United Artists Long Beach Theatre

There was no U.A. Theatre on Pico Blvd.. Simon must be thinking of the U.A. Four Star Theatre on Wilshire Blvd., there is a Bob’s Big Boy just east of the theatre.

In the picture the theatre has the Major Preview banner out in front of the vertical UA sign. It looks like the picture could be from 1932. Below the preview part of the banner, it looks like the title “One Way Passage”.

Here is part of an article about projectionists in the Long Beach Independent, dated 6/15/47:

Everybody knows that someone has to handle has to handle the film to get the pictures on the motion picture screen, but few know what they do or how they go about it. Wayne Swank, who operates at the United Artists theatre, got his start 30 years ago at the old American theatre on the Pike.

“We’ve come a long way since we used to sit on cracker boxes, and rewind film with one hand and crank the projector with the other”, he said. “Our projection booths are clean and fumes from the arc lights are carried off by blowers”. Operators work on six hour shifts. Before the theater opens for the day, the machines must be cleaned and oiled and film inspected for bad splices. Responsibility for the projection rests squarely on the operator. Operators are assigned to theaters by the Motion Picture Projectionists Union, Local 521.

This is the front page of a Long Beach paper on 1/9/53, when a Greyhound bus swerved to avoid another car and drove into the front of the theater:
http://tinyurl.com/djapzh

This is a 1931 photo from the Long Beach library:
http://tinyurl.com/24oy5rh