Holiday Theatre

Movie listings in a 1960 copy of the Los Angeles Herald-American newspaper show the Nubell address as 16711 S. Bellflower.

Bil could you have this reversed on the names of the theatre, according to the history that I have the theatre opened in 1929 as the NuBell Theatre, It had a full stage with fly gallery and an orchestra pit, dressing rooms for vaudeville which at the time was presented along with motion pictures. It was later renamed the Bellflower. Ownership changed several times during its venue as a movie theatre and ws closed in 1977 due to compitition from the Multiplexes. New seating was installed in 1960 on both the main floor and balcony. A new fire wall was installed to close the proscenium opening and a new wide screen was installed along with waterfall curtains.
The Calvary Church purchased the theatre in 1986. They cleaned the theatre up inside and out. They installed a new brick veneer on the exterior walls and changed the lettering on the vertical to HOSANA from HOLIDAY. The address at the time listed it as 16705 Bellflower Rd. but they way numbers change on streets in Ca. it could very well be 16711 now.

There was not a weekend in the '60s I wasn't found at the Nubell Theater.

Here was all the "Double Horror Matinees", the Roger Corman movies and an odd thing called "Crazy Races" which was a filmed race and if the number of the winning - horse, boat or box racer matched the number on the bottom of your popcorn box - you'd win ANOTHER box of popcorn (Yay!)!

At one time you could vote for which movie you wanted to see next on a big board in the lobby.

A great family theater.

There's a really nice photograph of this theatre here: http://www.yesterdayla.com/Graphics/bellflower1.jpg

The address listed in the heading will not map, the address that Rick listed does map, so should the address be corrected to 16711 S. Bellflower?

The architect of the Nubell Theatre was F.E. Woodruff.

The Moderne tower shown in the postcard view accessible via "Magic Lantern"'s posting still stood as of my one visit to Bellflower in 1991. The neon was gone from it, and there was the name HOSANNA in applied letters in place of the NUBELL name. There were some low windows cut into the auditorium walls, through which I could see a nice streamlined interior, albeit painted over in quietly neutral tones (at least that's better than the stark white so often favored by theatre-to-church conversions).
The outside of the fly tower has an earlier classic deco look, and a postcard I bought a few years later showing the entrance and facade when it was the BELLFLOWER confirmed the existence of an earlier ziggurat-like deco spire where the current tower structure now stands. There was no name on the tower, but there was a neon-bedecked marquee with the name spelled out horozontally. The cast concrete detailing of the earlier tower matched exactly the detailing which still exists on the stage fly.

According to the city of Bellflower site, Frank Woodruff, its owner, was also a local land developer whose interests in the city began in 1906. There is a Woodruff Avenue in the area. Frank died in 1939, ten years after the Nubell opened.
To see the inside of the theatre, you can get the time of the church services at: http://www.hosannachapel.org/about.htm

Color photo of the Holiday Theatre.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y147/Chuck1231/California%20Theatres/HolidayTheatreAKANeBellBellflowerCa.jpg

From the LA Public Library:

http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics31/00050144.jpg

Not demolished, but functioning as a church.

Joe is correct. Status is closed and function is church. Here is a recent photo.

Here are some April 2008 photos:
http://tinyurl.com/3jpwuj
http://tinyurl.com/45bod7
http://tinyurl.com/4rtprg
http://tinyurl.com/4j2xy6
http://tinyurl.com/3fqmvv
http://tinyurl.com/3s669c
http://tinyurl.com/4ewynm

Nice photos. Did you take them?

I did.

Your getting better all the time. Pretty soon you can get a second job as a photographer. Thats a compliment.

Taken as such. Thanks.

I can't find any references to an architect named F.E. Woodruff in the California Index. Frank Woodruff certainly had this theatre built, but I've found no evidence that he designed it. One of the very few references to Woodruff in the Index cites an article in Architect & Engineer of May, 1927, which says that architects Gable & Wyant were designing a house for him. If Woodruff had been an architect, one would expect him to have designed his own house.

The County Assessor's office gives a construction date of 1929 and an effective construction date of 1970 for this building. As the current streamline modern facade can be seen in photos from as early as the 1950s, at least, then I have no idea what was done to the building in 1970 that "reset" its effective construction date.

Ken: Did you also get photos of the Circle Theatre while you were in Bellflower?

No, I got off the freeway on the spur of the moment. I saw the Circle listing when I was posting the photos. Maybe another time.