Embassy Theatre
331 S. Western Avenue,
Los Angeles,
CA
90020
331 S. Western Avenue,
Los Angeles,
CA
90020
2 people
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Fox West Coast Theatres, National General Theatres
Architects: Lewis Arthur Smith
Previous Names: Wilshire Theatre, Fox Embassy Theatre
Nearby Theaters
The Wilshire Theatre opened in October 1921. By 1931 it had been renamed Fox Embassy Theatre and was operated by Fox West Coast Theatres. This theatre was a fairly standard Fox house which was remodeled in the mid-1960’s.
Contributed by
William Gabel
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Recent comments (view all 24 comments)
331 S. Western doesn’t exist. There’s a building at 327 and another one at 333. The theater is gone.
A large percentage of the cards in the L.A. Library’s California Index do refer to this theatre as the Wilshire Theatre. The name Fox was not used though. The West Coast Circuit did not become Fox-West Coast until several years after this theatre opened, and the Fox name was not put on any of the circuit’s theatres until 1929. I don’t know in what year the Wilshire was renamed the Embassy, but it must have been before 1930 when Fox opened its new Wilshire Theatre in Beverly Hills.
Here is the location today:
http://tinyurl.com/2y9nx3
http://tinyurl.com/yozoap
http://tinyurl.com/yo44t8
The Wilshire theater is on the left in this 1924 photo from the USC archive:
http://tinyurl.com/ysyfpx
Here is the LA Times ad from 1981:
http://tinyurl.com/27yt2t
Listed as the Fox Embassy in the 1942 city directory. Address was 329 S. Western Avenue.
I saw the double feature of Fantastic Voyage and Do Not Disturb there in 1966.Nice theatre.
In 1933 it was known as the Embassy Theatre.
From the LA Times, 2/12/37:
Theater Booth Fire Fatal to Trapped Girl Cashier
Miss Betty Wallace, 18, died yesterday in Cedars of Lebanon Hospital from injuries suffered Wednesday night when her dress caught fire in the tiny ticket booth at the Embassy Theater, 331 S. Western Avenue. Scores of people gathered outside the theater to attend a bank night drawing were unable to help, as Miss Wallace’s dress, ignited by an electric stove, became a pillar of flame.
The Los Angeles County Assessor’s office says that the building on this site was built in 1921. In Google’s satellite view, the auditorium roof appears to be partly intact. Comparing it with a 1948 view at Historic Aerials, it looks as though only about the rear third of the building has actually been demolished.