Patsy: The 1950 remodeling the magazine article referred to was the one that gave the Athens the facade that appears in the postcard view currently at the top of this Cinema Treasures page- the one that looks sort of like a drive-in’s screen tower.
I’ve checked the Assessor’s office web site, and the building on this parcel (extending all the way to the corner of Workman Street) was indeed built in 1912, the year the Starland opened. Apparently the Linclon Heights Bulletin-News was premature in its announcement of the theater’s demolition. It’s been converted to retail use.
Looking at the Google Maps satellite and street views shows that the section of the building with the former theater entrance (now the clothing store Ken mentions) was pretty narrow, and the configuration of the rooftops suggests that this was an “L” shaped theater, with the auditorium extending eastward from a north-south lobby. I never went to the Starland, but the entrance portion looks to be no more than 25 feet wide, if that, and there’s no way they could have crammed an 850 seat theater into that space.
The remodeling of the Starland to the modern style must have been mostly cosmetic, as the Assessor’s office doesn’t give an “effectively built” date for the building. There’s some nice terrazzo pavement on the sidewalk out front, though (see Google street view), in a geometric style which suggests a 1940’s remodeling.
An article about the Colonial Drive-In appeared in the February 4, 1956, issue of Boxoffice Magazine. The architect was Jack K. Vogel. It was the first drive-in in Annapolis, and was built for Durkee Enterprises.
The Ardmore Drive-In was the subject of an article published in the February 8, 1960, issue of Boxoffice Magazine. This was one of many drive-ins designed by Jack K. Vogel, an architectural engineer. The Ardmore included a pair of 60-seat, heated and air conditioned auditoriums flanking the concession area. The Ardmore was built for Ernest and George Stern, of the Associated Theatres circuit.
Boxoffice Magazine of October 19, 1959, featured an illustrated three-page spread about the Vogue, which had recently reopened after undergoing a $225,000 remodeling, designed by architect J. Arthur Drielsma.
I’d forgotten how the carpet extended all the way to the sidewalk.
Under the heading “Indoor-Outdoor Theatre in Buffalo Area,” the October 4, 1965, issue of Boxoffice Magazine published a rendering of the new Young Street Drive-In. The caption said that it was designed by Jack K. Vogel, had a capacity of 1000 cars, and featured two all-weather auditoriums.
Boxoffice Magazine’s issue of October 25, 1965, gives the opening date of National General’s Thunderbird Drive-In as September 1 that year. It also confirms the car capacity as 1,182, and the architect as Gale Santocono.
This page duplicates this earlier listing. Both pages place the Thunderbird in Sacramento, but it was in Rancho Cordova. The correct address is posted in a comment by Lost Memory on the earlier page, and my comments there add additional information.
Regal’s Lincoln Center Cinemas was designed by architect Bernard Zyscovich, of Zyscovich Architects. The project received an Award of Merit in 2001 from the Florida chapter of the AIA.
Check the photos on the architect’s web site (and many more on Flickr) to see just how non-Art Deco this building is. I’d call it postmodern.
Raad: Some old issues of Boxoffice are available online at Issuu.com. I find it easier to search within them by using Google’s Advanced Search “Search within site or domain” feature.
This drive-in was designed by Vincent G. Raney, architect of virtually all of the Syufy-Century theaters from the 1960s through the 1980s. Start of construction was announced in the July 5, 1965, issue of Boxoffice Magazine. The theater was to have space for 1200 cars, and the largest screen in Nevada.
The anonymized comment from 2005 must be wrong about the opening date. Boxoffice Magazine’s issue of January 31, 1966, said that the former Lincoln Theatre was “…attracting good patronage as the bright new 800 seat Showcase.” The remodeling (actually more of a rebuilding, as the floor, back wall, roof and facade were all replaced) had cost $150,000 and had taken ten months. Virtually every appointment in the theater was new, and the rebuilt auditorium featured a stadium seating section at the rear. The architect was Vincent G. Raney, and the decorator was Homer Stertos of San Francisco.
