I made a typo in paragraph two of the comment immediately above where it says that Ezra Keysor retired in 1877. He retired a decade later, of course, in 1887, three years after the Grand was completed, and it was then that John Walls became a partner in the firm.
It has occurred to me that, as this firm was the first and, for quite a while, one of the busiest practices in Los Angeles, and given the fact that they designed the first big theatre in the city, and that 26 years later they designed a major vaudeville house for Pantages, they might have designed other theatres as well in the years between 1884 and 1910. Several large theatres were built during that time, and the architects of only a few have been identified.
After almost three years, I’ve finally unearthed information about the architects who designed the Grand, and the theatre turns out to have been the first of a distinguished line indeed. It is attributable to the firm of Keysor & Morgan, the partnership formed in 1876 between Ezra F. Keysor (architect of the Pico House hotel) and the elder Octavius Morgan, who had been employed by Keysor as a draftsman since 1874. Among their works in Los Angeles were St. Vibiana’s Cathedral, St. Vincent’s College on 6th Street, Sister’s Hospital, and the Nadeau Block.
Upon Keysor’s retirement in 1877, John Walls became a partner. In 1910, under the name Morgan & Walls, the firm designed what is now known as the Arcade Theatre, which was the first Los Angeles house built for Seattle vaudeville impresario Alexander Pantages.
When Morgan’s son, Octavius W. Morgan, was later made a partner, the firm became Morgan, Walls & Morgan, and designed for Oliver Morosco the Broadway house which eventually became the Globe Theatre.
After the death of the elder Morgan, Stiles O. Clements became a partner and, as Morgan, Walls & Clements, the firm went on to design such iconic Los Angeles palaces the Mayan Theatre, the Wiltern Theatre, and the Leimert Theatre. With the unfortunate exception of the Grand itself, all of these theatres still stand.
I don’t know what the references to 1939 are about in the comments by Joe on Nov. 28, 2003, and by L. Thomas on Sep. 17, 2004, but their skepticism about the date was apparently justified. The L.A. library’s info page for this architect’s rendering of the Encino gives the drawing’s date as 1948. Thus (if the library has it right) the building was probably completed in 1949. The page also names the architect as William L. Pereira.
Actually, knowing that the place was designed by Pereira, I wouldn’t have been surprised if it had in fact been built in 1939. His very modern design for the Pan Pacific Theatre and bowling alley on Melrose (depicted here) dated from the pre-war era. Even earlier, associated with his brother Hal in the firm of Pereira & Pereira, W.L. had designed such forward-looking theatres as Chicago’s Esquire in 1938, and the Vogue opened that same year in Manistee, Michigan. Pereira was one of the pioneers of what came to be known as the midcentury modern style.
Stephenson Avenue is the former name of Whittier Boulevard itself. I’m quite sure that this is the same theatre already listed as the Jewel Theatre in East Los Angeles. The Jewel Theatre is listed in the 1929 L.A. City Directory at 3817 Whittier Boulevard. As it seems unlikely that two theatres with addresses only 14 numbers apart would be given the same name, most likely a small adjustment was made in the address at the time of the street name change.
Also note that a parcel on an east-west street near Whittier and Boyle would have had a number near 2200 in 1925, as it would now.
The assessor report for 1029 E. Vernon Avenue gives a construction date of 1965 for the church that is there now. Apparently the theatre was demolished to make way for it.
Theatre info needs updated to Closed/Demolished. The original S. Charles Lee-designed Temple Theatre that James Edwards had built on this corner in 1940 lasted more than forty years, but this four screen theatre he built to replace it in the early 1980s survived only half as long. Temple City is now without a local theatre.
Now that the New York Times has opened much of its archives to us non-paying rabble, a July, 1997 article on the occasion of the closing of the Angelika 57 is available right here. (The Times may still require free registration at their site before you can see the article- I’m not sure.)
The article gives the opening date of the Lincoln Art Theatre as July 21, 1964, and the seating capacity as 572.
In addition to its incarnations as the Bombay Cinema (1976-1985) and Cineplex Odeon’s Biograph (February 1988-September 1991), there was a period in between when it was called the New Carnegie Theater, a resurrection of the former Little Carnegie Theater which had been demolished in 1982.
The house became the Angelika 57 in 1993, and closed forever on July 10, 1997.
