I wouldn’t call this a quonset hut theater. A true quonset hut has no walls, but has the arc of its roof extending all the way to the ground like this. The term quonset hut refers to a type of construction rather than to an architectural style, anyway. I’d just as soon see Cinema Treasures drop “Quonset Hut” as a style
What most of the theaters identified at Cinema Treasures as quonset huts really had were what are called barrel vault or tunnel vault roofs, on top of standard, if sometimes low, walls (and judging from the photos the Southside’s walls don’t appear to be any lower than the walls of most other single-floor theaters.) Given the period during which barrel vault roofs were common, most theaters that had them got modern or art moderne decoration.
Many of the theatres that had true quonset huts for their auditoriums were hybrid buildings, in any case, like the Avon Theatre in Bothell, Washington, which had a boxy and decidedly modern entrance. Others, like Star Theatre in La Puente, California, were entirely quonset hut buildings which had little more than a bit of moderne detailing and signage attached to their facades. Still, such theaters have quonset style construction, but modern architectural details.
Read William’s description of the Southside in his comment of December 16, 2003, above. The style of the theater as he describes it sounds modern to me. The entrance depicted in the photo looks modern, too.
I finally found the exact address for this theater. The Whittwood was listed in a 1968 L.A. Times Independent Theatres guide at 10125 Whittwood Drive. Google Maps places its marker symbol for this address farther from Whittier Boulevard than I remember the theater actually being, but it’s been so long since I was there that I don’t know if it’s Google or my memory that’s off by a few hundred feet.
The February 16, 1957, issue of Boxoffice Magazine announced that Dubuque’s Avon Theatre had closed, and that demolition of the building would commence on April 1, to make way for a new J.C. Penney store.
The house was built in 1908 by William Bradley, and was opened as the Princess Theatre. After operating it for a year, Bradley leased the house to Harvey Fulton of the Standard Amusements Company. In 1916 it was taken over by James Yiannias, who operated it until it closed. In its final year, the Avon was open only three days a week. The Boxoffice article does not give the year in which the name was changed from Princess to Avon.
The Navarre Amphitheatre Drive-In was designed by the Minneapolis architectural firm of Liebenberg and Kaplan. It was scheduled for a spring, 1953, opening according to Boxoffice Magazine’s November 8, 1952, issue. The drive-in’s capacity was to be 575 cars.
A pencil drawing of the drive-in is among the Liebenberg and Kaplan papers collected at the Andersen Library of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
The American Theatre may have been designed by the Minneapolis architectural firm of Liebenberg and Kaplan. A pencil drawing of it is in the collection of the Liebenberg and Kaplan papers in the Andersen Library at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Whether the design was theirs, or one of them simply make a drawing of it for reference, as architects sometimes do, the dates the library’s index for the papers list with the entry for this theater are 1928-29 and 1931. If the theater is older than that, perhaps Liebenberg and Kaplan only did some remodeling work on it.
The Starlight Drive-In was the work of the Minneapolis architectural firm of Liebenberg and Kaplan. The blueprints are in the collection of Liebenberg and Kaplan papers in the Andersen Library at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. The theater is listed in the papers as the Albert Lea Outdoor Theatre, but it appears to have opened as the Starlight Drive-In Theatre.
The extensive 1957 remodeling of the Shubert Theatre into the Academy Theatre (which, according to the intro above “…was so completely refurbished it requires its own entry in the Cinema Treasures listings,” was the work of the Minneapolis architectural firm Liebenberg & Kaplan.
The 600-seat Pine Hollow Theatre was designed by architect Drew Eberson. The recently opened theater was the subject of an illustrated article in the Modern Theatre section of Boxoffice Magazine’s issue of March 4, 1963. The house was originally operated by Skouras Theatres.
The Vogue Theatre in Pittsburg was opened by the Blumenfeld Circuit on February 20, 1948, according to Boxoffice Magazine’s issue of April 3 that year.
Somehow I never got back to this page until now. The theater’s web site doesn’t give me any problems anymore.
