Banner Theater

Initially a silent theatre, it was in business at least since 1935. The Los Angeles Times listed it in 1973 as showing gay male porn as well.

Was this theater still called by this name in the 1960s? It would have been right down the block form the Regent, the only Main Street theatre I ever attended, but I have no memory of the Banner. I do remember that there was a theatre called the Admiral, AKA Rector's Admiral, on the east side of Main somewhere between the Regent and the Burbank. Could the Banner and the Admiral have been the same theatre? I was less familiar with Main Street than with the streets farther west, as Main Street was already pretty gritty, even in those days. There *might* have been a second theatre on that stretch of the street, but I can't bring the image of it to mind.

Joe;

There is a listing for a Main Theater, 438 S. Main St on CinemaTour.com which could have been the Admiral, aka Rector's Admiral you mention. I have no record of an Admiral in my listings 1941, 1950, 1952, apart from the Admiral (later Vine) on Hollywood Blvd.

If the Main was at #438, the Regent at # 448 and the Banner at #458, that is 3 theaters on the 400 block (E side of S. Main St).

The Banner Theater has that name through the 1940's, '50's and as a porn cinema in the 1970's.

I was on S. Main taking photo's of the Regent Theater a few years ago when it was operating as a Spanish language 'straight' porn cinema. A black street guy saw me and hollered across the street 'Hey! You mother fu.... white honky, wot u taking pictures of me for'! I made a swift exit as he started to cross the street towards me, but got the photos of the Regent ok.

The 1926 Film Daily Year Book lists a Banner Theatre with 350 seats at 458 S. Main Street.

I first saw the Admiral sometime soon after 1960, but I can't recall if it was north of the Regent. It seems, in my hazy memory, to have been farther south. It was a grind house, and I don't think it was included in the newspaper theater listings. I don't remember ever seeing a theater called the Main.

I still can't picture the Banner, at all, so I'm thinking that it might have been one of those theaters like the Optic and the Art, which had no marquee to speak of. I do remember the Admiral having a marquee of about the same size as that of the Regent. If I saw a photograph of the Banner, it would probably jog my memory.

The current status of the Banner Theater needs to changed to Closed/Demolished. The land is currently used as a parking lot.

does anyone know what happeneed to the Pussy Cat theaters iNn Souther California??? They seem to have all disappeared
Tony

does anyone know what happeneed to the Pussy Cat theaters iNn Souther California??? They seem to have all disappeared
Tony

I think the Banner Theater played leap frog. It sounds as though 456 South Main was the final address.

(Jul 18, 1918)
Launching a vigorous campaign to eliminate indecent motion pictures from Los Angeles theaters, representatives of the City Prosecutor's office last night stopped the exhibition of 'Purity' a seven-reel film at the Banner Theater, No. 446 South Main street, seized the film, locked it up as evidence at Central Police Station and cited the manager of the theater to appear in court this morning on a charge of showing a lewd and indecent picture.

(Dec. 6, 1922)
Investigation into the mysterious fire at the Banner Theater, 452 South Main street, yesterday afternoon, where a panic among the men, women and children in the show was narrowly averted, was started last night by the police arson squad.

(Dec. 19, 1922)
When Mrs. Julia A. Campbell sued Robert M. Campbell, owner of the Banner Theater, for divorce she named Agnes Rolfus as correspondent. Moreover, she asked for and accounting of the profits of the Banner Theater, 456 South Main street, and the appointment of a receiver.

(Sep. 2, 1923)
Banner Theater, 456 S. Main Street
Sept. 2-5--Douglas Fairbanks In "He Comes Up Smiling."

(Oct 10, 1925)
Following what police term to be a most novel method of picketing, William Dermondy, 27 years of age, living at the Davis Hotel, was arrested last night by Officer hynes of the police intelligence division in front of the Banner Theater, 456 South Main street, and lodged in City Jail.

(Jan 1, 1937)
Harry E. Ransome, who opertated the Banner Theater at Fifth and Main streets up to 1913, asserted that Los Angeles had grown so that if he had been dropped somewhere without anybody to show him around that he would have become lost.