The lead architect for this neo-deco style multiplex was Marios Savopoulos, of the Long Beach, California firm Perkowitz+Ruth, in association with the developers of The Grove, Caruso Affiliated Holdings.
The Jack London Stadium Cinema was designed by the San Francisco architectural firm Uesugi & Associates, which did quite a bit of work for the Signature Theatres chain before it was swallowed by Regal.
The Holiday Theater was designed by the San Francisco architectural firm Uesugi & Associates, which did quite a bit of work for the Signature Theatres chain before it was taken over by Regal.
The Pearl Highlands 12 was designed by the San Francisco architectural firm Uesugi & Associates, which did quite a bit of work for the Signature Theatres chain before it was swallowed by Regal. The firm’s founder and lead architect, Daniel Uesugi, is a native of Wahiawa, Hawaii.
The Santa Cruz 9 was designed by the San Francisco architectural firm Uesugi & Associates, which did quite a bit of work for the Signature Theatres chain before it was taken over by Regal.
The Dole Cannery 18 was designed by the San Francisco architectural firm Uesugi & Associates, who designed at least a dozen projects for the Signature Theatres chain before it was taken over by Regal. The lead architects were Daniel Uesugi and his daughter Erin, who was responsible for the interior designs. The Dole multiplex has 4000 seats. It opened in May, 1999.
No, I’ve never been a projectionist, and I’ve never had a chance to visit Monterey. I’ve always intended to spend some time in that part of the state, but so far I’ve only passed through on highway 101 and had no time to stop.
Yes, the Elmo was two blocks southeast (the streets in downtown SLO being oriented more to the ordinal than the cardinal points of the compass) of Monterey Street on Morro Street. The Obispo and the Fremont were about a block apart, both on the south side of Monterey.
The Elmo was certainly demolished first. I’m not sure which theatre opened first because a firm date hasn’t been established for the original El Monterey. The Elmo apparently opened in 1912 (see comment posted by Bonnach on Jan 27, 2007, above.) The El Monterey was extensively rebuilt (though later photos reveal that the original facade remained largely intact) in 1928, which was about when it was renamed the Obispo, but that postcard photo of it looks very old, and might even predate the 1912 opening of the Elmo. I’m thinking the El Monterey might have originally been a nickelodeon, with the bulk of the construction budget poured into that ornate facade and very little spent on the auditorium.
On the far right is the Elmo Theatre on Morro Street at Marsh. It’s facade is well lit by afternoon sunlight, as is the upper part of its vivid red stage house.
Left of center can be seen the distinctive arc of the blade sign on the Fremont Theatre, at 1025 Monterey Street.
The large white building just right of center is the Anderson Hotel at Monterey and Morro. The Obispo Theatre’s facade, with a bit of light reflecting from its blade and marquee, can be seen just short of midway along Monterey Street from the hotel to the Fremont.
It’s been established that El Monterey was an earlier name of the Obispo Theatre (see Pat OD’s comment of May 25, 2006, and subsequent on the Obispo page.) In the SLO 150th Anniversary album there’s now a scan of an early postcard of Monterey Street, showing the distinctive facade of the El Monterey. The picture is undated, but from the style of the card,the vehicles on the street, and the fact that the theatre had no marquee, it looks as though it could have have been pre-WWI. The original El Monterey presumably took its name from its location on Monterey Street.
Ah, so the actors had won the awards for movies the theatre wasn’t showing. I hadn’t thought of that. So the marquee blurb might have been one of those ploys by a desperate theatre manager trying to find some way to attract audiences to a two-year-old re-release double billed with a newer release so unpromising that it has actually been placed below the older feature on the marquee.
Convoy with Clive Brook was released in the United States on January 3, 1941, but had been released on September 28, 1940 in the United Kingdom. Though the theatre’s marquee boasts that both features are Academy Award Winners, I can’t find anything on the Internet about which awards either film won.
If Convoy won an Oscar as a 1940 release, then the earliest possible date on this photo would be February 28, 1941. If it won as a 1941 release, then the earliest possible date for the photo would be February 27, 1942.
In any case, these movies seem an odd pairing, award winners or not. I wonder if the Hawaii was having trouble getting bookings at the time? And what’s the deal with the bagpipers and other folk perched atop the marquee?