I was surprised to see among the photos there one showing that the Garland’s main level seating was continental style, with the aisles confined to the sides of the auditorium. That was a very rare configuration for an American movie theater of the period- or just about any period. In fact the only movie theater I’ve ever been to that had continental seating was the Hastings in Pasadena.
This place looks like a real gem. I especially like that art moderne lobby. If I ever get to Spokane, I’ll be sure to check it out.
The L.A. Library’s California Index contains several cards citing articles about theaters in Huntington Beach, but most of them are puzzling. Most of the cards have no theater names attached, and it seems likely that several of the projects mentioned were never carried out.
One card does indicate that there had been a movie house operating in Huntington Beach before the Princess was opened, though. It cites a Southwest Builder & Contractor item of April 18, 1914. Here’s a link to the card. From the bit about the lease expiring, it sounds like it might have been a storefront nickelodeon.
The Hudson Plaza Cinema opened on December 22, 1967, according to an item in Boxoffice Magazine’s issue of January 1, 1968. It was one of five new theaters opened across the country by General Cinema on the same day.
Here’s a brief item from Boxoffice Magazine, May 28, 1962:
“Approximately $75,000 was expended to give the Cinema Theatre a complete facelift in time for the Pacific Coast premier of ‘Through a Glass Darkly.’ Remodeling included a new lobby, marquee, carpets, drapes, and an elaborate mezzanine art gallery.”
My first visit to the Cinema must have been fairly soon after this. I don’t remember ever seeing the old marquee, or being in the theatre before the art gallery (not so elaborate, really) was installed.
When the Fox Covina was multiplexed with an addition in 1972, the total seating capacity was upped from 814 to 1,316, according to an item in Boxoffice Magazine, November 20, 1972.
The July 5, 1965, issue of Boxoffice Magazine said that Associated Independent Theatres of the West would open the Camelback Theatre in Scottsdale that summer. The new house had 850 seats.
The January 17, 1966, issue of Boxoffice included the Camelback in its annual list of theatres opened during the previous year.
Boxoffice Magazine’s issue of September 11, 1961, published an article about three theaters being planned by Stein Enterprises, the development arm of Statewide Theatres. The Capri was one of them, and the caption of a drawing of it said it was scheduled for a September 18 groundbreaking. I can’t find any later Boxoffice articles about the Capri, but it seems likely that it opened in 1962.
Loew’s Theatres Inc.’s annual report for 1967 said that the company had acquired 30 theaters from Statewide that year, and mentioned the Capri as being among the acquisitions. See my comment of March 8, 2007, above, for later developments at the Capri.
The Eastland Center neighborhood suffered some long delays before it got its movie house. A local exhibitor named Sid Pink had plans to build a 1000 seat theater there as early as 1956, according to the April 7, 1956, issue of Boxoffice Magazine, which said that ground was to be broken soon for the new theater.
Then the March 3, 1958, issue of Boxoffice published a drawing of Sid Pink’s new 1,100 seat theater, with a caption saying it was “…now being built.” The announcement was a bit premature, it seems.
When construction of the Eastland Theatre really began at last, in 1961, it was a project of the Sanborn Theatres circuit. I guess everybody got tired of waiting for Sid Pink to get his show on the road.
Here is a PDF file of the Winter, 1992, issue of SoCal Cinemas' house organ, with a brief article about the 30th anniversary celebration for the Eastland Theatre, which was held on November 21 that year. It mentions that Jayne Mansfield had made a personal appearance for the Eastland’s opening night.
A Boxoffice Magazine item from the issue of September 15, 1969, confirms that the Wescove opened as a twin, on August 20, 1969. Boxoffice named the designers of the theater as the South Pasadena firm of Smith & Williams.
Whitney R. Smith and Wayne R. Williams were very well known for their midcentury modern designs, but this is the first I’ve ever heard of them designing a theater. I wonder if they did any others? It would really bite if somebody has knocked down the only Smith & Williams theater in the world for a parking lot.
