Estella Theater

The Metropolitan Theatre was listed at 513 N. Main Street in the 1911 city directory. In 1909, 513 was the address of a photography studio and 515 of a fruit vendor and a barber shop.

Ken MC,

Thank you for posting such fascinating information! I’m researching the history of Mexican movie theatres. Does “Main Street: A Street of a Thousand Wonders” have any additional information on the various Mexican theatres? And, in which book on Mexican Los Angeles did you find the information on the theatres? Thanks!

I don’t know if this link will work but it is a reverse type directory by address of Main street from 1956. If you hit the next page button it will continue to South Main:

View link

If you’re in the Garnier block building and feel any strange presence, it might be old John McKay:
LA Times
(Feb 4, 1902)
John H. McKay, a carpenter, 40 years of age, was found dead in his room at a lodging-house, No. 511 ½ North Main street, at 2:30 o'clock yesterday afternoon. An open gas jet and the strong odor of illuminating gas showed the cause of his death. There is nothing, however, to indicate that the man committed suicide; but from information furnished the deputy Coroner it appears that he was the victim of a dangerous practice of turning the gas off and on at the meter at times which suited the pleasure of his landlady, who hoped to economize in her gas bills.

some additional thoughts. the Vickrey Brunswig building, which is 501 N. Main, had three storefronts, which would have been 501, 503, 505. The Plaza Building, listed as 507, also had three shops – 507, 509, 511. Since the theater building (next in line) occupied what had been previously been two or three shops (the maps are a bit ambiguous) it could have been variously listed as 513, 515, or 517. La Esperanza Bakery was, we believe, in the Plaza House (e.g. 511 ½), therefore next to the theater building, not in it. It’s fascinating that vokoban found the theater listed in 1915 and 1920 as the Metropolitan, and then in 1923, 1925, and 1930 as the Estella. This would jive with the growing Mexican immigrant population in the neighborhood in the 20’s ( as opposed to the old Californio families), which might well have led to the conversion of the name, and to Spanish-language from English-language movies. As for the Teatro Hidalgo confusion, if it was listed at any point in the 500 block of North Main, that’s a puzzler. Perhaps the Hidalgo, which was surely two blocks further south in the 300 block (in a two story building, from the photos) closed and the Estella took over its more prestigious name?

The problem is that whenever it is mentioned in the newspaper, with or without an address, it is almost always called Teatro Hidalgo. I don’t know if that was just a common name people used or maybe the official business name was just Hidalgo and that’s what the city directory printed.

I guess this is the best we can do for now:

A 1931 photo of the Plaza Church. The Estella (if still there then) was probably in the single-story building just this side of the Coca-Cola sign.

A 1946 photo. The half-building at the left looks like an open-front grocery store in this picture, but I think it must have been where the Estella had been located.

The page for the much-discussed Teatro Hidalgo is right here.

A 1924 aerial view of the Plaza neighborhood the L.A. shows the buildings adjacent to the Plaza Church. The Estella would have been in one of those, and if the bakery. La Esperanza, was at 511 ½ then the most likely place for the theatre to have been would have been in the building second to the left from the large structure at lower right bearing the “Brunswig Drug Company” sign on its wall (its lower immediate neighbor is the Garnier Building, which housed the bakery.) I can’t find a picture of the front of that building that probably housed the Estella anywhere, but this c1926 shot shows the building immediately adjacent to the church.

I think it was user wdl posting on the Grand Theatre page who originally recalled the Hidalgo being located between the bakery and the church. Unless the Hidalgo moved late in its history to the former location of the Estella, he must have misremembered. The photo of the Hidalgo Ken linked to last year shows, at far left, a portion of the distinctive awning of the Baker Block, which was a block south of the plaza at the southeast corner of Main and Arcadia Streets (just out of view at right on the aerial photo I linked linked to.) That whole area was obliterated in the 1940s to build the freeway slot.

(June 2, 1918)
Among many other cosmopolitanisms, Los Angeles now harbors a real Mexican theater. Located in the heart of Sonoratown, it is housed in the Teatro Hidalgo, which, translated into plain, unassuming English, means simply the Exalted Theater……With the 3x5 stage of the exalted playhouse at No. 371 North Main street, the Mexican company finds itself somewhat restricted in the presentation of dramatic spectacles…..The house itself is one of the stand-bys of lower Los Angeles, and has seen every variety of service, from burlesque and motion pictures to an animal show and high-class foreign theatricals.

I think the Teatro Hidalgo is a different theater and not a different name for the Estella. There are a few references of Teatro Hidalgo at both 371 & 373 N. Main.

(Nov. 8, 1931)
Teresa Bodrero to Teatro Hidalgo, Ltd., 373 North Main street, term 9 years.

And an address confirmation:

(May 30, 1931)
REX THEATRE, 827 West Third Street, near Figueroa
EVANGELISTIC CAMPAIGN conducted by DON AND CHARLOTTE McCROSSAN, Seattle, Wn.,…..

I re-checked that article from above and I misspelled the name. It should have been the ‘Rex Theater, Third and Figueroa streets’.

That picture is great. It is definitely a vacant lot now but the building to the far left of the picture that you can barely see is being restored or something.