Manchester Theatre

I grew up on 90th and Main (I was born in 1954, a white kid), and went to the Manchester fairly frequently, in the years between the mid-60s and 1972, when we moved from Los Angeles. I was one of those obnoxious little shits sitting up in the balcony making noise.

Even though I was a kid, I remember the beauty of that theater. What a shame it’s gone. I hate the looks of modern theaters.

Here is part of an LA Times story from April 1933:

Police retaliated yesterday with the capture of one bandit after gunmen had gleaned more than $900 cash in four daring daylight holdups, including two theaters, a woman motorist and a Hollywood travel bureau.

Captured shortly after he and a confederate had taken $200 from the Manchester Theater, 330 West Manchester avenue, a man identified as George H. Putnam, 26, was held by police on a charge of suspicion of robbery.

Putnam was taken into custody a short distance from the theater through the alertness of Salvador Cervantes, janitor, who turned in the alarm after the bandits had bound and gagged manager Perry Morgan and another janitor. Putnam was returning to his parked automobile when he was arrested.

Three bandits tied up C.M. Bayers, manager of the Larchmont Theater, 147 N. Larchmont Blvd, to take $500 from the office safe. The bandits used wire in making fast Bayers’ hands and feet.

Here is a 1944 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/2b2wxw

Ken; They were the same theater, just different names as the years went by. The AAA was the last on the totem pole as far as getting first run pictures and if you missed them at other theaters you could eventually see them at the AAA (Mecca or PIX). Spent many a happy hour in the AAA as a young boy.

Speaking of the AAA I add this for a few laughs based on fact.

There were three movie theaters: the Manchester, Mayfair, and the Mecca, which was later called the Pix and then the Triple A (AAA). The Mecca also had a bowling alley above it. The thing I remember most about the Mecca theater (which I think was in its Pix phase then) are two pictures we saw there as young boys. The first was Ecstasy, a picture made by Hedy Lamar in Austria in 1933 that was banned in this country because of a ten minute swim in the nude! Somehow in about 1944 or 45 word went around, mouth to mouth among all of the boys in Bret Harte Jr. High School, that it was going to be shown at the Pix, but you had to be 18 years old to get in. My younger brother Gary (he was about ten years old then) and I, along with every other boy in the entire neighbor showed up and when we were asked if we were 18 we answered yes in the deepest voice we could muster. Gary was the last in line but he passed with flying colors and his dime entrance fee. Of course the nude swim was so dark and murky all you could tell was that she didn’t have a bathing suit on, but we all came out saying and thinking that we had just seen our first naked lady. I’m not sure Mom and Pop knew we saw it or not.
The second picture was a controversial sex education film called “Mom and Dad” that was only shown to segregated audiences (all boys or all girls) with a nurse in attendance. Again I was still in Bret Harte Jr. High School at the time (I was about 13 or 14). It started with a couple of teenagers on a date and petting in his car. Of course she got pregnant (but you didn’t see how), and that’s when the educational part started. The next thing you knew you were watching a natural birth, and then a cesarean birth. After that it went in to all kinds of STD’s (sexually transmitted diseases) showing up close photos of live nude body parts (particularly of the male organ) in all states of disrepair. This was accompanied with an audio description of what this disrepair might feel like and what the treatment was to correct the problem if it could be corrected and if it couldn’t be corrected what the final outcome would be!! The latter half is when they needed the nurse for some people! We left that movie swearing an oath to celibacy as we walked out the front door, but only until we encountered the first girl. Proof of the power of hormones over a bank of cerebral knowledge in the cortex of a teenager’s brain.

George;
I am writing my autobiography (since I finished my cookbook) and I used to live right behind the Manchester Theater on 87th street. Our backyard was actually used as part of their parking lot at times. We rented the house and the landlady may a few extra dollars renting part of our backyard to the parking people. We lived there from about 1935 to 1948 and our house was demolished by the off ramp of the Harbor freeway. The Manchester was not demolished because of the freeway but because of the vandalism that occurred in the area as the demographics in the area changed.
It was a true art deco theater with an orchestra pit, a built in pipe organ, and I actually saw some vaudeville acts there. There was a lot of gold leaf on the plaster fixtures around the lights. It was air conditioned with metal capped vents under every second or third seat. Prior to WWII they had a HUGE sign on the roof that was lighted by hundreds of incandescent bulbs and it could be seen for miles, but they never used it again after the war and finally removed it. It had a large balcony the lower half of which was all large lodges and smoking was only allowed in the balcony. Originally there were no refreshments sold in the theater and if you wanted some candy you had to buy it at Mr. Kehoe’s sweet shop next door. The first store to the west. The theater also had some retail shops attached to it that were part of the main building that streched to the alley that ran behind the stores facing Broadway.
It showed first run pictures that were mainstream at the time and Saturday matinees consisted of two regular pictures, a third one that was usually a western, 3 or 4 cartoons, one episode of a serial such as Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers, a news reel and a drawing for a box of candy (that I won once and gave to my Mom). When it had a good first run picture showing the theater would be full with a line waiting to get in outside. There were always two pictures showing and one would be an A movie and the second one was usually a B movie. Now you only get one movie for seven or eight dollars. Saturday matinees cost seven cents to get in so for a dime you coud buy a ticket and get three cents worth of candy at Mr. Kehoe’s sweet shop.
Just to the east at Broadway and Manchester there was a theater that was named the Mecca, then the Pix and finally the triple A (AAA). Just south of that on the same side of Broadway at 86th street there was another theater called the Mayfair. Rating them they would be # 1 Manchester # 2 Mayfair # # 3 the Mecca.
Your write up on the Manchester Theater brought back some old memories. We moved to 109th and Vermont in 1948 and I graduated from Washington High in 1950. Just in time for the Korean War!!.

Best regards;
Dr. LeRoy Trnavsky

Here is another ad from September 1966:
http://tinyurl.com/3333rv

Rest in peace:
http://tinyurl.com/3ynn62

My friends and I used to catch the bus on El Segundo & Central and ride to the Manchester Theater to see the latest movies. We spend a many of Saturdays at the Manchester. Does anyone remember the name of the theater that was just a few blocks away from the manchester?

I’ve got it from reliable sources, my father in law, that in the 1930’s, Don Santo was the main emcee at the theater. There also was a man that sold taffy out front. He used a little hammer to break off chucks and sold it to the people going in the theater.

The Manchester was built for the West Coast Theatre Circuit. The architect was L.A. Smith.

I was not surprised to discover that Smith designed the Manchester. I the 1950s, we drove past this theater many times, and I was always struck by the similarity of its style to that of Smith’s Garfield Theater in Alhambra.

What George Haider has said, I agree with, if you went to the Manchester Theatre after 1958. However, the Manchester was on the south side of Manchester between Broadway and Figueroa, and yes in the 1950’s the Harbor Freeway came to town and the on ramp to the Harbor Freeway north, was just about half a block away, maybe three quarters. I worked with a Dave Eisenman at one time, and he was the manager of the Manchester during the 1940’s. He told me many stories of the stage shows and the orchestra pit, which was still there when I went there in the 1940’s. I remember it well, it had pipe railings around it, with black cloth going down to a lower pipe going around the pit. I enjoyed the theatre, and I know that many others also did. Also it did at one time have a pretty nice organ in it. It is truly a shame that it had to go into the state that Mr. Haider mentions.