, so the article probably is about this theatre. The date for demolition does seem about right,and it did make way for a parking lot.

Technically, I guess. The theater was converted into a parking garage. The building stood until 1984, however. That's why I was thinking about a different place as the headline implies demolition. I would pay the $3.95 for the rest of the article if I wasn't so cheap.

Ken mc....do you have a library card for Los Angeles? If so, I can tell you how to access the LA Times archives for free from any computer with a connection. You don't have to pay for anything. Let me know if you're interested. jeff@vokoban.com

The Hippodrome was essentially two buildings, as is the case with many theatres. The commercial building in front,which also contained the theatre lobby, was the part that wasn't demolished until 1984. The auditorium structure was demolished much earlier, and was replaced by an open parking lot. After the Westminster was razed there was a clear view from both Main and 4th Streets to the location where the Hippodrome's auditorium had stood .

What happened to the Hippodrome is essentially the same thing that happened to the Garfield Theatre in Alhambra, except that the Garfield's foyer and lobby were enclosed for retail space, not left open as a driveway. But in both cases, the auditoriums were torn down and the surrounding commercial buildings were left standing.

You can see aerial views of the Garfield before and after its auditorium's demolition at Microsoft's TerraServer. The 2004 Urban Areas photo shows the surviving retail building and the parking lot, and the 1994 aerial photo shows when the theatre was still there. Unfortunately the Hippodrome was entirely demolished long before either of the aerial photos of its site available at TerraServer were made.

The Hippodrome was essentially two buildings, as is the case with many theatres. The commercial building in front,which also contained the theatre lobby, was the part that wasn't demolished until 1984. The auditorium structure was demolished much earlier, and was replaced by an open parking lot. After the Westminster was razed there was a clear view from both Main and 4th Streets to the location where the Hippodrome's auditorium had stood .

What happened to the Hippodrome is essentially the same thing that happened to the Garfield Theatre in Alhambra, except that the Garfield's foyer and lobby were enclosed for retail space, not left open as a driveway. But in both cases, the auditoriums were torn down and the surrounding commercial buildings were left standing.

You can see aerial views of the Garfield before and after its auditorium's demolition at Microsoft's TerraServer. The 2004 Urban Areas photo shows the surviving retail building and the parking lot, and the 1994 aerial photo shows when the theatre was still there. Unfortunately the Hippodrome was entirely demolished long before either of the aerial photos of its site available at TerraServer were made.

I don't have a library card, but I will get one if I can use the archives for free. $150 for 200 articles is no bargain. I will get back to you once I get the card. Thanks for the tip.

That clears up some confusion Joe. I just wondered if the Main Street Gym was a different structure on the same spot or if converted the same building into a gym.

Let me know when you get your card ken mc....it's really easy and just involves a loophole workaround to access. You're only supposed to be able to get onto the database if you're in the central library downtown.

Here is a blurb from the LA Times dated 7/8/13:

BIG VAUDEVILLE MAGNATES HERE.
ACKERMAN AND HARRIS COME TO PERFECT GIGANTIC PLANS
Blanche Bates and Katherine Osterman Take in the "Movies." Morosco Engages Well-known Savage Star for Appearance at Morosco Theater.

Lester Fountain, who is to be the manager of the new Hippodrome, which will likely open the first of September, gave me a bit of information yesterday which is of vast importance.

Here are some additional capsules from the LA Times:

8/31/13 - HIPPODROME TO OPEN TODAY.
BIGGEST VAUDEVILLE AND CIRCUS SHOWS ON COAST
Handsome New Playhouse on Main Street Between Third and Fourth Seats 3000 People--Every Seat in House Ten Cents--First Performance at One.

With a show as mammoth as is the theater itself, the Hippodrome, located on Main street, between Third and Fourth, and the largest theater on the Pacific Coast, will throw open its doors at 12:30 this afternoon.

9/1/13 - FIFTEEN THOUSAND SEE OPENING OF HIPPODROME.
Biggest Playhouse in Los Angeles Launched on New Enterprise With Overwhelming Support--Splendid Bill Makes Big Hit--Mason Begins New Season Today With "Quo Vadis" Pictures.

10/4/15 - ROW OVER TICKETS IS CAUSE OF SMALL RIOT

Six hundred excited persons, an ambulance, two automobiles and
a patrol wagon full of policemen early last night near the lobby of the Hippodrome Theater at No. 320 South Main street, kept that vicinity in an uproar for half an hour following a riot call sent to Central Police Station by Special Officer Sturgess.

