Filmarte Theatre

Opened as La Mirada in March 1926. 1st found in the LAT dated March 6th, 1926 in the photo section.

In 1975, I moved into an apartment complex on La Mirada Ave, a half a block down on the same north side of the street as the Filmarte. I still live in the same complex 42 years later. When I first saw the building, it was being used as a rehearsal sound stage for major musical acts of the time. The interior of the building was sufficiently large enough for the acts to deploy their full stage tour sets and rehearse as if they were playing in a large venue. You could walk by the building and hear through the closed doors the likes of Three Dog Night and Maria Muldar; on particularly hot summer nights, the very large loading dock doors on the north side of the building were sometimes open for ventilation and, if the act didn’t try to conceal their presence by hanging light, loose drapes over the doorway, passersby could catch a glimpse of the performers.

There was a small and reputedly very high end French restaurant located at the corner of the building in the space shown as the “Autocrat Cleaners” in the photo at the top of this page. The restaurant closed suddenly and I noticed, when I passed by, an IRS seal on the door citing non-payment of taxes.

The building technically still stands. The fire (which was an event I somehow managed to sleep through) did indeed gut the interior, but the walls and most of the roof remained. The fire itself was rumored by some in this neighborhood as being possibly connected to other fires around the same period that gutted the Hollywood Ranch Market, the Ametron store next door to the Filmarte, and a few others. After the fire, the building interior was fully gutted, excavations were made to create underground parking, and the interior was rebuilt as office space. One of the casualties of the renovation was an inscription some fan(s) had made in wet cement of undying love for Donna Summer when the steps had been replaced during a previous remodeling. The building was little used after the fire and renovation and stood vacant for extended periods of time. After a time, the County of Los Angeles Dept. of Mental Health moved into the building and established a clinic, which is still functioning.

A bit of trivia: the last photo ever or Jame Dean alive was taken directly across the street from the Filmarte location.

Steveo alluded to this. It was known as Hilliard Studio Sound Stage, for a while at least. In 1971, it hosted ‘Ye Craftsmen’s Christmas Faire & Medieval Market’ – mimes, minstrels and festivities. See photo.

The fire that destroyed the Filmarte building took place in July, 1990. Here is an article about it from the Los Angeles Times.

Why does IMDB.com give 1615-29 North Vine Street as the address for where “The Steve Allen Westinghouse Show,” as well “The Joey Bishop Show,” “The Newlywed Game” and “The Dating Game” were recorded, and not the 1228 N. Vine St. address, formerly known as the La Mirada and Filmarte theaters, then briefly as “The Steve Allen THeater?”

Also, the venue of 1615-29 N. Vine St. is now showing as “The Ricardo Montalbán Theater,"its history noting it was once called "The Vine St. Theater,” which some sources also claim is where “The Steve Allen Westinghouse Show” and these others I mentioned were also produced.

May someone reading this please clear up this discrepancy?

@steveorini – hi. Since you were there several times was there still the imprint of a salami in the sidewalk outside the theater?

This is Steveorini again…the Troy I was speaking of in the above post that recorded his show at the Filmarte in the 70’s was talk show host Troy Cory, and this would have been somewhere around the mid 70’s.
His show aired on KTLA and also KCOP.There are some clips of him on youtube.

That’s a grim replacement for the pleasant building that housed the Filmarte. The new building is probably bad for the mental health of people who have to look at it every day.

The Filmarte’s career as a movie house ended by 1952. Daily Variety of July 14, 1952, reported that Fox West Coast Theatres had leased the Filmarte Theatre to a “telepix producer.” That was most likely Columbia’s television subsidiary, Screen Gems, which produced Art Linkletter’s “House Party” for television.

IMDb says that Linkletter’s show aired from CBS Television City, but that must have been in later years. Television City didn’t begin operating until November 16, 1952, and “House Party” had begun airing on September 1 that same year, so it most likely aired from the Filmarte from its first show until some time no later than 1962, when Steve Allen’s syndicated nightly show began using the venue.

The Filmarte had aka’s of Art Linkletter Playhouse and Steve Allen Playhouse during its TV studio years, but of course never operated as a movie theater under those names. I’m not sure if the house continued in use for television after Allen’s show was canceled in 1964.

Stood in the alley between the market and the theater many a night and watched the Steve Allen Show being filmed through an open fire exit door.

Some night there wer empty seats and Steve would motion us in to sit down and watch the show.

Didn’t know until I read the above that this was the Art Linkletter Theater. Was twice one of the grade-school kids on House Party, back in the ‘50s.

There was a fire around that time frame.

Here is a 1937 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/2mqn88

This theatre is also where in the early 60s Steve Allen did his TV show that was opposite The Johnny Carson TONIGHT SHOW. I still remember him watching people on the street and pointing his camera across the street at the Dance studio.