Michele: Almost all of the ground floor of the Taft Building was occupied by a Rexall drug store in those days. I remember a coffee shop called Aldo’s in the neighborhood, but I can’t recall exactly where it was. It was supposedly at Aldo’s that Cher first met Sonny Bono in 1963. I don’t know if Cher would remember exactly where Aldo’s was or if she’s suppressed that knowledge.
Oh, wait. The L.A. library website now has some street directories of the era available on-line. OK. Aldo’s is listed in the 1960 directory as having two locations on Hollywood Boulevard: at 6413, which would have been just east of the Warner Cinerama Theatre; and at 6721, almost directly across the street from the Egyptian Theatre. I don’t know at which of these locations Cher met her diminutive destiny.
The 1960 directory lists another Aldo’s at 7369 Melrose, but I have no memory of that location at all.
It’s been ages since I’ve been there, but I believe the view is southward on Morro Street from Monterey, and if so then the Elmo must have been on the east side of Morro, north corner of Marsh. Is there anyone here from SLO who can confirm or deny this location?
Also, here is aroid’s birds-eye view of SLO, with the distinctive arc of the Fremont’s blade visible at left of center, and the Elmo at the right with its large, red stage house clearly visible:
I think the recently added Cinema Treasures Uptown Theatre page just got pulled as a duplicate listing of this Alcazar Theatre. In fact I now see that it was the 1907 photo linked there and above on this page by Seymour Cox, and even earlier (January 2005) by Lost Memory which was the duplicate. I think that photo is of the New Alcazar/Republic/Sutter/Uptown, which was on a corner lot. This Alcazar Theatre on O'Farrell Street was on a mid-block lot, as can be seen by the photo provided for this page by frenchjr25.
I’m still not sure about the interior photo Seymour linked to above, but it’s probably the of Uptown.
The question also remains as to which of the two theatres was actually designed by Cunningham & Polito.
The Uptown page can be restored, but with the correct location of Sutter and Steiner, southwest corner.
There was an Uptown Theatre on Sutter at Steiner which was once called the New Alcazar, according to the San Francisco Theaters, Cinemas, Dancehalls, after 1906 page. I can’t find anything about an Uptown Theatre at Post and Filmore, though.
I made a typo in paragraph two of the comment immediately above where it says that Ezra Keysor retired in 1877. He retired a decade later, of course, in 1887, three years after the Grand was completed, and it was then that John Walls became a partner in the firm.
It has occurred to me that, as this firm was the first and, for quite a while, one of the busiest practices in Los Angeles, and given the fact that they designed the first big theatre in the city, and that 26 years later they designed a major vaudeville house for Pantages, they might have designed other theatres as well in the years between 1884 and 1910. Several large theatres were built during that time, and the architects of only a few have been identified.
Seriously? They’re opening on December 7th?
December 7th?
After almost three years, I’ve finally unearthed information about the architects who designed the Grand, and the theatre turns out to have been the first of a distinguished line indeed. It is attributable to the firm of Keysor & Morgan, the partnership formed in 1876 between Ezra F. Keysor (architect of the Pico House hotel) and the elder Octavius Morgan, who had been employed by Keysor as a draftsman since 1874. Among their works in Los Angeles were St. Vibiana’s Cathedral, St. Vincent’s College on 6th Street, Sister’s Hospital, and the Nadeau Block.
Upon Keysor’s retirement in 1877, John Walls became a partner. In 1910, under the name Morgan & Walls, the firm designed what is now known as the Arcade Theatre, which was the first Los Angeles house built for Seattle vaudeville impresario Alexander Pantages.
When Morgan’s son, Octavius W. Morgan, was later made a partner, the firm became Morgan, Walls & Morgan, and designed for Oliver Morosco the Broadway house which eventually became the Globe Theatre.
After the death of the elder Morgan, Stiles O. Clements became a partner and, as Morgan, Walls & Clements, the firm went on to design such iconic Los Angeles palaces the Mayan Theatre, the Wiltern Theatre, and the Leimert Theatre. With the unfortunate exception of the Grand itself, all of these theatres still stand.
I don’t know what the references to 1939 are about in the comments by Joe on Nov. 28, 2003, and by L. Thomas on Sep. 17, 2004, but their skepticism about the date was apparently justified. The L.A. library’s info page for this architect’s rendering of the Encino gives the drawing’s date as 1948. Thus (if the library has it right) the building was probably completed in 1949. The page also names the architect as William L. Pereira.