6/28/25 - HIPPODROME INSTALLING NEW ORGAN
Special Dedicatory Service to Mark Completion of Work on Huge Instrument

The Hippodrome Theater in Main street, can be classified as one of the last of the larger downtown theaters in Los Angeles to install a pipe organ, to be used in connection with its presentation of feature pictures. After operating all these years with a large orchestra.

This is from the LA Times, 11/1/84:

After 33 Years, the Main Street Gym Is Being Turned Into a Parking Lot
It Was Here That Dreams Came True

The Main Street Gym has been at its present address since 1951, ever since the original across the street burned down. Not much has changed. The ring floors, lately more electrician's tape than canvas, have to be original issue.

The theater was demolished in 1952 to make way for the parking lot, as Joe stated above.

Earthquake on 2/20/48, according to the LA Times:

When a frightened group ran out of a theater at 322 S. Main St, Mrs. Rosa Canada, 65, was swept from her feet in the aisle and suffered a broken ankle. She was treated at Georgia Street Receiving Hospital.

They were tearing up a big section of the parking lot today, closer to Los Angeles street. Stay tuned.

In the 1914 city directory, the Rex was listed at 324 S. Main. I have an idea that the Rex was demolished when the Hippodrome was built. The Regal is listed across the street at 323 S. Main. I think we have that under another name.

I know that the Panorama Building & Panorama Skating Rink was on the same spot and has almost the exact same footprint. If the Rex was there it must have been pretty large unless it took up one of the spaces in front of the Hippodrome. Since the Hippodrome was in the exact center of the whole block going all four directions, there would have been room to have a theater in front of it. The addresses could have been moved around.

Here is the lineup in 1914:
http://tinyurl.com/2sq8cq
http://tinyurl.com/3bryok

What is MOT?

Motion Picture. It's part of the index, MAR-MOT, and so on.

It's strange that I can't find anything about a Rex on Main street other than the directory listing you found. However, I found some stuff about a Rex Theater at 3rd & Figueroa. It's on the Estella page. I don't know if there is a page for it on here already.

The Rex is listed as the Lux on CT.

Thanks

Ken MC: The parking lot "hole" is for the Medallion project that will ultimately hold nine buildings ranging from one to seven stories and have nearly 203,000 square feet of retail, 188 rental units, and an amphitheater.

I'd be nervous living there. I was doing research on the Westminster Hotel which also was on that block and couldn't believe all of suicides in that hotel....I stopped counting at about 20. Here, drink some carbolic acid and go to bed.

The Medallion will be facing Los Angeles Street, so the gentrification effort is apparently moving eastward. I believe the Westminster was torn down in the early 60s, so that parking lot has been there for a long time.

I think it was demolished in 1963. I wonder if the Van Nuys(Barclay) hotel on the northwest corner of 4th & Main will be restored.

There has to be a limit on how many lofts you can put downtown and expect to be filled. I walked around for a while after I went to the library and saw that most of the buildings that I remember as vacant from the late nineties now converted to apartments. I also took a spin through the new Ralphs at 9th and Flower.

The Westminster was gone before 1963, and a fast food stand had been built on that corner of 4th and Main. Among the stand's specialties was that Los Angelean version of the loose meat sandwich, the taco burger. With its soft bun and finely shredded lettuce, it was a perfect viand for the toothless derelict seeking a cheap repast. The heavy, tomato-based sauce and the Mexican spices in the ground meat admirably disguised its probable origin as worn-out dairy cow.

Patrons could sit at the wooden tables adjacent to the building and devour their dripping meals while gazing across the vast, paved expanse to the east and north, which included the site where the Hippodrome's auditorium had once stood. The sharp-eyed might even discern the form of a bum taking a leak against a distant wall. Ah, the good old days before all the romance was gone from downtown.

You're correct....the demolition started on the morning of Jan. 4, 1960.

Here is a June 1943 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/22a9vw

I believe the above picture was taken during the "zoot suit" riots in 1943.

Hello. I am new on this cyber community. I am reading up on taxi dancehalls in the 1920s-30s and I have 2 questions. I'm hoping folks here could be of help:

1) Did theatres like the Hippodrome simultaeneously function as vaudeville theater and a taxi dancehall?

2) for LA folks: Can anyone recommend a good tourguide of historic downtown los angeles.

Thank you.

A lot of theaters downtown featured vaudeville and were then converted to movies or they still had both at some of them. I don't know about the taxi dancing there, though. I don't know of any theaters that also had a ballroom or dance hall but there could have been. In the 20's anybody who was anybody would go out to the Cocoanut Grove or to the Palomar Ballroom on Vermont to dance. Here's a link to the Palomar:

http://www.100megspopup.com/ark/PalomarBlrm.html

The tour on this page called The Historic Core is a good tour to start for downtown:

http://laconservancy.org/tours/tours_main.php4

Is this Hippodrome the same as the Hippodrome Dance Palace?

