The Southwest Builder and Contractor issue of 5/14/1920 announced the plans to remodel an existing building, 44'x100', at 442-446 South Hill Street, to become Bard’s Hill Street Theater. The architect for the remodeling was Albert C. Martin, Sr.
I have found that my link to the West Coast-Langley ad above doesn’t work. (L.A. library won’t let anyone in the side door of their web site, apparently.) You have to go the the main page: http://www.lapl.org/
hover your cursor over “Library Resources” and sellect “Regional History” from the drop-down menu. Then on the next page, click on “California Index.” That will give you a search page. In the three search boxes enter “theaters” (you MUST use the plural) “Pasadena” and “Langley.” The link to the PDF file with the ad in it should be record #2. Whew! I don’t know why some web sites choose to make direct linking impossible.
The Los Angeles Daily Journal of August 15, 1907, announced that Adolf Ramish would demolish the Panorama Building at 320 South Main Street and construct a theater to be called the Adolphus on the site.
The auditorium itself must have been demolished before 1961, as a Los Angeles Times article on August 13th of that year was headlined “Site of Hippodrome Sold.”
Whenever the auditorium was razed, I know that the building containing its entrance remained for many years. In the mid 1960s, the area once occupied by the auditorium was used as a car park, and the old lobby was the driveway through which it was entered. I don’t know when that building was demolished, but the last time I remember seeing it was about 1965. I know that it was gone by 1982.
Southwest Builder and Contractor of 8/11/1921 announced that architect Whiting Thompson was preparing plans for this theater, located at the corner of Vermont Avenue and 40th Place. The owner of the theater was named as L.H. Mitchell and Son.
The construction of this theater was announced in the Southwest Builder and Contractor issue of 7/11/1924. It was at the northeast corner of Temple Street and Benton Way, just west of Rampart Street. The building was financed by L.J. Smith and Fred J. Tabor.
I was wondering about the Monterey Park triplex. (I still think of the Atlantic Palace as being on Main Street, even though it’s on the corner. I’ve never actually seen the place, since it was built after I left, though I’ve seen many pictures of it on the Internet.) I only went to the Monterey Mall the one time. The style was sort of bland, but otherwise its was a decent place, and I thought the little entrance courtyard was a nice feature.
I did go to the Temple City Edwards once, shortly after it opened. I think that the auditorium I was in was one of the two larger ones, and I was a bit surprised to find that it wasn’t much smaller than the old Temple Theatre that was demolished to make way for the multiplex.
I remember seeing the Alhambra Place under construction, and I think that was in late 1983-early 1984. I always intended to go to a movie there, but never got around to it.
I’m surprised that the Monterey Mall building is still vacant. In the ‘80s, nothing stayed vacant for long in Monterey Park. There was construction going on all the time, and any empty storefront would have a new Chinese restaurant in it by the next week. They popped up almost overnight, like mushrooms. The whole town was very lively then.
When I was in second grade, at Monterey Vista School in suburban Monterey Park, the highlight of the year was a school field trip to see the original Cinerama production, “This is Cinerama” at the Warner Hollywood Theatre. I had already attended many of the big Downtown Los Angeles movie palaces, but I was still amazed by the Warner. Some of my classmates had never seen any theaters other than our small, suburban neighborhood movie houses, and could scarcely believe that such a place as the Warner even existed.
Our seats were on the main floor, near the front, just to the side of the central projection booth for which a section of seats had been removed. The Cinerama screen was awe inspiring, and I remember becoming a bit dizzy from the roller coaster scene. All the girls screamed. We had a great time, even though the chaperones wouldn’t allow us to visit the concession stand.
After the movie, the theater opened the side exits from the lobby to the side street where the curb space had been reserved for school buses. Leaving the theater was like being expelled from a magical world, and more than a few of us looked back through the doors for a last glimpse of the splendid lobby as we boarded the bus for the long ride back home through the everyday world. I’ve had a special fondness for the Warner ever since, and hope that it can be saved to delight future generations.
