Town Theatre
444 S. Hill Street,
Los Angeles,
CA
90013
444 S. Hill Street,
Los Angeles,
CA
90013
6 people
favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 50 of 56 comments
LA Times reports a fire in the Band Box, 608 S. Hill, on 2/28/27. This was a Fox theater,according to the clipping. Band Box doesn’t show up as an aka, so I’m wondering where we have this listed.
So far, no photos of the Town during its first decade when it was Bard’s Hill Street Theatre have surfaced, but here is a photo from the 1910s showing the east side of Hill Street south of 4th Street. The building which A.C. Martin remodeled for Bard’s Theatre is easy to spot, being the sole one-story structure on the near block, and having a full-width awning.
aka Bard’s Cinema Theater? LA Times, 8/8/22:
THEATER PANIC BARELY HALTED
Smoke from Bakery Blaze Starts Exodus
Manager Reassures Crowd and Stops Rush
Cafe Employees Driven to Street by Fire.
A panic was narrowly averted in Bard’s Cinema Theater, 444 South Hill street, late yesterday, when a fire originating in the storeroom of the M. Lowis bakery and cafe, next door, raged for nearly an hour, threatening for a time to spread to the theater.
I thought the Town was in this circa 1930 photo, but the hotel shown is on the NE corner of Hill and 4th (not 5th), so it must be something else. Kind of looks like a theater, though:
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics37/00068248.jpg
Kind of ironic that the McDonald’s couldn’t make a profit in that location either…
Cool, that 1986 photo shows the Pussycat incarnation, but it looks like the place was already shuttered by that time. The VCR had already started killing the porno theater business. Almost none left now.
Here is a 1986 photo by Michael Putnam:
http://tinyurl.com/2o236j
I will admit that this 1939 photo doesn’t show much of the theater, which is just north of the multi-story building on the northeast corner of 5th and Hill. The photo does give some historical context for that era, particularly the streetcars.
http://tinyurl.com/yfa39u
Peter Lorre is also listed on the marquee.
Ken: The undated photo is a bit blurry, making the marquee difficult to read, but I think one of the movies being shown is “Confidential Agent”, with Charles Boyer and Lauren Bacall. That dates the photo at no earlier than 1945— and its probably no later either, given the wartime crowds jamming the streetcar stop and the presence of only pre-war cars on the street.
Here is an undated photo:
http://tinyurl.com/nvmf4
OK, time for a retraction. That would be the Hill Street entrance to the Paramount/Metropolitan, I believe. I will post the photo on that page.
This photo would ostensibly show the building at the northeast corner of 6th and Hill. It looks to me like there’s a theater there, but the Town was a block north. I don’t recall seeing any theaters listed on 6th, but then again that may not be a marquee and may be something entirely different:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics03/00011006.jpg
Layers of history razed for a McDonalds that could have opened elsewhere?!? How moronic!!!
There is a good color photo of the Town on this site:
http://www.uncanny.net/~wetzel/subwayarea.htm
Silver City makes silver jewelry
http://www.silver-city.com/
Obituary of Pussycat Theater owner Dan Sonney, from Los Angeles Magazine:
View link
I walked by the location last week. Silver City is not open to the public, so there is no way to tell what kind of business this is.
What’s scary to realize is that when I worked downtown (4th and Main), I used to each lunch at that McDonald’s sometimes — and never realized what had been there in the past.
There is a new building on the site of the Town Theatre as viewed in January 2005. The MacDonald’s has gone and the new build is called Silver City. I’m not sure what it is though, maybe a casino or offices, hard to tell just looking at it?
The Town Theatre closed (as the Pussycat) in September 1985.
Bard’s Hill Street Theatre opened on the 12th October 1920. The architect was Albert C. Martin and a seating capacity of 700 is quoted, although this sounds more than there actually were. The opening bill was “The Fortune Teller” starring Marjorie Rambeau and a Buster Keaton comedy “One Week”.
Lou Bard and Fred Miller organised the Far West Theatres Company in 1924 and the Hill St house became part of the chain. It was renamed the Town Theatre for many years until being re-named the Pussycat in 1970.
The Southwest Builder and Contractor issue of 5/14/1920 announced the plans to remodel an existing building, 44'x100', at 442-446 South Hill Street, to become Bard’s Hill Street Theater. The architect for the remodeling was Albert C. Martin, Sr.
My Dad owned the Pussycat chain. I am looking for one of the old Marquees. You know..the white oval with the silouette of a ms.Pussycat on it. If you have any information about any of these old marquess ..please let me know.
This was the first Pussycat owned by Dave Friedman. He is still kicking and is quite a guy.
Tim David
510 East durant Ave.
Aspen co 81611
970.309.3991
With regards to the last statement, I do believe that the Tomkat on Santa Monica Blvd is the last Pussycat theater open in the Los Angeles. (They do show gay porn now however.) The Sunset closed in Oct 2003, which was the second Pussycat theater in the chain as it operated as one starting in 1966. In Sacramento, there is one theater that Pussycat ran (from 1975 until the late 1980’s) that is still showing adult films and that is the Regency on Watt Blvd. (Prior to it becoming a Pussycat, it was the Coronet theater.)