I don't think it was the same place just because the history of the building is pretty clear through the years. There seems to have been a Hippodrome Dance Palace, but I can't find it in the old LA Times archives. Here's a blurb from a website:
'Pilipinos were also drawn to taxi-dance halls where they paid ten cents for one-minute of dancing with a White woman. Pilipino musicians would often play some three hundred one-minute tunes at Liberty Dance Palace, Hippodrome Dance Palace, and other clubs near Third Street in LA. Pool halls certainly attracted the young bachelors.'
http://www.imdiversity.com/Villages/Asian/history_heritage/ling_filipino_history_losangeles.asp

You're right. I don't think it's the same Hippodrome. The information I'm looking for are the taxi dancehalls frequented by Filipinos in fact. I have a lot of information about it already. I just wanted to see if there are archival images of some of these clubs. My search led me to this LA Hippodrome but I think you are correct. It doesn't seem like the same Hippodrome.

From the LA Times archives, it looks like the majority of taxi-dance halls had something to do with Filipinos. There are hundreds of articles from the 20's until around 1950 about police raids and problems at those places. They called the girls 'nickel-hoppers' and later on B-girls.

The Hippodrome itself was a vaudeville and movie theatre, but the upstairs of the building in front of the auditorium appears to have been a dance hall before it became the location of the Main Street Gym in the early 1950s. Here is the 1928 photo of the block of Main Street south of Third (this is the same photo that's linked twice above) which shows a small vertical sign that reads "Dancing" on the near end of the Hippodrome's building. The same sign can be made out beyond the theatre's marquee in the June, 1943 photo to which ken mc linked a few comments back, on August 23.

So there's evidence that there was a dance hall in the building from at least 1928 until at least 1943. I'd say there's a good chance that this is indeed the Hippodrome Dance Palace. As the Main Street Gym, it's address was 318 1/2 S. Main, so that should be the address of the dance hall as well.

All very helpful. thank you. the Cocoanut or the Palomar Ballroom were not places that most Filipinos (who were immigrant, mostly workers but some students) frequented back in the 1920s and 1930s because of the cost to enter these dance places. And taxi dancehalls are distinct from other dance places. Like many public social institutions, taxi dancehalls practiced segregation (some more blatant, others by its regulations, costs, etc).

Perhaps some of you might be able to point me to image sources for taxi dancehalls such as One Eleven Dance Hall (Main Street), "Danceland" (Main St.), Rizal Cabaret (spring st, b/t 2nd and 3rd), Tiffany Dance Hall (was Liberty Dancehall, Third St. b/t Main and Los Angeles Streets).

It looks like the theater closed sometime between 1943 and 1950.

Here's a pre-skating rink quote for this address:

(June 30, 1890)
Tomorrow afternoon at the Panorama amphitheater, 320 South Main street, the boys will have a cavalry drill under the instruction of a well-known United States Army officer. There are a few vacancies in the battalion for well-behaved boys between the ages of 12 and 15. The tallest boy of the age of 15 in the city is wanted for color-sergeant.

That's a lot of chickens in a skating rink!

(Jan. 6, 1907)
The eighteenth annual poultry and pigeon show of the Los Angeles County Poultry Association will begin tomorrow afternoon in the Panorama building, No. 320 South Main street, and it will continure for the entire week. All day yesterday, and late last night, the skating rink feature of the place was eliminated to give way to the largest poultry exhibit that has ever been assembled here. The entrees received upt to 6 o'clock last evening indicate that over 2000 fowls will be cooped when the show opens to the public.

There are a lot of articles from the early teens for 320 S. Main for meetings and speakers at an Eagles' Hall. It was probably in the front part of the building and not the auditorium.

Several chickens in fact perished at that show in 1907. Police at the time ruled out any fowl play.

Does anyone know if there is a CT page for a Regal theater at 323 S. Main? It shows up in 1906 as the New Star Vaudeville but is in the City Directories for 1915 & 1916 as the Regal. I think this is actually the theater where the Main St. Gym took over. There are a few articles with the Main St. Gym at 321 S. Main and a large fire there. It would have been across the street from the Hippodrome and a few doors north of the Follies.

fowl play indeed....

You're getting mixed up. The gym was at 318 1/2, on the even side, so the Regal couldn't have been there. As you pointed out, it would have been on the other side of the street. The Regal, if it's here, would have been between the Jade at 315 and the Follies at 337.