Rats, I did it again! I keep getting that date wrong. I left L.A. in 1986 and the earthquake was in 1987. It’s probably my wishful thinking that it was in 1986, because I regret missing it. I waited years for a big earthquake, and then it happens after I’m gone! Unfair!
Jeff, do you know when the Edwards on Atlantic closed? I remember that it opened about 1980, because I went there once in 1981, and the floors weren’t even sticky yet. But I wasn’t around by the time it closed, and I don’t know if it’s been turned into retail space, or what. An awful lot of those multiplexes aren’t surviving very long. They’re like disposable theaters.
I have come across more information about this theater. Southwest Builder and Contractor, issue of 8/19/1938, says that Edward Goral had received the contract from the Edwards Company to remodel an existing building at 1629 E. Valley Boulevard, Rosemead, to accommodate a movie theater designed by S.Charles Lee.
That the theater was built in a pre-existing building makes it more likely that the structure itself still exists, and was merely returned to retail use after the theater closed sometime in the early 1950s. The address would be different now, due to the change in the numbering system used in Rosemead.
Charles Goral was the same contractor who added the Annex to Edwards' Alhambra Theatre (later Alhambra Twin) in 1940.
I only saw one movie at this theater, a couple of years after the place opened. It was my first experience with a multiplex, and I was not impressed. The sound from the auditorium next door kept bleeding through the wall, the picture was grainy and a bit blurred, despite the smallness of the screen, and the sight lines were bad due to insufficient rake to the floor. The building was entirely without character, and could have as easily housed a drug store as a theater. The only thing good I can say about the place is that it was still fairly clean, and the popcorn was decent, if rather expensive.
This could be one of two theaters proposed for Downey in the mid 1920’s. If it is at the northwest corner of 2nd Street, then it is probably a theater built for a Mr. John Baker and designed by Architect and Engineer Henry Carlton Newton and Clifford A. Truesdell, Jr. The plans were announced in the Southwest Builder & Contractor issue of 5/30/1924.
SB&C of 5/15/1925 announced another theater proposed on Downey Avenue (then called Crawford Avenue), this one for a Mr. L.R. Matthews of Downey. No exact location is given for this project.
According to the magazine “Southwest Builder and Contractor” of 5/9/1924, the construction cost of the Alexander theater was $216,000. That was a considerable sum for a suburban theater in those days, even if that figure included furnishings and equipment.
A later issue of SB&C, on 9/3/1948, tells that there had been a fire at the Alex Theatre, causing an estimated $150,000 loss.
I noticed that discrepancy. I’m fairly sure that the theater was still operating in the 1960s. Also, while the street is called Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena and in the Eagle Rock district of Los Angleles, it is still called Colorado Street in the City of Glendale.
Bard’s Glendale was opened in 1925. The architect was Kenneth A. Gordon, who also designed Warner’s Egyptian Theatre in Pasadena (later called the Uptown.) The owner of the theater building, who leased it to the Bard Circuit, was M.G. Khodigian. The construction firm was J.H. Woodworth & Son, whose offices were at 200 E. Colorado Street, Pasadena.
Incidentally, although I never attended a movie here, I remember seeing the Glen Theatre listed in the L.A. Times' movie section for many years. At no time do I recall it being called the “Villa Glen.” I am wondering if some mistake has been made here. Please note the comment by user barton, above. Could it be that the names of two different theaters have been conflated?
This was the second theater in Glendale to bear this name. It opened in 1920. According the Southwest Builder and Contractor, issue of 2/13/1920, the architect was Alfred F. Priest. The cost of the theater was $60,000.
SWB&C issue of 6/26/1924 announced a $20,000 dollar extension at the rear of the theater, for a larger stage and the addition of dressing rooms etc to accomodate stage productions.
SWB&C issue of 7/7/1939 annouced the remodeling of the theater, by then operated by Fox, to include a concrete floor, acoustic plaster, carpets, a plastic veneer ticket booth and new poster cases. The architect for this remodel was (not surprisingly) Clifford A. Balch.