The House Theatre had recently opened, according to a brief article in the April 29, 1950, issue of Boxoffice Magazine. The architect was C.C. Benton, who also designed a couple of South Carolina Theaters. The owner-operator was named Ernest House.
The Athens Theatre underwent a major remodeling in 1950. An item in the April 29, 1950, issue of Boxoffice Magazine described the extensive changes planned for the house by manager Joe Fleishel. These included expanding the lobby by incorporating a former cross-aisle at the back of the auditorium, installing new seating, redesigning the rest rooms, replacing the staircase to the balcony with a new, curved staircase, plus remodeling the facade and installing a new marquee and box office. A brief item in the June 10 issue of Boxoffice said that the renovations were underway, and that the new interiors had been designed by decorator Dick Oliver.
The August 18, 1969, issue of Boxoffice Magazine said that the Cobb Cinema in Smyrna had recently opened. The item also said that the Cobb was the first theater in Georgia to have automated projection equipment installed. The seating capacity was given as 350.
Here’s a brief item from the January 21, 1939, issue of Boxoffice Magazine: “Port St. Joe, Fla.— The Port Theatre, which opened last June, reports good business at this point. The house seats 964 persons and is managed by Roy Williams. It is owned by R. E. Martin Jr., E. D. Martin and Hugh G. Martin. The same three also own a house at De Funiak Springs."
That’s the earliest mention of the Port I can find. I was hoping for something earlier that might give the name of the architect.
Several later mentions of the Port in various issue of Boxoffice are mostly trivial, though one from March 18, 1950, said that a cross had been burned in a vacant lot across from the theater, and the following day manager C.J. Brown received a threatening, anonymous note warning him not to show the racially-themed movie “Pinky” or to “…suffer the consequences.”
A June 28, 1965, item said “David Smith has acquired the Port Theatre at Port St. Joe, a former unit in the Martin circuit.” A December 19, 1965, item said that the Port had been closed by its owner, D. Rollyn Smith. A May 1, 1967 list of theaters reopened during 1966 included the Port. No word on how long Mr. Smith had kept the theater closed. After that, there are no more mentions of the Port that I can find.
An article about Oscar Lam in the June 26, 1937, issue of Boxoffice Magazine mentions that he operated both the Rockmart and the Joy Theatres in Rockmart. I’ve found no mentions of a Palace Theatre in Rockmart as yet, but perhaps it became the Joy.
A mention of the Rockmart Theatre in the April 2, 1973, issue of Boxoffice says that it had been remodeled and would reopen early that month.
The Cedar Valley Drive-In had only recently opened when it was featured in an article for the Modern Theatre section of Boxoffice Magazine’s issue of October 1, 1949. The drive-in was designed by the noted Atlanta firm of Tucker & Howell, architects of many theaters in the region.
Photos accompanying the article showed the Southern Colonial style of the buildings which, to my eye, presented a rather alarming contrast with the 60-foot screen tower- as though some bucolic plantation house had inexplicably collided with a boxy Midwestern grain elevator, perhaps carried thither by a tornado.
The Cedar Valley Drive-In could accommodate 500 cars, and featured a landscaped playground, an outdoor seating area for patrons who might enjoy watching movies from beach chairs, and a pair of small artificial lakes flanking the entrance, romantically reflecting the lighted buildings and screen tower by night.
The formal opening of the Eastland Twin East and West Theatres took place on November 21, 1968, according to an article in Boxoffice Magazine’s issue of December 16 that year. The owners and operators were Tulsa-based Snyder-Ashley Enterprises. The new twin, like the earlier Boman Twin Cinemas and the later Park Lane Theatre, both in Tulsa, was designed by the Tulsa architectural firm of Whiteside, Schultz, & Chadsey.
The Eastland Twins occupied a contemporary styled building with a two story glass facade flanked by tall pillars. The east auditorium had 717 seats, and the west auditorium 528 seats. The lobby featured a terrazzo floor and walnut paneling. Each auditorium had its own carpeted lounge area, and there was a pair of rest rooms for each side of the theatre.
