Fox La Brea Theatre

In the early 1960s a television documentary (which may have been “Hollywood and the Stars”) had a clip of the closed La Brea Theatre to illustrate the onslaught of television.

During the summers of ‘70 and '71 (and maybe before, but not after I’m pretty sure) the Toho La Brea ran a several-week-long series they called the “Monster Film Festival,” consisting of a headliner feature and some revolving second features. In 1970 the main feature was “King Kong vs. Godzilla” and one of the seconds was “Matango.” (I remember calling the theatre and the nice woman referred to the film as “Matango, Fungus of Terror.” Little did I know, it was the actual title of “Attack of the Mushroom People,” parts of which I’d already seen on Channel 9!) I never got to the festival that year, much to my regret. In '71, tho, I begged and pleaded with the folks to take me because the festival’s main feature was none other than “Destroy All Monsters.” Quite upset at having missed “Destroy” during its initial AIP release in '69 (with “The Terrornauts”) and one of its reissues (with “The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant”!), to a monster-crazy pre-teen this engagement seemed like a gift from movie heaven. The second feature that day was “Dagora, the Space Monster,” another picture I’d caught parts of on Channel 9’s “Strange Tales.” I learned two things at that memorable double feature: 1.)that creature features played better when they weren’t dubbed, and 2.) you could never have too many of those Carnation ice cream sandwiches with the red and silver foil…

Here is an interesting article about the re-opening of the theater in June 1960, from Boxoffice magazine:
http://tinyurl.com/yd776gp

Here is a photo taken today:
http://tinyurl.com/y9kty7z

The Gordon Theatre is listed under Regent Showcase Theatre on CT.

The Gordon Theater was listed at 614 N. La Brea in the 1942 city directory. I will add it if it’s not on CT under another name.

I will check it out. Thanks.

Here is a 1970 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/yo4el6

Great. I assumed that I needed a password. I will check it out.

Paging vokoban – it looks like the loophole has been closed on the LA Library archive. Let me know if there’s another way in. Thanks.

I should put the photos on a disk today or tomorrow. Yesterday I went down Pico and then up Western. The most interesting theater was the Union on 24th Street. A nice little theater in the middle of nowhere.

I did ask if I could take pictures, but no one spoke English. How am I supposed to know cameras are prohibited?

I did that with the State theater downtown, even took a few pictures until I was admonished. That was on a weekday, though.