Cameo Theatre

This reopened as the Cameo theatre on August 1st, 1924. Grand opening ad posted.

In the book Xerox Ferox, writer Jimmy McDonough describes the Cameo as being the “most extreme” theatre he ever set foot in, describing it as “Calcutta with four walls and a movie screen.” (pg. 147)

I’ve uploaded a 1910 photo of Clune’s Broadway Theatre to the photo section. It looks like the theater was not open yet when the photo was taken, though construction had apparently been completed.

Have we seen this one? From the H.A.M.B. forum
View link

Another fallen marquee.

The profile photo at the top of the page is described as “circa 1970, courtesy of William Gabel.”

This photo also appears in the LA Public Library digital collection. They list the photographer as Anne Knudsen and give the date as 1981.

View link

Here are some photos taken yesterday:
http://tinyurl.com/p529w7
http://tinyurl.com/rdxaq4
http://tinyurl.com/oxwl6t

Here is a 1939 photo from the USC archives:
http://tinyurl.com/c9w6c4

Posting to get this theatre back on my “notifications” list….

Here is a February 2009 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/cs88ok

Here’s a quote from a book I just reread:

“Clune’s Theater in Los Angeles opened on 10 November 1910. It seated nine hundred and had three projectors plus two stereopticons (at a time when having two projectors was already the sign of a high-class house.) For an admission price of ten and twenty cents (for loge seats at the back), one got five full reels of licensed films on the first run, two illustrated songs, and one "song specialty,” adding up to a program of an hour and a half. If those were really full reels, that means the projectionist at Clune’s speeded them up at a tremendous rate. An eight-piece orchestra and two singing booths, one on each side of the scree, were available for music."

Bowser, Eileen. The Transformation of Cinema: 1907-1915. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1990

The bottom right photo shows the box office circa mid 70s:
http://tinyurl.com/2rp4wl

From the LA Times, July 20 1924:

ARTISANS BUSY REBUILDING NEW CAMEO THEATER
“The best and most luxuriously appointed ‘small’ theater on Broadway when the renovations are completed.”
That’s the promise of O.D. Cloakey, manager of the Cameo Theater, the newly named film playhouse, which takes the place of the old Clune’s Broadway.
A half-hundred carpenters, electricians, decorators and upholsterers are in possession of the place now. The auditorium is a chaos of wreckage, but out of this chaos William Cutts is devising a new orderliness from which will rise a new theater adequately equipped to take its place alongside Broadway’s best.
Its old seating capacity of 800 will be slightly increased by the new space arrangement. A larger orchestra pit is being made to make room for the sixteen players who will be directed by Theodore Henkel, newly appointed musical director. The projection-room will be widened.
A suite of drawing and sitting-rooms is being fitted out in luxurious style on the second floor, where women patrons will find quiet, comfort and opportunity for rest.'

Etc. Plans were to reopen sometime in July 1924 with a Wallace Beery super-feature, ‘The Signal Tower’.