Olympic Theatre
313 W. 8th Street,
Los Angeles,
CA
90014
313 W. 8th Street,
Los Angeles,
CA
90014
14 people
favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 50 of 60 comments
I recall that in the 1940s the Olympic was operated as a “request” house. There was a desk in the lobby with a book where patrons could enter the names of films they wished to see.
Here’s a photo dated 1947 of the Olympic:
View link
Here is a 1923 photograph of 8th Street, looking east from just west of Hill Street. A corner of the marquee of the Hillstreet Theatre can be seen at the right. On the left side of 8th Street is the site of the Bard’s 8th Street/Olympic Theatre.
Though the angle of view is oblique, it does look as though the building, which then still housed a restaurant (the letters “LL” can be seen on the wall, probably the end of the “Maison Marcell” name), is the same building in the opposite view of 8th Street from Broadway in 1927, by which time the site was occupied by Bard’s 8th Street Theatre. So it appears that the restaurant building was converted to a theatre, rather than demolished and replaced with new construction.
The facade revealed in these pictures (and perhaps the interior) probably remained largely unchanged until Charles Matcham’s 1942 remodeling.
Joe is right for sure. I went to this location yesterday and took the same photo as the usc photo. I guess you can’t post photos on here right now, but I can send it if anyone wants it. When I was looking up at the second floor windows, I was amazed that there is a space of a few inches between the original facade and the remodel covering it. If you look carefully, you can see the original ornate facade underneath.
The picture is definitely 8th Street. Hill Street has always been wider, with two traffic lanes each way, and in 1927 it had streetcar tracks. Also, the picture shows a short block. The north-south blocks downtown are almost twice as long as the east-west blocks.
Here’s something from Aug. 8, 1922:
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 baker and cafe, next door, raged for nearly an hour, threatening for a time to spread to the theater.
It does seem an awfully short time to build the theater. I’m going to go downtown and look through the microfiche for The Examiner and see if they mention anything for the opening of this theater for April of 1927.
Could Bard’s Hill Street Theater possibly be the theater in the mislabelled USC archive photo, or is it Bard’s Eighth Street for sure? I’d love to find a photo of Bard’s Hill Street (before it became the Town) if anyone has any connections.
Though I know that both demolition and construction could be rapid in those days before complex permit processes and frequent inspections became the norm, that the Times article of February 3 announces the immediate demolition of the existing building on the site, and the article of April 1 announces the opening of the new theatre, means that no more than two months passed between the announcement of the project and the opening of the theatre.
True, Santa Monica’s Fox Dome Theatre was rebuilt from scratch in less than two months in 1924, but it was an exception to the rule of construction schedules several months long, even for smaller buildings such as Bard’s 8th Street. Does the Times article of April 1 give any confirmation that the theatre was in a new building, constructed from the ground up? Without clear confirmation of that, I’m wondering if maybe William Gabel’s information that the building was merely remodeled might be correct after all, despite Lou Bard’s intentions for new construction as announced in the first Times article. Maybe Bard changed his mind about building anew, and settled on a quicker and less costly remodeling.
Then there is the photograph of the theatre to which stevebob linked in his comment of Nov. 30 (mislabeled by the USC archive as having been taken from 7th and Broadway, though it is clearly 8th Street that is shown.) The style of the building’s facade seems a bit old-fashioned for 1927, but it would have been quite fashionable for 1917.
There is also the problem of the attribution of the building to architect L.A. Smith. He had died by 1926, before Bard’s intentions to build this theatre were even announced. There’s no way he could have designed the theatre from the grave, but, if this were only a remodeling job, he could have designed the original 1917 restaurant building. If this was entirely new construction, it must not have been designed by Smith.
The correct date for the opening of this theater (Bard’s Eighth Steet & then the Olympic) is 1927. The building that was demolished to build this theater housed Eddie Brandstatter’s Crillon Cafe (closed May 9, 1925) which was the Marcel Cafe (name changed to Crillon in Nov. 1923) before that. Here’s some articles:
(Feb. 3, 1927)
The Eighth and Broadway Corporation, headed by L.L. Bard, has obtained the site of the old Brandstatter {Crillon} Cafe, 315 West Eighth street, and will build a $200,000 theater structure on the premises. Announcement of the transaction was made by Wolfson Bros. Company. Mr. Wolfson declared that the present low building on the property, 50 x 130, will be wrecked immediately and construction on the 600-seat showhouse started.
(Apr. 1, 1927)
Lou Bard, Los Angeles showman announces the opening on Saturday of Bard’s Eighth Street Theater, located on the north side of Eighth between Broadway and Hill streets opposite the May Company. This new picture theater has a distinctly oriental atmosphere totally different from anything else in the city, and, while not the largest of the downtown cinema palaces, has the quality of uniqueness. The opening attraction is the premier showing of Universal’s farce comedy, “Oh, Baby,” starring Madge Kenneday with Creighton Hale in the leading male role.
Last mention before name changed to Olympic:
(Jan. 18, 1932)
More than 250 patrons were driven to the street at Bard’s Theater on Eighth street near Broadway, last night when a stench bomb was dropped to the floor.