(March 27, 1955)
Workmen uncovered the relic when a new front was constructed on the Banner Building in 1952. The machine (1 1/2 ton music box organ) was in sad condition. Rats had made a home in it, hundreds of feet of rubber tubing had disintegrated, moths had eaten the felt, and the electric motor, colored lights and other parts had vanished.

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

This is a 1973 photo. The Banner would have been the building immediately to the right of the small white hotel sign, heading south on Main:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics09/00014126.jpg

There is a DVD released this week of a film called Too Soon To Love - there is a scene of the two young leads walking past the Banner Theater - I'd never heard of it, but it has to be the one on Main St. since that's the only Banner Theater listed anywhere in LA and environs. So, if you'd like a glimpse of its marquee fully lit and the rest of the street, check it out.

There's also a drive-in in the film - sadly, the shot is never wide enough to get signage or to see the street, but I think it might just be the Olympic. If anyone recognizes it, I'd love to know.

It took a while, but now we have a picture of the Banner, circa 1965:
http://tinyurl.com/2gvqa7

I watched Too Soon To Love from the suggestion above. It does have a great moving shot from a car looking at the east side of Main from about 5th to right before the Regent. The shot of the Banner is very good and you can see every other business that was there.

If I keep buying movies every time you give me a great tip, I will go broke. Go watch Spiderman 3. 8-)

Spiderman,Yuck....I have to warn you, Too Soon To Love is pretty bad, but its good, campy, bad. They have to go down to Main street to get an emergency abortion as a result of some teenage 'fumblings'. The other movie on this double feature dvd is called Unwed Mother and shows a good shot of the Granada/Oriental. The pregnant girl's jerky boyfriend robs the ticket booth...exciting!

I can't remember if I posted about the Oriental under that theatre. I'll go check. It's a great shot, too, and that whole sequence lasts quite some time. Just watched a region 2 DVD of Frankenheimer's first film, The Young Stranger. Lots shot at Marshall High (another troubled teen film, but a very good one), and the boy gets in trouble repeatedly at what we finally realize is the Bruin Theater in Westwood. Towards the end of the movie we get great shots of the 1958 exterior and lots of Westwood street shots, as well as the lobby of the Bruin. Amusingly, the auditorium interiors were obviously shot in a screening room somewhere and look nothing like a real movie theater.

I will pick up my LAPL card on Tuesday, so I will get back to you on the access issue. Here is a lengthy but interesting article from the Times dated 6/5/39. It doesn't name any specific theater, but the Banner will do:

Main St. “Flop” Theaters Present Gloomy Parade

Untold Stories of Misery and Broken Hopes Evident in Patronage of All Night Movies

“Open all night”.

Behind those beckoning words which surmount the placard-cluttered foyers of Main Street nickel and dime houses are countless untold stories of misery and broken hopes. Hundreds of men - young, old and “on the bum” - nightly make their way to the tawdry all night theaters which for lack of any other address they sardonically call home.

A while ago the City Council was presented with a plan by the Police Commission to close these cheap movies. It was suggested that some $25,000 be appropriated to look after the itinerants who would be left “homeless” by such a move. Much councilmanic to-do about the matter ended when the city fathers - by two votes – killed the plan.

What caused the sudden furor? To find out, a Times reporter last night donned old clothes and a weary look and visited the half-dozen all night movies on Main Street. The junket was no picnic. In each smoke-choked, inadequately ventilated theater, the men – and a few women – who a few hours before deserted their aimless strolling outside. They slumbered fitfully while a projector unreeled three, four or more ancient films.

Their heads, supported by arms propped against the seat in front or flung back over the edge of the chair backs, nodded into consciousness only when the sound track blared unusually loud during a melodramatic sequence. A few patrons watched the pictures, mostly antiquated westerns and mysteries. You could tell the men who were awake because they smoked cigarettes incessantly in defiance of illuminated signs reading “Positively No Smoking. Fine $25.” But entertainment is not the purpose of these places. They are admittedly open for the convenience of vagabonds who are dog tired from tramping hard sidewalks.