Actually, knowing that the place was designed by Pereira, I wouldn’t have been surprised if it had in fact been built in 1939. His very modern design for the Pan Pacific Theatre and bowling alley on Melrose (depicted here) dated from the pre-war era. Even earlier, associated with his brother Hal in the firm of Pereira & Pereira, W.L. had designed such forward-looking theatres as Chicago’s Esquire in 1938, and the Vogue opened that same year in Manistee, Michigan. Pereira was one of the pioneers of what came to be known as the midcentury modern style.
Stephenson Avenue is the former name of Whittier Boulevard itself. I’m quite sure that this is the same theatre already listed as the Jewel Theatre in East Los Angeles. The Jewel Theatre is listed in the 1929 L.A. City Directory at 3817 Whittier Boulevard. As it seems unlikely that two theatres with addresses only 14 numbers apart would be given the same name, most likely a small adjustment was made in the address at the time of the street name change.
Also note that a parcel on an east-west street near Whittier and Boyle would have had a number near 2200 in 1925, as it would now.
The assessor report for 1029 E. Vernon Avenue gives a construction date of 1965 for the church that is there now. Apparently the theatre was demolished to make way for it.
Theatre info needs updated to Closed/Demolished. The original S. Charles Lee-designed Temple Theatre that James Edwards had built on this corner in 1940 lasted more than forty years, but this four screen theatre he built to replace it in the early 1980s survived only half as long. Temple City is now without a local theatre.
Now that the New York Times has opened much of its archives to us non-paying rabble, a July, 1997 article on the occasion of the closing of the Angelika 57 is available right here. (The Times may still require free registration at their site before you can see the article- I’m not sure.)
The article gives the opening date of the Lincoln Art Theatre as July 21, 1964, and the seating capacity as 572.
In addition to its incarnations as the Bombay Cinema (1976-1985) and Cineplex Odeon’s Biograph (February 1988-September 1991), there was a period in between when it was called the New Carnegie Theater, a resurrection of the former Little Carnegie Theater which had been demolished in 1982.
The house became the Angelika 57 in 1993, and closed forever on July 10, 1997.
The lead architect for this neo-deco style multiplex was Marios Savopoulos, of the Long Beach, California firm Perkowitz+Ruth, in association with the developers of The Grove, Caruso Affiliated Holdings.
The Jack London Stadium Cinema was designed by the San Francisco architectural firm Uesugi & Associates, which did quite a bit of work for the Signature Theatres chain before it was swallowed by Regal.
The Holiday Theater was designed by the San Francisco architectural firm Uesugi & Associates, which did quite a bit of work for the Signature Theatres chain before it was taken over by Regal.
The Pearl Highlands 12 was designed by the San Francisco architectural firm Uesugi & Associates, which did quite a bit of work for the Signature Theatres chain before it was swallowed by Regal. The firm’s founder and lead architect, Daniel Uesugi, is a native of Wahiawa, Hawaii.
The Santa Cruz 9 was designed by the San Francisco architectural firm Uesugi & Associates, which did quite a bit of work for the Signature Theatres chain before it was taken over by Regal.
The Dole Cannery 18 was designed by the San Francisco architectural firm Uesugi & Associates, who designed at least a dozen projects for the Signature Theatres chain before it was taken over by Regal. The lead architects were Daniel Uesugi and his daughter Erin, who was responsible for the interior designs. The Dole multiplex has 4000 seats. It opened in May, 1999.
No, I’ve never been a projectionist, and I’ve never had a chance to visit Monterey. I’ve always intended to spend some time in that part of the state, but so far I’ve only passed through on highway 101 and had no time to stop.
Yes, the Elmo was two blocks southeast (the streets in downtown SLO being oriented more to the ordinal than the cardinal points of the compass) of Monterey Street on Morro Street. The Obispo and the Fremont were about a block apart, both on the south side of Monterey.
The Elmo was certainly demolished first. I’m not sure which theatre opened first because a firm date hasn’t been established for the original El Monterey. The Elmo apparently opened in 1912 (see comment posted by Bonnach on Jan 27, 2007, above.) The El Monterey was extensively rebuilt (though later photos reveal that the original facade remained largely intact) in 1928, which was about when it was renamed the Obispo, but that postcard photo of it looks very old, and might even predate the 1912 opening of the Elmo. I’m thinking the El Monterey might have originally been a nickelodeon, with the bulk of the construction budget poured into that ornate facade and very little spent on the auditorium.
