Tower Theatre
802 S. Broadway,
Los Angeles,
CA
90014
802 S. Broadway,
Los Angeles,
CA
90014
38 people
favorited this theater
Showing 126 - 150 of 154 comments
CALLING ALL THEATRE / MOVIE ENTHUSIASTS!!!
T'he Los Angeles Theatre' on South Broadway, LA is playing host to the UK television show ‘Dead Famous LIVE’. We are currently looking for people who would like to come along as part of the studio audience.
‘Dead Famous LIVE’ is a studio entertainment show all about Hollywood History and the paranormal. We will be welcoming celebrity guests on to the show and investigating famous locations around Hollywood which are rumoured to be haunted including the Los Angeles Theatre itself.
This is an invaluable chance to get access to the Los Angeles Theatre, the place where Charlie Chaplin’s ‘City Lights’ premiered in 1931 and to have a thoroughly great day out! (And its free!!)
We’re transmitting ‘Live’ back to the United Kingdom so expect it to be exciting and fun!
We will be filming on three days from 11th – 13th November between 11.30am – 4pm. If you are interested in coming on one or all of these days then email me for tickets!
.uk
I look forward to your responses!
Another early picture, courtesy of the USC Digital Archive:
View link
Old photo/postcard:
http://www.gmrnet.com/graphics/theatr1c.jpg
So beautiful !!!
Interior photo during plaster contruction work:
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/PALACE/plaster.jpg
I think the world premiere of “The Jazz Singer” took place in New York. The Los Angeles premiere took place at the Criterion Theater in late December 1927. The film moved over to the Tower in early 1928.
The world premiere of The Jazz Singer (1927) was at the Tower Theater in Los Angeles.
Went to the open house for the Tower the other week and was amazed by how intact this theater still is. It too reminds me of the Los Angeles but is as the the last comment said, muc more narrow. With the seats taken of the main floor and the seats in the balcony being a little shabby, not sure where they could from here in regards to ever showing films or performances. It needs some work though but it’s still a palace.
The Tower is in many ways a dress rehearsal for the Los Angeles Theater. There are many of the same elements on a much smaller scale, particularly in the layout of the lobby and the lounge outside the restrooms under the theater. The paint on the ceiling is chipped and peeling but there’s still plenty of glamour in the Tower. The auditiorium is very narrow and there doesn’t seem to be enough room on their stage to have a screen big enough to show today’s films. If it has a future, it would seem to be as a nightclub, for filming or for private parties.
The Tower was also stood in for a Miami nightclub in “Mambo Kings”.
About 20 years ago a friend of mind purchased the clock mechanism that was located in the tower of the “Tower theater” It was an old wind up cast iron clock with weights. There was an electric motor that would wind it up at regular intervals. It took us almost a full day taking it apart and bring down the pieces. I had a chance to go exploring and went upstairs to the projectionists room where I saw a toilet sitting right next to the projector,No stall or walls, just sitting there,I laughed out loud! As I started down I came across a big winch bolted to the floor and soon discovered it was for lowering the huge chandelier located in the lobby for cleaning and replacing bulbs. Quite a cool place.
I found a few great photos of this theatre soon after it’s opening….. pretty spectacular…. notice the subdued marquee of the time…
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015482.jpg
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics18/00028646.jpg
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015479.jpg
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015478.jpg
http://jpg2.lapl.org/pics08/00013718.jpg
Here are some more recent shots….
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics18/00028720.jpg
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015480.jpg
I’m not sure that the Tower qualifies for the description “still intact” given the modifications to the orchestra level and the fact that its vertical sign and marquee are tacky replacements. I would guess they were installed in the mid-60s after the theater’s last incarnation as the Newsreel.
L. Linares;
I only went to the Tower those two times; First, at the end of 1963, when it was still the Newsreel Theatre, and then again in 1967 after it had gone back to its original name and was showing first run movies. But the doors were so close to the sidewalk that it was easy to see the grand staircase in the lobby every time I passed by. I went to movies downtown mostly during the early 1960s, and had little interest in the fare at the Newsreel, but I went to the other big Broadway theatres many times.
