Gardena Theatre
1002 West Gardena Boulevard,
Gardena,
CA
90247
1002 West Gardena Boulevard,
Gardena,
CA
90247
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Operating from 1940-1955 at least. The building at this address may be the old theatre – it’s used as retail now.
Contributed by
Magic Lantern
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Recent comments (view all 5 comments)
You’re talking about the bargain store on the northeast corner of Vermont and Gardena. I wouldn’t have guessed that was a theater. I will take a look inside.
Look at the Google map and go around the building. It does not look like an almost 700 seat theatre from the way it looks. Over at HistoricAerials show it there in the 1952 shot.
A couple of issues of Boxoffice in the mid-1940s mention the Gardena Theatre (it suffered a fire in 1945) operated by Harry Millstein and Harry Mellenkoff. It was most likely the unnamed theater being built for Mellenkoff that was mentioned in Southwest Builder & Contractor of October 28, 1938.
This 800-seat house was designed by architect C. E. Noerenberg, best known for designing a number of branch libraries for the City of Los Angeles, and for Dorsey High School, which he designed in partnership with Hollywood architect H. L. Gogerty.
Are we certain of the address for this theater? The L.A. County Assessor (not always reliable) doesn’t list 1002 W. Gardena, but gives an original construction date of 1924 and an effective construction date of 1940 for the 4625 sq. ft. building on the corner lot at 1004 Gardena, and those dates don’t match the 1938 construction and 1945 reconstruction of the Gardena Theatre.
This is the southwest corner of Gardena and Vermont, by the way. The lots on the east side of Vermont are in Los Angeles which has a different numbering system, so that’s the 800 W. block of Gardena Blvd. as it runs east from Vermont.
All sorta confusing! What’s the correct address? Is it the original building? More info and photos of the theater would help.
A Big N Save and Nexxo Financial Corp.are listed at the address in the header.