Flickr user aroid presents a 1958 bird’s eye view of downtown San Luis Obispo in which three of the city’s theatres can be picked out:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/selago/860154876/
On the far right is the Elmo Theatre on Morro Street at Marsh. It’s facade is well lit by afternoon sunlight, as is the upper part of its vivid red stage house.
Left of center can be seen the distinctive arc of the blade sign on the Fremont Theatre, at 1025 Monterey Street.
The large white building just right of center is the Anderson Hotel at Monterey and Morro. The Obispo Theatre’s facade, with a bit of light reflecting from its blade and marquee, can be seen just short of midway along Monterey Street from the hotel to the Fremont.
It’s been established that El Monterey was an earlier name of the Obispo Theatre (see Pat OD’s comment of May 25, 2006, and subsequent on the Obispo page.) In the SLO 150th Anniversary album there’s now a scan of an early postcard of Monterey Street, showing the distinctive facade of the El Monterey. The picture is undated, but from the style of the card,the vehicles on the street, and the fact that the theatre had no marquee, it looks as though it could have have been pre-WWI. The original El Monterey presumably took its name from its location on Monterey Street.
Ah, so the actors had won the awards for movies the theatre wasn’t showing. I hadn’t thought of that. So the marquee blurb might have been one of those ploys by a desperate theatre manager trying to find some way to attract audiences to a two-year-old re-release double billed with a newer release so unpromising that it has actually been placed below the older feature on the marquee.
Convoy with Clive Brook was released in the United States on January 3, 1941, but had been released on September 28, 1940 in the United Kingdom. Though the theatre’s marquee boasts that both features are Academy Award Winners, I can’t find anything on the Internet about which awards either film won.
If Convoy won an Oscar as a 1940 release, then the earliest possible date on this photo would be February 28, 1941. If it won as a 1941 release, then the earliest possible date for the photo would be February 27, 1942.
In any case, these movies seem an odd pairing, award winners or not. I wonder if the Hawaii was having trouble getting bookings at the time? And what’s the deal with the bagpipers and other folk perched atop the marquee?
Michele: Almost all of the ground floor of the Taft Building was occupied by a Rexall drug store in those days. I remember a coffee shop called Aldo’s in the neighborhood, but I can’t recall exactly where it was. It was supposedly at Aldo’s that Cher first met Sonny Bono in 1963. I don’t know if Cher would remember exactly where Aldo’s was or if she’s suppressed that knowledge.
Oh, wait. The L.A. library website now has some street directories of the era available on-line. OK. Aldo’s is listed in the 1960 directory as having two locations on Hollywood Boulevard: at 6413, which would have been just east of the Warner Cinerama Theatre; and at 6721, almost directly across the street from the Egyptian Theatre. I don’t know at which of these locations Cher met her diminutive destiny.
The 1960 directory lists another Aldo’s at 7369 Melrose, but I have no memory of that location at all.
Here is a wider version of aroid’s picture:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/selago/22190944/
It’s been ages since I’ve been there, but I believe the view is southward on Morro Street from Monterey, and if so then the Elmo must have been on the east side of Morro, north corner of Marsh. Is there anyone here from SLO who can confirm or deny this location?
Also, here is aroid’s birds-eye view of SLO, with the distinctive arc of the Fremont’s blade visible at left of center, and the Elmo at the right with its large, red stage house clearly visible:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/selago/860154876/
I think the recently added Cinema Treasures Uptown Theatre page just got pulled as a duplicate listing of this Alcazar Theatre. In fact I now see that it was the 1907 photo linked there and above on this page by Seymour Cox, and even earlier (January 2005) by Lost Memory which was the duplicate. I think that photo is of the New Alcazar/Republic/Sutter/Uptown, which was on a corner lot. This Alcazar Theatre on O'Farrell Street was on a mid-block lot, as can be seen by the photo provided for this page by frenchjr25.
I’m still not sure about the interior photo Seymour linked to above, but it’s probably the of Uptown.
The question also remains as to which of the two theatres was actually designed by Cunningham & Polito.
The Uptown page can be restored, but with the correct location of Sutter and Steiner, southwest corner.
There was an Uptown Theatre on Sutter at Steiner which was once called the New Alcazar, according to the San Francisco Theaters, Cinemas, Dancehalls, after 1906 page. I can’t find anything about an Uptown Theatre at Post and Filmore, though.