The screens were 18x36 feet, and each auditorium had its own projection booth. There were custom-designed Voice of the Theatre sound systems in each auditorium, and 8 foot deep stages were provided so that the theaters could be used for meetings and special events by various civic organizations.
The Park Lane Theatre opened as an 896 seat single screen house, on Friday, March 27, 1970. The contemporary-styled house was designed by the Tulsa architectural firm of Whiteside, Schultz, & Chadsey, who had earlier designed the Boman Twin in Tulsa and the Eastland Twins in Bartlesville.
As described in an article in Boxoffice Magazine, on April 13, 1970, the Park Lane was designed to serve as a roadshow house, and to accommodate other long-running movies, and had both 35mm and 70mm projection equipment. The lobby was large enough to hold a waiting crowd equal to the house’s seating capacity. The screen was 65x25 feet, and had side masking. The house was built for General Theator (that’s the way Boxoffice spelled the company name) to replace their Tulsa Theatre, which had been lost to an urban renewal project.
The recently opened Boman Twin Cinemas (the correct spelling), in the Boman Acres Shopping Center, was the subject of an article in the July 26, 1965, issue of Boxoffice Magazine. It was built for the Family Theatres circuit, and the two auditoriums were called the Boman West (with 800 seats) and the Boman East (which had 900 seats.) The theater was designed by the Tulsa architectural firm of Whiteside, Schultz & Chadsey, who would later design at least two other Oklahoma theatres (the Eastland Twin Theatres in Bartlesville, opened 1968, and Tulsa’s Park Lane Theatre,opened in 1970.)
From the Boxoffice article’s description, the Boman Twins were quite lavish for the time. Both featured screens 42 feet wide by 18 feet 6 inches high. The Boman East was decorated with beige walls and draperies, turquoise seat upholstery, and a Havana brown waterfall curtain. The Boman West had turquoise walls and draperies, brown upholstery on the seats, and its waterfall curtain was gold. Lobby decor included walnut paneling, and carpets throughout the theatre were at least an inch thick. Rest rooms were placed between the auditoriums.
Both auditoriums had Simplex projectors and Altec Lansing sound systems. Plans were afoot to install 70mm projection equipment and six-track sound in the west auditorium by December of 1965.
On the theater’s opening, the Tulsa World published a 12 page section devoted exclusively to features and advertisements relating to the theater. Maybe somebody in the area can dig up a copy.
The Crest Theatre in Affton opened on July 20, 1948, according to Boxoffice Magazine’s issue of October 30 that year. In October, the operators of the house were seeking to make permanent an injunction against the St. Louis Theatrical Brotherhood, Local 6, lATSE, whose members had been picketing the theater due to the operator’s hiring of a non-union projectionist.
There’s an earlier article from Boxoffice, October 18, 1947, which might be about the Crest. It says that the Affton Theatre Company had plans to build a new theater on Gravois Avenue near Arthur Avenue. Google Maps finds an Arthur Avenue in Affton, but it’s nowhere near Gravois. The article also says that a rival company was planning a new theater on Gravois at Elgin Street, a short distance from the first theater’s location. There is an Elgin Avenue just a couple of blocks west of the Crest’s address.
If somebody can dig up an old map of the area, maybe they can see if one of the streets near the Crest was formerly called Arthur Avenue (though it’s possible that Boxoffice just got the street name wrong.) If one was, then the first theater mentioned in the 1947 article probably was the Crest. The proposed house was described as being 60x154 feet, with a concrete foundation and a steel roof. It was designed by St. Louis architect Bernard Bloom.
The second proposed theater, at the corner of Elgin Street, which was to have been called Ronnie’s Affton Theatre, and was to have been operated by the Wehernberg circuit, might have remained unbuilt.
I noticed that photo before, Ken, and it’s not the Ventura Theatre. I think it might have been an older theater called the Mission. According to a couple of cards in the California Index, the Mission Theatre in Ventura was being operated by a woman named Jenne Dodge as late as 1939, and she had been running it for several years at that time.
