Here is a 1979 aerial view. By 1987, the next view available, the housing complex mentioned above has replaced the drive-in. http://tinyurl.com/yeblsuj
Lois Moran, the heroine of the Fox Films production of David Warfield’s greatest triumph, “The Music Masterâ€, arrived back in Los Angeles last week in time to be here for the western premiere of this picture, now at the Figueroa Theater.
Alec B. Francis has the name role in the production and other prominent members of the cast include Norman Trevor and Neil Hamilton. Other features of the Figueroa program include Salvatore Santaella’s twenty-piece orchestra on the stage in a trio of numbers and a breand new Earle Fox Van Bibber comedy called “The Speedboat Demonâ€.
Here is an October 1960 item from the Los Angeles Times:
COVINA-Three elementary schools, a proposed school site, the Covina Drive-In Theater and the Los Angeles County Flood Control District settling basin have been annexed to the city, along with nine acres for a proposed housing development.
The initial acquisition, covering 105 acres, is the second largest annexation in the city’s history. The site is bounded by Covina Blvd., Citrus Ave., Arrow Highway and Grand Ave.
If the building is still there, it would more likely be at 2472 Carnes, which is the address given on Cinematour. The aerial view on Google at that address shows a building with theater-like dimensions. That building is currently a church.
Here is part of a review in the LA Times in August 1971:
Sandwiched in between screenings of “Vanishing Point†and “Shaftâ€, the Rio Theater at Western Ave. and Imperial Highway is presenting members of the Watts Writers’ Workshop in a live production of Elizabeth Leigh-Taylor’s “Cinderella Brownâ€. If this first experience of mixing the media is any indication of trends, the concept has about as much future as the Titanic.
Sad to report, this black parable on the Cinderella story seems desperately out of place in such a cavernous monument to Technicolor-Vistavision such as the Rio. But, sadder yet, there is an excellent chance it may be out of place anywhere. Since parts of it were inaudible due to echoing acoustics, we’ll have to give the play the benefit of the doubt. But not much.
“Cinderella Brown†will continue its ham-on-celluloid run through Sept. 16.
Here is part of a January 2000 article in the LA Times:
These Sunday columns that harken to days gone by are never long enough for the nostalgiacs (Yes, I made up that word; don’t write me) among us. For example, last Sunday’s piece, about theaters that have come and gone, left no room to talk about the California Theater’s magnificent organ, the Wurlitzer Hope-Jones Unit Orchestra Style D.
By coincidence, we have news of that Wurlitzer this week. Santa Rosa resident Jeff Morse, one of a multitude who grew up in the old Cal, did some research to find out what happened to the organ. There are a lot of coincidences in what Jeff found.
This old beauty, installed in 1923, when the California was opened (as the G&S Theater), had been well maintained in its 54 years in Santa Rosa, the last years by organist Jack Bethards, who presided over its last great Santa Rosa concert, in 1975, as an accompaniment for a special showing of the silent film “Phantom of the Opera.”
So, when it was decreed that the California would be demolished to make way for Macy’s in 1977, the Wurlitzer brought $8,000 from a wealthy San Diego man, a collector, who donated it to a theater in San Diego. The name of the theater (coincidence #2; the timing of Jeff’s note, as I was preparing to write the Sunday column, being #1) was the California.
“I always thought it was rather nice,” wrote Morse, “that while our California Theater was only a memory, the heart of our theater was still alive, thrilling new audiences.”
But, when Jeff contacted John Dapolito from the San Diego chapter of the American Theater Organ Society, he learned that the Wurlitzer had been removed from San Diego’s California Theater in 1987 and placed in storage. In 1995, after several unsuccessful attempts to find a home for it in a theater, it was installed in a church. Seven months after it was in place, it was destroyed in an arson fire.
Dapolito then delivered to Morse the news that constitutes coincidence #3. “The California Theater,” wrote the San Diegan, “has been condemned. The building is still there, all boarded up and in a bad state of disrepair.”
Kind of makes you wonder if that Wurlitzer was a jinx, doesn’t it?
The Sun was first advertised in the LA Times in July 1920. In July 1952, the theater listing states that the Sun is temporarily closed. It does not appear as a theater in the Times after that date.
This was in an LA Times column by Lee Shippey in November 1930:
The new theater on Broadway between Sixth and Seventh is to be called the Los Angeles Theater, and the announcement says “It is the first theater to be named in honor of the cityâ€.
Jay Hunt, veteran actor, writes us that “in 1890, my wife and I appeared in the Los Angeles Theater on Spring Street, the same that is now called the Lyceum and is a picture house. Maude Granger, then a very popular actress, was the star. Harry Wyatt was manager of the theater at that time. We played a three-night engagement, but changed the bill every night because the city then wasn’t big enough to provide more than one good audience for each play.â€
Here is an aerial view circa 1980:
http://tinyurl.com/ydu8dsv
Here is a 1979 aerial view. By 1987, the next view available, the housing complex mentioned above has replaced the drive-in.
http://tinyurl.com/yeblsuj
Here is an aerial view circa 1980:
http://tinyurl.com/ycnvx3m
Here is an aerial photo circa 1980:
http://tinyurl.com/yz279g7
Here is an aerial view circa 1972:
http://tinyurl.com/yc59xej
Here is another aerial photo circa 1980:
http://tinyurl.com/ycy7xup
Already listed here:
/theaters/10584/
Here are two more from the LAPL:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015262.jpg
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015263.jpg
Here is another LAPL photo circa 1930s:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015284.jpg
Here are some interior photos from the LAPL, circa 1945:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015290.jpg
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015289.jpg
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015288.jpg
Here are the USC photos:
http://tinyurl.com/yd3vqke
http://tinyurl.com/yclr4ay
http://tinyurl.com/ybfy3nm
http://tinyurl.com/yb8d93v
Here is a February 1927 item in the LA Times:
Lois Moran, the heroine of the Fox Films production of David Warfield’s greatest triumph, “The Music Masterâ€, arrived back in Los Angeles last week in time to be here for the western premiere of this picture, now at the Figueroa Theater.
