Fox Belmont Theatre
126 S. Vermont Avenue,
Los Angeles,
CA
90004
126 S. Vermont Avenue,
Los Angeles,
CA
90004
6 people
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My father used to take me there on weekends during the early 60’s for double features, later, in high school, I went there on dates. It was a beautiful theater, even as a child I LOVED that place. It was so grand.
Here is an LA Times ad from January 1949:
http://tinyurl.com/3ap6aw
Interesting photos. Thanks.
Here is a look at the Belmont Hotel fire, hope the link works.
View link
Same site as the older Belmont. In the early years of Los Angeles, when the city was confined to a small area, many of the hills surrounding downtown had names…Colton Hill….Bunker Hill…Emerald Hill….Crown Hill…etc. , and during the 1880s, Crown Hill which was a bit beyond the city proper,,was where the Belmont Hotel was built. Within a few years it became a well known resort hotel, rivaling the Raymond in South Pasadena. The Hotel burned down in 1887,http://www.lafire.com/famous_fires/18871216_BelmontHotelFire/12161887_BelmontHotelFire.htm, ans on the site was built the exclusive Belmont School for girls. This lasted until 1920, when the city purchased the grounds to build Belmont High School. It was finished in 1923 and lasted until 1967, when, like so many other irreplacable , rare, and architecturally significant Los Angeles buildings, was razed to make way for the ugly square modernist structure that is there today, that which you referred to as
the “older Belmont”. Belmont was hands down the most beautiful high school in Southern California, and one of the finest examples of Italiante style in the country. The architect even designed a custom brick for the buildings, a long, broad and red brick, which gave the school a unique look, and, which to this day is known as ‘Belmont Brick’ whenever ordered by contractors and architects.Nothing like exists today…perhaps the closest would be Marshall High School in Silverlake/Los Feliz, but only as a pale example indeed. Take a gander yourself.
http://belmontalumni.tripod.com/
View link
I know about the older Belmont High in LA, as well as the newer fiasco on Beaudry. Was there another Belmont High before that? What was the location?
This theatre was a favorite of Belmont High School students, the old-timers tell me. There is a great photgraph of the Belmont Theatre in the 50th Aniversarry Yearbook of Belmont High School. Sad to say that both are now gone….the beautiful Belmont Theatre was demolished in the 70s, (I remember driving by with my dad on the way to Norms in Hollywood), as was the most beautiful high school in Los Angeles, Belmont, razed in the late 60s/early 70s. L.A. Smith, the architect, also designed the Rialto, in my town, South Pasadena, and the Highland Theatre in Highland Park.
The Fox Belmont Theatre went through a major remodel during 1946. At this time the theatre was given a Skouras style remodel. The Theatre was operated by Fox West Coast Theatres chain.
1926:
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics18/00028701.jpg
Another photo, circa 1930:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/spnb2/00017592.jpg
From the LA Library:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater1/00014921.jpg
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater1/00014923.jpg
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater1/00014924.jpg
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater1/00014925.jpg
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater1/00014926.jpg
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater1/00014927.jpg
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater1/00014928.jpg
CALLING ALL THEATRE / MOVIE ENTHUSIASTS!!!
T'he Los Angeles Theatre' on South Broadway, LA is playing host to the UK television show ‘Dead Famous LIVE’. We are currently looking for people who would like to come along as part of the studio audience.
‘Dead Famous LIVE’ is a studio entertainment show all about Hollywood History and the paranormal. We will be welcoming celebrity guests on to the show and investigating famous locations around Hollywood which are rumoured to be haunted including the Los Angeles Theatre itself.
This is an invaluable chance to get access to the Los Angeles Theatre, the place where Charlie Chaplin’s ‘City Lights’ premiered in 1931 and to have a thoroughly great day out! (And its free!!)
We’re transmitting ‘Live’ back to the United Kingdom so expect it to be exciting and fun!
We will be filming on three days from 11th – 13th November between 11.30am – 4pm. If you are interested in coming on one or all of these days then email me for tickets!
.uk
I look forward to your responses!
There are some pictures of the demolition of the Belmont on lapl.org.