Then there must have been two gyms because there definitely was a gym and a theater in Turn Halle which took up the addresses from 319-325 S. Main. Here's a picture showing the theater:

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=1250953226&size=o

(Feb. 5, 1951)
Fire Wins Round-In flame-swept Main Street Gym, Fire Capt. John Langston looks over damaged boxing gloves and other equipment. The gymnasium, 321 S Main St., has been training arena for fight luminaries.

The mitt palace, located at 321 S. Main St., was the training arena for luminaries of the fight world from time to time. Joe Louis trained there for his bout with Jack Roper at Wrigley Field. ...As late as a year ago, Jack Dempsey worked out there with his protege, Clarence Henry, and made a series of gym talks.

This could explain why a the city directory listings stop by 1916 (I haven't been able to find the 1917 directory) for a theater.

(Sept. 4, 1919)
GERMAN SIGN CHIPPED FROM TURNER HALL: TO BECOME "DRY SALOON."
A workman with a mallet and chisel yesterday chipped off the German words "Turn Halle" from the front of the building at 321 South Main street, thus putting out of existence in name Turner Hall, where for many years the German-speaking people of Los Angeles danced and sang and met in lodge and club gatherings. Over the door the city will place an electric sign reading, "Los Angeles Men's Club," and this institution, the only municipal organization of its kind in the United States, will be formally opened in about two weeks. The city has leased the building from its owners, the Turn Verein Germania, for one year with the right to extend the lease five years, and the Play Ground Commission is spending $3000 in fitting up the building as a men's club. It was primarily established to be a returned service men's club, but all men are to be welcome, and it will be, in effect, as called by Play Ground Commission Superintendent Charles B. Raitt, a 'dry saloon.' In the basement there will be pool tables and hot and cold showers. On the street floor there will be reading and smoking-room, and lunches, soft drinks, cigars, tobacco and cigarettes will be sold. The large auditorium where many famous dances were held in years past, and where many steins of beer were drunk to the words, "Hoch der Kaiser," becomes a municipal gymnasium, and the German club rooms become committee rooms where evening classes will be conducted by the Board of Education.

Now I'm confused. I didn't know there were dueling gyms on Main Street.

The strange thing is that I can't find anything about a gym on the other side of the street....I'm having a strange deja vu....I remember writing about this a long time ago. There are a bunch of articles about union problems at the Regal Theater from 1909 on for a few years. There seems to have been a lot of cracked skulls and faces punched. Is Joe Vogel in the house?

I've searched for previous names on here for Regal and also New Star but nothing shows up. There was a Regal that showed movies, however:

(May 2, 1909)
The Main-street Regal Theater programme for the coming week will include the first appearance of the Sisters Petite, singers and dancers; Warren Ellsworth, story-teller and monologist; James Heatherington, in illustrated songs and travelogues; new moving pictures, and music by Ransom's orchestra.

(May 7, 1915)
Times $5000 Prosperity & Trade Contest.
Theaters
Regal Theater Musical Comedy, 323 S. Main.

It must have been a theater until 1919 before it was converted to the gym/men's club:

(Jan. 15, 1919)
Dr. Gentry, Of Chicago
For 24 Years Exponent Of Divine Healing
and Preacher of Full Gospel of Christ, has been holding
Meetings at Regal Theater, 323 S. Main St.

I guess I shouldn't be putting all of this on the Hippodrome page...maybe I should add the theater but I'll wait to make sure it isn't under another name.

Just one more because it makes me laugh....
(Dec. 24, 1920)
In the old Regal Theater, 321 South Main street, hundreds of old men gathered as the guests of the Los Angeles Men's Club, and sang 'Silver Threads Among the Gold,' weeping the while, and then applauding vigorously to be allowed to sing it over again. A number of talks and vaudeville acts were also given.

Joe usually tells me where the Main Street theaters are listed. I would check with him before you add it.

Here's one for the New Star name:
(June 6, 1906)
NEW STAR THEATER-323 South Main St.
A Carload of Pretty Girls, A Barrel of Good Singing and a Bunch of Fun-Real Burlesque Up To Date
Prices-10c, 20c, 30c, and a few at 50c

I wonder what 50 cents got you.....

I guess it had one more little name change:
(Feb. 19, 1908)
Bijou Theater
323 South Main St.
This afternoon and evening, all this week. The Tommy Burns-Gunner Moir fight pictures taken at London, England, ten rounds and knockout. Admission 25c, any seat.

