Arrow Theatre

S. Broadway and W. 8th Street,
Los Angeles, CA 90014

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Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on September 17, 2018 at 11:48 am

Loew’s State is at 7th and Broadway. David and Moses Hamburger’s Department Store building, designed by Alfred Rosenheim, is still standing. A brief history of the theater, by Mary Mallory, is at Larry Harnisch’s web site, The Daily Mirror.

The store opened on August 9, 1908, and the 500-seat theater was probably opened the same day. It was used for various live events as well as movies, and was probably used primarily for lectures and meetings after 1915. It had been closed by 1919. A. Hamburger & Sons was sold to May Department Stores of St. Louis in 1923, and the building operated as the west coast flagship of The May Company until the mid-1980s.

I was on the fifth floor of The May Company a few times, but had no idea there had ever been a movie theater there. The space was undoubtedly configured for other uses after the theater was dismantled. Currently the building is being renovated as a mixed use project called the Broadway Trade Center, with completion scheduled for 2019.