Lido Theatre

This was yet another theater designed by Clifford A. Balch. It's construction was announced in Southwest Builder & Contractor issue of 8/28/1936.

The Lido was my childhood movie theater. Its marquee adorns the cover of my first novel, Benjamin Kritzer (you can see the cover at amazon.com). Prior to it being an art house, it was a second-run house, where I saw Man Who Knew Too Much, Vertigo, Invaders from Mars (many kiddie matinees), and countless other films. I'll post a photo of it as soon as I scan it into the computer.

Here is an LA Times article about the beginning of this theater:

(March 21, 1937)
COMBINED STORE, BANK, THEATER BUILDING RISING
Construction is under way on a theater, store and bank building at the northwest corner of Pico and La Cienga Boulevards for Pacific States Theaters, Inc. Contract was awarded to the Wesco Construction Company at $52,000. Architect C.A. Balch designed the structure. The building will contain a theater auditorium with seating capacity of 900, three storerooms and branch banking quarters for the Bank of America National Trust and Savings Association.

It was great! I miss this theater! Loads of senior citizens used to come in from Fairfax to this cozy theater, mixing with the west LA potheads about as well as oil mixes with water. One time, me and a pot-smoking friend found out that there was a free matinee screening for seniors of Around the World in 80 Days and we showed up--we were polite and all, but we still got hocked to CHina by the elders ("This is for senior citizens!" one told us.) In another drug-related movie watching incident, I ate some pink hearts and saw a Woody Allen marathon and just about died laughing. (Fortunately, so was the rest of the audience.) I also went on a rather important first date there to see the Mitchum version of Farewell My Lovely. I miss the Lido...

Here is a 1970 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/ypbtt7

I wish i could find a picture of this theater other than the one on the cover of that book. I live right around the corner and would like to see what was on the present day parking lot.

The parking lot WAS the Lido.

I know...I guess I didn't word it properly...I just want to see a photo of the theater. I always eat at Nick's across the street and stare at that parking lot.

If I knew how to do it, I have many photos of the Lido, although it looks exactly like the art on the book cover, which was actually done from a photograph.

I like the cover art but I'd like to see a few plain black and white photos for the detail. I don't know where you live but I'd be happy to scan them for you. I live at Olympic & La Cienega. It would only take a few minutes and then you could have the originals plus a cd with them on it for safekeeping. I'd also like to see if the BofA building was just covered over with 80's slop or if it is a whole different building.

Drop me an e-mail - just click on my username and you'll find it.

Did the bank take the place of the theater, or was the theater in the parking lot space next to the bank?

I think the bank was always on the corner. I looked at the old Sanborn map and it was there. The theater was next to it to the west where the bank parking lot is now.....I think. BofA has a long history of remodeling their own buildings into something out of Logan's Run or Planet of the Apes. That's why I wonder if the original bank is underneath that stucco monstrosity.

The bank has been there at least since the year of my birth, which was 1947. Of course, it was the old-fashioned BofA in those days - I think the redesign wasn't done until the 70s or thereabouts. For anyone who loves this area, I can only tell you that my Kritzer trilogy (which is a thinly-veiled fiction of my childhood growing up in that area in the 50s and 60s) is jam-packed with every location in that area, from the Lido, to the Stadium and the Picfair movie theaters to all the supermarkets, restaurants, and everything else. The three books are Benjamin Kritzer, Kritzerland, and Kritzer Time. End of self-serving but well-meaning post. You can read about them on amazon.

I have been working on my wife to get me into the Stadium on a Friday night. I won't be able to take pictures, but I would love to see the current interior.

The Stadium was "my" childhood theater, really - I practically lived there and at the Lido. I haven't been in the auditorium, but I was in the lobby in 1975 and it was very different.

From the LA Times, 12/11/76

100 Rioting Youths Tear Up West L.A. Theater, 6 Arrested

About 100 youths rioted Friday night at a theater showing the black-oriented films "J.D.'s Revenge", "Cooley High" and "Cornbread, Earl and Me". Police said the youths threw objects through the screen, tore up seats and wrecked the box office of the Lido Theater at 8607 W. Pico Boulevard.

After the manager called police and closed the theater, the youths spilled outside and began breaking windows along Pico Boulevard. Officers said 600 to 800 persons were watching the program when a fight broke out at about 8:15 p.m. Police said older members of the audience got up on the stage and appealed to the brawling youths to quiet down, to no avail. Sx juveniles were arrested.

