Fox Stadium Theatre
8906 W. Pico Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90035
8906 W. Pico Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90035
12 people
favorited this theater
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Opened on March 5th, 1931.
Stadium theatre opening 05 Mar 1931, Thu Evening Vanguard (Venice, California) Newspapers.com
grand opening ad posted.
So, I’m guessing The Devil at 4 O'Clock or Naked Edge would have been the show prior to the final double bill. I’m actually shocked I didn’t go see the final bill – I saw Pepe at the Four Star and loved it and I saw Hand in Hand at the nearby Picfair and loved it, too. And now that I think about it, maybe I did see that final double bill.
Last 2 films showed were on Tuesday Sept 05th 1961 (pg 87 LA Times)
Pepe (1960) Hand in Hand (1961)
Nope, closed in 1961 after The Naked Edge – within a couple of months.
Yes, definitely saw Devil at 4 O'Clock there and just a couple of months earlier I saw The Naked Edge there. So it closed after October 1961, maybe even in early 1962.
I’ve always thought the theater closed in 1960 but my memory is pretty infallible about where I saw things, and I could swear that I saw The Devil at 4 O'Clock at the Stadium – that film came out in October of 1961. Wish there were some way to check it, but my newspaper stuff starts in late 1961 and it’s gone by then. I do have a 1960 newspaper somewhere and I’ll try to find it. I’m just wondering if I didn’t see Devil at 4 O'Clock there where I would have seen it?
It closed sometime in 1960. I was there at the final show.
When did this close as a movie theatre?
Very Nice photos.
Here are the USC photos:
http://tinyurl.com/yd3vqke
http://tinyurl.com/yclr4ay
http://tinyurl.com/ybfy3nm
http://tinyurl.com/yb8d93v
“The Model and the Marriage Broker”. Nancy Kulp’s first film role. She was Jane Hathaway on the Beverly Hillbillies.
Main feature is Distant Drums with Gary Cooper – can’t quite make out the second feature, although one of the words looks like “marriage”. That means the photo is circa 1951
I didn’t know about the retail in the front. Interesting.
Here’s an early 50s shot of the Stadium, looking west on Pico. My favorite neighborhood theater. I’ve also uploaded photos of the Lido, the Bruin, the Wiltern, and the Vogue all from the 50s and 60s.
View link
Here is a June 2008 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/6elcdx
Yes, those were the other ones that were the pre-fab design with the Crest Theatre in Long Beach being the first one tobe built.
The Stadium is the only pre-war Los Angeles area Fox house with a stadium section that I can recall, but I remember a few more that were built in the 1940s, including the Culver, the Loyola, the Fox in Inglewood, and the Crest in Long Beach. I think there were others, but my memory refuses to jog.
At one time the Fox Wilshire had nice Deluxe loge seats like that too. Select Fox houses had nice loge type seats. (Criterion SM, Mesa LA, those are the ones I remember seeing pictures of)
man thoese seats look super comfy.i wonder if they are still there.
The Speedway is now the site of the Beverly Wilshire hotel.
Beverly Hills Speedway, west of Rodeo, south of Wilshire, had the only large stadium in the area that I know of. That photo is ca.1920, and the place lasted until 1924 when increasing value of the land in the area led the the track’s operators to move to a cheaper location near Culver City. They probably made a bundle subdividing the land. Here’s an aerial view, about 1921.
Only a few theatres had that type of auditorium design in Los Angeles area. This is the only Fox house that I remember with this design. The El Miro Theatre in Santa Monica and I think the Rialto Theatre on Broadway in Downtown.
I was never even aware of this former theater during the time I was living in Los Angeles — nor of any stadium in the vicinity for which it might have been named.
Does anyone know the origin of the name? Interestingly enough, the theater’s auditorium is an early example of “stadium” seating (i.e., a steeply raked faux balcony section behind the main orchestra level). But that’s just a coincidence — isn’t it?
Here are a few more photos from the USC archive:
http://tinyurl.com/ye8qon
http://tinyurl.com/ygfov9
http://tinyurl.com/ykwckb
Here is a photo, circa 1920s:
http://tinyurl.com/mrda7