My mom lived in Ventura in the late 1920s and remembers going to the movies there, but doesn’t recall the name of the theater and can’t recall much about it, other than that it was a fairly small place in an older building, with a small candy shop next door. She doesn’t even remember which street it was on. If she still had good enough eyesight I could show her the photo and she might recognize it, but she can barely see now.
The Google Maps link above fetches something in the 800 block of El Segundo Blvd. If you change the city to Compton, and change the zip code to 90222, Google finds the right location. Willowbrook is an unincorporated community, not part of the city of Los Angeles, so this lot might have been annexed by Compton, or might just be served by the Compton branch post office.
Ken, I think you’re probably right about the church being the former theater. The County Assessor’s office gives the address of this parcel as 2248 E. El Segundo, but the next parcel to the east has a Willowbrook Avenue address, so the church parcel must include everything from 2248 to 2252. The Assessor gives the construction date of the building on this site as 1925, with an effective year built of 1932. It certainly looks like a theater in the Live Search Maps bird’s-eye view, too, with a two-story commercial building in front and an auditorium about twice its size in back.
However, Boxoffice Magazine of September 30, 1939, carried an item datelined Willowbrook, Ca., saying “Frank Valuskis has begun construction of a 450 seat theatre to be known as the Valuskis.” Given the age of the building and the fact that the lot east of it fronts on Willowbrook Avenue and, judging from the parcel map, was probably too narrow for a theater, I’d say Valuskis was probably not putting up a new building but renovating an existing theater. This could have been the Willowbrook Theatre, but we’d need some evidence of the Willowbrook’s address.
The sign giving the admission price as 30 cents dates this photo to the 1950s. Until the Federal tax on theater tickets was repealed (I can’t recall the exact year, but it was in the early-to-mid 1950s), the Tumbleweed’s sign said 25 cents. Tickets had actually cost 30 cents with the tax, and when it was repealed Edwards simply added the nickle to his admission prices.
Patsy: The 1950 remodeling the magazine article referred to was the one that gave the Athens the facade that appears in the postcard view currently at the top of this Cinema Treasures page- the one that looks sort of like a drive-in’s screen tower.
I’ve checked the Assessor’s office web site, and the building on this parcel (extending all the way to the corner of Workman Street) was indeed built in 1912, the year the Starland opened. Apparently the Linclon Heights Bulletin-News was premature in its announcement of the theater’s demolition. It’s been converted to retail use.
Looking at the Google Maps satellite and street views shows that the section of the building with the former theater entrance (now the clothing store Ken mentions) was pretty narrow, and the configuration of the rooftops suggests that this was an “L” shaped theater, with the auditorium extending eastward from a north-south lobby. I never went to the Starland, but the entrance portion looks to be no more than 25 feet wide, if that, and there’s no way they could have crammed an 850 seat theater into that space.
The remodeling of the Starland to the modern style must have been mostly cosmetic, as the Assessor’s office doesn’t give an “effectively built” date for the building. There’s some nice terrazzo pavement on the sidewalk out front, though (see Google street view), in a geometric style which suggests a 1940’s remodeling.
An article about the Colonial Drive-In appeared in the February 4, 1956, issue of Boxoffice Magazine. The architect was Jack K. Vogel. It was the first drive-in in Annapolis, and was built for Durkee Enterprises.
The Ardmore Drive-In was the subject of an article published in the February 8, 1960, issue of Boxoffice Magazine. This was one of many drive-ins designed by Jack K. Vogel, an architectural engineer. The Ardmore included a pair of 60-seat, heated and air conditioned auditoriums flanking the concession area. The Ardmore was built for Ernest and George Stern, of the Associated Theatres circuit.
Boxoffice Magazine of October 19, 1959, featured an illustrated three-page spread about the Vogue, which had recently reopened after undergoing a $225,000 remodeling, designed by architect J. Arthur Drielsma.
I’d forgotten how the carpet extended all the way to the sidewalk.