This is long, and not Hippodrome-related, but it relates to recent comments above about a theatre across Main Street from the Hip:

I don't think Cinema Treasures has a page for the theatre at 323 S. Main yet. The Turn Halle (aka Turnverein Germania) at that location was L.A.'s third. All three of them appear to have served multiple purposes as the Turners' gymnasiums, as theatres and as ballrooms and meeting rooms. The first Turnverein was dedicated in 1872, the year after the L.A. chapter of the club was founded. It was demolished in 1887. I haven't been able to track down it's exact location, but one reference places it on Spring Street between 2nd and 3rd, so it might have been either at the location of the second Turnverein or the lot north of that where the first Los Angeles Theatre was built.

The second Turnverein was at 227 S. Spring Street, next door to the first Los Angeles Theatre (which was later the second L.A. Orpheum and then the Lyceum.) The two buildings can be seen in this photo from the L.A. library. Both of them date to 1887.

The cornerstone of the third Turnverein, across Main Street from the Hippodrome's site, was laid in October of 1893, and the building was opened in April of 1894. This photo from the L.A. library depicts the Main Street Turnverein (though the library dates the photo as being from 1888, six years before it actually opened.)

Another Turnverein hall was built in 1925 at Washington and Toberman, but the various articles referenced in comments above indicate that the Turners must have sold or leased out this location on Main Street well before then. I don't know what year it was converted into the Main Street Gym.

I don't know if the Los Angeles Turners Club still exists as an organization today, but it was around to celebrate its centennial in 1971 with a banquet at the old Turner Inn Hofbrau restaurant which I beleieve was on 15th Street. Also, the Washington Boulevard Turner Hall was later renamed Rodger Young Auditorium and was demolished in 1978.

So do you think it should be added on CT? There seems to be plenty of evidence that there was a New Star/Bijou/Regal Theater within the building. Also, as I mentioned above, there are many articles from around 1910 about labor disputes at the theater. My theory about the gym is that after the 1951 fire it reopened across the street. Or, there could have been two gyms at the same time with the same owner for awhile.

On a list of silent theaters for Los Angeles, there is a New Star Theater (movie theater) that was operating in 1926. No address is given. I don't see a New Star Theater for Los Angeles on Cinema Treasures.

That wouldn't be this one. The name New Star only shows up from 1906-1908. Then its called the Bijou for a year and then the Regal until 1919 when it is turned into the Los Angeles Men's club.

Then there was another New Star Theater operating in Los Angeles in 1926. On the same list is a New Moon Theater. If anyone has access to a 1926 Film Daily Yearbook, both the New Star and New Moon should be listed.

There was a Star Theater at 529 S. Main that is already on CT. It's possible that the Star was advertised as the New Star for a time.

Thats very possible Ken. The Star might have become the New Star Theater. Take a look at this website and you will see a New Star and a New Moon theater listed.

Similarly the New Moon may have been a permutation of the Moon which was the Gaiety etc etc. That one has too many aliases to keep track of.

Remember the 1908 directory I posted a while ago? 323 S. Main is the Theatre Royal, as opposed to the Royal Theater over on Broadway:
http://tinyurl.com/2bnoph

The Regal is also listed in the 1914 directory, which was posted on 8/14/07.

I think I'll add this theater unless someone else wants to do it. With Ken's last two posts there is no question that there was a theater that played movies at least part of the time at 323 S. Main.

It would have been New Star-Bijou-Theatre Royal-Regal.

All due credit due you for this hitherto unknown Main Street cinema.

That silent era page must be referring to another New Star. The one I've been talking about wouldn't have been showing anything by 1925. It was a gym and men's club by then. Plus, that list is a little misleading since in 1925 every theater that showed movies would have been showing silent movies.

I just noticed a post by ken mc on May 25, 2007 at 5:23pm above that probably clears up this whole Main Street Gym thing. His post says that the Main Street Gym is being demolished for a parking lot after 33 years and has been there since 1951....the same year that the Main Street Gym that I've been talking about burned. I guess they just moved across the street.

Thats why its called Silent Era Theaters. One source for the information on that site is a 1926 Film Daily Yearbook. The New Star Theater on the list might be an aka name for the Star Theater.

It probably is. It seems like a lot of places added 'new' for awhile. Makes everything confusing with all of these same and similar names.

Lost Memory, maybe this is the theater that is referred to on the website you linked. It's from one of those Paramount Week theater listings from the LA Times. I don't know if its on CT under a different name.

(Sept. 6, 1925)
NEW STAR THEATER, 2968. W. Pico St.
Sept. 6-7-Raymond Griffith in "Paths to Paradise"
Sept. 8-9-James Cruze's "Welcome Home"
Sept. 10-11-Florence Vidor in "Grounds for Divorce"
Sept. 12-Antonio Moreno and Mary Miles Minter in "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine"

Sorry...I messed up the address. It should be 2698 W. Pico.

