Regal Theater
323 S. Main Street,
Los Angeles,
CA
90013
323 S. Main Street,
Los Angeles,
CA
90013
2 people
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Additional Info
Previous Names: New Star Theater, Hecla Theater, Bijou Theater, Theatre Royal
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This theater shows up named as the New Star Vaudeville Theater on the 1906 Sanborn map at 323 S. Main Street in the Turn Halle Germania building which occupied 319-325 S. Main Street. In April 1906 it was renamed Hecla Theater. By 1908 it is listed as both the Bijou Theater and the Theatre Royal and then changes names to the Regal Theater until 1919.
In 1919 the building was taken over by the Los Angeles Men’s Club and the theater was apparently converted to a gym which would later become the first Main Street Gym until burning in 1951.
Contributed by
jeff bridges
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Recent comments (view all 16 comments)
Here’s one for the New Star name:
(June 6, 1906)
NEW STAR THEATER-323 South Main St.
A Carload of Pretty Girls, A Barrel of Good Singing and a Bunch of Fun-Real Burlesque Up To Date
Prices-10c, 20c, 30c, and a few at 50c
(Feb. 19, 1908)
Bijou Theater
323 South Main St.
This afternoon and evening, all this week. The Tommy Burns-Gunner Moir fight pictures taken at London, England, ten rounds and knockout. Admission 25c, any seat.
Here are some dates with names of this theater. LAT is Los Angeles Times with an address listed. The other dates are City Directory listings.
New Star [1906 Sanborn Map, 1906 LAT]
Theatre Royal [1908]
Bijou [1908 LAT]
Bockoven & Dean [1909 Listed Under Moving Pictures & Machines]
Regal [1909 LAT, 1915 LAT, 1915, 1916, 1919 LAT]
I think Bockoven & Dean must have been just an equipment provider or something in the same building and most likely not a name for this theater. However, I there is another name for this theater from around 1906…The Hecla.
(April 22, 1906)
The opening of the new Hecla Theater, under the management of J.J. Cluxton, will take place today. The Hecla occupies the building formerly possessed by the Star, of unlamented reputation.
Here’s an address confirmation:
(April 15, 1906)
HECLA THEATER-323 S. Main St. J.J. Cluxton Manager
at the opening Saturday Matinee, April 21
Ladies and Their Escorts Admitted Free
The closing date of this theatre has to be no later than 1933, which is when the Main Street Gym took over the premises.
Joe, from the sept. 4, 1919 article above, I think the theater closed then and was turned into a men’s club with a gymnasium. It was probably then turned completely into a gym. The 1920 article had another part that made it sound as though they just let the oldsters celebrate one more time.
Here is a July 1907 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/2tkdh8
Nice advertisement….I wish they would put up a ‘popular prices’ sign at movie ticket windows today.
I have a picture from Carl, the orchestra leader, of the Regal Theater from Christmas 1913. My grandmother was a dancer and she also had a lot of pictures of people in costume in some theater, which might be from the Real Theater.
Elisa
According to the Los Angeles Herald, this theater was the site of a major dispute over the open-shop issue in which the Central Labor Council listed the non-union Regal as “unfair to unions” and mounted a nightly picket, with as many as 200-people, through the winter of 1909/1910.