California Theatre
810 S. Main Street,
Los Angeles,
CA
90014
810 S. Main Street,
Los Angeles,
CA
90014
14 people
favorited this theater
Miller’s California Theatre opened on December 24, 1918. By November 1919, it had been leased by Samuel Goldwyn to showcase his films and he hired S.L. Rothaphel of New York, later to become famous as ‘Roxy’, to manage the theatre. He made many ‘improvements’ to both the interior and exterior of the theatre.
In later years the California Theatre became a Spanish language movie theatre and ended its cinematic days as an adult theatre, part of the Pussycat Theatres chain.
It was demolished in 1989.
Contributed by
William Gabel, Ken Roe
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater
Recent comments (view all 92 comments)
This was in the LA Times in November 1918:
http://tinyurl.com/kw7ya7
I just came across a opening and deducation souvenir program for the California Theatre at Main and Eighth St. It consists of approximately 70 pages, is string-bound. My grandmother had it in her papers. She was a life-long entertainer/musician who participated in a number of stage shows and at least one movie in her later years (Blackbeards Ghost). The interior of the program is in very fine shape. The outer cover id a bit frayed at the edges, but very presentable.
Here are two more from the LAPL:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015262.jpg
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015263.jpg
Nice color photo that someone posted:
View link
Gary, that is a great fine.
That’s a nice photo, but the caption is incorrect, as the theater is not on Broadway. Just being picky.
Here is an early photo of the California Theatre featured on the cover of the May, 1919, issue of the Los Angeles-based investment magazine American Globe.
Wondering if anyone has a photo of the murals that were on either side of the spiral staircases?
I have a California/Miller’s Theater combo program at the Silent Film Still Archive.