Great find vokoban. That means the New Star Theater is not the same theater as the Star Theater since the address is different. One method we can use to see if the New Star Theater is listed here under another name is to check the addresses for all of the Los Angeles theaters listed on Cinema Treasures. There are 288 such theaters listed here. Thats time consuming so if anyone has an easier method to check if the New Star Theater is already listed here under another name, I would be happy to hear it.

I don't know how he does it, but Joe Vogel usually knows if its been listed.

Okay, that sounds like an easier method. If Joe doesn't know the answer and we have to go through each theater to check its address, we could split the list between us and do 144 theaters each.

I wish they had a way to search addresses on here. Maybe if you do it by keyword?

They only have a zipcode search which won't be of much help to us. A web search returns a supermarket/grocery store at this address. Maybe the building still stands.

DISCOUNT CENTER

2698 W Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90006
323-731-5200

Here's a satellite images of 2698 W. Pico. The red marker is supposed to be the address, but I don't have a lot of faith in those markers.

http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=1259766622&size=o

vokoban....I looked at a local.live view and the building where your photo has the pin (the "U" shaped building) looks like a warehouse or garage with about five roll up doors. That building doesn't look like a former movie theater or a supermarket. Maybe its the smaller building to the right.

Lucyb:

There's a building on Spring Street between 8th and 9th that used to be a taxi dance hall, looks like. Even though it was recently renovated to some degree, it still has signs on the outside advertising "Dancing." The street level space is empty, but the upper floors are occupied and home to the Los Angeles Garment & Citizen newspaper.

I already drove down Pico last month. Do I have to go back for this one?

Good idea. Don't forget your camera.

They have torn up the rest of the parking lot at 4th and Main for the Medallion. I was there today and saw a couple of vokoban's suicides wailing and gnashing their teeth.

All those ghosts probably ran across the street to the Turkish Baths.

So I lose my usual parking spot, and I end up shoehorned into the northern corner of the lot,which is all that is left not to mention that the price went from $7 to $8. I have been wronged.

I just buy my bus pass and I'm happy.

Here is a 1925 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/2b32ye

I've been watching them dig up the parking lot where the Hippodrome and the Westminster Hotel once stood for the past few weeks. It's fascinating because it looks like an archaeological dig. After they removed the parking lot and started digging down, all of the foundations for these buildings have appeared and are now being demolished. I guess the buildings had basements because there are deep trenches with brick walls that are being demolished. There are huge piles of ancient bricks and broken up concrete walls all over the lot now. I wish I could get a couple of those bricks for a souvenir.

I was walking around this site today. Fascinating to see the brick foundations Vokoban mentioned above. Too bad we can't get in the hole and look for artifacts. I don't think anyone is paying any attention to this.

I found a chunk of brick from the southwest corner of the block and took it home. I'm letting myself believe that it was part of the Westminster Hotel. Be careful looking over the fence....there are piles of human you-know-what all around the perimeter. I almost ruined my shoes.

I saw that. Not polite.

I must have stopped getting e-mail notifications of new comments on this page several months ago. I've missed about three months of comments.

Anyway, here's news about the Panorama Building, which preceded the Hippodrome Theatre on the Main Street site. It turns out that Panoramas were a huge business in the 19th century, and many cities had buildings erected specifically for their display. Here's a fairly long and detailed review of a 1997 book about this vanished form of what today would probably be called infotainment.

Almost as good, I finally tracked down a photo which shows at least the top and part of the south side of the big, round Panorama Building itself, here at the USC digital archive, not surprisingly. The Panorama Building is a couple of blocks distant in this view, at far right, partly concealed by the Westminster Hotel and other buildings along East 4th Street.

The photo dates from New Year's Day of 1907, so it was taken during the building's last era, when it was being used as a skating rink. According to the Los Angeles Daily Journal of August 15, 1907, Adolph Ramish had been issued a permit to demolish the structure.

I wonder if they actually demolished the building. Maybe they left the side walls (like the Linda Lea). The building outline on the Sanborn map from the Panorama period lines up exactly with the Hippodrome. Even the long hall/driveway entrance is the same as well as the front retail buildings.

These are from above but here they are again for easy comparison:

Hippodrome
http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=492550033&size=l

Panorama Building
http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=491725037&size=l

sorry, i think those are reversed...

it's interesting that on the map showing the Hippodrome, the Empire Theater (on 3rd) now says private garage. That map is from 1923.

I remember now that I'd previously seen that picture I linked to, but it had never dawned on me that the Panorama Building was in it. I was focusing on Main Street or on the overall view, and didn't notice the details off to the side.

