Liberty 3 Cinemas

Grand opening ad in Spanish posted.

A footnote to the stabbing incident: George Escobedo, 15 had moved from San Antonio TX in 1964 to live with his sister in Huntington Park. He was well known to juvenile authorities in Texas, and had been involved in a stabbing there as well, according to news reports of the Alcazar murders. In 2008, a 59 year old George Escobedo was killed by fellow gang members in San Antonio.

The story posted by kencmcintyre “Theater fight Ends In Death Of Two Youths” is totally false. The two boys who were murdered were my Dads friends. My Dad was there with them when the murders took place. Robert Haney and Billie Bogard did not block the doors in the washroom or say “We don’t like surfers around here”. They weren’t even together when they were stabbed. George Escobedo was a guy who you could say who was a little strange. He had a screw lose. My Dad knew him as well and told me he had always been on the weird side. My Dad and Robert Haney were standing next to each other in the lobby of the movie theatre and Escobido stabbed Robert Haney in the back. He stabbed Billie Bogard in the washroom. Haney and Bogard were not together when they were stabbed. They did not fuel the fire to any type of fight. It was done by Escobido because Escobido was in my own opinion, mentally disturbed. I just wanted to set the record straight on this story. The two guys who were murdered were good boys and friends of my Dads. They should not have lost their lives and then lied about.

I worked at the Alcazar from 1952-1957 changing the marquee and as doorman. I started at .75 an hour as doorman and split $6 three ways for a year changing the marquee. Eventually I endured the departure of my friends and got the whole $6 a week for learning how to spell correctly actors names and titles (correctly). I remember my most difficult title word was “Pharaohs” for the movie “The Land of the Pharaohs.” Most difficult name was Barbara Stanwyck. I was so dedicated to the job that I started changing the California Theatre in Huntington Park also. It paid $10 a week. I got free passes for my friends too. Sometimes I’d charge them a cheaper price than the ticket… Mr. Rankin was the projectionist and I’d have to bring down the out going film in big cans. The theatre manager would have us paint the theatre lobby occasionally and change the posters. The posters had to be sent back after use, but I had to keep my favorite movie posters, “East of Eden” and “Rebel Without a Cause.” I continued changing marquees all over L.A. until 2007. I worked at the Universal CityWalk Cinemas from 1987 to 2007 and was being paid $330 weekly. Among all the other employments I had at the same time, I made more money changing marquees, than acting, directing, teaching, TV cue-cards, chicken truck driving, and modeling… I even have an old Alcazar check that was never cashed for $6.

I use to go to the ALCAZAR when I was a kid. From 1956 to 1960 it was a beautiful theater. Halloween was my favorite time with a real coffin and a live person in it:) What great memories. I think admission was thirty five cents at that time. My how times have changed.

There should be an aka of Liberty 3 Cinemas.

Here are photos from 1981 and 1983:
http://tinyurl.com/cldsst
http://tinyurl.com/cp3jtb

From the LA Times on 9/14/44:

Fire Sweeps Bell Theater

An early morning blaze in the Alcazar Theater, 4426 Gage Ave., yesterday caused damage of approximately $50,000. A lighted cigarette left in a loge is believed to have started the blaze.

The fire destroyed the entire inside of the building. In an all-night fight, the fire departments of Bell, Maywood and Huntington Park confined the blaze within the theater and saved apartments above from damage. Projection and sound equipment was saved, but the theater screen, stage, seats and other equipment were destroyed. No one was injured.

I was attending Nimitz Jr High in Huntington Park from 1987-1990. In 1987, I was in the 6th grade when a 5.9 earthquake rocked Whittier, CA. Rumor was… Liberty Theater ended up with a lot of damage and was closed down. I was a 6th grader then, I’m not sure where a 12 year old received that info? Liberty was missed!

It was still around in 1983. Does anyone know when it closed and when it was demolished?

Here is a photo of the interior from the LA Library:

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics35/00037278.jpg

David Donley: There are a very few references to Julian T. Zeller in the L.A. Library’s regional history database, and only one of them is to a theatre other than the Alcazar/Liberty. This is from the November 2nd, 1925 issue of Southwest Builder and Contractor, and it says that Zeller had prepared sketches for a proposed $100,000 theatre to be built on A Street in Oxnard. It is not clear that this theatre was actually built, or that, if it was, that Zeller did the final plans.

The only theatre which I’m certain was on A Street in Oxnard was the Oxnard Theatre (later the Fox Oxnard Theatre) at 525 A. This theatre, though planned as early as 1920, was not actually built until 1928, and the final plans were by architect Alfred F. Priest, who had also drawn the original 1920 plans.

I haven’t been able to find much documentation of the theatres in Oxnard (I’ve seen references indicating that as many as six may have been built there by the 1930s), and the Oxnard Theatre itself is not yet listed at Cinema Treasures. Until someone roots around in Oxnard’s records, we probably won’t know if Zeller’s theatre plans of 1925 ever came to fruition.

The only other mentions of Zeller are about his design for a Swedish Lodge (Lyrian Lodge- no location given) in the Los Angeles Examiner of 3/22/1914; his design for an apartment house at 198 E. Jefferson in Los Angeles (mentioned in Southwest Builder and Contractor, 5/7/1920); and his design for four frame bungalows to be built at 118-130 E. 37th Street, Los Angeles (Southwest B&C 7/16/1920.) Builder and Contractor Magazine of 10/17/1912 gave the address of his offices as rooms 215-216, Courrier Building, Los Angeles. He was also mentioned in the February, 1929 issue of California Arts & Architecture Magazine, but I don’t know what that was about.

I am interested in the architect J.T. Zeller. Did he do other theaters or homes in the area? Please let me know.