Canoga Theatre
21622 Sherman Way,
Canoga Park,
CA
91303
21622 Sherman Way,
Canoga Park,
CA
91303
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The photo asking if the theatre next to the Nimoy’s Pet Pad was the Park/Canoga Theatre — the address of the pet shop was apparently 8366 Topanga Canyon Blvd, Canoga Park, and the theatre seen next door is the Holiday Theatre. So, not the Canoga.
As noted in the article vokoban quoted in the previous comment, this house was called the Madrid Theatre when it opened in 1926. The house operated under that name at least into the early 1930s. It had been renamed the Park Theatre by 1966.
(July 3, 1927 LA Times)
RESEDA TO GET FIRST THEATER
RESEDA, July 2.-Reseda is to have its first motion-picture theater-a building that is to cost $35,000. This is the announcement made by N. Scheinberg and M.P. Horwitz, owners and operators of the Van Nuys Theater, and the Madrid Theater at Owensmouth. The Reseda house will be erected on Reseda Boulevard, north of Sherman Way. The Sloan Building Company of Los Angeles will have charge of construction. Plans will be by Roy Reeves, Van Nuys architect. Scheinberg and Horwitz are well-known Van Nuys men. Following their success at Van Nuys, they built the Owensmouth house a few months ago, with the promise that a similar playhouse would be erected in Reseda.
Chuck: The Baronet Theatre was a completely different venue, located on Topanga Canyon Blvd. about one mile away. Far as I know, The Baronet was never a Pussycat Theatre…although it did screen some racy midnight movies.
Here is a May 1971 ad from the Valley News:
http://tinyurl.com/ozfd4m
Here is a 1984 photo. The late Marilyn Chambers was headlining:
http://tinyurl.com/cpuyls
New book-length Pussycat Theatre history from the San Diego Reader:
View link
Here is a 1968 ad from the Van Nuys News:
http://tinyurl.com/3xptv6
An article in the LA Times dated 1/19/66 describeda contentious hearing in which a neighborhood group was attempting to revoke the Park Theater’s police permit. The charge was that the “art” films the Park was showing were lewd and obscene.
Here is a June 1950 ad from the Van Nuys News:
http://tinyurl.com/24rdqu
I had my first sexual experience in that theatre! It was definitely called the Pussycat in the early eighties. Ahh the memories!
The Madrid Theater in Canoga Park was advertised in the LA Times on 10/22/33. Clearly not the successor to the Canoga listed here.
I think that should be 18, not 13. Bad cutting and pasting on my part, especially if it was an adult theater.
Here is a 1973 ad from the Valley News. The theater would have been across the street, more or less, from the Canoga:
PROJECTIONIST. Will train. Minimum 13 yrs. old. Contact:
Mr. L. Lindell, mgr., First Run Theatre. 21605 Sherman Way. C.P. 9:30
a.m. No phone calls.
In the Independent Theatre Guide of the L.A. Times, February 10, 1971, this theatre was already listed as the Park Theatre and was showing adult films. It was also one of the ten houses listed in the Pussycat Theatres ad in that same issue of the Times.
I recall this theater having the Pussycat marquee in the early 80’s
There were a half-dozen Pussycat theaters in the LA Area/Valley at one time. The theater pages of the LA Times had maybe a column and a half with ‘adult cinema’
Sadly in some ways, the advent of video tape and dvd signaled the end of porn theaters like this. The seediness and illicitness added an element of spice to an evening devoted to seduction. Before the earthquake that closed this theater, it was one way of making a memorable evening for my fiancee/wife and myself.
I was watching a 1975 episode of the Rockford Files yesterday. In one scene, Rockford was driving down an unidentified street in the Valley. There was a theater with a large Pussycat marquee. I wonder if there was more than one Pussycat in the Valley in the mid 1970s.
The Madrid Theatre that is now located on the site of the old Canoga Theater is a nice place to see performing arts. Their productions of “Once Upon a Mattress,” “Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat” and “Cabaret” were all solid performances. The nearby area along Sherman Way in Canoga Park is in the nascent stages of an attempted redevelopment. This is a nice change for a formerly blighted area.
Tim;
Yes, the Canoga Theater was called the Park Theatre when it was operated by the Pussycat chain of theatres. I am not sure if this name change occured before the take-over though.
In a newspaper advert I have (dated November 26, 1976) it is listed in the Pussycat Theatres guide as the Park, so maybe it never fully took on the Pussycat name, despite being part of that chain of theatres.
Hello from colorado!
My god father was Vincent Miranda and owner of the Pussycat Chain. I have been putting together a collection of anything pussycat befor all is lost.Do you know of any photos that exsist of the Pussycat?
I pulled out some old news paper articles that mentions The Park theatre in Canoga Park..is this that Theatre?
Thanks!
Tim David