Star Theatre
145 N. First Street,
La Puente,
CA
91744
145 N. First Street,
La Puente,
CA
91744
3 people
favorited this theater
This theater was designed by S. Charles Lee in the Quonset Hut style and opened as the Puente Theatre in late 1947.
It was renamed the Star and during its later years, it ran adult films before being used for live Mexican performances.
It became once again used as a first-run movie theater, operated by an independent operator, but was closed in 2007.
Contributed by
William Gabel
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Recent comments (view all 39 comments)
Although the S.C. Lee archives list this house as the Puente Theatre, I don’t believe it ever operated under that name. I think Puente theatre was just Lee’s working name for it. The owners probably hadn’t chosen the final name when he began working on the design. By Puente Theatre, Lee meant theater project in Puente.
Notice that in this Lee rendering it is called the “Name” Theatre (though obviously not. It just indicates that it hadn’t been given a name yet.) Also note that Bob Garrison and Steve Chambers in comments above both remember it as the Star Theatre as far back as the early 1950s. I certainly remember it as the Star Theatre in the later 1950s.
An early newspaper ad or directory listing for the house under the name Puente Theatre would, of course, convince me otherwise.
I moved out of La Puente in ‘77. I have fond memories of attending the double features at the Star in the late 50’s, the 60’s, and early 70’s. I saw “A Hard Days Night” twice and always saw the Jerry Lewis and monster movies there. I grew up about four houses away on North First Street. I remember the warm summer nights sitting on top of our house looking at the Star’s marquee & glowing star and watching the local guys showing off and/or working on their cars at the Flying 'A’ and John Hancock gas stations right across the street. My parents still own that house and I was there last summer to visit and reminisce. My wife took various pics of me in front of the theatre; great memories!
Another photo is here.
Here is a 2008 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/lc8f3o
anybody know what is currently happening to this theater, i been making a lot of research and i cant find anything on it
Undated B&W photo of the Star Theatre.
View link
Thanks for the pictures,guys.
The theater has been used by film and TV productions over the years. The old manager office and even the interior auditorium had been kept in fairly good order. There is a link to photos of these on a location scout page but I’ll need to locate it. Also, the city council had approved the sale of the building and it’s adjacent parking lot so a private developer could demolish the site and construct a multi use condo/merchant shopping center with below ground parking. Alas, the city had licked it’s financial lips too soon. It was discovered that subterranean water tables could not be drained sufficiently to stabilized the building and prevent flooding.So for now the theater sits untouched. It would be wonderful to have some benefactor buy this theater and reopen it as a “Alamo Drafthouse” type venue.
Joe Vogel…if you look in the photo section, there is a black and white photo of the Bing Crosby Picture “Road to Rio”—if you look very closely above it, it spells out P U E N T E !!!
I remember as a kid seeing a movie there called “Dime with a Halo” It was a local movie about kids winning on a horse bet – they stole a dime from the poor box at Church to make the bet. And they had to get this old guy to get their winnings. He dies on the way to cash in the ticket. Very depressing for a kid.