Construction of the El Monte Theatre was announced in the publication Southwest Builder and Contractor, issue of 2/3/1939. The theatre was being built for Arthur Sanborn, then the owner of El Monte’s Rialto Theatre (later renamed the Valley Theatre and operated by the Edwards Theatre Circuit) and the architect was Earl T. Heitschmit.
I remember seeing this theater when it was still the Iris, and still sporting the splendid neon marquee, and the simple, elegant facade which was its perfect backdrop, provided by Lee’s excellent design. I’ve never seen a picture of the theater as it originally looked, but the Lee design was so good that I’m sure I’d forgive the owners for making the change. Not so with the Fox remodel of the 1960s. The skinny, plain and yet oddly fussy bogus arches, and the bland plastic marquee, are typical of the weak designs of that decade. Very few of the theater renovations in the 1960s were in any way forgivable. There was just no energy in them.
I have heard that, in 1953, the young Carol Burnett worked the ticket booth of the Iris, after a stint as an usherette at the Warner theater up the Boulevard. I’ll bet she could tell some interesting stories about the place.
I remember the promotions they used to do at Saturday matinees. Our neighborhood theater, the Garvey, would sometimes have drawings from the ticket stubs, usually with just small prizes, but sometimes more valuable things. I never won anything myself, but my older sister actually won a bicycle in one of those drawings.
Things like that kept the theaters packed on Saturdays. Even at only ten cents a ticket for kids, the Garvey probably took in seventy or eighty dollars from ticket sales on a typical Saturday afternoon, and two or three times as much from sales of candy and popcorn and drinks, where the profit margin was much higher. They could easily afford to give away a few prizes- at least until television took away too much of their audience.
I finally realized that the earlier picture of the Pasadena theater wasn’t on a web page, but in a .pdf file I picked up from the L.A. Library web site. It is Record #2 of 4 on this page: http://dbase1.lapl.org/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll
The file is a scan of an old advertisement for West Coast-Langley theatres, and it has four small (and rather blurry) pictures of the Raymond, the Strand, the Florence and the Pasadena, from before 1930. West Coast-Langley appears to have been an independent chain of local theaters affiliated with West Coast Theatres, the precursor of the Fox West Coast Circuit.
I’ve been rooting through my browser history files and, so far, no luck. But I did find a piece published by Westways Magazine which has a nice 1940 view of Colorado Boulevard at DeLacy. Here is Google’s cache of it: View link
Thanks for that interesting bit of information. I lived not to far from Montebello myself in those days, (though I only went to a movie at the Garmar once, in the early 1960s) and I always wondered where the name came from.
Did you ever attend Montebello’s other theater in the 1950s, the Vogue, on the north side of Whittier Boulevard a mile or so east of the Garmar? I was there a couple of times, and remember only that it was a tiny place, probably built in a converted retail space, and the back rows of seats were on risers so that you had to step up from the aisle to reach them. I think there was only one aisle, so it was almost like the small theaters in a modern multiplex.
The Vogue hasn’t been posted on Cinema Treasures yet, and I was thinking of doing it, but it would be better if someone who had a clearer memory of the place did it.
Because the name was in cursive script rather than block lettering, I once mistook the remains of the capital “C” and the small “l” next to it for an “O”, which is what led me to the surmise that the first word of the theater’s name might be “Orange.” I only discovered that it was one of Clune’s theaters a few nights ago, when I ran across a reference to the 1930 remodeling by Cliff Balch.
I did find a photograph of the original facade, but failed to bookmark the page (rats!) so I’ll have to hunt for it again. The exterior turned out not to be Victorian, nor even particularly ornate, but a fairly simple design, probably influenced by the Chicago style of the late 19th-early 20th century.
I remember seeing foreign films at the Clinton several times in the early 1960s. It wasn’t as tidy (or as pretentious) as the Cinema, a mile or so up Western Avenue, but had a very laid-back atmosphere, and the audiences were more bohemian. In fact, the Clinton audience always seemed to me a bit more knowledgeable that the audiences at the better-known art houses. I had some interesting conversations in the lobby. It was actually a very good place to see a movie.
