Grand Theater
730 S. Grand Avenue,
Los Angeles,
CA
90017
730 S. Grand Avenue,
Los Angeles,
CA
90017
4 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 67 comments found
Here is a July 1918 adL
http://tinyurl.com/lqrtrj
Here is an item from Boxoffice magazine in June 1946:
LOS ANGELES-The Grand Theater, leased by Herb Rosener from the George T. Walker estate, and which is part of the Walker Auditorium Building here, will end its 50-year career in July. It will be demolished. The site will provide extra parking space for the J.W. Robinson department store.
Rosener, who has operated the house for the past twelve years, also runs the Studio, Laurel and Esquire. All specialize in foreign films. He plans to construct another theater to replace the Grand when building conditions permit.
Found a little bit on Anna Mozart.
“Mrs. Anna M. Mozart ran the Mozart Theater in Los Angeles, a high-class place charging ten to twenty-five cents and running special features for a week., with music supplied by the mechanical Photo-Player Orchestra (she played operatic concerts on it.)”
p. 47 of the 1994 paperback edition of “The Transformation of Cinema” by Eileen Bowser
I agree.
I wish they would use the name of the longest incarnation and best known name for a theater instead of the last used name. The first known name has the same problems. Many times the last/first used name is fairly obscure and makes it difficult to locate on the site, especially for new users who might not realize that it is possible to search by previous names. Sometimes stringent rules don’t benefit the big picture. I think it should be up to the operators of this site to choose the name that makes it easiest to find.
Thanks William. In that case, the Fox Criterion should be listed as the Grand Internationale since that was the last name that it operated as.
The Fox Criterion Theatre operated till around 1941 and had a fire which closed the theatre. The theatre later reopened after being closed for a few years as the Grand Internationale. And was later razed to make way for a office building. The site did not add all the info in the Criterion’s opening comment.
The Fox Criterion has no aka name of Grand Internationale. If the Fox Criterion was the Grand Internationale and the Fox Criterion was demolished in 1941, why would the Grand Internationale still be listed in 1945? We need an ad or an article giving the address for a Grand or Grand Internationale Theater to help solve this mystery.
Kenroe and Joe Vogel address the Grand Internationale at the beginning of the posts on this page.
In 1945 there is a Grand Theater located on South Main which isn’t this theater. There is also a Grand Internationale Theater with a location of 7th and Grand. It had 1700 seats. Could that be another name for this theater?
If the 1946 photo was taken shortly before demolition, then the Grand would have been its last incarnation, and should rightly be the name under which the theater is listed.
I think I posted something similar on Mar 3, 2006 above but I’ve never seen that photo. I think this building was similar to the still standing Friday Morning Club (Variety Arts) on Figueroa right north of Olympic. A theater with a few auditoriums and meeting rooms above. Thanks for the photo!
Here is a January 1928 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/4zvwpb
Paging Joe Vogel – we have another aka for you…
Here is a 1946 photo from the LAPL, shortly before demolition. I also have included the caption as there is a reference to another aka, Actor’s Theater. I thought Joe would like that:
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics41/00070227.jpg
Grand Theatre, located in the Walker Auditorium Building at 750 South Grand Avenue, is to be demolished to make room for a parking lot. Built in 1907 by George W. Walker, the six-story theater was known as the Walker Auditorium and was the home of the theatrical hits of the day. It was renamed the Orange Grove Theater and became a music performance hall. Before being renamed one last time as the Grand Theatre in 1936 and converted in to a motion picture theater, it was briefly called the Actors Theatre. The building includes offices and meeting rooms. Photo dated: July 3, 1946.
Darling Mine with Olive Thomas and Walter McGrail was released in August of 1920.
Here is a 1920 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/2shcug
There should be an aka name of Brooks Theater.
Here is an October 1915 ad when the Mozart was known as the Brooks Theater:
http://tinyurl.com/23zd5x
Here is a February 1942 ad from the LA Times. The Russians were still the good guys then:
http://tinyurl.com/2dsvby
Here is a photo from the CA state library. The date is in question:
View link
It’s from the LOC but I bought a printed version from a seller on E-Bay. I got the giant version (about 4 feet by 5 feet) which I had framed. Looks nice on my wall. The detail is quite amazing. Even though the map is huge, the print is tiny and provides a lot of insight to the city at that moment in history.
Did you get that map in jpeg2000 format from the Library of Congress, Scott? If so, its pretty amazing. I don’t know how accurate it is but I spend hours looking at all of the details.
I have a panoramic map of Los Angeles in 1909 which shows the Walker Theater on the east side of the street.
Thanks for reposting those links Joe. I wish they would enable the zoom feature again. The detail was amazing on those scans.