United Artists Long Beach 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

I was an usher at the UA theater from 1967-1970 while I was in high school. Mr. Hendrix was the manager then and Mr. Fisk was the assistant. We had a great staff of young workers. I was the only guy working with several college-aged young ladies. I remember then chasing me with MY broom in the lobby during the matinee hours. Mr. Fisk would catch up playing around and give us a “dirty look”. This was my first “real job” and I took the city bus to work every day. The theater was old then and I remember having to change the letters on the marquee every Tuesday night. My future wife and I had our first date at the UA at age 15 (a matinee to see Wait Until Dark with Audrey Hepburn). So many memories and fun times with Lesley, Jody, and Shelley.