Here's a ca.1910 aerial photo showing the Hippodrome site vacant except for what might be either rubble or construction materials (the dark, round thing might even be the remains of the panorama's foundation), so I'm sure the whole rear portion of the Panorama Building was demolished to make way for the Hippodrome's auditorium, but I've wondered myself if the front building that later housed the Main Street Gym wasn't merely remodeled from the earlier building on the site.

The Empire is still pretty much a mystery. So fa it hasn't appeared among the movie houses advertised in newspapers of the time, or in the lists of movie houses in early city directories unearthed so far. Maybe it was exclusively a live venue. Its odd location probably accounts for its early demise as a theatre of any sort though. A few blocks east and it probably could have survived as a neighborhood movie house for quite a while, and up the block at the corner of Main it would have been solidly ensconced at the head of the theatre district that didn't begin to undergo serious shrinkage until the 1940s.

Pretty amazing photo Joe. From looking at how closely packed that block was I guess it makes sense that they would have used the same footprint of the previous building. You can see the New Star and many others in that photo. I think its the only picture I've seen of the Empire.

Joe, I thought the 1907 photo was interesting. The Hotel Leonide building is still standing, a hundred years later. The building on the east side a bit north (with the turret) was the post office.

I just realized that the Panorama's dark, round roof is partly visible in this old favorite photo, too, sticking up from behind the King Edward Hotel at extreme right.

I was walking by the Hippodrome site today and I noticed that some of the tile in front of the building had been exposed during the recent construction. Here are a couple of photos:
http://tinyurl.com/yogvz3
http://tinyurl.com/ywu4tt

Wow....amazing find. I looked on the satellite map overlay thing and the actual place where the Hippodrome stood is where all of the bulldozers were parked a few weeks ago. The big hole is where the hotel was. Have they started digging a hole where the theater was also?

They are ripping up the concrete probably just to the right of the theater, going south. I didn't have a photo with me, so I was approximating. I generally go by the theater driveway cutout that I've matched up to the old photos before. Hopefully they will start digging up the theater area next.

I wonder if there's a way to pry a few of those tiles loose without getting caught.....hmmm.

Help yourself.

More of the tiles have been uncovered. Not for long, though, as I think the construction will obliterate this area soon.

Here is a 1940 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/25qg4q

I am searching for the following photos: Hippidrome, Danceland, Liberty, One Eleven, Red Mills, Four O One, Hidalgo and Montezuma. They were popular Taxi Dance Halls in Los Angeles during the 1930s and 40s. Please contact me if you have a photo of these places. Thank you so much. My email address is carinaforsythe@yahoo.com

Carina Forsythe

Did you try the LA library website? There are thousands of photos there. www.lapl.org

Thank you for your reply. I was able to find the Hippodrome, but not the others. I'm still looking.

Here are two 1976 photos that Larry Harnisch posted on his "Daily Mirror" blog for the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/64rjmz
http://tinyurl.com/6m2zrl

Here are two photos before and after demolition in 1952, from the same source:
http://tinyurl.com/6aplyy
http://tinyurl.com/5z4fh5

Here is a 1949 view of the gym, from the UCLA collection:
http://tinyurl.com/6rxoxn

From that photo I'm almost certain that it is the same gym featured in The Street With No Name.

Ken, that photo, being from 1949, actually shows the earlier Main Street Gym, across Main Street from the Hip in the former Turner Hall, which was for a time the Regal Theatre. That's the building that was destroyed in the 1951 fire, after which the gym moved into the former dance hall space above the Hippodrome's entrance.

OK, my mistake.

The Hippodrome lives on!

http://hippodromeArtWalk.notlong.com

The downtown Art Walk has christened their new shuttle, "The Hippodrome", complete with live 19th century styled and sung songsters.

See you on the bus!

The big hole in the ground that occupies the 4th and Main block is going to be a hole for some time. The oweners of the plot have suspended construction of the mixed use development due to the current soft real estate market in DT LA. To give you an example, the Tribune Company wants to unload the entire LA Times megaplex on Spring Street, but no one wants it.

Here are 2 links to excellent LATimes.com blog entries made in Nov. 2007 with photos and explanations that confirm exactly what happened with the Hippodrome. According to this information, the theatre opened on Aug. 31, 1913. The auditorium was demolished first, on or around Oct. 26, 1952, and only the facade and a small portion of the building remained for many years, part of which was used for retail space and the Main Street Gym. Finally, everything was demolished around 1984.