Under the heading “Indoor-Outdoor Theatre in Buffalo Area,” the October 4, 1965, issue of Boxoffice Magazine published a rendering of the new Young Street Drive-In. The caption said that it was designed by Jack K. Vogel, had a capacity of 1000 cars, and featured two all-weather auditoriums.
Boxoffice Magazine’s issue of October 25, 1965, gives the opening date of National General’s Thunderbird Drive-In as September 1 that year. It also confirms the car capacity as 1,182, and the architect as Gale Santocono.
This page duplicates this earlier listing. Both pages place the Thunderbird in Sacramento, but it was in Rancho Cordova. The correct address is posted in a comment by Lost Memory on the earlier page, and my comments there add additional information.
A night photo.
Regal’s Lincoln Center Cinemas was designed by architect Bernard Zyscovich, of Zyscovich Architects. The project received an Award of Merit in 2001 from the Florida chapter of the AIA.
Check the photos on the architect’s web site (and many more on Flickr) to see just how non-Art Deco this building is. I’d call it postmodern.
Raad: Some old issues of Boxoffice are available online at Issuu.com. I find it easier to search within them by using Google’s Advanced Search “Search within site or domain” feature.
This drive-in was designed by Vincent G. Raney, architect of virtually all of the Syufy-Century theaters from the 1960s through the 1980s. Start of construction was announced in the July 5, 1965, issue of Boxoffice Magazine. The theater was to have space for 1200 cars, and the largest screen in Nevada.
The anonymized comment from 2005 must be wrong about the opening date. Boxoffice Magazine’s issue of January 31, 1966, said that the former Lincoln Theatre was “…attracting good patronage as the bright new 800 seat Showcase.” The remodeling (actually more of a rebuilding, as the floor, back wall, roof and facade were all replaced) had cost $150,000 and had taken ten months. Virtually every appointment in the theater was new, and the rebuilt auditorium featured a stadium seating section at the rear. The architect was Vincent G. Raney, and the decorator was Homer Stertos of San Francisco.
The House Theatre had recently opened, according to a brief article in the April 29, 1950, issue of Boxoffice Magazine. The architect was C.C. Benton, who also designed a couple of South Carolina Theaters. The owner-operator was named Ernest House.
The Athens Theatre underwent a major remodeling in 1950. An item in the April 29, 1950, issue of Boxoffice Magazine described the extensive changes planned for the house by manager Joe Fleishel. These included expanding the lobby by incorporating a former cross-aisle at the back of the auditorium, installing new seating, redesigning the rest rooms, replacing the staircase to the balcony with a new, curved staircase, plus remodeling the facade and installing a new marquee and box office. A brief item in the June 10 issue of Boxoffice said that the renovations were underway, and that the new interiors had been designed by decorator Dick Oliver.
The August 18, 1969, issue of Boxoffice Magazine said that the Cobb Cinema in Smyrna had recently opened. The item also said that the Cobb was the first theater in Georgia to have automated projection equipment installed. The seating capacity was given as 350.
Here’s a brief item from the January 21, 1939, issue of Boxoffice Magazine: “Port St. Joe, Fla.— The Port Theatre, which opened last June, reports good business at this point. The house seats 964 persons and is managed by Roy Williams. It is owned by R. E. Martin Jr., E. D. Martin and Hugh G. Martin. The same three also own a house at De Funiak Springs."
That’s the earliest mention of the Port I can find. I was hoping for something earlier that might give the name of the architect.
Several later mentions of the Port in various issue of Boxoffice are mostly trivial, though one from March 18, 1950, said that a cross had been burned in a vacant lot across from the theater, and the following day manager C.J. Brown received a threatening, anonymous note warning him not to show the racially-themed movie “Pinky” or to “…suffer the consequences.”
A June 28, 1965, item said “David Smith has acquired the Port Theatre at Port St. Joe, a former unit in the Martin circuit.” A December 19, 1965, item said that the Port had been closed by its owner, D. Rollyn Smith. A May 1, 1967 list of theaters reopened during 1966 included the Port. No word on how long Mr. Smith had kept the theater closed. After that, there are no more mentions of the Port that I can find.
