Lark Theater
613 S. Main Street,
Los Angeles,
CA
90014
613 S. Main Street,
Los Angeles,
CA
90014
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No, we would fit right in.
Well, you can see what it is now from my current photo of the spot…I guess we could go get a pint of whiskey and sit in that parking lot. Nobody would probably even notice.
I think it was a bar.
http://tinyurl.com/ysj7wj
There’s a series of photos from that same shoot that goes further south….I wonder what Dave’s Music Box was…a music store, bar, theater? Anyone know? Here’s a picture:
View link
Here are two photos of the bus terminal at 6th and Main in 1941. I think the Lark was long gone by then:
http://tinyurl.com/yun7dx
http://tinyurl.com/ysymou
Thanks ken…I think that’s the first photo I’ve seen of the Lark.
You can also see the 613 address over the door.
Well, it does say Lark on the left side of the picture.
I don’t know if that is the Lark, but I’d like to see that movie. Maybe this is it:
http://imdb.com/title/tt0019880/
The LAPL states that this is the Lark, photo is undated:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015349.jpg
A patron annoyed by the racket of bodies whacking onto the roof of the Lark could also have walked a few doors south to the Republic Theatre.
Scott could have walked half a block up to the Burbank also if he tired of the Lark and falling bodies.
Oh, to have been able to go there…sigh…
P.S.: I live across the street in the former Pacfic Electric train station.
Thanks Joe…it looks as if someone did catch it and entered the seating capacity. After looking at a later article, it seems that Mr. Tierney did indeed expire from his leap.
Once a theater has been posted, additional information about it can be added to the top section only by one of the mods. They watch new comments and make the changes as information comes in (though they sometimes miss it, especially if the site is busy.) Alternately, you can e-mail them the new information, though I’ve seldom found that necessary.
The Lark must have been knocked down fairly early, as the Central Building (from which Mr. Tierney leaped) had become the Continental Trailways Bus Depot by the 1950’s at the latest. (Continental Trailways was formed in the mid-1930’s.) The buildings to the south of the Central Building were demolished to make way for the bus loading zone and a parking lot.
This article gives the seating capacity….does anyone know how I enter it?
(March 29, 1925)
Hereafter, when father stays out all night-ish alright, by dear, hic. he’s been sittin' up-not with a dear sick friend, but at the “all-night movies.” Likewise, whenever the milkman is late with his morning delivery or the cook fails to show up for work, each probably has a perfectly good alibi in the newest amusement enterprise, the all-night moving-picture show.
For Los Angeles now has its first all-night cinema palace and can make the boast that the silver sheet is never dark in the film capitol. The film fan’s thanks are due to C.H. Drane, Main-street exhibitor, for, while other theater owners have been content to lock their doors and count up the receipts at midnight, it remained for Drane to meet the demand for longer programs. A sign displayed across the front of his Lark Theater announces to the film public that his is the only all-night theater in the city. “We Never Close” and “We Cater to Ladies and Family Trade,” are additional announcements regarding the policy of the unique house.
That Drane’s idea has met with popular approval here is evidenced by the fact that his house, with seating capacity of 250, always is packed to the doors, even in the small hours of the morning, when one wonders where the crowds come from. The Lark Theater is located in the 600 block in Main street and directly opposite the Pacific Electric station, from which place, with its groups of passengers waiting for early morning trains, Drane draws his heaviest patronage. And, save for a sprinkling of all-night lunch rooms, the Lark, with its lobby illumination and the merry tunes of an electric piano, is the only bright spot on Main street during the dull hours between midnight and dawn.
The audiences are cross-sections of a night life in our cosmopolitan city. Seated in the narrow rows of chairs are representatives of all of the types and races that make up the metropolis-all responding to the common lure of the celluloid drama-either that, or finding it a convenient haven of rest when there is no other place to flop for the night. For the sleepy ones, however, there is not much rest. A special officer in uniform, whose combined office is that of night manager and guardian of the law, walks the aisles at regular intervals and with gentle taps and an occasional poke preserves the peace and dignity of the house.
On the occasion of the writer’s visit he found the audience either especially drowsy or unappreciative of the fine acting of John Barrymore, who was doing his best to keep the customers interested. On this particular morning (it was about 3:30 o'clock) the house was filled mostly with sailors from the visiting fleet at San Pedro…………….
Strange, but true, I think…..
(Dec. 22, 1923)
W.F. Tierney, manager of the Northwest Mutual Fire Insurance agency adn of the Martin Insurance Agency, was in a critical condition at the Methodist Hospital last night as the result of a plunge from the window of his office at 822-825 Central Building, Sixth and Main streets.
Tierney crashed through the roof of the Lark Theater, six stories below, while the theater was filled with a motion-picture audience, causing a near-panic in the place. He did not fall clear through the roof, however, his body lodging on some girders. Theater officials hurried to the roof and found Tierney lying unconscious some distance beyond their reach. They called police and Detectives Wild and Blythe on turn called the fire department, which used a ladder to reach Tierney.
The insurance manager was fond to be suffering from a basal skull fracture, which physicians said probably would prove fatal. T.E. Audet, and inspector for the agency, was in the offices at the time and said he believed Tierney had leaped from the window. He said Tierney came into the outer offices, where Audet was at work, talked with him for a time and then said: “Well, I must be going.” A few moments later, Audet said, he heard the noise of the crash and when he attempted to enter the inner office, found the door had been locked from the inside.