Here's a photo of the Lido from the new book titled Theatres In Los Angeles by Images of America:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vokoban/2282083496/

I see there was a bar conveniently located adjacent to the Lido in 1945. The Ruby Room. I wonder if they sold wine made from tender grapes? Many of the Lido's patrons probably needed a drink after seeing that sappy movie. The other feature, Wonder Man, might have left many of them already giddy, though.

I have many pix of the Lido and lots of others, but I don't know where to put them so people can see.

BK: As the "add a photo" feature is still unavailable at Cinema Treasures, the best way to share scans of your photos is to post them at a free hosting site such as Flickr and then link to them from here.

I used to recommend other hosting sites such as Webshots and Photobucket, but Flickr now has the advantage of providing many social networking features so that you can, for example, add your pictures to special interest pools for such things as movie theatres, Los Angeles architecture, and such.

so was this located near overland and pico? i cant think of any other bank of america on pico other than the one near the westside pavillion,which is a stones thrwo away from the picwood.

It was in the bofa parking lot on Pico right west of La Cienega. I went to Nick's for breakfast across the street and showed the picture to one of the regulars and he showed me right where the theater was. He said he used to go there all the time when he was a child.

o ok cool,so the next closet theatre was either the fox stadium or picfair.nicks has great food!but yea that would make since for a local house,i remember when they wanted to tear down the building on the other corner which was a cvc,sav on and now 20 20 video,but they saved it.thanks vokoban

charlie

They were supposed to open a Trader Joe's in that big art deco building on the corner but the idiots in my neighborhood nixed it because they sell alcohol. Yeah....I really see a lot of wino's standing around the parking lot at Trader Joe's.

I don't know, Two Buck Chuck is pretty addictive.

i just saw the pic of the lido,and man that was an awsome looking house.i can see the area not wanting a trader joes there.thats a boarderline neighborhood(super nice on the north with the south carthy south area)and kinda not so good on the south(i.e. the 7-11 going south where alot of apartment buildings are).i wonder how long the mint club has been there.

My neighborhood was the first or one of the first HPOZ's and they are very touchy about anything new. Frankly, I don't see Trader Joe's as bringing a bad element to any neighborhood.

same here,i went to schools in both areas in the early 90s(cresent hieghts,and carthy elementry)i grew up further south near pico and fairfax(i remember the picfair as an appliance store).

can you tell me which corner the Pickfair was located? I've looked at the Sanborn maps and Pico & Fairfax used to not go smoothly through. It looks like you used to have to stop and then jog over to continue on Fairfax. Now it has been changed to curve so it is continuous. I don't know if it was where Von's is now or across the street on the southwest corner.

no the vons was a safeway it turned into a vons around 90 or 91.the picfair was a grey kinda artdeco building,very similar to the studio on the same side of the street.it was right next to the laudry matt,theres a newer brick building there now,but on the other corner(not fairfax)was a shoe repair shop that was there til they tore it down,my mom use to go there alot.so all in all it was on the northwest corner lot.

thanks so much for that....now it makes sense.

no prob.

As said, the Picfair was on the north side of Pico and a little bit west of Fairfax. It was always the rattiest of the three nabes on Pico (the Picfair, Lido, and Stadium). As I said above in a post a couple of years ago, all three theaters play prominent roles in my first three novels and the Lido adorns the cover of the first of them. Interestingly, while I have a few photos of the Lido and the Stadium, I've never been able to find a photo of the Picfair. The best of the three theaters was the Stadium, which had a nice big screen and stereo sound.

i remember the picfair well,i was about 13 when they tore it down.but i remember it was a 2 story building and it was grey.the studio across the street from it was called cartyh studios and it was in the same design as the picfair.most of the people on my old street(spaulding ave)have lived there for 45+ yrs,so next time im in la ill ask for some pics.

I don't think the Picfair was gray originally. I think I saw my first movie there around 1954 or 1955 and was there most Saturdays for the kiddie matinee - a double bill, cartoons, coming attractions, a Stooges short, and sometimes they'd do serials every week. I think you'll find there's a listing for the Picfair on this site. I was always intrigued by the little studio there, and eventually when I became an actor I shot two shows there. Go know. Back to the Lido - back in the day, the northeast corner of Pico and La Cienega had a pharmacy there for years. To the east of that was Big Town Market (where I had my very first slice of pizza), and directly east of Big Town was a Ralph's Five and Ten Cent Store (and you could enter it FROM Big Town. On the south side of the street just east of La Cienega, was a terrific Chinese restaurant called Wan-Q. On Sherbourne and Pico, just a couple of blocks from the Lido, on the northeast corner was a hamburger joint called Kentucky Boys - it's now a mortuary! But the building, a diner, is exactly the same. Across from that was Leo's Delicatessan. I lived on Sherbourne, between Airdrome and 18th, and went to Crescent Heights, Louis Pasteur, and then Hamilton High.

