Carthay Circle Theatre
6316 San Vicente Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90048
6316 San Vicente Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90048
32 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 135 comments found
Here’s a photo that a friend gave to me. I scanned it before I put it in the frame. I don’t think I’ve seen this one yet: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vokoban/6261222632/in/photostream
In DAVID SELZNICK’S HOLLYWOOD, he states that GONE WITH THE WIND premiered first in Atlanta on 12/15/39 at the Loews Grand (3 continuous shows daily) , then four days later in New York at the Capitol (3 continuous shows daily) and the Astor (reserved seat; 2 performances daily) and finally in Los Angeles at the United Artist Downtown (3 continuous shows daily) and the Carthay Circle (reserved seat; 2 performances daily). The Los Angeles invited premiere was held the day before on 12/27/39 at the Carthay Circle.
@Warren G. Harris: There were many films in Cinemascope and B&W – before Longest Day roadshow was Diary of Anne Frank (1959 – roadshow @ 171 min + intermission).
For the person who wondered on what corner the Picfair was located; it was the NW corner of Pico and Fairfrax.
I grew up in the area and saw many great films at the Carthay Circle Theater. It was just behind my grammar school. I can remember catching pollywogs in the little pound in the tiny park just north of the theater where water from the gold miner’s pan spilled out endlessly. Over the years we often celebrated the Jewish High Holidays at local theaters (our synagogue was too small at that time). The theaters we used were the Wilshire (on Wilshire), the Stadium (on Pico) and the Carthay Circle Theater. Seeing the cantor prostrate himself on the massive Carthay Circle Theater and Wilshire stages on Yom Kipper was truly moving/ impressive.
Here is a February 1953 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/yjjyt54
Lots of cool shots and info on the site.
Check out Wikipedia. There is a new article on this theatre. See: View link
i have alot of ephemera for sale from the old days ,alot from south california —-evog49 @ aol.com
i have a couple “Around the world in 80 days” programs from the carthay circle theatre for sale, along with other ephemera, evog49@ aol.com
Here is an ad for “Snow White” at the Carthay Circle.
Here is a January 1937 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/lkkfsy
Funny
I gave them the benefit of the doubt the first time, but when I saw the second caption I had to put the hammer down.
“in the picture” that should say.
Oh, dear. Whoever wrote the caption for the USC photo probably just read the old street sign in the and searched Google Maps for Eulalia Boulevard in Los Angeles, and it came up with Eulalia Street in Glendale. USC needs to run their photos by some old people with memories.
Interesting.
I thought in the first photo they were comparing the Carthay to a church in Glendale, but as you can see in the second photo, they are geographically challenged:
http://tinyurl.com/cfh2ef
This is a circa 1930s photo from the USC archives:
http://tinyurl.com/cepmhh
Here is a 1949 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/dkt8x3
It was also B&W CinemaScope, and possibly the first movie in that reserved-seat, roadshow period to be shown in monochrome. I believe it was done for budgetary reasons, and also so that actual documentary footage could be intergrated with the staged invasion.
The Carthay Circle also opened THE LONGEST DAY on a reserved seat hard ticket policy in October of 1962. Although the picture was shot in Cinemascope, Mr Zanuck had a special blown up 70MM print made for the Rivoli in New York and the Carthay Circle. As I remember, the picture ran there for about 6 months. Fox had a big premiere the night before the film opened in the courtyard of the Carthay that was televised on a local LA station. What a party.
This is from Boxoffice magazine in January 1960:
LOS ANGELES-Carthay Circle Theater here is to get the roadshow run of Fox’s “Can-Can”. “Porgy and Bess” closes a 26-week engagement at the house next week. National Theaters' chief film buyer, M.A. Lundgren, will go to New York with Gordon Hewitt to conclude arrangements for the booking, following the world premiere at New York’s Rivoli in March.
There are some photos of the Carthay Circle in Edward Kelsey’s “Fox West Coast Theatres,” which was recently published as the 2008 Annual of Theatre Historical Society of America. Copies are free as part of an annual membership that also includes a susbscription to the quarterly journal, Marquee. Details can be found at www.historictheatres.org
thanks voxpop