Burbank Theatre
548 S. Main Street,
Los Angeles,
CA
90013
548 S. Main Street,
Los Angeles,
CA
90013
9 people
favorited this theater
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KDG, poster of 4/17/07, should note this LA Times brief dated 2/17/48:
S.C. Student Caught Firing Staples at Burlesque Girls
The ladies of the chorus at the Burbank Theater at yesterday’s matinee were jumping – but not in time with the music. The dance director objected, “That’s not the way the dance goes”. The chorus chorused, “We know that, but something is hitting us. Something that hurts”.
The management called police who soon spotted William C. Kiele, 23, University of Southern California student. From his eighth row seat, police said Kiele was peppering the dancing ladies with half-inch steel staples. He had a rubber slingshot. Police booked Kiele at County Jail on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon.
I retyped the whole story here, but it vanished as I forgot to log in. The article states that the old Burbank will be leveled. the new building will be ten stories high reaching back to Los Angeles street, and will cost two million dollars. They describe the features of the new theater in detail. It may be that the owners decided to remodel instead of razing and building from the ground up.
In the movie “Uptown Saturday Night” you can see a few of the theatre marquees that were located on Main Street. The theatres making cameos were the Burbank, Follies, Optic and the Regent theatres. The film does not take place in Los Angeles, but the section of Main Street filled in for a rundown part of the city in that film.
Rats! Screwed up the code for the picture link.
1920 photo from the library collection.
The demolition took place in 1920? Was the entire building demolished or was it just the auditorium section? In the c1920 photo from the library collection the commercial part of the building looks to be in excellent shape. All the later pictures I’ve seen of the place are from after it got that deco/streamline modern remodeling, which had to have been done in the 1930s at the earliest. Nothing looking like that facade would have been built as early as 1920. If the whole building was new in 1920, then there ought to be pictures of it somewhere.
Thanks, Joe. The full article about the razing of the old Burbank theater in 1920 confirms that the earlier building was demolished and the new Burbank built in its place. The history above suggests a remodel of the 19th century building, which does not appear to be the case.
The Galway at 518 S. Main is listed.
The address was 518 S. Main.
A December 1915 article in the LA Times discusses the imminent opening of a new motion picture theater on the east side of Main between Fifth and Sixth. It was to be called the Sherman Theater after General Moses Sherman. It may never have been built, or it may be here under another name. It’s not the Burbank as that was already open in 1915. Do we have any other theaters on the east side of the block between Fifth and Sixth?
This is an excerpt from an LA Times article on 5/30/20. I presume they are referring to the theater that was razed in the mid 70s:
Immediately at the close of the current theatrical season the old Burbank Theater, Main street, near Sixth, birthplace of legitimate production in Los Angeles and for many years under the management of Oliver Morosco, one of the leading American stock houses, will be razed, according to an announcement made yesterday by Fred Wolfe, manager of the house, for Gore Bros., lessees.
I’ve put a few ‘then & now’ photos together of the Burbank Theater on this page for my HTC group:
View link
Someonewalksinla:
I can pin down the photo supposedly “Circa 1903.” That’s off. On the right side of the photo the Pacific Electric Building is clearly visible. That is from where I am typing this message right now (I live there). That was finished in 1905. The Kerckhoff Building, across Sixth street (closer to the camera position), was finished around 1908. If that was there, it would block the view of the PE Building. So this photo dates between 1905 and 1908.
Hello..in 1948/49 I worked at the Follies Theater for 3 months as a chorus girl. My sister-in-law (at the time) owned the theater (Louise Miller) and 3 of my other S-I-L’s worked there too. Lili St Cyr was there when I was there. Alot of old performers used to be backstage alot… eg: Joe Yule (Mickey Rooney’s Dad),etc. The performers used a back door to go to a lttle bar/grill next door, called “The Village” to eat between shows.
Divorce resulted in the sale of the Follies Theater
and all of the performers went up the street to work
at the Burbank Theater. After a year, I went to Las
Vegas, but was underage for the Desert Inn, so I returned to CA and moved to Santa Barbara, where I met
my current husband (of 56 years). I had a lot of
photos, but they were lost over the past years.
Thanks for reading…KDG
Here is the location today:
http://tinyurl.com/y4uopw
Here is a 1905 photo from the LA Library. This must have been close to the opening:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater3/00015755.jpg
Here is a 1918 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/fs956
Here are two photos from the LA Library. The first is the gentlemen’s lounge in 1898, and the second is the drop curtain in 1912:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015254.jpg
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015248.jpg
Betty Young in “Our First Century” a history of the Los Angeles Athletic Club mentions that the first manager chosen when the Club was reorganized in 1906-07 as a private corporation was Eyton, who was a boxing referee and who had managed Belasco’s Morosco Theater. 1904 Los Angles clippings of the Kid McCoy and Sullivan fight have Eyton as the assistant manager of the Burbank Theater (perhaps in Burbank) at that time.
View link
From USC Digital Archives.
“Exterior view of the Burbank Theater, taken from the east side of Main Street and north of Sixth Street, ca.1903
The theatre is about three-stories tall. Above the entrance, there is a covered balcony. The windows of theatre and several corridors have semi circled arches. To either side of the theatre entrance are stores displaying their products through their windows.”
Correct me if I’m wrong, but the Baby Bubbles photo appears to have been taken in the 1950s. The marquee advertises the Joe Louis-Primo Carnera fight, which took place on 6/25/35. The marquee might have been used for a film shoot when the picture was taken.
Another post-mortem photo:
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics34/00036904.jpg
A photo by William Reagh. What ever happened to Baby Bubbles, anyway?
View link
Can anyone tell me if the Chino Theater is listed here under a different name? The architect was S. Charles Lee. Thanks.
Thanks for the confirmation.
ken mc: No, you were right the first time. The 1920s picture is of the Burbank Theatre on Main Street downtown, with its original, late 19th century facade still exposed. The front was covered up with the streamline-deco facade sometime in the 1930s or 1940s.