Bridge Theater
330 W. Las Tunas Drive,
San Gabriel,
CA
91776
330 W. Las Tunas Drive,
San Gabriel,
CA
91776
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Built in 1941, the theater had Spanish roofing tiles at corners of facade. The San Gabriel Theater was opened February 18, 1942 with Greta Garbo in “Two Faced Woman” & Claudette Colbert in “Remember the Day”. In 1980, it was renamed the Kuo Hwa Theatre, showing Chinese films (saw Jackie Chan’s “City Hunter” there) and was torn down in 1996 or 1997. There were seven vertically stacked squares above marquee that spelled EDWARDS. The letters were later covered with Chinese characters.
When the building was being torn down, a beam under the marquee was exposed with the words “Edwards Century” written on it. There was a crescent moon in the center of the marquee.
Contributed by
Chris Brame
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Recent comments (view all 12 comments)
From Southwest Builder & Contractor, issue of 1/31/1941, p.33, col.2:
“Theater (San Gabriel)— J.B. Lilly… has the contract and will start work about February 5 on the construction of a moving picture theater on Las Tunas Drive between San Marino and De Anza Avenues, for O.W. Lewis. It will contain 10,000 square feet and will seat 750 persons… C.A. Balch, architect…”
Given the location and description, I think this is certainly the theater which became Edwards' San Gabriel.
The exact address of this theater was 330 W. Las Tunas Drive, San Gabriel, California, 71776.
The Kwo-Hwa 2 was located on Valley Blvd and not Las Tunas. Today the site is a lot.
manwithnoname, you must live really close to me. I live not far from San Gabriel.
Haha. Thats funny manwith. I’m in Monterey Park as well.
I found this on the LA Library database. I can’t add it as a new theater as they don’t provide the name:
http://tinyurl.com/2m6fvm
This is a 1982 photo. I think the photo has been reversed.
http://tinyurl.com/pu263e
Went here many a weekend in the early 90’s to feast on the glory of HK Cinema and BBQ shrimp crackers with my pal, Jeff.
The Edwards became a Chinese Language cinema originally in 1980, named the Kuo Hwa, it ran Shaw Brother’s films, for it’s first few months and then became the home for all of Golden Harvest’s releases. When it closed (date unknown), the theatre was rechristened The Bridge, where it continued to run Golden Harvest titles until The Whittier Earthquake finally ended the run of this little house.
The Whittier Narrows earthquake struck on the morning of October 1, 1987, so if that event led to the permanent closure of this theater, the last show must have been run on the evening of September 30.