Pussycat Theatre
1653 Cravens Avenue,
Torrance,
CA
90501
1653 Cravens Avenue,
Torrance,
CA
90501
5 people
favorited this theater
Showing 17 comments
Opened in April 1949 with “Life Of Riley” starring William Bendix & Rosemary DeCamp, and “Fighting Fools” starring the Bowery Boys. Image added indicates Rosemary DeCamp was in person at the grand opening.
The Pussycat Theatre opened with “Starlet”.
July 11th, 1969 grand opening as Pussycat in photo section
It’d have been better if they’d have kept the AURORA lettering and just named it Pussycat on the marquee, rather than destoying the original history.. what a great design!
Heers another one!!!!
Here is a 1983 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/cnbe8l
Great article, JayAllen… Thanks!
New book-length Pussycat Theatre history from the San Diego Reader:
View link
Here is a February 1972 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/286ymq
Disney films played there in the 60’s. Ironic that it was turned into a porno house.
My brother and I enjoyed some truly unusual Saturday afternoons at the Stadium during the mid-late ‘60s. Atomic Fireballs, pre-movie music including a strange instrumental that was punctuated with a guy muttering “Meet me at the clubhouse” every few bars… And, of course, “Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster,” “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein,” and plenty of other really BAD “B” movies. Great times for just $.25 admission on days that we couldn’t get over to the Rolling Hills Theater.
What a shame. The movie/music/coffee house thing would’ve been great. I always thought something like that would go over big in this neighborhood. I miss seeing this historical landmark…another one bites the dust. Nice to still see it in the “Ed Wood” movie however. I remember when that movie was being filmed there, and marquee had a “Bela Lugosi” credit on it, with 50’s cars parked in front.
Does anyone know what happened to the Old Pussycat marquee, or have any old photos of the theatre during the Pussycat days? My God father owned the chain and I am putting a collection of Pussycat memorabilia together. Please drop me a line if you have any info.
Tim B.David
970.309.3991
In 1995 I was a part of a small group of investors interested in renovating this theater. The cost was 700k, plus an additional 700k to retrofit for earthquakes. The city of Torrance bureaucrats didn’t want to deal with the renovation of a “porn theater” after having dealt with years of protests to close this locale. Our plan was to convert into a movie/music/coffee house type venue. No chance. The city of T. is way too uptight for that. They blocked every avenue we had to buy and reno. They wanted it gone for good./FYI: This theater was my Mom’s first job back in the late 50’s./Hmm? Culture or Condos? In Torrance, it’s condos. JoeC.
It was a good theater. I saw the first run of “Goldfinger” there in 1964.
The Stadium Theatre was located at 1653 Cravens Ave., it seated 900 people at one time.
Actually the theatre had stadium style seating, not really a balcony. A wall was put up where the lower level met the start of the slope going up in the back area where the seats were taken out. One rainy day in 1974 as I was working as a projectionist there (no choice I was sent there by my union) the assistant manager asked me if she should turn on the marquee lights as it was company policy to run the lights on dark days. I said it’s not a good idea because the rain (very heavy that day) might cause a short and start a fire. She turned on the lights anyway fearing she might be fired. Less than an hour later a burning smell filled the air and I looked out through the opening and saw smoke coming from the marquee. I stopped the show and turned up the house lights and called the manager to evacuate the theatre because the marquee is on fire.