The Southwest Builder and Contractor issue of 5/14/1920 announced the plans to remodel an existing building, 44'x100', at 442-446 South Hill Street, to become Bard’s Hill Street Theater. The architect for the remodeling was Albert C. Martin, Sr.
I have found that my link to the West Coast-Langley ad above doesn’t work. (L.A. library won’t let anyone in the side door of their web site, apparently.) You have to go the the main page:
http://www.lapl.org/
hover your cursor over “Library Resources” and sellect “Regional History” from the drop-down menu. Then on the next page, click on “California Index.” That will give you a search page. In the three search boxes enter “theaters” (you MUST use the plural) “Pasadena” and “Langley.” The link to the PDF file with the ad in it should be record #2. Whew! I don’t know why some web sites choose to make direct linking impossible.
The Los Angeles Daily Journal of August 15, 1907, announced that Adolf Ramish would demolish the Panorama Building at 320 South Main Street and construct a theater to be called the Adolphus on the site.
The auditorium itself must have been demolished before 1961, as a Los Angeles Times article on August 13th of that year was headlined “Site of Hippodrome Sold.”
Whenever the auditorium was razed, I know that the building containing its entrance remained for many years. In the mid 1960s, the area once occupied by the auditorium was used as a car park, and the old lobby was the driveway through which it was entered. I don’t know when that building was demolished, but the last time I remember seeing it was about 1965. I know that it was gone by 1982.
Southwest Builder and Contractor of 8/11/1921 announced that architect Whiting Thompson was preparing plans for this theater, located at the corner of Vermont Avenue and 40th Place. The owner of the theater was named as L.H. Mitchell and Son.
The construction of this theater was announced in the Southwest Builder and Contractor issue of 7/11/1924. It was at the northeast corner of Temple Street and Benton Way, just west of Rampart Street. The building was financed by L.J. Smith and Fred J. Tabor.
I was wondering about the Monterey Park triplex. (I still think of the Atlantic Palace as being on Main Street, even though it’s on the corner. I’ve never actually seen the place, since it was built after I left, though I’ve seen many pictures of it on the Internet.) I only went to the Monterey Mall the one time. The style was sort of bland, but otherwise its was a decent place, and I thought the little entrance courtyard was a nice feature.
I did go to the Temple City Edwards once, shortly after it opened. I think that the auditorium I was in was one of the two larger ones, and I was a bit surprised to find that it wasn’t much smaller than the old Temple Theatre that was demolished to make way for the multiplex.
I remember seeing the Alhambra Place under construction, and I think that was in late 1983-early 1984. I always intended to go to a movie there, but never got around to it.
I’m surprised that the Monterey Mall building is still vacant. In the ‘80s, nothing stayed vacant for long in Monterey Park. There was construction going on all the time, and any empty storefront would have a new Chinese restaurant in it by the next week. They popped up almost overnight, like mushrooms. The whole town was very lively then.
When I was in second grade, at Monterey Vista School in suburban Monterey Park, the highlight of the year was a school field trip to see the original Cinerama production, “This is Cinerama” at the Warner Hollywood Theatre. I had already attended many of the big Downtown Los Angeles movie palaces, but I was still amazed by the Warner. Some of my classmates had never seen any theaters other than our small, suburban neighborhood movie houses, and could scarcely believe that such a place as the Warner even existed.
Our seats were on the main floor, near the front, just to the side of the central projection booth for which a section of seats had been removed. The Cinerama screen was awe inspiring, and I remember becoming a bit dizzy from the roller coaster scene. All the girls screamed. We had a great time, even though the chaperones wouldn’t allow us to visit the concession stand.
After the movie, the theater opened the side exits from the lobby to the side street where the curb space had been reserved for school buses. Leaving the theater was like being expelled from a magical world, and more than a few of us looked back through the doors for a last glimpse of the splendid lobby as we boarded the bus for the long ride back home through the everyday world. I’ve had a special fondness for the Warner ever since, and hope that it can be saved to delight future generations.
Rats, I did it again! I keep getting that date wrong. I left L.A. in 1986 and the earthquake was in 1987. It’s probably my wishful thinking that it was in 1986, because I regret missing it. I waited years for a big earthquake, and then it happens after I’m gone! Unfair!
