Bill Robinson Theatre
4219 S. Central Avenue,
Los Angeles,
CA
90011
4219 S. Central Avenue,
Los Angeles,
CA
90011
3 people
favorited this theater
The Tivoli Theatre was part of a long lost section of movie houses in South Central Los Angeles. It was opened prior to 1926 when it was listed with 450 seats. In 1931 it become an African-American theatre and the seating capacity had been increased to 873. In 1937 it was renamed Bill Robinson Theatre. It was still open in 1960.
The building was demolished in 1971 following damage from the Sylmar earthquake.
Contributed by
William Gabel
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater.
Recent comments (view all 30 comments)
Oh Bill Robinson, where have you gone…lost in San Jacinto.
L.A. library’s index cards use the American dating system, with the month first.
I’ve been unable to determine if the Soboba theatre was on East or West Main Street.
Koo-koo-ka-choo, Mr. Robinson,
We’ll get back to you eventually.
As a small child, my family took me to the Robinson Theater to see Ben Hur. It was our neighborhood theater. As a young boy, I got a job cleaning and stacking bricks that were the remains of the demolished theater. Both the Robinson Theater, and the Dunbar Hotel were our pyramids of Giza, monuments of a civilization that had long since become passed away.
When was it demolished?
The Robinson theater was located on Central Ave, between 43rd St. and 43rd Pl. on the west side of the street. Directly across the street from the Los Angeles Sentinel news paper, Civic meat market, and Lucy’s Supermarket.
Here’s an old theater on the corners of Central and Jefferson Ave. that’s standing.
View link
I’m sure it hard to have been built around the same time as the Robinson to the north and the Lincoln theater to the south. All three within a few miles of each other, all on Central Ave.
Los Angeleno: The theater on Central at Jefferson is listed at Cinema Treasures as the Florence Mills Theatre. It is the oldest of the three theaters you mention, having been erected in 1912, and known to have been operating as the Globe Theatre in 1914.
Advertised in the LA Times in January 1960. Double feature on 1/22/60 was “Sad Horse” and “Sound & The Fury”. Admission was fifty cents.
Worked this theater briefly during a revival, and ran a bunch of “Hammer” Horror Films that were popular in the lated sixties. The theater was like the Rio, and didn’t stay open very long on its second go round.
Opened September 1937 per