The Wescove had become a triplex by August, 1986, when it was being operated by SoCal Cinemas (the Sanborn Theatres circuit’s later name.) Their listings gave the address as 1450 West Covina Parkway. The house had still been listed as a twin in the Independent Theatres listings of the L.A. Times in February, 1971.
The July 9, 1949, issue of Boxoffice magazine published an item saying that the Rio Theatre in Monte Rio had recently opened. Owners of the 500 seat independent house were S.A. Bartlett and S.A. Bartlett Jr., formerly operators of a theater in Grass Valley.
The twinning of the Bay Theatre took place in 1972. The house reopened as the Bay Twin on August 24, according to Boxoffice Magazine’s September 18 issue that year. The owners had the theater’s interior entirely stripped and rebuilt, rather than merely splitting the original 1100 seat auditorium with a wall. The new twin auditoriums each had 400 seats.
Mike L: You’ll find links to the Cinema Treasures pages for various theaters in Culver City on this page.
Neither of the new multiplexes is on the site of either the Meralta or the Culver. The Meralta’s site is now occupied by an office building, and the Culver is still operating, as a live performance venue called the Kirk Douglas Theatre. The Culver Plaza multiplex is across Culver Boulevard from it.
I’ve found a better map. It shows the streetcar lines in Los Angeles in 1906, and the area around the Pictorial is included. For anybody trying to pin down the locations of theaters when they are listed in early city directories or newspaper ads with old street names that have since been changed, this map can be very useful.
The map is called Red Cars and Yellow Cars, and is linked from this Library of Congress page. You can use the map online with a zoom feature, or download the whole thing in a 7.5MB jpeg file.
billy byron: I missed your comment earlier, as my e-mail service no longer sends me notifications for new Cinema Treasures comments.
If you get back to this page, could you please click on this link to a 1951 Life Magazine photo and tell me if the theater the photo depicts is the Mission? The Life Magazine archive says the building is in Los Angeles, but I think it must be in Ventura, or at least in Ventura County. If it isn’t the Mission, do you recognize the theater at all?
I wouldn’t call this a quonset hut theater. A true quonset hut has no walls, but has the arc of its roof extending all the way to the ground like this. The term quonset hut refers to a type of construction rather than to an architectural style, anyway. I’d just as soon see Cinema Treasures drop “Quonset Hut” as a style
What most of the theaters identified at Cinema Treasures as quonset huts really had were what are called barrel vault or tunnel vault roofs, on top of standard, if sometimes low, walls (and judging from the photos the Southside’s walls don’t appear to be any lower than the walls of most other single-floor theaters.) Given the period during which barrel vault roofs were common, most theaters that had them got modern or art moderne decoration.
Many of the theatres that had true quonset huts for their auditoriums were hybrid buildings, in any case, like the Avon Theatre in Bothell, Washington, which had a boxy and decidedly modern entrance. Others, like Star Theatre in La Puente, California, were entirely quonset hut buildings which had little more than a bit of moderne detailing and signage attached to their facades. Still, such theaters have quonset style construction, but modern architectural details.
Read William’s description of the Southside in his comment of December 16, 2003, above. The style of the theater as he describes it sounds modern to me. The entrance depicted in the photo looks modern, too.
I finally found the exact address for this theater. The Whittwood was listed in a 1968 L.A. Times Independent Theatres guide at 10125 Whittwood Drive. Google Maps places its marker symbol for this address farther from Whittier Boulevard than I remember the theater actually being, but it’s been so long since I was there that I don’t know if it’s Google or my memory that’s off by a few hundred feet.
The February 16, 1957, issue of Boxoffice Magazine announced that Dubuque’s Avon Theatre had closed, and that demolition of the building would commence on April 1, to make way for a new J.C. Penney store.
The house was built in 1908 by William Bradley, and was opened as the Princess Theatre. After operating it for a year, Bradley leased the house to Harvey Fulton of the Standard Amusements Company. In 1916 it was taken over by James Yiannias, who operated it until it closed. In its final year, the Avon was open only three days a week. The Boxoffice article does not give the year in which the name was changed from Princess to Avon.
The Brainerd Theatre was designed by the Minneapolis architectural firm Liebenberg & Kaplan.