Jeff, do you know when the Edwards on Atlantic closed? I remember that it opened about 1980, because I went there once in 1981, and the floors weren’t even sticky yet. But I wasn’t around by the time it closed, and I don’t know if it’s been turned into retail space, or what. An awful lot of those multiplexes aren’t surviving very long. They’re like disposable theaters.
I guess every web site must have its share of playful trolls. They can’t all be accommodated at LiveJournal!
I have come across more information about this theater. Southwest Builder and Contractor, issue of 8/19/1938, says that Edward Goral had received the contract from the Edwards Company to remodel an existing building at 1629 E. Valley Boulevard, Rosemead, to accommodate a movie theater designed by S.Charles Lee.
That the theater was built in a pre-existing building makes it more likely that the structure itself still exists, and was merely returned to retail use after the theater closed sometime in the early 1950s. The address would be different now, due to the change in the numbering system used in Rosemead.
Charles Goral was the same contractor who added the Annex to Edwards' Alhambra Theatre (later Alhambra Twin) in 1940.
The exact address of this theater was 330 W. Las Tunas Drive, San Gabriel, California, 71776.
I only saw one movie at this theater, a couple of years after the place opened. It was my first experience with a multiplex, and I was not impressed. The sound from the auditorium next door kept bleeding through the wall, the picture was grainy and a bit blurred, despite the smallness of the screen, and the sight lines were bad due to insufficient rake to the floor. The building was entirely without character, and could have as easily housed a drug store as a theater. The only thing good I can say about the place is that it was still fairly clean, and the popcorn was decent, if rather expensive.
This could be one of two theaters proposed for Downey in the mid 1920’s. If it is at the northwest corner of 2nd Street, then it is probably a theater built for a Mr. John Baker and designed by Architect and Engineer Henry Carlton Newton and Clifford A. Truesdell, Jr. The plans were announced in the Southwest Builder & Contractor issue of 5/30/1924.
SB&C of 5/15/1925 announced another theater proposed on Downey Avenue (then called Crawford Avenue), this one for a Mr. L.R. Matthews of Downey. No exact location is given for this project.
According to the magazine “Southwest Builder and Contractor” of 5/9/1924, the construction cost of the Alexander theater was $216,000. That was a considerable sum for a suburban theater in those days, even if that figure included furnishings and equipment.
A later issue of SB&C, on 9/3/1948, tells that there had been a fire at the Alex Theatre, causing an estimated $150,000 loss.
I noticed that discrepancy. I’m fairly sure that the theater was still operating in the 1960s. Also, while the street is called Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena and in the Eagle Rock district of Los Angleles, it is still called Colorado Street in the City of Glendale.
Bard’s Glendale was opened in 1925. The architect was Kenneth A. Gordon, who also designed Warner’s Egyptian Theatre in Pasadena (later called the Uptown.) The owner of the theater building, who leased it to the Bard Circuit, was M.G. Khodigian. The construction firm was J.H. Woodworth & Son, whose offices were at 200 E. Colorado Street, Pasadena.
Incidentally, although I never attended a movie here, I remember seeing the Glen Theatre listed in the L.A. Times' movie section for many years. At no time do I recall it being called the “Villa Glen.” I am wondering if some mistake has been made here. Please note the comment by user barton, above. Could it be that the names of two different theaters have been conflated?
This was the second theater in Glendale to bear this name. It opened in 1920. According the Southwest Builder and Contractor, issue of 2/13/1920, the architect was Alfred F. Priest. The cost of the theater was $60,000.
SWB&C issue of 6/26/1924 announced a $20,000 dollar extension at the rear of the theater, for a larger stage and the addition of dressing rooms etc to accomodate stage productions.
SWB&C issue of 7/7/1939 annouced the remodeling of the theater, by then operated by Fox, to include a concrete floor, acoustic plaster, carpets, a plastic veneer ticket booth and new poster cases. The architect for this remodel was (not surprisingly) Clifford A. Balch.