Having worked in this theatre too, I sadly watched this theatre being demolished ca.1970’s ..there is an awful strip mall there now…Bimini Baths were just behind the building on Bimini Pl.
As a memeber of the Los Angeles Conservancy I am part of a group of people which are making notations on lost LA theatres…
The Belmont Theatre was demolished following a fire which damaged the building in 1973. Some of the surviving movable decor of the Belmont was used by Milt Larsen in his renovation of Santa Monica’s old Majestic Theater into the Mayfair Music Hall that same year.
The Belmont Theater opened on 2nd March 1926. For a several years it operated as a legit stage theatre before returning to movies.
L.A. Smith was the architect of the Belmont. Completion of his plans was announced in Southwest Builder and Contractor, 2/13/1925. The theater was to be leased to West Coast Theaters.
This theatre is one of some 200 that could be described as “Skouras-ized For Showmanship” which is the title of the ANNUAL of 1987 of the Theatre Historical Soc. of America. In the late 1930s through the 1950s, there occurred on the west coast of the United States a phenomenon known as the ‘Skouras style’ in recognition of the oversight of the Skouras brothers in their management of several cinema chains. They employed a designer by the name of Carl G. Moeller to render their cinemas/theatres in a new style best described as ‘Art Moderne meets Streamlined.’ The then new availability of aluminum sheeting at low cost was the principal material difference to this style allowing for sweeping, 3-dimensional shapes of scrolls to adorn walls and facades in an expression that would have been much more expensive and not at all the same in plaster. With the use of hand tinted and etched aluminum forms, the designers could make ornaments in mass production that allowed much greater economies of scale. The ANNUAL also show in its 44 pages how some 20 theatres were good examples of this combining of aluminum forms with sweeping draperies heavily hung with large tassels, and with box offices and facades richly treated with neon within the aluminum forms. Few of these examples survive today, but it was a glorious era while it lasted, and this collection of crisp b/w photos is a fitting epitaph by the late Preston Kaufmann.
PHOTOS AVAILABLE:
To obtain any available Back Issue of either “Marquee” or of its ANNUALS, simply go to the web site of the THEATRE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA at:
www.HistoricTheatres.org
and notice on their first page the link “PUBLICATIONS: Back Issues List” and click on that and you will be taken to their listing where they also give ordering details. The “Marquee” magazine is 8-1/2x11 inches tall (‘portrait’) format, and the ANNUALS are also soft cover in the same size, but in the long (‘landscape’) format, and are anywhere from 26 to 44 pages. Should they indicate that a publication is Out Of Print, then it may still be possible to view it via Inter-Library Loan where you go to the librarian at any public or school library and ask them to locate which library has the item by using the Union List of Serials, and your library can then ask the other library to lend it to them for you to read or photocopy. [Photocopies of most THSA publications are available from University Microforms International (UMI), but their prices are exorbitant.]
Note: Most any photo in any of their publications may be had in large size by purchase; see their ARCHIVE link. You should realize that there was no color still photography in the 1920s, so few theatres were seen in color at that time except by means of hand tinted renderings or post cards, thus all the antique photos from the Society will be in black and white, but it is quite possible that the Society has later color images available; it is best to inquire of them.
Should you not be able to contact them via their web site, you may also contact their Executive Director via E-mail at:
Or you may reach them via phone or snail mail at:
Theatre Historical Soc. of America
152 N. York, 2nd Floor York Theatre Bldg.
Elmhurst, ILL. 60126-2806 (they are about 15 miles west of Chicago)
Phone: 630-782-1800 or via FAX at: 630-782-1802 (Monday through Friday, 9AM—4PM, CT)
I went to many movies at the Belmont during the 40’s. It was a block away from the Bimini Baths swimming complex and a block away from the KFI radio studios on the west side of Vermont. The whole area was a long time entertainment complex, since the Palomar Ballroom was just down the block on 3rd street. The latter burnt down in the late 30’s. Bimini Baths are long gone as well. RickyofL
The Fox Belmont Theatre had a Wurlitzer Theatre organ (opus#1164) style 216, it was installed on 9/26/1925.
The Fox Belmont Theatre was located at 126 S. Vermont Ave.
The Fox Belmont has been demolished , since the early 70’s.