Tower Theatre
802 S. Broadway,
Los Angeles,
CA
90014
802 S. Broadway,
Los Angeles,
CA
90014
34 people
favorited this theater
The October 12, 1927 grand opening of the Tower Theatre featured the movie “The Gingham Girl” starring George Arthur and Lois Wilson.
Constructed in a long and narrow fashion to accommodate its unusual real estate parcel, the Tower Theatre’s innovative design and exterior is now scarred by street vendors. Its famous tower has been shortened and its marquee has been modernised over the years.
One of the wonderful movie theatres still intact in downtown Los Angeles, the Tower Theatre has been closed for movies since 1988. It has since been in use as a nightclub, a UCKG church serving English speaking congregations and as a special events and film location venue. Since late-2008, it has reopened as a rock concert venue.
The Tower Theatre is designated a Historic-Cultural Landmark. It is also on the National Register of Historic Places.
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Recent comments (view all 152 comments)
A seasonal view across 8th St., 2007:
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What is the current status of this beautiful theater?
Still available as a filming location.
A Wurlitzer model 216 pipe organ (2/10) was installed in the Tower Theatre when it opened. There has been some confusion about this Opus 1620 Wurlitzer since it is reported to have been shipped to the Garrick Theatre on Apr 23, 1927. But the Garrick had already been demolished by then to make way for the Tower. The organ remained in the Tower for only a couple of years before being moved to the Los Angeles Theatre for its opening in Jan 1931. It has subsequently gone into private hands.
Newsreel & Rialto Theatres, 1953:
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Mar/Apr 2011, interior seen in a Nikon commercial. Looks like a latin night club.
Passed by this theater and it too looks abandoned form the outside though its exterior is in excellent condition. The marquee was advertising a “purim party”. Yikes! Not very exciting stuff. But at least it is still there.
Again, not abandoned. It’s used as a filming location and for special events.
I lived in LA in the early 1980s. I seem to remember that Pacific Theatres operated a small theatre at the back of the Tower called the Cameo. Can’t find any references to that. Anybody?
The only downtown theater called the Cameo that I remember was this one, the former Clune’s Broadway, north of Sixth Street, between the Arcade and the Roxie. It was open through at least part of the 1980s, showing Spanish language movies.
In the 1960s, when the Tower was still operating as the Newsreel Theatre, there was a television theater on the lower level, occupying the former lounge. It presented closed-circuit programs on a fairly large (for that time) projection screen. I don’t think they ever gave the television theater its own name, though.