The Navarre Amphitheatre Drive-In was designed by the Minneapolis architectural firm of Liebenberg and Kaplan. It was scheduled for a spring, 1953, opening according to Boxoffice Magazine’s November 8, 1952, issue. The drive-in’s capacity was to be 575 cars.
A pencil drawing of the drive-in is among the Liebenberg and Kaplan papers collected at the Andersen Library of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
The American Theatre may have been designed by the Minneapolis architectural firm of Liebenberg and Kaplan. A pencil drawing of it is in the collection of the Liebenberg and Kaplan papers in the Andersen Library at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Whether the design was theirs, or one of them simply make a drawing of it for reference, as architects sometimes do, the dates the library’s index for the papers list with the entry for this theater are 1928-29 and 1931. If the theater is older than that, perhaps Liebenberg and Kaplan only did some remodeling work on it.
The Starlight Drive-In was the work of the Minneapolis architectural firm of Liebenberg and Kaplan. The blueprints are in the collection of Liebenberg and Kaplan papers in the Andersen Library at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. The theater is listed in the papers as the Albert Lea Outdoor Theatre, but it appears to have opened as the Starlight Drive-In Theatre.
The extensive 1957 remodeling of the Shubert Theatre into the Academy Theatre (which, according to the intro above “…was so completely refurbished it requires its own entry in the Cinema Treasures listings,” was the work of the Minneapolis architectural firm Liebenberg & Kaplan.
The 600-seat Pine Hollow Theatre was designed by architect Drew Eberson. The recently opened theater was the subject of an illustrated article in the Modern Theatre section of Boxoffice Magazine’s issue of March 4, 1963. The house was originally operated by Skouras Theatres.
The Vogue Theatre in Pittsburg was opened by the Blumenfeld Circuit on February 20, 1948, according to Boxoffice Magazine’s issue of April 3 that year.
Somehow I never got back to this page until now. The theater’s web site doesn’t give me any problems anymore.
I was surprised to see among the photos there one showing that the Garland’s main level seating was continental style, with the aisles confined to the sides of the auditorium. That was a very rare configuration for an American movie theater of the period- or just about any period. In fact the only movie theater I’ve ever been to that had continental seating was the Hastings in Pasadena.
This place looks like a real gem. I especially like that art moderne lobby. If I ever get to Spokane, I’ll be sure to check it out.
The L.A. Library’s California Index contains several cards citing articles about theaters in Huntington Beach, but most of them are puzzling. Most of the cards have no theater names attached, and it seems likely that several of the projects mentioned were never carried out.
One card does indicate that there had been a movie house operating in Huntington Beach before the Princess was opened, though. It cites a Southwest Builder & Contractor item of April 18, 1914. Here’s a link to the card. From the bit about the lease expiring, it sounds like it might have been a storefront nickelodeon.
General Cinema opened the Southland Cinema I & II on December 21, 1967, according to an item in Boxoffice Magazine’s issue of January 1, 1968.
The Hudson Plaza Cinema opened on December 22, 1967, according to an item in Boxoffice Magazine’s issue of January 1, 1968. It was one of five new theaters opened across the country by General Cinema on the same day.
Here’s a brief item from Boxoffice Magazine, May 28, 1962:
My first visit to the Cinema must have been fairly soon after this. I don’t remember ever seeing the old marquee, or being in the theatre before the art gallery (not so elaborate, really) was installed.When the Fox Covina was multiplexed with an addition in 1972, the total seating capacity was upped from 814 to 1,316, according to an item in Boxoffice Magazine, November 20, 1972.
The July 5, 1965, issue of Boxoffice Magazine said that Associated Independent Theatres of the West would open the Camelback Theatre in Scottsdale that summer. The new house had 850 seats.
The January 17, 1966, issue of Boxoffice included the Camelback in its annual list of theatres opened during the previous year.
Boxoffice Magazine’s issue of September 11, 1961, published an article about three theaters being planned by Stein Enterprises, the development arm of Statewide Theatres. The Capri was one of them, and the caption of a drawing of it said it was scheduled for a September 18 groundbreaking. I can’t find any later Boxoffice articles about the Capri, but it seems likely that it opened in 1962.
