Oriental Theater

Joe Vogel on March 21, 2009 at 11:55 pm

I’m wondering if the library got the address wrong for this photo, and it actually depicts the La Shell Theatre at 5384 Long Beach Boulevard, before it became the La Shell? The County Assessor’s office says that the building currently on this parcel (they use the address 12 W. Plymouth Street) was built in 1924, and the Live Search bird’s-eye view of this location shows a building that doesn’t resemble the photo at all, and which couldn’t have been a theater.

The La Shell, however, was the same size as this building (seen here in a later photo, after it was remodeled), and was probably also built in 1924, so would have been around at the time the Oriental Theatre photo was taken.

I think we need an old Long Beach City Directory, to find out if the Oriental was not a different theater, but actually the earlier name of the La Shell.