Town Theatre
444 S. Hill Street,
Los Angeles,
CA
90013
444 S. Hill Street,
Los Angeles,
CA
90013
6 people
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Far West Theatres Inc., Pussycat Theatres
Architects: Albert Carey Martin
Styles: Art Deco
Previous Names: Bard's Hill Street Theatre, Pussycat Theatre
Nearby Theaters
Bard’s Hill Street Theatre opened in October 1920 as one of the chain of L. Lou Bard’s chain Far West Theatres Inc. It was renamed Town Theatre on March 23, 1935. It is noted as being the first in the chain of Pussycat Theatre’s, when it converted to adult movies on February 4, 1966.
It was closed in September 1985, and later razed to make way for a McDonalds.
Contributed by
William Gabel
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Recent comments (view all 56 comments)
Finally! Although the building is over two hundred feet distant, and the scan is a bit blurry, here is a photo of Bard’s Hill Street Theatre in the 1920s. The detail in the image is not too good, but it looks as though the theater had the same sort of fancy facade that Bard’s 8th Street had before it became the Olympic.
The photo is from the Dorothy Peyton Gray Transportation Library and Archive.
The Town can be seen on the right in this 1939 photo from the USC archives:
http://tinyurl.com/d5g63w
Here is a 1946 photo. It may have been posted before on one of the dead links above but I post it below:
View link
The feature films playing in Joe Vogel’s post from Jan 30th, 2009 are
“Confidential Agent” (1945 from WB) Charles Boyer, Lauren Bacall & Peter Lorre. The second feature was “Two O'Clock Courage” (1945 from RKO).
No matter where a projectionist worked, they could always pick up extra money by working the Midnight shift at a Pussycat theater. This booth was itty-bitty, but it was clean and ran great! I remember, well, I think I remember, the booth was painted a dark green. Heck, for all I know, maybe it was black. Wow, the first Pussycat.
Nice 1946 photo.
There’s a screencap of the Pussycat here: http://therockfordfilestv.blogspot.com/2011/08/rockford-files-episode-profit-loss-car.html
Here’s a link to a shot of the Town in October ‘55 — https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5668/22294085863_54e106057f_o.png
From the Getty Archives, Leonard Nadel Collection, under “Traffic, Land Use, Housing and Street Conditions, Shopping”
February 4th, 1966 grand opening ad as Pussycat in the photo section.
Reopened as Town on March 23rd, 1935. No grand opening ad appeared in the LA Times.