Granada Theatre
632 N. Avalon Boulevard,
Wilmington,
CA
90744
632 N. Avalon Boulevard,
Wilmington,
CA
90744
1 person
favorited this theater
The former Granada Theatre is now home to a church…
Contributed by
William Gabel
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 16 comments)
Here are the photos:
http://tinyurl.com/2ooypq
http://tinyurl.com/3xbhsb
http://tinyurl.com/2vj639
http://tinyurl.com/3bd8s7
http://tinyurl.com/2m9qsf
The Granada had childrens' matinees in 1960:
http://tinyurl.com/2rqpbb
Great photos Ken. I used to attend those kids matinees during the early 60s. The theatre management used to have ticket drawings for prizes as they would tell us before entering the lobby to be sure and hold on to our half of the ticket stub. Funny but I can remember many of the films I saw there, Good Neighbor Sam, Father Goose, Cleopatra, Elmo & the Detectives, Voyage to the Seventh Planet, Fail Safe, Huckelberry Finn, Incredible Mr Limpett, Pinocchio. I can even remember the intermission music, Exodus and Moon River.
“Pare de Sufrir” means “Stop the suffering”, or something close to it.
Here are some 1983 photos:
http://tinyurl.com/m9x35l
http://tinyurl.com/kjs3z4
I’m in the theater, but the church person told me to wait for the service to finish before taking pics of the interior. There are a half dozen people or so being preached to. Not much has changed inside since the movie days. I will post the pictures later.
No go on the auditorium photos. The minister or whatever he was wouldn’t allow it. Here are the rest of the photos:
http://tinyurl.com/lfzdqx
http://tinyurl.com/l65d6a
http://tinyurl.com/lar8sv
http://tinyurl.com/nglws5
http://tinyurl.com/n2dgdq
http://tinyurl.com/kjrqp8
http://tinyurl.com/n5eqaf
http://tinyurl.com/ltzftd
http://tinyurl.com/n4ew2z
http://tinyurl.com/mfsrq7
Here is the theater curtain in the 1930s, with ads for local businesses:
http://tinyurl.com/pe9lyn
I was a seven-year-old kid in 1949 living in Wilmington CA. Every Saturday, weather permitting, my parents allowed me to walk to the Granada Theater with my buddies to see the Serial movies and cartoons. We were constantly getting into trouble sneaking into the balcony and throwing chewed Jujubes and spit-wads at the kids below! More than once the Theater manager called our parents to come and get us. The most memorable event of a day at the Granada was to flatten the popcorn boxes and throw them like todays Frisbee and see who could cast a shadow on the screen for the longest time. Another version of this game was to see who could deposit a flat popcorn box on one of the two small balconies on either side of the stage under the fancy grille-work. I could never have imagined what was behind that grille-work. Little did I know I would spend thousands of future hours over my adult lifetime lovingly restoring, repairing and owning wonderful Theatre Pipe Organs! Pipe Organs and old movie theatres have been my passion for many years and it all sort of started at the Wilmington Granada! Anyone know what happened to the Granada Organ?
I got in to the Granada the other day and tried to snapped off a photo of the interior but got caught! I got one but it’s way fuzzy. Not sure why they are such a pain about pictures. I told them I was with the LAHTF (LA Historic Theatre Foundation) and just wanted to document that it was still there and looked good and that we where happy the church was taking such good care of it. But my words were lost in translation as the man in charge did not speak english and the young man was not saying as much as I was for sure. I will not stop trying.
It did not look Art Deco really except for a little bit of painting and the terrazzo out front, but the spanish decor is still there and I forgot to look for the “P” for Post at the proscenium as the glowing cross on the stage was distracting.