Tiki Theatre
5462 Santa Monica Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90029
5462 Santa Monica Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90029
10 people
favorited this theater
Showing 51 - 63 of 63 comments
I have some Pussycat info I worked there from 1967 to 1974.
National City, CA
San Diego. CA
My God father(Vince Miranda) owned the Pussycat chain. I miss him very much.. i am looking for a marquee, and any photos that may be out there. i am trying to put together a collection . If you have any information ..please drop me a line.
Tim David
970.309.3991
Youâ€\re right, the Tiki is a dump, and I have been inside many times. My last time there was no fun, too much smoke. Years ago when the live dances were working, it was a hot time. The front row would fill up with guys waxing their polls while the dancer performed.
I have been to the Front Door in Long Beach. It is still relatively clean in the main room area. The single rest room can get seedy over time. If you want to escort your lady there, both of you can find the adventure you seek. There is no pressure, just a fun time. You have to make sure you stay in your seats. For some reason the management is very strict about that. There is also a sign posted, stating a list of behaviors that will get you thrown out. You can pretty much ignore that as long as you stay in your seat. The crowd is calm during the week between 9AM and 2PM.
There is another place in Commerce that is couple friendly, especially on Sundays before noon. This is not a theater. It is a video arcade where you can pick from 100â€\s of tapes and watch the whole thing for $6. The viewing areas have no doors, so if you like to watch others you can. On Sundayâ€\s you can pretty much enjoy yourself as you wish, the management is cool about it.
Want more detail?…
I took my girl there last night and she lived a fantasy of being completely groped by about 10 guys while we watched the video. It was hot…
To add to Gary’s post of other known Pussycat theaters:
Concord had one which was called the Showcase. (The Pussycat name was not used). This theater was formerly the Enean, then the Showcase. Went to porn in 1975, Pussycat took over in 1976 until it was bought out by a church in the late 1980’s. In downtown.
Stockton had one called the Bijou.
Sacramento had two: The Esquire(downtown, 1974-early 1980’s), and the former Coronet on Watt Ave(late 1970’s-present). The Esquire was formerly a Blumenfeld theater. The Coronet went to adult films in 1975 prior to Pussycat taking over. Both theaters adapted the Pussycat name. It still shows adult films(video) today as the Regency.
As for the Towne, when it was adult, I don’t think Pussycat operated it very long. It mostly booked films at the same time as the Centre and Presidio theaters, both in San Francisco.
Here are some other Pussycat theatres which come to mind:
Long Beach, on Ocean Ave in the heart of the old theatre district. It was a built-from-scratch modern theatre. I remember seeing it as a child when I lived in Seal Beach. It had the oval shaped sign with Ms. Pussycat on it, and the slogan, “It’s a Pussycat Theatre.” Long since demolished, along with all of Downtown Long Beach’s theatre district.
San Jose had:
The abovementioned theatre which later became the arthouse Camera One, recently closed.
Pussycat Theatre #2, which later became THE Pussycat after the above became Camera One. This one was the former Gay Theatre, opened as a firstrun house in 1949, and now Pete Escovedo’s Latin Jazz Club.
The Towne Theatre, operated for a time by the Pussycat people while keeping its Towne name, built in 1928 as the Hester, San Jose’s first neighborhood theatre. Switched to arthouse faire and triplexed in the early 90s, but recently switched over to Indian films, and seems to be enjoying success as such.
San Francisco’s Pussycat was right in the middle of the Downtown Market Street theatre district. It was the theatre which had formerly been the Egyptian, and then the Guild. It closed around the late 1980s and became retail space.
Oakland had two Pussycats: One was Downtown in the Broadway theatre district. It was a circa 1910 large nickelodeon called the Regent, which later was a newsreel theatre. It closed in the mid 80s, the vertical sign was salvaged, and a few years later the building was demolished, and the property is still empty land.
Oakland’s second Pussycat was a very old small neghborhood theatre out on Telegraph Avenue which eventually was called the Tower, given a late 30s moderne and Skouras makeover and run by Fox West Coast. Later, the TOWER letters were removed and replaced by PUSSYCAT on all three sides of the trapezoidal marquee. The theatre closed for good around the late 80s. It sat empty for several years, suffered a fire, and was then demolished. The last time I was by the property (a few months ago) it was still vacant. An antique dealer friend of mine acquired one of the metal channel letter PUSSYCAT signs from the marquee, but restored and then sold it.
My wife and I would frequent the pussycat in Buenapark when it was open years ago. Is the tiki theater couple friendly and clean?
Lovinglife
There is a very small (maybe 50 seats) theater in Long Beach showing straight porn called the Front Door. It sits between a church which used to be a large single screen theater and an auto parts store. They run DVDs, not film, as did most of the last surviving adult theaters.
The Tomkat, as a Pussycat, was (along with the Buena Park Pussycat, the former Grand theater) their “flagship” house from 1973-1976 and would show adult films “first run” before they moved into the other Pussycats. Often, the films were shown as single features at these two theaters and films would often play for months. Some films that did this included: The Private Afternoons of Pamela Mann, Naked Came the Stranger, and The Opening of Misty Beethoven. Deep Throat also had a long run as well.
The theatre in Sacramento is now called the Regency(formerly the Coronet), it still shows adult films.
At one point there were 750 Pussycat theaters in the US. Vince Miranda owned the CA theaters throughout most of its run(Dave Friedman and Dan Sonney were the founders), which had 47 theaters at one point.
The Camera One in San Jose was briefly a Pussycat theater in 1970-1971. It operated as an art house until July of this year, when it shut down to move into a multiplex down the street.
The Tomkat was indeed a Pussycat (it had a long-running engagement of “Deep Throat”). There may still be one Pussycat up in Sacramento, but they’re mostly all gone now.
The Tomkat was a Pussycat cinema years ago right? Are all the Pussycat theatres gone? Does anyone know how big the circt was in its prime?
Come to think of it, the Monica / Tomkat also has a turnstile entrance.