Garmar Theater

Laurie, you have a sharper eye than I do. I hadn’t noticed the lettering on that building. It must be the building on the southwest corner 5th, right across Whittier from the Security Bank building. The county assessor’s office gives a construction date of 1926 for the building on that lot now, so it must be the same one in the photo. Unfortunately the library doesn’t have any closer photos of it, except one showing one end of the 5th street side of it (at far right in this photo.) I’d be interested to know what your neighbor might remember about the building with the arched front, too.

Also, I checked the finding aid for the S. Charles Lee papers at UCLA, and it does list Alfred Olander as the owner of the Garmar Theatre.

Hi Droog, my best friend found this message. I was the repair guy you talked to back then.

It was a running gag with me way back when about Robert being the owner. The Blake family actually had a more famous landmark in that his uncle Eddie Blake owns this restuarant in Los Angeles called Tail of the Pup. you can see it in the movie Body Double.

The arcade opened back in 1980 or 81. I do remember the Garmar, fave movie I saw was Rollercoaster, in full Senssuround glory.

Here is a January 1959 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/qggsdl

A photo of the lobby of the Garmar was featured on the frontispiece of Boxoffice Magazine’s Modern Theatre section, December 2, 1950.

Picture at Boxoffice Vault 1950 08 05 p 1949 Boxoffice Vault