An article about Oscar Lam in the June 26, 1937, issue of Boxoffice Magazine mentions that he operated both the Rockmart and the Joy Theatres in Rockmart. I’ve found no mentions of a Palace Theatre in Rockmart as yet, but perhaps it became the Joy.
A mention of the Rockmart Theatre in the April 2, 1973, issue of Boxoffice says that it had been remodeled and would reopen early that month.
The Cedar Valley Drive-In had only recently opened when it was featured in an article for the Modern Theatre section of Boxoffice Magazine’s issue of October 1, 1949. The drive-in was designed by the noted Atlanta firm of Tucker & Howell, architects of many theaters in the region.
Photos accompanying the article showed the Southern Colonial style of the buildings which, to my eye, presented a rather alarming contrast with the 60-foot screen tower- as though some bucolic plantation house had inexplicably collided with a boxy Midwestern grain elevator, perhaps carried thither by a tornado.
The Cedar Valley Drive-In could accommodate 500 cars, and featured a landscaped playground, an outdoor seating area for patrons who might enjoy watching movies from beach chairs, and a pair of small artificial lakes flanking the entrance, romantically reflecting the lighted buildings and screen tower by night.
The formal opening of the Eastland Twin East and West Theatres took place on November 21, 1968, according to an article in Boxoffice Magazine’s issue of December 16 that year. The owners and operators were Tulsa-based Snyder-Ashley Enterprises. The new twin, like the earlier Boman Twin Cinemas and the later Park Lane Theatre, both in Tulsa, was designed by the Tulsa architectural firm of Whiteside, Schultz, & Chadsey.
The Eastland Twins occupied a contemporary styled building with a two story glass facade flanked by tall pillars. The east auditorium had 717 seats, and the west auditorium 528 seats. The lobby featured a terrazzo floor and walnut paneling. Each auditorium had its own carpeted lounge area, and there was a pair of rest rooms for each side of the theatre.
The screens were 18x36 feet, and each auditorium had its own projection booth. There were custom-designed Voice of the Theatre sound systems in each auditorium, and 8 foot deep stages were provided so that the theaters could be used for meetings and special events by various civic organizations.
The Park Lane Theatre opened as an 896 seat single screen house, on Friday, March 27, 1970. The contemporary-styled house was designed by the Tulsa architectural firm of Whiteside, Schultz, & Chadsey, who had earlier designed the Boman Twin in Tulsa and the Eastland Twins in Bartlesville.
As described in an article in Boxoffice Magazine, on April 13, 1970, the Park Lane was designed to serve as a roadshow house, and to accommodate other long-running movies, and had both 35mm and 70mm projection equipment. The lobby was large enough to hold a waiting crowd equal to the house’s seating capacity. The screen was 65x25 feet, and had side masking. The house was built for General Theator (that’s the way Boxoffice spelled the company name) to replace their Tulsa Theatre, which had been lost to an urban renewal project.
The recently opened Boman Twin Cinemas (the correct spelling), in the Boman Acres Shopping Center, was the subject of an article in the July 26, 1965, issue of Boxoffice Magazine. It was built for the Family Theatres circuit, and the two auditoriums were called the Boman West (with 800 seats) and the Boman East (which had 900 seats.) The theater was designed by the Tulsa architectural firm of Whiteside, Schultz & Chadsey, who would later design at least two other Oklahoma theatres (the Eastland Twin Theatres in Bartlesville, opened 1968, and Tulsa’s Park Lane Theatre,opened in 1970.)
From the Boxoffice article’s description, the Boman Twins were quite lavish for the time. Both featured screens 42 feet wide by 18 feet 6 inches high. The Boman East was decorated with beige walls and draperies, turquoise seat upholstery, and a Havana brown waterfall curtain. The Boman West had turquoise walls and draperies, brown upholstery on the seats, and its waterfall curtain was gold. Lobby decor included walnut paneling, and carpets throughout the theatre were at least an inch thick. Rest rooms were placed between the auditoriums.