I would love to see a photo of any of these theaters. The only photo I had seen of the Lido was on haineshisway's book until that other book came out and had another photo.

Okay, let's see if this works - I've uploaded two great photos of the Lido - if these work, I'll upload another.

Gee, it might help to include the link! http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v147/whitesheik/

Someone let me know that it worked. Thanks.

it says i need a password?

Maybe you need to set up an account? Let me see what the deal is.

Let's see if THIS works:

Let's see if this works differently, but at least there's a photo above. Next would be:
<img src=\"http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v147/whitesheik/lido2.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Lido circa early 1960s\">

Did the link work for the second one? If not, I'll do what I did and post the other photos directly.

it worked fine,thanks haineshisway

wow....thanks for posting those! so was the BofA right against the real estate place in the photo? how in the heck did you put a photo on cinema treasures in the actual posting?

I had several option on photbucket and chose the last of them and it put the image on here. Is that a no-no? But when you go to the link can you see all three photos? Do I need to post the third?

Just in case, here's the third - you can see the BofA sign if you look to the right of the theater.
<img src=\"http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v147/whitesheik/lido1.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"Lido Theater mid-1960s\">

I can see the BofA in the last photo....great. I don't know if putting a picture on here is a no-no or not, I just didn't think it was possible since they disabled the add photo thing so long ago. You must know some fancy html or something.

I think they only disabled the Add A Photo for the top of the page. On photobucket, there's several different codes one can use, and one of them uploads the pic to the actual site, so maybe that's the ticket from now on. :)

Now, should I go do some photos of the Stadium? I'm definitely going to do some of the Hollywood theaters, because everyone who posts pix of them does so with current pix - like anyone wants to see these glorious theaters all closed up or redesigned or as trendy clubs. Feh.

Does the Stadium have its own page? I'll have to check. I think you should put as many photos as you can for people to see. It's nice to see some photos that everyone hasn't already seen from the library and usc's website.

I've got amazing photos - I know the guy who has the biggest photo archive of this kind of LA stuff. The Stadium and Picfair both have pages, as do every other theater I can remember in this city. But not nearly enough classic pix from the era when these theaters actually were in business.

I hope that they are being digitally archived if they are originals. Too many bad things can happen to old photos.

Does anyone know if the Pickfair has a page on here? I put it in as the name and also previous name but can't seem to find it.

yea i was on the page today.

could you show me the link?

http://cinematreasures.org/theater/1168/

Thanks...I was spelling it wrong.

no prob

In 1966-67 I was proud and fortunate to be employed as assistant mgr at the LIDO Theatre. During those days our company had just changed name from Fox West Theatres to National General. Movies such as "The Blowout" "A Man & A Woman" "Shop on Main Street" "Elvira Madigan" and so many more would open there and played for months. (We didn't change movie every week those days.) Movie stars such as Kim Novak,
Paul Newman - Joanna Woodward, Bing & Mary Crosby, Mia Farrow, Frank Sinatra, Robert Wagner, Robert Goulet, Eddy Williams and so many more, visited the LIDO. After LIDO I was promoted to Manager at several other theatres until the Company changed to Manns Theatres. I will never forget the LIDO and the changes we did with the mgr, the late Richard Kates. We displayed expensive paintings at the lobby. We installed a water fountain upstairs next to the telephone booth,and dressed up the inside of the booth with French posters. It was "An Art Theatre." I'm sad that we didn't take any photos of the LIDO Theatre, during those days. A very special theatre!