The preferred position for “flops” seems to be along the sides of the narrow theaters, where a man could slouch against the wall in some semblance of comfort for his 40 winks. Once in position, shoes were removed and hats tipped over eyes. Now and then a drunk staggered down the aisle and collapsed into a seat. Soon he was snoring loudly. Sometimes five or six drunks snored in unison. Sometimes one became sick – and did not bother to leave his seat.

The atmosphere was stale and musty, an accumulation of ugly odors. The sleepers breathed heavily and their breaths were tainted with wine or cheap whisky. Trash littered the uncarpeted floors. Someone snapped peanut shells. Occasionally someone kicked an empty, discarded bottle and cursed audibly. A ripple of excitement stirred the patrons of one place when three husky rats engaged in a brief free for all in the side aisle. At the conclusion of one picture, a boy with a tray walked up the aisle mumbling “Ice cream and sandwiches, popcorn five cents”. No one paid him any attention. It was sleep they wanted for their nickel.

That’s the depressing picture of an all-night flop theater. Why do they keep open? Do they make any money? An assistant manager of a 5-cent house had this to say:
“Sure we make money, or we’d close. We’ve got regular customers. One man has been coming to this same theater every night for a year and a half. They panhandle enough for a pint of wine and save a nickel to sleep on. Fights? Naw. We don’t have any trouble with the customers.”

“If we were closed up they’d find some other place to sleep. Along the streets somewhere, I guess. None of them have homes. But there’s no law that can make us close up. You can fall asleep in a show if you want. That’s your business, isn’t it? We try to keep the place clean. We spray it every morning, you know, for bugs and things. When you’ve got 5000 bums sleeping in these Main Street theaters every week, you’ve got to be a little but careful.”

“Our place is known all over. We get fellows from all over the country and as soon as they hit town they come here for a flop. You know, you can’t flop in a show in the east for less than ten cents. We do all right. Guys like to flop in a theater because at the missions they make them come in at a certain hour and they’ve got to obey rules. Here they just come and go as they please.”

The assistant manager did not mention, however, that the best thing about sleeping in a nickel theater is being able to walk out.

I've never come across that one yet....I didn't realize that Main had sunk that low in 1939. I thought the decline started after WWII was over. I knew that the movie palaces were already on Broadway, but i thought Main still had a little pride at the time.

It sounded pretty grim, didn't it?

Vokoban, I have my LAPL card. I'm at the Central Library right now. I would appreciate the information we discussed if you could e-mail it to me at kennethcmcintyre@aol.com Thanks.

I sent directions ken mc.

You're the man. Thanks.

The Banner had migrated back to 458 S. Main by September 1974. Featured were "Erotic Adult Films - Discount After Midnight". I would hope they give me a discount if I'm on sleazy Main Street at that time of the night.

I think what happened is that a lot of these theaters had store fronts on either side of the original entrance and over the years the theater entrance switched around to the different doors to accommodate the stores.

If you look again at the photo from the LAPL I posted on 2/3/07, the Banner is to the left of the small white hotel sign, or immediately north of the sign. I said south originally but now I have the UCLA photo posted on 5/18/07.

I'm still wrong. South would be correct if I had any sense of direction. I was right the first time.

Here is an early 70s ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/ypm5gy

Here is a 1912 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/ystzn6

RE: vokoban and everybody, you might be interested to know the full story of the "1 and 1/2 ton music box organ" that was in the Banner Theatre.

It is actually a Wurlitzer model 29-C Mandolin PianOrchestra orchestrion, which, in the interim, spent time at Knott's Berry Farm (among other places), but now has just been fully restored and is in a private collection in Florida. More pictures and information here (especially click on the last two photos at the bottom of the page: they take you to pages with lots of detail shots of the gorgeous interior!):

http://www.mechanicalmusicpress.com/history/pianella/w29c.htm

The address listed is for the REGENT theatre. Looks like it will become a live music venue in a month or two.

There is a 1983 photo on this site. The theater was in Los Angeles, not Long Beach, despte the caption.
http://tinyurl.com/cazopo