Alhambra Twin Cinemas
702 West Main Street,
Alhambra,
CA
91801
702 West Main Street,
Alhambra,
CA
91801
2 people
favorited this theater
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The Alhambra Theater was the location of the murder of an Alhambra Police Officer who interrupted a robbery. I believe there wass a plaque at the newer theater.
http://www.odmp.org/officer/9906-police-officer-james-h-nerison
Jimmy Edwards' desire to build a theater in San Marino was the subject of an item in the February 12, 1937, issue of Southwest Builder & Contractor. Plans for a 750-seat reinforced concrete movie house with dimensions of 55x130 feet were being prepared by architect John Walker Smart.
Three years after being rebuffed by San Marino, Edwards was planning to build a theater on Huntington Drive in adjacent South Pasadena. A February 9, 1940, Southwest Builder item said that S. Charles Lee would be the architect for the South Pasadena house. This project was never carried out either, though I have no idea why.
I’ve come across several references to proposed Edwards theaters that never got built. Among them were two proposals for theaters on Garvey Avenue in Monterey Park— a 1,000-seat house in 1939 and a 1,200 seat house in 1945— that failed to materialize.
Incidentally, John Walker Smart was the architect of Sylvester Dupuy’s Pyrenees Castle, the hilltop mansion in Alhambra which became infamous a few years ago as the site of record producer Phil Spector’s murder of Lana Clarkson.
Smart was also the architect of an unbuilt Moorish-style theater proposed for Alhambra in late 1923. It’s possible that it was intended for the site of the Alhambra Theatre itself. Even if Smart’s project was intended for some other site, if it had been built the Alhambra, dating to late 1924, might not have been.
The Town That Banned Movie Theaters
(Research from Los Angeles Times archives.)
San Marino, California has always been a small exclusive enclave that makes nearby Pasadena look like a bedroom community.
But Pasadena, South Pasadena, Alhambra, San Gabriel, Arcadia and all neighboring cities had movie theaters. Why not San Marino? Well, one did almost get built once.
A March 20, 1937 Los Angeles Times story said that James Edwards Jr. had decided to abandon his proposal to build a $50,000 theater in San Marino, population 7,500. Edwards said he wanted to operate a high-class house featuring first run movies, single bills and no bank night. He also offered the use of the theater as a community center. Edwards was the object of an attack (verbal I’m sure) at a city council meeting by a group who wanted to keep the city without motion pictures. Edwards said he made his decision “rather than start a dog fight among San Marinans.”
Evidently after dealing with Edwards, who was considered an upstart, the San Marino city council decided to take action. The April 30, 1937 edition of the Times said the council unanimously adopted an ordinance that by its stringent rules effectively barred motion picture theaters or even thinking about building one.
The ordinance provided for Sunday closing, a high license fee limited to $300 and prohibition within 600 feet of any residence or 1200 yards of a public school. For every two seats the parking lot must have enough room to accommodate a car with a 112” wheelbase. (The wheelbase of the 1937 Ford happened to be 112”. If they really wanted to be strict, they could have used the 1937 Cadillac whose models ranged from 124-138” wheelbases). Klieg lights or any type of spotlight would be banned. Sign or advertising would not be permitted on the sidewalks. Bank night, lotteries and the distribution of merchandise were also forbidden.
The films must be “moral, amusing, educational and harmless in character” and not “corrupt the morals of the theatergoers.” No seats could be sold unless a seat was available (this alone would prevent the pre-selling of tickets until the previous crowd had left the building). Any violation would put the perpetrator in danger of a $500 fine, six months in jail or both.
While the constitutionality of the measure was brought up, the city attorney said that he decided to abide by the council’s action and take a chance in court. There is no evidence that the law was ever challenged in court and it appears no one every attempted to build a movie theater in San Marino again.
Mr. Edwards would in 1939 be in good company when the proposed building of two well-known churches was protested and sent to the city council for debate.
Here is a photo of Jimmy Edwards standing in front of the Alhambra Theatre in the 1930s. The circa 1939 date given on that page is wrong. As I recall from earlier research, Edwards bought the lease on the Alhambra not long after he acquired the Mission (later Monterey) Theatre in Monterey Park, and that was in 1930. By 1939, Edwards was operating a circuit of more than a dozen neighborhood theaters, and the Alhambra was his flagship house. If this photo depicts the theater just after Edwards acquired it, it probably dates from the very early 1930s.
The July 23, 1938, Boxoffice Magazine item about Edwards' plans to add a second auditorium to the Alhambra Theater, mentioned in my earlier comment, has been moved to this link.
The article by Helen Kent about the opening of the Alhambra’s second auditorium, in the October 12, 1940, issue of Boxoffice, now begins at this link, and continues on the subsequent two pages of the magazine (click “next page” links at top or bottom of the page scans.) This article has several photos of the theater as it appeared in 1940.
The Alhambra Palace 10, or whatever it was called, has ceased operating and is now closed. The theater is now dark and only a poignant “Thank You Alhambra” is all that remains on the marquee. All that remains is to remove the seats and fixtures, gut the place, and then demolish it. Coming soon: a Los Angeles County administration building on this site. Yet another theater on Main Street in Alhambra – gone – where once there were many. Joining The El Rey, the Capri and the Century and Temple farther east on Las Tunas, now the only theater that survives on Main Street is the Edwards Alhambra Renaissance 14 on the corner of Garfield and Main Street. Saw lots of great movies over the last 45 years at both the Alhambra Palace and also at the old Alhambra and Gold Cinemas before the Palace replaced it when it was destroyed in the Whittier Earthquake in 1987. This theater was a large part of my youth and it will be missed.
The Edwards Atlantic Palace, which stands on the site of the old Alhambra Theatre, is scheduled to be demolished on July 1, 2011: View link
great theatre i saw space balls and a lot of great movies.
Thanks Joe.
James Edwards' intention to add a second auditorium to the Alhambra Theatre was announced in Boxoffice, issue of July 23, 1938 (upper right corner.) However, the project was not completed until August, 1940.
Helen Kent’s illustrated article about the Alhambra and Annex appeared in Boxoffice of October 12, 1940.
Here is a 1983 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/cvu8a8
The Gold Cinema was advertised in the LA Times in August 1973:
http://tinyurl.com/2xqlbv
It was called the Cinema Theater when a robbery occurred in September 1968, according to the LA Times.
When I was the projectionist there, Jerry Brown was governor and dating Linda Ronstadt, the singer. Well, Ronstadt’s cousin was the manager here at that time. She and I had a blast. We even had to throw out her boyfriend a few times because he interferred with our working so well together… tee-hee… Oops
Ken:
Thanks. I have a few more things to say about the Alhambra when I get the time. I probbably saw two or three dozen movies there in the 1950s and 1960s.
A seating capacity of 600 seems awfully low. The main auditorium was quite large- at least 70 feet wide, maybe 80 feet, and there must have been at least 35 rows of seats. The loges were large, but the majority of the seats were standard theater size, about twenty inches wide.
The second auditorium (Annex/Single Bill/Gold Cinema) by itself must have had 200 or more seats. I never saw a movie in there, but I remember taking a look inside during the years it was dark. It was much smaller than the main theater, but still a decent size.
The only theater in Alhambra that was larger was the Garfield, built a year or two later than the Alhambra.
Joe:
Congratulations on your most informative introduction to the Alhambra Theater. All the Film Daily Yearbooks I have (1941, 1950 & 1952) give a seating capacity of 600.