Both auditoriums had Simplex projectors and Altec Lansing sound systems. Plans were afoot to install 70mm projection equipment and six-track sound in the west auditorium by December of 1965.
On the theater’s opening, the Tulsa World published a 12 page section devoted exclusively to features and advertisements relating to the theater. Maybe somebody in the area can dig up a copy.
The Crest Theatre in Affton opened on July 20, 1948, according to Boxoffice Magazine’s issue of October 30 that year. In October, the operators of the house were seeking to make permanent an injunction against the St. Louis Theatrical Brotherhood, Local 6, lATSE, whose members had been picketing the theater due to the operator’s hiring of a non-union projectionist.
There’s an earlier article from Boxoffice, October 18, 1947, which might be about the Crest. It says that the Affton Theatre Company had plans to build a new theater on Gravois Avenue near Arthur Avenue. Google Maps finds an Arthur Avenue in Affton, but it’s nowhere near Gravois. The article also says that a rival company was planning a new theater on Gravois at Elgin Street, a short distance from the first theater’s location. There is an Elgin Avenue just a couple of blocks west of the Crest’s address.
If somebody can dig up an old map of the area, maybe they can see if one of the streets near the Crest was formerly called Arthur Avenue (though it’s possible that Boxoffice just got the street name wrong.) If one was, then the first theater mentioned in the 1947 article probably was the Crest. The proposed house was described as being 60x154 feet, with a concrete foundation and a steel roof. It was designed by St. Louis architect Bernard Bloom.
The second proposed theater, at the corner of Elgin Street, which was to have been called Ronnie’s Affton Theatre, and was to have been operated by the Wehernberg circuit, might have remained unbuilt.
I noticed that photo before, Ken, and it’s not the Ventura Theatre. I think it might have been an older theater called the Mission. According to a couple of cards in the California Index, the Mission Theatre in Ventura was being operated by a woman named Jenne Dodge as late as 1939, and she had been running it for several years at that time.
My mom lived in Ventura in the late 1920s and remembers going to the movies there, but doesn’t recall the name of the theater and can’t recall much about it, other than that it was a fairly small place in an older building, with a small candy shop next door. She doesn’t even remember which street it was on. If she still had good enough eyesight I could show her the photo and she might recognize it, but she can barely see now.
The Google Maps link above fetches something in the 800 block of El Segundo Blvd. If you change the city to Compton, and change the zip code to 90222, Google finds the right location. Willowbrook is an unincorporated community, not part of the city of Los Angeles, so this lot might have been annexed by Compton, or might just be served by the Compton branch post office.
Ken, I think you’re probably right about the church being the former theater. The County Assessor’s office gives the address of this parcel as 2248 E. El Segundo, but the next parcel to the east has a Willowbrook Avenue address, so the church parcel must include everything from 2248 to 2252. The Assessor gives the construction date of the building on this site as 1925, with an effective year built of 1932. It certainly looks like a theater in the Live Search Maps bird’s-eye view, too, with a two-story commercial building in front and an auditorium about twice its size in back.
However, Boxoffice Magazine of September 30, 1939, carried an item datelined Willowbrook, Ca., saying “Frank Valuskis has begun construction of a 450 seat theatre to be known as the Valuskis.” Given the age of the building and the fact that the lot east of it fronts on Willowbrook Avenue and, judging from the parcel map, was probably too narrow for a theater, I’d say Valuskis was probably not putting up a new building but renovating an existing theater. This could have been the Willowbrook Theatre, but we’d need some evidence of the Willowbrook’s address.
The sign giving the admission price as 30 cents dates this photo to the 1950s. Until the Federal tax on theater tickets was repealed (I can’t recall the exact year, but it was in the early-to-mid 1950s), the Tumbleweed’s sign said 25 cents. Tickets had actually cost 30 cents with the tax, and when it was repealed Edwards simply added the nickle to his admission prices.