Loew’s Theatres Inc.’s annual report for 1967 said that the company had acquired 30 theaters from Statewide that year, and mentioned the Capri as being among the acquisitions. See my comment of March 8, 2007, above, for later developments at the Capri.
Here’s a link to a PDF of Loew’s 1967 annual report, for anyone who might be interested.
The Eastland Center neighborhood suffered some long delays before it got its movie house. A local exhibitor named Sid Pink had plans to build a 1000 seat theater there as early as 1956, according to the April 7, 1956, issue of Boxoffice Magazine, which said that ground was to be broken soon for the new theater.
Then the March 3, 1958, issue of Boxoffice published a drawing of Sid Pink’s new 1,100 seat theater, with a caption saying it was “…now being built.” The announcement was a bit premature, it seems.
When construction of the Eastland Theatre really began at last, in 1961, it was a project of the Sanborn Theatres circuit. I guess everybody got tired of waiting for Sid Pink to get his show on the road.
Here is a PDF file of the Winter, 1992, issue of SoCal Cinemas' house organ, with a brief article about the 30th anniversary celebration for the Eastland Theatre, which was held on November 21 that year. It mentions that Jayne Mansfield had made a personal appearance for the Eastland’s opening night.
A Boxoffice Magazine item from the issue of September 15, 1969, confirms that the Wescove opened as a twin, on August 20, 1969. Boxoffice named the designers of the theater as the South Pasadena firm of Smith & Williams.
Whitney R. Smith and Wayne R. Williams were very well known for their midcentury modern designs, but this is the first I’ve ever heard of them designing a theater. I wonder if they did any others? It would really bite if somebody has knocked down the only Smith & Williams theater in the world for a parking lot.
The Wescove had become a triplex by August, 1986, when it was being operated by SoCal Cinemas (the Sanborn Theatres circuit’s later name.) Their listings gave the address as 1450 West Covina Parkway. The house had still been listed as a twin in the Independent Theatres listings of the L.A. Times in February, 1971.
The July 9, 1949, issue of Boxoffice magazine published an item saying that the Rio Theatre in Monte Rio had recently opened. Owners of the 500 seat independent house were S.A. Bartlett and S.A. Bartlett Jr., formerly operators of a theater in Grass Valley.
The twinning of the Bay Theatre took place in 1972. The house reopened as the Bay Twin on August 24, according to Boxoffice Magazine’s September 18 issue that year. The owners had the theater’s interior entirely stripped and rebuilt, rather than merely splitting the original 1100 seat auditorium with a wall. The new twin auditoriums each had 400 seats.
Mike L: You’ll find links to the Cinema Treasures pages for various theaters in Culver City on this page.
Neither of the new multiplexes is on the site of either the Meralta or the Culver. The Meralta’s site is now occupied by an office building, and the Culver is still operating, as a live performance venue called the Kirk Douglas Theatre. The Culver Plaza multiplex is across Culver Boulevard from it.
Also, the Fox Wilshire still exists, and presents concerts and live theater events as the Wilshire Theatre Beverly Hills. Here’s a link to its Cinema Treasures page.
I’ve found a better map. It shows the streetcar lines in Los Angeles in 1906, and the area around the Pictorial is included. For anybody trying to pin down the locations of theaters when they are listed in early city directories or newspaper ads with old street names that have since been changed, this map can be very useful.
The map is called Red Cars and Yellow Cars, and is linked from this Library of Congress page. You can use the map online with a zoom feature, or download the whole thing in a 7.5MB jpeg file.
billy byron: I missed your comment earlier, as my e-mail service no longer sends me notifications for new Cinema Treasures comments.
If you get back to this page, could you please click on this link to a 1951 Life Magazine photo and tell me if the theater the photo depicts is the Mission? The Life Magazine archive says the building is in Los Angeles, but I think it must be in Ventura, or at least in Ventura County. If it isn’t the Mission, do you recognize the theater at all?