Gaiety Theatre

Sorry about the reposting….I just realized that I already posted those a long time ago.

Here is a LA Times article from 1909 about the People’s Theater being sold. It seems that a few years before and up to this article, the theater showed a few boxing movies, and also a lot of medical demonstrations from the ‘Great Fer Don’. It’s hard to find much after this time because the term ‘people’s theater’ seems to come into the language as a type of theater rather than a reference to just this building. There’s a lot to weed through.

(Sept. 24, 1909)
RECORD DEAL ON MAIN
-FOREIGN CAPITALIST PAYS NEARLY A QUARTER MILLION FOR PEOPLES' THEATER SITE-

One of the largest and most important deals in Los Angeles business property consummated this year was put through yesterday when John C. Mordough, a retired banker and lumber merchant, of the City of Mexico, purchased through the agency of R.A. Rowan & Co., the property at Nos. 521-523-525 South Main street, known as the Peoples Theater building. H.J. Woolacott, the seller, received $225,000 for his holding, or at the rate of over $3500 a front foot.
The site is improved with a three-story brick building, containing two stores and the Peoples Theater on the ground floor, and a rooming-house on the two upper floors. The lot fronts 61 ½ feet on Main and extends back 165 feet to an alley. The present rents are said to be $15,000 a year, which will pay Mr. Mordough 6 per cent. on his investment.
Mr. Mordough came to Los Angeles first with the Shrine convention in 1907, as one of the delegates of the Anezeh Shrine of the City of Mexico. He was so impressed with the bustling and hustling way of the city, that he immediately made a loan of $50,000 on a Broadway lot. Since then he has visited the city frequently and has loaned through R.A. Rowan & Co., several hundred thousand dollars.
Mr. Woollacott, the seler, purchased the holding many years ago, while it was still residence property, at $800 a front foot. He erected the present building four years ago at a cost of $46,000.

ScottS: PE first used the Butterfly paint scheme in 1939, according to both ERHA and the Seashore Trolly Museum’s web pages. I still suspect the most likely date to be between 1942-1945, when gasoline was rationed and traffic was thin. It could be as late as the early 1950s, when Metropolitan Coach Lines took over PE’s passenger services, but that seems less likely. The theatre marquee also gives a clue. “ATURE” is likely Victor Mature, and “ABLE” likely Betty Grable. They were teamed in the late 1941 release I Wake Up Screaming. They also appeared together in the 1942 movie Song of the Islands. They teamed again for Footlight Serenade, released later that same year. But they whey were also teamed in Wabash Avenue, released in 1950, so it isn’t conclusive evidence.

Listed in the 1939 LA city directory as the Gayety, with an address of 523 S. Main.

Are we sure this is the same building? I guess so but i’m so confused now because our info is spread out over a few theater pages. I want to make a timeline for this place. Maybe it will get the record for the theater with the most names.

I guess a dime museum was basically a freak show that cost a dime to get in.

There are many crime incidents at 523 S. Main during the 40’s, but for some reason, none of the articles mention the name of the theater at the time. Later on I found an article about this guy being found sane and going to San Quentin.

(June 2, 1945)
Convicted of four counts of arson, including the charge that he set fire to two pianos in a theater at 523 S. Main St. last March 5, Frank James Russell, 24, from New York, faced interogation by a psychiatrist. Russell’s fate when he goes before Superior Judge Walter S. Gates on June 26 for a hearing on probation and sentence will depend to a large extent on the report of Dr. Marcus Crahan, the psychiatrist, who has been appointed to investigate the mental quirks that cause Russell to start fires. He said he was bored with the show.

I don’t really know what to say about this one:

(Feb. 11, 1908)
“The Great Fer-Don certainly has the best for the people, no matter what he does,” said one man at the People’s Theater last night. “‘The Hottest Coon in Dixie’ is as good singing show as ever I have seen.” Which seemed to be the general verdict of all who attended the show last night. Never in the history of the People’s Theater, which is located on South Main Street, between Fifth and Sixth streets, have there been such crowds as are now being entertained nightly by the Great Fer-Don’s company of entertainers…(long article)..Demonstrations upon the lame and deaf are permformed free upon the stage at the People’s Theater every night except Sunday.

This at least places a People’s Theater on North Main Street. Has anyone heard of the Dime Museum?

(May 13, 1889)
The People’s Theater opened Saturday night to a good sized audience. The theater is built and operated on the cheap plan and has grown out of the old Dime Museum on North Main street. The management has put in a stock company of a very ordinary caliber, which opened in the old drama The Streets of New York. Another good house turned out last night and seemed to enjoy one of the most mediocre performances ever given outside of a country town.

Further information for an update:

Here is a picture of Main Street north from the Pacific Electric Building at 6th street, taken about January 1st, 1907. I would imagine the date to be accurate, as it depicts one of the rare winters when snow fell in downtown Los Angeles. At the lower left, the building which housed the Gaiety Theatre is clearly visible.

A second picture taken at the same time from another angle shows the facade more clearly. Using the zoom and scroll features of the USC Archive site, I found it possible to get a decent view of the sign in front of the entrance. It reads “People’s Theatre”, so we have yet one more name to add to the theatre’s history, and an opening date of no later than 1906.

I think there is some stuff I put on the Optic page that should be on this page. I’ll have to weed through it.

Ken: You’ve found the smoking gun! The Gaiety was definitely the Olympic/Alphin/Omar/Moon Theatre! That’s the same building that housed the Omar in the c1917 photo I linked to above. The rear of that parked car that shows on the left side of your picture looks like a very late 1930’s or early 1940’s model, so that’s the earliest this picture could have been taken. The Watts-bound streetcar bears the logo of the Pacific Electric Railroad, so it would be no later than the early 1950’s when both P.E. and L.A.Railway service was taken over by Metropolitan Transit Lines.

The fall of shadows indicates some time around mid-afternoon,probably near the summer solstice. Quite a few pedestrians coupled with little traffic suggests Sunday, and also gives a strong suggestion that this picture might have been taken during the war years when gasoline was being rationed. It’s too bad more of the marquee isn’t visible, showing the names of the movies, since they can give an earliest possible year for a theatre photo.

I’ve come across a card displayed in the L.A. Public Library’s California Index which refers to an article in the Los Angeles Times of May 14, 1922, which says that the Gore Brothers were going to lease the Omar Theatre on Main Street. That’s the latest date for any reference to the Omar name that I have found so far.