Four Star Theatre

Looks like the tenants bought a historic church a few blocks away and will be leaving. “…Oasis will be moving in the near future from its present headquarters at Wilshire near Highland, a former movie theater.”

http://larchmontchronicle.com/oasis-christian-church-new-home/

As of January 2012, the building is still a church (Oasis Church), but Oasis has just announced they are leaving the building for another venue, and will be (have already?) sold it. With the new BMW dealership next door, the ritzy apartment complex across the street, and a dying decrepit Burger King next door, I wouldn’t be surprised if the new owners knock it down and start from scratch. As a 500ish-seater theater with no parking, there are few uses left for it as is.

This is a 2009 photo of the Oasis.

Here is a March 1977 ad from the LAT:
http://tinyurl.com/nvnhey

I went by this place today. Did the church move out as stated above? There is a sign on the side with their web address — the Oasis Christian Center. That site lists “service” times. And there’s still a star (a la Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame) on the sidewalk out front that reads “Jesus Christ the Son of God.”

I’ll bet that alot of people on here remember that one. LOL

Here is a November 1974 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/r7a5kb

Here is part of the injunction from 1976:

Four Star Theatre is a theatre and related property located on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. The property is leased by its owners to United Artists Theatres of California, Inc., and subleased by United Artists to James and Artie Mitchell and corporations controlled by them. The sublease calls for rent of $48,000 per year, runs to August 30, 1977, is for the purpose of conducting a theatre, covers furniture, fixtures and equipment, and vests the right of possession in the sublessee.

The Mitchell group operates the theatre, catering to devotees of “X-rated” films. During the calendar year 1974, officers of the Los Angeles Police Department observed over 30 acts of public masturbation by patrons of the theatre. Employees of the Mitchell group were instructed to cause a warning of the presence of officers in the theatre to be flashed on the screen whenever their presence was known. While ushers sometimes patrolled the aisles, the patrol was sporadic at best except when police officers were known to be present.

Here is part of an LA Times article dated 1/27/76:

The controversial Four Star Theater has resumed operations under a state Supreme Court stay of a Los Angeles Superior Court injunction which closed its doors last December 2. Superior Judge Harry Hupp had shut down the theater at the request of the Los Angeles city attorney’s office under the state’s 1913 Red Light Abatement Act, designed to combat “lewdness or prostitution”.

The theater at 5112 Wilshire Boulevard is owned by Chief U.S. District Judge Albert Lee Stephens, Jr. and two of his daughters. However, it is leased to a theater chain and subleased over the Stephens' family’s protests to a group which is showing X-rated movies.

Police chief Edward M. Davis has complained of numerous arrests for lewd conduct in the theater. Hupp emphasized his decision was based on lewd activity and not the content of the movies.

Crime is everywhere.

Here are some October 2008 photos:
http://tinyurl.com/46m7tl
http://tinyurl.com/3z33ka

Very interesting. Thanks for the information

I’m no film historian, but I think 1947 was one of the last years where television had not put a dent in movie attendance. Probably through 1950 or so, then the decline began.