Optic Theatre

In a 1979 episode of the White Shadow the character of Abner Goldstein is seen walking out of the Optic after seeing the film Lenore Loves Louisville

Just caught a glimpse of the Optic in a 1981 episode of “Hill Street Blues” titled “Hearts and Minds”.

I believe the Optic as well as the Regent, Liberty, Lyceum and Kinema Theaters were all part of the West Coast Theater Chain operated by the Gore Brothers – Mike and Abe. All of their brothers and family were made managers of theaters. From the LA Times, December 11, 1920, Herman Gore is being sued for divorce by his wife of 16 days, Ruth. “She declares he earns $110. a week as Manager for Optic and Regent Theaters; also that he has an interest in the new Ambassador Theater being built in Hollywo0d, and the Liberty, Lyceum, Kinema Theaters.

Here is Woodley’s Optic, circa late 1930s:
http://tinyurl.com/obtejv

My USC links have all changed again, too, so here’s the current link to the wide view of the original Optic Theatre on Broadway (located at lower right of the photo.) There is also this cropped version with the Optic in close-up.

Note that just up the street the Broadway Central Building, later to become the location of the Broadway Theatre, is under construction.

Believe it or not, Walnut Properties either owned or leased the Optic Theatre in its last days. It was running as a grindhouse and was not showing x-rated. I was there a few times for service calls and repairs. By that time (some time between 1978 and 1981) it was in bad shape and had some scary clientele (and I don’t scare easily). The projector heads were Simplex E7s, the lamphouses were Peerless Magnarc xenon conversions done by Leonard Pincus and the pedestals were those old, heavy cast-iron Simplex 5-point pedestals. The screen had been torn so many time that Mr. Miranda and Mr. Tate had pegboard installed and painted white. On one of my calls, I remember an episode of that awful “T. J. Hooker” show with William Shatner was being shot in a nearby parking lot. I was told that the Optic was one of the first houses in Los Angeles to install sound; I have no idea if that’s true or not.

Someone above mentioned a house with a glass screen. One of my projection mentors, a Mr. William Rankin, told me many years ago of a house in Los Angeles that had a sandblasted mirror for a screen and that it weighed several tons. I sure can’t remember what house he said it was.

I love the store right next to it: “Ye Post Card Shop.”

There’s a big billboard over it on the larger picture for the Belasco….did he have something to do with the Optic or was he just being a jerk?

In 1963, Popkin & Ringer, 306 W. 3rd Street LA, operated the Optic, Art, Gayety, Hippodrome, Regent, Star and Banner, according to the 1963 motion picture almanac. It appears that they cornered the market on Main Street grind houses. The one thing I don’t understand is that the Hippodrome had ceased to be as a movie theater in the late forties or early fifties.

I noted the aka for the Star. Thanks.

The LA city directory in 1925 lists the Virginia Theater at 529 S. Main. This would be between the Gaiety on the north and the Optic on the south. It’s not on Vokoban’s list of 12/20/05, but those were theaters that were advertising in the LA Times. Perhaps the Virginia has not been accounted for as of yet. The heading in the directory says “motion picture theaters” so it wasn’t a live playhouse.

It places the Optic at 446&½ S. Broadway.

It also give the address of Tally’s New Broadway as 254 S. Broadway, but given the evidence of historic photos confirming that it was at 554 S. Broadway, I’d guess that the newspaper listing probably has a typo.

Lots of other interesting stuff in that ad, though, including the address of the first Metropolitan Theatre at 257 E. Fifth, and of the second Los Angeles Theatre, at 340 S. Spring.

It would be nice if it differentiated between movie theatres and stage theatres, though. It’s going to be hard to tell which ones ought to be added and which ones don’t qualify.