Bill Robinson Theatre
4219 S. Central Avenue,
Los Angeles,
CA
90011
4219 S. Central Avenue,
Los Angeles,
CA
90011
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In the L.A. Library’s online California Index, I have come across many references to theaters designed by L.A. Smith in the early-mid 1920s, but the index doesn’t always reveal their later names, and usually doesn’t give the exact street address. I’ve been trying to match them up with theaters listed here, and have succeeded with a few, but there are more that I haven’t been able to connect. I think that some of them aren’t listed here at all, especially those on the south side of town. I wish I could get ahold of the periodicals from which the information was taken themselves, instead of just these scans of library index cards.
But Smith was a remarkably prolific architect in those years. I have seen references to at least two dozen theaters he designed between 1920 and 1926. Significantly, there is a reference to a theater at 43rd and Central which he designed , originally called the Casino, owned by an investor named J.V. Akey, and leased to West Coast Theaters. (This information all comes from the June 17th, 1921 issue of Southwest Builder and Contractor.) This has made me wonder if perhaps that is not a typo in the Film Daily Yearbooks from the 1950’s. It seems possible that whoever operated the Tivoli under the name Bill Robinson might have switched theaters, moving one block south sometime in the 1940s, and taken the name with them.
I remember the Bill Robinson being listed in the L.A. Times movie section well into the 1950s, at least, but unfortunately I was only ever familiar with the section of Central Avenue north of Washington Boulevard, so I have no memory of ever having seen this theater or others nearby, which were a mile or so south of Washington.
Joe;
Looks like you have solved this one, Thanks.
The Bill Robinson Theatre is listed in the Film Daily Yearbook 1941; street address given is 4219 S. Central Ave. Seating is given as 850. So this must be the former Tivoli, designed by Lewis A. Smith in 1921.
William;
Film Daily Yearbooks I have for both 1950 and 1952 give a street address of 4319 S. Central, which must be a typo error if we are going to go for this building being the Tivoli on the 4200 block. (790 seats were given as a capacity for both those years)
If this was indeed the theatre originally called the Tivoli, then the architect was L.A. Smith. Southwest Builder and Contractor of 8/26/1921 announced its construction, but gave the location as 42nd and Central, which should have put it in the 4200 block (assuming it was south, rather than north, of 42nd Street.)
Over the history of film exhibition. There were theatres that were called negro theatres. That served the Afro-American population in this country. At one time this theatre was listed as one of them.
The Bill Robinson Theatre was located 4319 S. Central Ave. and it opened as the Tivoli Theatre.