I have .pdf’s for any of these articles if anyone wants them. My email is
Apparently the Empress closed in 1917 and then was the Capitol for a few years until it shows up as the Yiddish Theater by 1925.
To Manwithnoname,
There was an Empress Theater in Los Angeles. I don’t see it on this site anywhere, but it was at 338 South Spring Street.
Is Cinema Treasures only for theaters that were built for motion pictures? The reason I ask is that there was another Olympic Theater in Los Angeles. I haven’t found proof that they showed movies yet, but the owners owned other theaters that did for sure. The Olympic on Main has two people connected with it, R.W. Woodley and Charles Alphin, but I can’t figure out who was first. Here are a few quotes from the LA Times:
(Apr. 8, 1914)
It was some years ago that Charley Alphin made Main street famous, and kept his Olympic Theater as brilliant within as its signs were luminous without. Now, although it is the same theater, it is the Alphin, and with his name over the door, and “welcome” on the mat, Charley started in, Monday night, to live up the “rep” he made in them happy days.
(Sep. 25, 1913)
Speaking of Mr. Garratt calls to light a unique feature regarding the new Woodley Theater. Mr. R.W. Woodley, propietor of the new theater, and who also has the Olympic on Main street, put up the new house backwards. Before he knew where he was going to locate he engaged Mr. Garratt. Then, acting on suggestions made by Mr. Garratt, he ordered the organ. Then he had a theater designed to fit the organ, and after this was done he secured the site for his new theater.
(Apr. 14, 1936)
…Mrs. Woodley and her husband, Robert W. Woodley, 2231 Cambridge street, operated the original Optic Theater here on Broadway and then on Main street between Fifth and Sixth streets. Then on Broadway between Eighth and Ninth streets they once operated the Woodley Theater. She leaves her husband, two brothers and two sisters.
Circa 1940, from the LA Library:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics08/00013701.jpg
Here is the Palace Theatre, 7th Street, LA page on C.T.:
/theaters/9647
KenRoe, could you refresh my memory about the theater on Seventh that you call the Palace?
I do recall a discussion on another page about whether or not there had been a theater west of Broadway on the south side of Seventh Street, but of course now I don’t remember where I saw that. I didn’t know whether its existence had actually been substantiated or that its name was known.
stevebob; I believe you are correct to say that the location given is an error.
The only theatres I know of on 7th Street are the Palace which would be on the left, just out of view and the Pantages (Warners) which would be on the right and would be clearly visible on the above photo you posted(it was built in 1920).
Great find and nice to see how Bard’s 8th Street Theatre originally looked.
This photo from the USC Digital Archive is supposed to be Seventh and Broadway in 1927, but I believe the location to be in error.
View link
Is this actually the corner of Eighth and Broadway, and the Bard’s theater midblock would then be the future Olympic?
View link
Yes, the restaurant space was on the north side of the street. And the information conforms with information about the Bard’s chain about the theatre site.
I have come across a reference card in the L.A. Public Library database which briefly quotes a newspaper story of 9/23/1917 (the card refers to the “L.A. Times?” with the question mark, so the identifying info was apparently lost.) It says that a “Metropolitan Cafe” was planned for a site on West 8th Street between Broadway and Hill. It was owned by a Mr. Marcell Annechaini, and would be called the Maison Marcell. The article, with an illustration, was supposed to be in the Central Library’s California Vertical File, under “Restaurants- Los Angeles- Maison Marcell.” I think the cards in the database antedate the library fire of the mid-1980s, and I don’t know if this file survived or not. If it still exists, the illustration might help to identify the building.
Since the Olympic is supposed to have been in a building that previously housed a restaurant, this particular establishment seems the most likely candidate, having been large enough to warrant a newspaper article which was then preserved. The restaurant must have been on the north side of the street, as Hamburger’s Department store already occupied the south side of the block in 1917.
The card does not say if a new building was being built for the restaurant, or if an existing building was being remodeled. If it was a new building, then it seems likely that it would have been completed in 1918, in which case the date of 1908 on the photograph of the Olympic linked in the comment above by manwithnoname might be no more than a typo, one number off.
Its marquee can be seen in the “destruction of Los Angeles” sequences at the end of “War of the Worlds” (1953).
The exterior of the Olympic is visible in one scene towards the end of the 1999 film ‘Fight Club’. (On the marquee, by pure coincidence, I’m sure – ‘Seven Years in Tibet’.)
They’re kind of hit-and-miss when it comes to lighting the marquees – the Orpheum is on most of the time, with the Los Angeles marquee lit occasionally and the Palace marquee lit rarely. There’s a few letters in the word “State” at Loew’s State that seem eternally lit, though.
On the Globe, for a while the letters spelling “Globe” had been removed but they’re back up now. I thought it was the dastardly doing of the techno club that’s in there now but perhaps it was the L.A. Conservancy, cleaning them up.
Maybe it’s when the building was constructed? According to the description, it was a restaurant before it became a theater…