Meralta Theatre
9632 Culver Boulevard,
Culver City,
CA
90232
9632 Culver Boulevard,
Culver City,
CA
90232
2 people
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The Meralta Theatre opened in the mid-1920’s.
Contributed by
Ray Martinez
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Recent comments (view all 16 comments)
I think I saw Les Girls and Pal Joey at the Meralta.
Here is a photo from 1928, via the LA Library:
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics32/00035850.jpg
Here is an LA Times blurb from 2/24/83. “Sure, we demolished the theater, but we named the office building for it, so we’re square, right?”
Culver Rebuilds
$4-Million Plaza on Old Meralta Theater Site First Major Project in Once-Ignored Downtown
Demolition has started on an entire block of old buildings in downtown Culver City to make way for the first of three major redevelopment projects—a $4-million, three-story office building called Meralta Plaza.
A Link theater organ was installed in the Meralta Theater in Culver City in 1924.
Here is a 1957 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/2l9wlu
In the 1930s I lived three blocks from the Meralta. At ages six-seven my little brother and I attended the ten-cent Saturday afternoon matinee with a newsreel, previews, cartoon, main feature, and our favorite, the weekly serial with cliffhangers and the works. The Meralta introduced me to Franz Liszt’s beautiful “Les Preludes.” To this day when I hear it in the concert hall I see Flash Gordon’s rocket-ship mockups wobbling into outer space on invisible strings. It was the ticky-tacky 2001 Space Odyssey of its day. One preview scared the pants off of me when a giant genie, played by Rex Ingram, shot up from a bottle uncorked by Indian boy actor Sabu. The following week I went for more terror at “The Thief of Bagdad [sic],” an all-time favorite that I’ve seen several times since. One day my brother and I went AWOL from Pacific Military Academy up in the Cheviot Hills, walked three miles to see a picture show at the Meralta. I still don’t know how the Commandant found us, marched in Gestapo-style, and personally hauled us back to the school, where corporal punishment was no issue. We got swats (not too hard), an hour of standing at attention against the wall, and a full day of litter pickup on the campus grounds. So sad to see the old movie house dead and gone.
Here is an expanded view of the photo at the top of the page:
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics32/00035851.jpg
Here is a January 1983 photo, around the time the theater closed:
http://tinyurl.com/ctzlje
Here is another photo taken around the same time.
I used to go see movies at this theater in the 70’s.. it was lit with green lights inside.. the lobby and bathrooms were painted black! It wasn’t a showplace by any stretch of the imagination…
but if you compare it to todays tiny box theaters, I much prefer the Meralta! Does anyone have any interior pics of the place??