Atlantic Theater
5870 Atlantic Avenue,
Long Beach,
CA
90805
5870 Atlantic Avenue,
Long Beach,
CA
90805
8 people
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Showing 51 - 71 of 71 comments
I actually didn’t see any of the three (besides the Atlantic) listed on CT. I imagine that a lot of these “theaters” were small retail storefronts previously. I recall quite a few of those in Philadelphia. Their shelf life was usually brief.
If you look at the 4th picture down from the five I posted on 6/16, you can see the Front Door as well.
No, the archives won’t allow me to copy the text. There’s also no way to post the actual page. I would have to get a scanner but I’ve never gotten around to that.
The Atlantic was showing adult films in January 1975. Open 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. The LA Times ad shows four theaters, all exhibiting the same film (Pistolero – rated X) but I don’t know if all four were part of the same chain:
Atlantic
Buena Vista (Huntington at Buena Vista in Duarte)
Valley (6749 Lankershim in No. Hollywood)
Venus (2226 E. Colorado, Pasadena)
Here are the photos:
http://tinyurl.com/3cxxnc
http://tinyurl.com/2q6wgw
http://tinyurl.com/3axc7z
http://tinyurl.com/348ngs
http://tinyurl.com/2mpubo
I also took some photos yesterday. The building is vacant and looks shabby. Interesting tower, though. The Front Door theater is about 100 feet away.
I did indeed manage to get some nice exterior photos of the Atlantic, as planned, in Oct., 2006. Happy to share with anyone, as long as they prepare themselves for the fact that the theatre’s exterior color scheme is pink and white, making me think the church was in a constant state of Easter glad tidings.
Good grief! I’m going to be passing by Long Beach in a few weeks. I’d better try to photograph the Atlantic while I can. I went to the Crest as a very young kid—but never, as well as I can recall—the Atlantic. So many theatres in Long Beach gone, nearly all. Even in the late 60s and early 70s there was so much about this city to enchant one. Now…so little.
During or around the fall of 1981, I was contracted to promote concerts in this theatre. I assisted with repairing some of the theater’s original lighting and mechanical systems prior to a limited run of concerts. At the time, the auditorium had curtains covering the original murals, which were underwater ocean scenes including a depiction of Neptune.
I do remember carefully examining each section and marveled at the artwork. The lighting used a “3 phase”, atmospheric-type system to illuminate the fantasy-laden murals. The 3 colors were clear, amber and black lenses which covered incandescent bulbs if I recall correctly. Each of the colors were removed, I do remember carefully examining each section and marveled at the artwork that lied behind the. The lighting used a “3 phase”, atmospheric-type system to illuminate the fantasy-laden murals. The 3 colors were clear, amber and black lenses which covered incandescent bulbs if I recall correctly. Each of the colors was controlled by a rheostat in the projection room.
To me, the marquee did not seem original. It was severely damaged by years of neglect.
The lobby used a series of coves for lighting. When I last saw the theater at that time it had a series of bad paint jobs and there’d been minor re-decorating. The auditorium was original and easily restorable. The nursery was used as a storage room for the snack bar supplies. I also remember the tower as it was filled with pigeons and broken neon tubes.
I don’t know what became of the oceanic murals, but I can only hope that someday the tide of curtains will recede and Neptune will rise to his rightful place in the Atlantic once more…
The Atlantic Theatre was formerly determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places in 2003. The following is the text excerpted from the determination’s statement of significance:
“The building at 5870-5874 Atlantic Avenue was constructed in 1940 as the Atlantic Theatre, according to records in the Los Angeles County Tax Assessor Archives and an entry in the October 1940 issue of Southwest Builder & Contractor. Constructed for owner Ivan C. Hanson as a movie theater with an adjacent commercial space, the building was designed by architect Carl Heinrich Boller and built by the Stivers Brothers Company of Long Beach. The Hanson family retained ownership of the building through the 1960s.
“The Kansas City architectural firm of Boller Brothers (also known as Carl Boller and Brother) specialized in theater design and were the architects of movie houses throughout the Midwest between 1902 and circa 1950. Carl Heinrich Boller (1868-1946) began his architectural practice about 1902 in St. Joseph, Missouri, doing designs of theaters for vaudeville circuits. In 1905, he opened an office in Kansas City, Missouri, and within a year brought his younger brother, Robert Otto (1887-1962) into the business as a draftsman. After service in the United States Army Corps of Engineers (1918-1919), Robert returned to the practice as a full partner and the firm name changed to Boller Brothers. With the boom in building movie theaters throughout the country, the brothers’ work expanded to the point that by 1920 they established an office in Oklahoma to handle business in that state. In the next year, Carl moved to Los Angeles, California, with Robert remaining in Kansas City. The architects’ papers and collections are held by the Western Historical Manuscript Collection at the University of Missouri in Kansas City.
“Carl Boller is a nationally recognized Los Angeles architect who is credited with designs for movie theaters all across the United States. At least ten of Boller’s buildings located in six different states have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Boller was also a prolific architect in Los Angeles and southern California during the 1920s through the 1940s. In addition to the Atlantic Theatre, Boller is credited with designs for the Inglewood Theatre (Inglewood, 1922), the Ritz Theatre (Long Beach, 1924), the Largo Theatre (Watts, 1924), the Corona Theater (Corona, 1929), and the Stadium Theatre (Los Angeles, 1931), as wells as theaters in Montrose, Santa Ana, and Covina.”
See my comment on the Crest Theater page.
Spent a lot of time in the Atlantic.
manwithnoname..hey we should correspond more often…i’m in the same boat..never get tired of this stuff
certainly not quibbling about distance…nice to see other people remember this stuff
Ah, I missed an entire page in my map book when I was measuring, and I also thought that Long Beach counted at least twelve blocks per mile, since the downtown blocks are fairly short. Apparently they stretch the numbering system once they get out of downtown. Still, from downtown Long Beach to South Street (which is about where the 5800 block begins) is only a bit over six miles.
actually…the correct address is 5870, and it is 9 miles from ocean blvd to the north city limits…ocean is 100 block north and the city ends at atlantic place…which is the 7100 block north
And, ronp is right about the designer. I have found two other sources saying that Carl Boller was the architect of the Atlantic Theater.
The address at which the Atlantic Theater was listed in the Los Angeles Times Theater Guide in 1971 is 5870 Atlantic Avenue. Unless the City of Long Beach has undergone a renumbering of its streets since then, the address given above is wrong.
If this theater were nine miles north of downtown Long Beach, it would have been in the City of South Gate. From Ocean Avenue to the northern city limits of Long Beach is only about five miles. The address in the 5800 block would put the theater about four miles north of Ocean Avenue.
I remember seeing “octopussy” the James Bond film there in the late 70’s
Saw “The Shakiest Gun In The West” at a free admission showing. I miss theatres like the Atlantic, Crest, and Towne theatres.
Plans are underway to redevelop this area, known as The North Long Beach Village Center. The North Long Beach Redevelopment Agency is budgeting $50,000 for the renovation and revitalization of this historic theater.
this place was great because it was located so close to the North long Beach YMCA..kids could go to the Y and shoot a game of pool while a couple of people saved their place in line.
They had a regular feature called crazy races…each kid would be given a raffle ticket…and a keystone cop like short(really slap stick) would be shown)…if a kid had a ticket that matched the winning number of the race winner they got prizes like a box of popcorn.
Remember seeing the Creature from the Black lagoon in 1954 with a place that was so packed some of us were sitting in the aisles.
It’s been a Christian Church for about the last 15 years…the tower still survives