Alec B. Francis has the name role in the production and other prominent members of the cast include Norman Trevor and Neil Hamilton. Other features of the Figueroa program include Salvatore Santaella’s twenty-piece orchestra on the stage in a trio of numbers and a breand new Earle Fox Van Bibber comedy called “The Speedboat Demonâ€.
Here are the USC photos, circa 1936:
http://tinyurl.com/y8hqkgk
http://tinyurl.com/yardbnn
http://tinyurl.com/ye8xuh6
Here is an aerial view circa 1970:
http://tinyurl.com/yd8jesp
Here is an October 1960 item from the Los Angeles Times:
COVINA-Three elementary schools, a proposed school site, the Covina Drive-In Theater and the Los Angeles County Flood Control District settling basin have been annexed to the city, along with nine acres for a proposed housing development.
The initial acquisition, covering 105 acres, is the second largest annexation in the city’s history. The site is bounded by Covina Blvd., Citrus Ave., Arrow Highway and Grand Ave.
This link should show an aerial view of the drive-in, circa 1952. If the link doesn’t work, let me know.
http://tinyurl.com/y9btafy
If the building is still there, it would more likely be at 2472 Carnes, which is the address given on Cinematour. The aerial view on Google at that address shows a building with theater-like dimensions. That building is currently a church.
Here is part of a review in the LA Times in August 1971:
Sandwiched in between screenings of “Vanishing Point†and “Shaftâ€, the Rio Theater at Western Ave. and Imperial Highway is presenting members of the Watts Writers’ Workshop in a live production of Elizabeth Leigh-Taylor’s “Cinderella Brownâ€. If this first experience of mixing the media is any indication of trends, the concept has about as much future as the Titanic.
Sad to report, this black parable on the Cinderella story seems desperately out of place in such a cavernous monument to Technicolor-Vistavision such as the Rio. But, sadder yet, there is an excellent chance it may be out of place anywhere. Since parts of it were inaudible due to echoing acoustics, we’ll have to give the play the benefit of the doubt. But not much.
“Cinderella Brown†will continue its ham-on-celluloid run through Sept. 16.
Here is another photo of the bookstore:
http://tinyurl.com/y9c227b
The lunch. The theater looks fine.
Here is a recent photo. By the way, I had lunch at Dolores yesterday and it was pretty dismal.
http://tinyurl.com/yzszkk3
Here is part of a January 2000 article in the LA Times:
These Sunday columns that harken to days gone by are never long enough for the nostalgiacs (Yes, I made up that word; don’t write me) among us. For example, last Sunday’s piece, about theaters that have come and gone, left no room to talk about the California Theater’s magnificent organ, the Wurlitzer Hope-Jones Unit Orchestra Style D.
By coincidence, we have news of that Wurlitzer this week. Santa Rosa resident Jeff Morse, one of a multitude who grew up in the old Cal, did some research to find out what happened to the organ. There are a lot of coincidences in what Jeff found.
This old beauty, installed in 1923, when the California was opened (as the G&S Theater), had been well maintained in its 54 years in Santa Rosa, the last years by organist Jack Bethards, who presided over its last great Santa Rosa concert, in 1975, as an accompaniment for a special showing of the silent film “Phantom of the Opera.”
So, when it was decreed that the California would be demolished to make way for Macy’s in 1977, the Wurlitzer brought $8,000 from a wealthy San Diego man, a collector, who donated it to a theater in San Diego. The name of the theater (coincidence #2; the timing of Jeff’s note, as I was preparing to write the Sunday column, being #1) was the California.
“I always thought it was rather nice,” wrote Morse, “that while our California Theater was only a memory, the heart of our theater was still alive, thrilling new audiences.”
But, when Jeff contacted John Dapolito from the San Diego chapter of the American Theater Organ Society, he learned that the Wurlitzer had been removed from San Diego’s California Theater in 1987 and placed in storage. In 1995, after several unsuccessful attempts to find a home for it in a theater, it was installed in a church. Seven months after it was in place, it was destroyed in an arson fire.
Dapolito then delivered to Morse the news that constitutes coincidence #3. “The California Theater,” wrote the San Diegan, “has been condemned. The building is still there, all boarded up and in a bad state of disrepair.”
Kind of makes you wonder if that Wurlitzer was a jinx, doesn’t it?
The Sun was first advertised in the LA Times in July 1920. In July 1952, the theater listing states that the Sun is temporarily closed. It does not appear as a theater in the Times after that date.
This was in an LA Times column by Lee Shippey in November 1930:
The new theater on Broadway between Sixth and Seventh is to be called the Los Angeles Theater, and the announcement says “It is the first theater to be named in honor of the cityâ€.
Jay Hunt, veteran actor, writes us that “in 1890, my wife and I appeared in the Los Angeles Theater on Spring Street, the same that is now called the Lyceum and is a picture house. Maude Granger, then a very popular actress, was the star. Harry Wyatt was manager of the theater at that time. We played a three-night engagement, but changed the bill every night because the city then wasn’t big enough to provide more than one good audience for each play.â€
Here is a circa 1940s photo from the LAPL:
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics35/00067272.jpg