Roxie Theatre
518 S. Broadway,
Los Angeles,
CA
90013
518 S. Broadway,
Los Angeles,
CA
90013
23 people
favorited this theater
Built on the site of 1,600 seat Quinn’s Superba Theatre of 1914. The Roxie Theatre was the last theatre to be built on S. Broadway in downtown Los Angeles. It opened November 25, 1931 with Bebe Daniels in “Honor of the Family” plus Eda Edson and Her Orchestra. It has an Art Deco style facade with a stepped roof line, angular grillwork and chevron ornament topped by a vertical sky-sign spelling out the name of the theatre. The Roxie Theatre had 1,637-seats in orchestra and balcony levels. The auditorium is long and narrow and apart from the plaster moulded proscenium arch, is mainly decorated by flat murals in abstracted botanical forms combining the romance of nature with the energy of the machine age. The stage is only 15ft deep, and as the theatre was specifically built for movies, the stage was hardly used. It was equipped with an organ (make unknown).
Architect Simeon Charles Lee made some alterations to the building in 1939-1940 and in 1948 he designed a new sidwalk ticket office. The sidewalk has a spectacular terrazzo sunburst.
In its final years Metropolitan Theatres ran the Roxie Theatre mostly as a Spanish-language house. The Roxie Theatre was closed in summer of 1989. Since closure its front entrance has been vandalised and converted into retail use. The auditorium has been sealed off and remains empty. In May 2016 the building was ‘For Lease’.
The Roxie Theatre has been designated an Historic-Cultural Landmark.
Contributed by
William Gabel
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Recent comments (view all 50 comments)
Here is an August 1974 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/pepvd4
Here is a night shot from 1983:
http://tinyurl.com/qpwdb5
Here is the Roxie looking better than usual:
http://tinyurl.com/y5re637
Swap meet bonanza:
http://tinyurl.com/y54n3ah
A great 30s view with the Roxie marquee still using milk glass letters:
View link
It’s in post #9 on a Jalopy Journal Forum:
View link
Anyone have any idea what archive this photo comes from? I can’t make out the title on the marquee but it appears it’s something with Kay Francis.
The Roxie looks pretty sad these days especially now that some moron went and graffitied over the Roxie letters on the tower above the theatre. I’m not sure what you do with all these old cinemas on Broadway now that everyone stays home with VOD and Netflix.
Here are a few photos I took today of the Roxie: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vokoban/6693424923/in/photostream http://www.flickr.com/photos/vokoban/6693425389/in/photostream/
The Roxie, or at least a good shot of its terazzo and a few glimpses of the marquee, is seen in “The Muppets” (the 2011 movie), as seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WWWTW1P8rQ
There is a facebook page for the Roxie Theatre – run by someone advocating for the theatre’s restoration. Includes some nice current interior photos. A little dilapidated but definitely restorable. The page is at:
www.facebook.com/roxietheatre
I photographed the Roxie a few years ago. Check out some photos and a short write up at After the Final Curtain