Lyric Theatre
7208 Pacific Boulevard,
Huntington Park,
CA
90255
7208 Pacific Boulevard,
Huntington Park,
CA
90255
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Yes, it looks like the building is still standing from the overhead shots of the building.
Southwest Builder & Contractor of May 27, 1921, said that the plans for this theater were being prepared by Walnut Park architect A.H. McCulloh.
The building looks like it’s still standing – on GoogleMaps you can clearly see where the roll-up door was the entrance.
I went to Pacific Boulevard Elementary School in the early ‘70s and this theatre was on the route to and from school.
So were the California and Park theatres.
Here is an August 1960 ad from the Long Beach Independent:
http://tinyurl.com/nzojb3
Here is a 1983 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/c3xgsm
Here is a May 1969 ad from the LA Times. 2069 A.D. is not that far away now,
http://tinyurl.com/3gnawl
New book-length Pussycat Theatre history from the San Diego Reader:
View link
Here is a 1970 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/35eyk6
Wouldn’t that be the same location as 7208 Pacific Blvd which William has already posted?
Advertised at Pacific & Florence in the LA Times on 1/15/75. Interesting to see a whole ad page of adult theaters – that was already abolished when I started reading the Times in 1984.
The address should be 7208 Pacific Blvd., the theatre building was located on the south east corner. Yes, Pacific Blvd. turns into Long Beach Blvd. and goes all the way the Ocean Blvd. where the old West Coast & Imperial Theatres once stood. I must have been working on something back in 2003 when I gave the address on the site.
I didn’t get to this location yesterday, as I was running out of daylight. I think 7208 Long Beach is below Firestone Boulevard. It looks like Pacific turns into Long Beach Blvd when you get that far south.
We have an article in this week’s San Diego Reader about Vince Miranda, with much about the Pussycat Theatre chain he co-owned.
View link
Here is an excerpt from an LA Times article of 9/21/75. I assume Walnut Park and Huntington Park are interchangeable, unless it was a typo:
Scandalous, said the Walnut Park neighbors of the once palatial Lyric Theater. The old movie house was a public scandal. The source of the outrage was film content. The Lyric had switched from a steady diet of Spencer Tracy films to what homeowners in 1955 sneeringly called ‘girlie films".
The flesh flashed on the Lyric’s screens was accompanied by whispered rumors of raunchy stag films slipped in from Mexico and shown at midnight. Stories of a bookie joint in the same block heightened the area’s unsavory reputation. But that was 20 years ago, before X-rated films had taken on an aura of fashionability.
In those older days, homeowners were incensed about the showing of the so-called skin flicks. Public meetings condemning the theater were held. Outrage was expressed. Protests planned. Lawsuits mulled.
But nothing really happened. And nothing really changed. Today the old Lyric Theater grinds out the likes of “Love, Lust and Violence” and “Tower of Love”, both rated “Super-X”.
And there hasn’t been a protest in years.
Here is an uncropped version of the photo above, from the LA Library:
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics35/00037255.jpg
CORRECTION:
THE TOWN theatre @ 444 South Hill, L.A.
THE TOWER was a later Pussycat in Oakland
Hi Folks!
I just wanted to add..
This was the 3rd Pussycat.
1, The Tower 444 south Hill St. L.A
2, The Sunset @ Sunset/Western Hollywood
3, The Lyric
I am putting together any info about the Pussycats..I would love to hear any of your stories..PHOTOS! any pics out there? I am in dire need of a photo of each pusssycat. Please help if you can.
Tim David
970.309.3991
I NEED HELP !!!
I am in desperate need of pictures or any sort of memorabilia that any one of you would be so kind as to send me a copy of via email or fax. I am finishing up my research paper on the Whittier Village Cinemas and the history of the Pussycat Theater.
Please please please, help a soon to be college grad if you have the time.
thank you for your consideration,
Susie Balpuesta
Whittier, California
(562) 686-5990
Here is a link to an article about the Pussycat theaters:
http://test.razormagazine.com/feature1003b.php
Actually…these are the correct names and facts. George Tate was his name…. not Gerald. He went to prison for other reasons…and the IRS is who inherrited the MIRANDA money.
Indeed the Lyric was a Pussycat Theatre. And what I’ve been told was the original Pussycat Theatre. This is the theatre that owner Gerald Tate and former restaurant manager Vince Miranda launched their chain of adult houses. Free speech battles were fought by Mr. Tate throughout the sixties and seventies that culminated with his arrest and conviction. Miranda ran what became Walnut Properties while Tate did time in Atascadero. After his release and a changing moral climate Tate bought the rights to an adult feature called “Deep Throat”. He played it for years in his theatres and made millions. His estate which included much prime CA real estate was left to his lover Jonathon.
My father owned the Lyric when it was a “Pussycat Theater”. I am looking for a old Pussycat marquee. You know, the oval with the “Ms. Pussycat silouette” That was a siouette of my mother.
Please let me know if you have any information about any of these old marquees.
Tim David
510 East Durant Ave.
Aspen, colorado 81611
970.309.3991
The Lyric was still a family movie house in 1957 when I joined the Navy in the recruiter’s office above the theater. By late 1960, when I was a civilian again and dating an usherette/candy butcher at the Lyric, it was showing somewhat racier film fare, but very mild stuff by present standards. I believe it was located in an unincorporated strip of county land along the borders of South Gate and Huntington Park and it therefor had less-strict zoning laws than those two communities.
The old Fox Lyric Theatre ws located at 7208 Long Beach Blvd..