I think that the L.A. Conservancy is still having its Broadway Theatre Tours every Saturday. I’ve heard that the United Artists is no longer available to them, and that the Million Dollar was recently taken off the tour due to falling plaster, so that leaves only the Los Angeles, the Orpheum, the Palace and maybe the Tower as stops on the tour. They try to include three theatres in the tour, but it depends on the availability (for example, if a music video or an ad or a movie is being filmed in one of the theatres, they wouldn’t be able to include that one that week.) I think they charge eight dollars for the tour, and you need to make a reservation a month in advance.
The conservancy also sponsors a program called Last Remaining Seats, which features a series of old movies presented at one or another of the Broadway theatres, and usually one at the Alex Theatre in Glendale. This series usually happens in June, but you’ll have to check on their web site to get the exact dates.
The Palace used to be one of the theatres at which these programs were presented, but it recently suffered some water damage to its projection room, so it may not be available for the series this year, and the Million Dollar is probably off the list too, because of the falling plaster. So this year’s program will probably be confined to the Los Angeles, the Orpheum, and the Alex.
Joe Vogel,
When was the last time you were in the Tower Theatre? and also remember the little theatre next to the restrooms. I loved to hang around the basement but it was very dark and scary, but that staircase was awesome i loved looking at it. As a kid i remember everthing being so huge and now i wonder if it still is? Is there anyway of getting a tour of this and other theatres?
The Tower was still called the Newsreel as late as 1964, and usually ran a documentary film or two with its program of (of course) newsreels. It was at that time that I saw there a sensationalist documentary called “Mondo Cane” (Dog’s World) which created quite a stir for its cynical views.
An interesting feature of the theater at that time was a small additional theater set up in the basement, adjacent to the rest rooms in what had probably been the lounge. Here were a few dozen seats facing a large projection television which played closed circuit programs, including newscasts and sporting events.
The Tower was not the first news theater in downtown Los Angeles. I recall seeing an old advertisement for the Palace, from the WWII era, when it was called the News-Palace.
I don’t recall the exact year in which the Tower name was restored, but I remember seeing “Bonnie and Clyde” there a few weeks after it was released, so it had to have been before that movie came out in 1967.
The main thing I remember about the interior of the theater is the splendid grand staircase which spills down into the tiny, ornate lobby, taking up such a large part of it. The effect is really quite impressive.
The interior (and, if memory serves, the exterior, as well) of the Tower Theatre can be seen in the 1997 Sean Penn/John Travolta/Robin Wright Penn film, ‘She’s So Lovely’.
I seem to recall some narrative on the old board saying that there was previously a Garrick Theatre on this site which burnt down.
This theatre may also have been the Music Hall Downtown (1950 – 1955).
If you happen to own the Omega Man dvd.During that Woodstock sequence,you can zoom in on the theatre marquis and will be able to notice that something involving Mohammed Ali is happenning there.
I was able to see the interior of the Tower Theater during the Broadway Behind-the-Scenes event. It is very sad that the seats were removed from the ground floor but the remainder of the theater remains relatively intact. It is a beautiful theater and I hope that even with the scaring caused by the removal of the ground floor seats and with the addition of tiered stages on this level that the theater does not suffer anymore damage.
The Tower Theater’s interior also appears in the 2001 David Lynch film ‘Mulholland Drive’ as the interior of Club Silencio.
What a grand facade. It would have been a great theatre if still in use today.
To see a 1950s photo of the Tower Theater marquee when it was known as the Newsreel Theater click here:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015417.jpg
I believe the Tower Theater was known as the “Newsreel Theater” for some years ending in the early 1950’s.
The Tower theatre can also be seen in “The Omega Man” when Charlton Heston is going into the Olympic theatre around the corner to see “Woodstock”. Also in “The Last Action Hero”,“6th Day”. On the picture above, the only thing different is the style of the marquee. (it was modernized, no more neon, little light bulbs spell TOWER). The clock tower part of the building is still there that’s the way it looks today. The tower was taller but was removed after the 1932 earthquake in Long Beach. The clock has not worked in years.