Haineshisway, I was born in 1967. My parants lived in an apartmnet on Chariton and Cadillac, when I was born, moved over to another apartment on Chariton and Guthrie about a year later, and then in September, 1969, moved to the home that I grew up in and lived in until I moved out at 19, on Olin St, between Robertson and Canfield, so I probably remember a lot of the same places that you do. My older brother actually worked at Big Town Market for a short period of time in 1971-72, so I remember the corner of Pico and La Cienega very well. I honestly can't remember where the Lido Theatre was. Was it right on the corner of Pico and La Cienega, and if so, which corner? By the way, the Chinese restaurant that you're thinking about on Pico, just east of La Cienega, was Kowloon. Wan-Q's was actually on the north side of Pico, 1 block east of Robertson, on the corner of Pico and Wooster. Both Kowloon's, and Wan-Q's are long gone, but I think the Twin Dragon Chinese Restaurant, on Pico
and Holt, is still there. I remember my mom used to take me to the Montgomery Wards shopping center when I was a kid. There was a Woolworth's there, a Thrifty's, a Shopping Bag Market, which later became a Fazio's, a Bob's Big Boy, a Gallenkamps shoes(I think that's how it was spelled), and of course, Montgomery Wards, and stores inside of that building, next to Wards. I remember my mom liked shopping at the Daylite Market across the street(now long gone). You may also remember the minature golf course on La Cienega, up by Cashio(that closed in 1977), and a pizza stand that my dad claims was some of the best pizza he's ever had, Pizza Prince, on La Cienega, between Pickford and Cashio.

Unihikid, I also went to Uni(class of '85), and I'm probably around your age, since you said you were about 13 when the Picfair closed, and I think it closed around 1979-'80. Unfortunately, the Stadium on Pico closed right after I was born, and I don't think I ever saw any movies, even as a little kid, at the Lido, or the Picfair Theatres. The Carthay Theatre also closed down when I was 1, so I never got to experience that theatre either. I sure miss the Picwood, and the Palms though. I also miss living over on the Westside. I'd be over there in a heartbeat, if it weren't so damn expensive to live there. I'm really getting tired of Simi Valley!

hey mike
well when i said closed down i meant torn down im a uni grad c/o 01 lol but its good to see a fellow warrior!i went to the picfair once when it was a theatre it showed a indian cartoon from what i remember it wasnt that good,but that was around 86 or 87,around 88 the appliciance store opened up and we bought a stove from there.you mention the carthay..i went to that school and i use to hang out on the theater site and wondered why was that ugly building there.i miss la too you may be in simi valley but im in DALLAS!

Wow unihikid, you moved even further away from LA than I did! A lot of people miss the Carthay Theatre, and they also mention that the building that's there now is not only just another office building, but of course, it lacks the history of nice architectual and historical buildings, such as the Carthay Theatre.

My parents moved one block from there in '71 just before I was born. They still live there. I only saw The Muppet Movie and Buck Rodgers there. I see those were mid/late '79 release dates, so that was near the very end. I always wanted to see movies there, but my mom wouldn't let me. Reading about that riot for the FIRST time ever, I'm pretty sure I know why! Fustrated me because I would always walk/ride by there to get milk at Big Town or baseball cards in the tiny pathway BETWEEN Big Town and the 5 and dime.

BTW in the 90's the Bank of America was robbed or robbery attempt from UNDERNEATH. The robbers tunneled under the vault from the huge underground storm drain under La Cienega & Pico blvd.

hainsthisway,you mentioned leo deli.there was an appliance/thrift store in that area called leos,i forgot what cross street it was on but it was right on the corner and my dad knew the owner pretty well,its not there anymore but do you know if its the same owner who just got out of making sandwhiches and started selling stoves?

charlie

Different Leo. BTW, in case it hasn't been answered, the Lido was not on the corner of La Cienega and Pico. On the northwest corner was and is a Bank Of America. There were then a couple of storefronts heading west on Pico, and then the Lido - the storefronts AND the Lido became the BofA parking lot.

Here is a March 1969 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/plxhxy

Here is a May 1960 item from the LA Times:

In view of the success of its current screening of Ingmar Bergman’s “Wild Strawberries” and “The Magician”, NT&T’s Lido Theater on Pico will present Bergman’s “A Lesson in Love” for an exclusive engagement starting Friday June 3.

A hastily ironic comedy of morals, “A Lesson in Love” catches Bergman in a mischievous mood, the style being reminiscent of “Smiles of a Summer Night”, the film that first won him the attention of American audiences. Starring Eva Dahlbeck and Gunnar Bjornstrand, this will be the first showing of this film in the greater Los Angeles area.

Another ad with no graphics.

The LA Times noted overflow High Holiday services at the Lido from the late 1960s to the late 1970s. This item is from September 1979:

Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, was ushered in Friday night with synagogue services penetrated by the sound of the shofar, the hollowed ram’s horn which issues a call to conscience. Two Pico Boulevard congregations, Temple Isaiah and B’Nai David-Judea, are holding additional services at the Century Plaza and Lido Theatre, respectively.