Construction of the El Monte Theatre was announced in the publication Southwest Builder and Contractor, issue of 2/3/1939. The theatre was being built for Arthur Sanborn, then the owner of El Monte’s Rialto Theatre (later renamed the Valley Theatre and operated by the Edwards Theatre Circuit) and the architect was Earl T. Heitschmit.
I remember seeing this theater when it was still the Iris, and still sporting the splendid neon marquee, and the simple, elegant facade which was its perfect backdrop, provided by Lee’s excellent design. I’ve never seen a picture of the theater as it originally looked, but the Lee design was so good that I’m sure I’d forgive the owners for making the change. Not so with the Fox remodel of the 1960s. The skinny, plain and yet oddly fussy bogus arches, and the bland plastic marquee, are typical of the weak designs of that decade. Very few of the theater renovations in the 1960s were in any way forgivable. There was just no energy in them.
I have heard that, in 1953, the young Carol Burnett worked the ticket booth of the Iris, after a stint as an usherette at the Warner theater up the Boulevard. I’ll bet she could tell some interesting stories about the place.
I remember the promotions they used to do at Saturday matinees. Our neighborhood theater, the Garvey, would sometimes have drawings from the ticket stubs, usually with just small prizes, but sometimes more valuable things. I never won anything myself, but my older sister actually won a bicycle in one of those drawings.
Things like that kept the theaters packed on Saturdays. Even at only ten cents a ticket for kids, the Garvey probably took in seventy or eighty dollars from ticket sales on a typical Saturday afternoon, and two or three times as much from sales of candy and popcorn and drinks, where the profit margin was much higher. They could easily afford to give away a few prizes- at least until television took away too much of their audience.
ejay:
I finally realized that the earlier picture of the Pasadena theater wasn’t on a web page, but in a .pdf file I picked up from the L.A. Library web site. It is Record #2 of 4 on this page:
http://dbase1.lapl.org/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll
The file is a scan of an old advertisement for West Coast-Langley theatres, and it has four small (and rather blurry) pictures of the Raymond, the Strand, the Florence and the Pasadena, from before 1930. West Coast-Langley appears to have been an independent chain of local theaters affiliated with West Coast Theatres, the precursor of the Fox West Coast Circuit.
I’ve been rooting through my browser history files and, so far, no luck. But I did find a piece published by Westways Magazine which has a nice 1940 view of Colorado Boulevard at DeLacy. Here is Google’s cache of it:
View link
rupert:
Thanks for that interesting bit of information. I lived not to far from Montebello myself in those days, (though I only went to a movie at the Garmar once, in the early 1960s) and I always wondered where the name came from.
Did you ever attend Montebello’s other theater in the 1950s, the Vogue, on the north side of Whittier Boulevard a mile or so east of the Garmar? I was there a couple of times, and remember only that it was a tiny place, probably built in a converted retail space, and the back rows of seats were on risers so that you had to step up from the aisle to reach them. I think there was only one aisle, so it was almost like the small theaters in a modern multiplex.
The Vogue hasn’t been posted on Cinema Treasures yet, and I was thinking of doing it, but it would be better if someone who had a clearer memory of the place did it.
ejaycat:
Because the name was in cursive script rather than block lettering, I once mistook the remains of the capital “C” and the small “l” next to it for an “O”, which is what led me to the surmise that the first word of the theater’s name might be “Orange.” I only discovered that it was one of Clune’s theaters a few nights ago, when I ran across a reference to the 1930 remodeling by Cliff Balch.
I did find a photograph of the original facade, but failed to bookmark the page (rats!) so I’ll have to hunt for it again. The exterior turned out not to be Victorian, nor even particularly ornate, but a fairly simple design, probably influenced by the Chicago style of the late 19th-early 20th century.
I remember seeing foreign films at the Clinton several times in the early 1960s. It wasn’t as tidy (or as pretentious) as the Cinema, a mile or so up Western Avenue, but had a very laid-back atmosphere, and the audiences were more bohemian. In fact, the Clinton audience always seemed to me a bit more knowledgeable that the audiences at the better-known art houses. I had some interesting conversations in the lobby. It was actually a very good place to see a movie.