First, see this link for (1) a photo of the exterior of the Hippodrome and marquee, and (2) a photo of the Hippodrome's proscenium being demolished on Oct. 26, 1952:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedailymirror/2007/11/hippodrome-myst.html

Now see this link for pictures of the facade that remained for many years as entries to stores and the Main Street Gym, and a photo of the interior of the Gym:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedailymirror/2007/11/main-street-g-1.html

Enjoy,

The Westminster bites the dust, 2/24/60. Photo is from the USC archives:
http://tinyurl.com/6yt24c

Construction has resumed on the 4th and Main project. They have now torn up the area where the theater was. I checked out the excavation, lots of bricks and shards in the debris but no theater footprint or anything else of interest. A retaining wall is now visible below ground on Los Angeles Street, but the theater didn't extend that far. That wall could have been from one of any number of buildings over the years.

maybe you can see the wall on this map: http://flickr.com/photos/vokoban/491725037/sizes/l/

If you see the smaller of the two buildings on the right, that's about where the wall was. There was also an exposed concrete floor at that spot, but because it was ten feet below street level I wasn't sure that was part of the new construction.

Wasn't this building demolished years ago?

yes but they didn't always demolish the foundation....they just throw dirt over it and some asphalt. I notice when they started digging down for the parking garage where the westminster hotel stood there were all of these underground brick walls.

They already tore up all that decorative tile we saw in January. I was hoping they would uncover some more of that, but the area in front of the theater has been obliterated.

This is a bit of supposition, but if you look at the gate by the box office, you see the lighter covered floor. That corresponds with where the tile was, so that may have been the floor covering by the box office and going into the theater. I posted this photo from the LA Times blog last April.
http://tinyurl.com/6aplyy

You love to speculate. Let me know if you solve the mystery.

I did try to match up the current driveway cutouts with the old photos. I posted this photo back in January 2007, but that was before the construction started.
http://tinyurl.com/yxverb

Compare with this LAPL photo. The white building on the far north side of the street abutted the corner of 3rd and Main, I believe, which would put the theater cutout about where you see it in the contemporary photo.
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics09/00014006.jpg

Can you just explain to me what it is that your trying to get at?

I think you're right ken.

They do match up pretty closely.

Absolutely. Thanks so much.

The expanded view of the photo at the top of the page shows the adjoining businesses. Prohibition would have still be in effect in 1928, so I'm not sure what kind of brew the business on the left was selling.
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015345.jpg

Here are a couple of proofs from 1974. You can see the gym taking over the entire second floor:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015199.jpg

That pretty much wraps it up. Thanks.

Did the library add some new material? I love the 1974 photos!

I tried a search under Adolphus instead of hippodrome and found the proofs. I think the vantage point would be from the Follies, which may have either still been in existence or alternatively was recently demolished. I've seen Follies photos from the LAPL as late as 1973.

The concrete foundation under the new construction extends into the dirt pile. I was looking at it today and was wondering if that was part of the old foundation for the theater building. I doubt if the builders would lay that out and then pour dirt all over it.
http://tinyurl.com/6dchsy

Here is an excerpt from an LA Times article dated 8/13/61:

Sale of a parking lot, site of the old Hippodrome Theater on Main Street, for $400,000 has been announced. Harrison Memorial Trust acquired the site from Joseph Miller.

The Hippodrome Theater, built in the early 1900s, had the largest stage on the West Coast and provided circus-type entertainment with many large animal acts. The theater portion was demolished in 1952 because of the demand for automobile parking in that area.

Here is an LA Times ad dated 1/16/14:
http://tinyurl.com/66wukl

It had 3000 seats in 1914, or so they claim.

Maybe some hyperbole. I don't think anyone was counting.

Gentrification at 4th & Main-new sign for the Barclay, condos going up on former Westminster site:
http://tinyurl.com/b7hglq
http://tinyurl.com/bk49mw

Is it a new sign or the old sign restored? It looks very similar although cleaner.

I thought they were installing a new sign because the old one had a lot of rust holes. Maybe they just sandblasted it.

I'll have to find one of my pictures from a few years ago and compare. I used to walk by there every day but I've stopped because of the human defecation covering the sidewalk between Los Angeles and Main on 4th.....I take a different route now.

I agree-sidestepping all that gets me pooped out.

Is Barclay another name for the Hippodrome Theater?

No, the Barclay is the hotel on the northwest corner of 4th and Main. The Hippodrome was on the other side of Main, about halfway down the block going north. The new condo complex is taking over the Westiminster site and part of the old Hippodrome site. When they were breaking up the concrete for the condos, some old theater tiles were uncovered in the process.

Got it.

The Barclay was originally the Van Nuys.

Here is a 1983 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/cnn3yj

Here is a 1976 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/lnc2ns