Town Theatre

444 S. Hill Street,
Los Angeles, CA 90013

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Showing 1 - 25 of 56 comments

rivest266
rivest266 on September 10, 2019 at 4:59 pm

Reopened as Town on March 23rd, 1935. No grand opening ad appeared in the LA Times.

rivest266
rivest266 on August 9, 2016 at 3:33 pm

February 4th, 1966 grand opening ad as Pussycat in the photo section.

Nathan
Nathan on November 9, 2015 at 11:56 pm

Here’s a link to a shot of the Town in October ‘55 — https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5668/22294085863_54e106057f_o.png

From the Getty Archives, Leonard Nadel Collection, under “Traffic, Land Use, Housing and Street Conditions, Shopping”

TLSLOEWS
TLSLOEWS on April 21, 2010 at 6:39 pm

Nice 1946 photo.

Meredith Rhule
Meredith Rhule on November 19, 2009 at 4:38 pm

No matter where a projectionist worked, they could always pick up extra money by working the Midnight shift at a Pussycat theater. This booth was itty-bitty, but it was clean and ran great! I remember, well, I think I remember, the booth was painted a dark green. Heck, for all I know, maybe it was black. Wow, the first Pussycat.

William
William on July 9, 2009 at 8:31 am

The feature films playing in Joe Vogel’s post from Jan 30th, 2009 are
“Confidential Agent” (1945 from WB) Charles Boyer, Lauren Bacall & Peter Lorre. The second feature was “Two O'Clock Courage” (1945 from RKO).

jflundy
jflundy on April 29, 2009 at 7:09 am

Here is a 1946 photo. It may have been posted before on one of the dead links above but I post it below:
View link

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on April 26, 2009 at 3:15 pm

The Town can be seen on the right in this 1939 photo from the USC archives:
http://tinyurl.com/d5g63w

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on February 1, 2009 at 4:10 pm

Finally! Although the building is over two hundred feet distant, and the scan is a bit blurry, here is a photo of Bard’s Hill Street Theatre in the 1920s. The detail in the image is not too good, but it looks as though the theater had the same sort of fancy facade that Bard’s 8th Street had before it became the Olympic.

The photo is from the Dorothy Peyton Gray Transportation Library and Archive.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on January 30, 2009 at 9:45 pm

A photo giving a fairly decent view of the Town in the 1940s. I believe the main feature is “Casablanca.”

Nathan
Nathan on November 11, 2008 at 4:49 pm

According to city records, the 444/SilverCity bldng was constructed in 1987.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on October 25, 2008 at 3:38 pm

In April 1942 the theater was running 2 a.m. shows, presumably for second shift workers during the war. I recall that the State was staying open all night at that time as well.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on September 30, 2008 at 5:26 pm

They were doing work on this building today, so I took a look. I assume this new building replaced the theater building, which was demolished. I don’t think there was any reuse of the old building.
http://tinyurl.com/3rlecc
http://tinyurl.com/4ga9uk

JayAllenSanford
JayAllenSanford on August 8, 2008 at 8:55 am

New book-length Pussycat Theatre history from the San Diego Reader:
View link

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on January 18, 2008 at 7:55 pm

The LA Library keeps producing photos from a seemingly bottomless source, so I will continue to check their site. Maybe we will get lucky.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on January 18, 2008 at 7:42 pm

Ken: I’d guess that this photo is from ca.1939-1940. The women’s outfits closely resemble Rosalind Russell’s in “His Girl Friday”, and I see the rear end of a car at far right that looks like it might be a ‘39 Chevy coupe (incidentally, John’s Old Car and Truck Pictures is a handy place to look when you’re trying to determine the dates of old photos that happen to have cars in them.)

I wonder if we’re ever going to find a photo of the Town showing what it looked like in the early years after its 1920 opening? In fact, I’m beginning to wonder if the austere modern facade with its vertical dividers might not actually have been the original design, and Albert Martin was just ahead of his time? After all, only a few years later, in 1926, he was the architectural engineer for L.A. City Hall, a strikingly modern building for that year.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on January 18, 2008 at 3:13 pm

We don’t have too many photos of this theater, so I’ll take what I can get. I often have lunch at the Subway immediately adjacent to the architectural atrocity that replaced the Town.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on January 18, 2008 at 2:40 pm

Here is a new addition from the LAPL. The Town is visible on the east side of Hill Street:
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics45/00072154.jpg

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on November 18, 2007 at 6:41 pm

Here is a 1970 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/2kyalf

bonanza65
bonanza65 on July 16, 2007 at 2:48 pm

i was wondering what killed the pussycat chain. But then I remember the words VCR and the birth of the young porn industry in 1980. The movie Bogie Nights talks about that. This theatre has so much history i have a diary from my great grandfather about him and his friends going there.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on July 2, 2007 at 4:27 pm

I probably didn’t put it in right as an aka, I should have made it one word. Thanks.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on July 2, 2007 at 4:11 pm

The Band Box is listed here as Shamrock Theatre.

William
William on July 2, 2007 at 3:57 pm

Well the address is the site of the 13 floor, William Fox Building which was built in 1929/30.