Linda Lea Theatre

Jim_C: I think the information got lost from the description at some point, as we’ve known for many years (since 2004, in fact) that the Arrow Theater dated to the 1920s. The notice that construction contracts had been let was published in October, 1924. The 1940 date is for a reopening under the new name Azteca Theatre. I don’t think we’ve ever discovered the original opening date, but it must have been either late 1924 or early 1925. The Arrow’s first appearance in the city directory was in the 1926 edition, so early 1925 is the most likely opening.

My Father, Toshiyuki, and G'Father, Shinsuke, owned the Linda Lea. The first Linda Lea was at 322 E.First St.. Originally, it was the Fuji-kan when my G'Father bought it. He operated it, and the Chinese restaurant next door as well. When the war broke out, he was arrested by the FBI, January 1942, as a propagandist, for showing Japanese newsreels. Newsreels, as you may recall were the only way you could get visual news in those days, so this was not a valid reason for imprisonment. During that time, Little Tokyo came to be called Bronzeville, and a Chinese businessman from Chinatown, bought the theater and named it, the Linda Lea, I believe after his wife. After the war, my G'Father reacquired it based on his previous ownership. The Chinese businessman then opened the Linda Lea on Main St.. My G'Father bought it about 1957-1968. It was my Father’s voice that was on the theater schedule recordings. We sold the theater back to the Chinese businessman, who began showing Kung Fu movies. Of interesting note, an article in the Los Angeles Times in 2007, mentioned that while remodeling the theater for an office space conversion, they discovered a second wall was hiding the original. It still had the window boxes and the Japanese movie posters that my G'Father had left there when he sold the theater! In regards to the Fuji-kan theater on First St., G'Father renamed it Kinema (Later the Nichibei Kinema) in 1955. The theater was a success, and this allowed my G'Father to bring over Japanese movie stars for their premieres, and often tied their visits to the Nisei Week Parade, of which my G'Father was one of the founders. In 1968, ThriftyMart, who had purchased the property with cooperation of the City of LA and Mayor Bradley, evicted my Father (who had taken over the business) to create the present Little Tokyo Plaza. He moved the theater to East LA, Boyle Heights, and named it Kinema East, leasing the old Meralta Theater. The location failed to draw enough of the Japanese-American market, so he filed for bankruptcy in 1972. During the late 1950’s through the 1960’s, in their heigh-day, they owned or leased nine movie theaters, including the NuArt Theater in Santa Monica.

Mr. Vogel: If memory serves, I seem to recall both the California and the Town being open as Pussycat theaters at the same time. I have a recollection of taking notice of the same film title being shown at both theaters at the same time and find the booking as odd.

One thing I do seem to remember about the putative ‘first opera house’ was the existence of some fixtures that appeared to be re-purposed gas light fixtures and, bit more dimly, the possible presence of box seating on the sides. Again, I am working from dim memories growing dimmer every day.

I probably attended, at one time or another, almost all of the theaters in Downtown LA and Hollywood, not to mention a goodly number of nabes and Westside theaters. Your experience at the Regent was more than typical of the other Main St. theaters and then some. If it wasn’t out of the curiosity to see what the interiors of the theaters looked like, I wouldn’t have had a reason to go into any of them. Still, at least I got to see some of those now lost treasures before they faded away.

davidcoppock: I’ve wondered about it myself, but have never been able to discover if there was a person called Linda Lea. A web page which is no longer available (not even at the Internet Archive’s wayback machine) said that the first Linda Lea Theatre opened in the former Fuji-Kan Theatre at 324 E. First Street on February 10, 1945. It presented stage shows as well as movies for an African American audience.

The Japanese population had been interned in camps during the second world war, and Little Tokyo filled up with workers, predominantly Black or Mexican, who had come to work in L.A.’s booming wartime industries. Following the war, as the Japanese gradually returned to the neighborhood, the Linda Lea went back to its original function as a Japanese language movie house, but instead of returning to its pre-war name Fuji-Kan it kept the name Linda Lea. The Japanese management kept the name even when they moved their operation to this house on Main Street around 1955.

It’s possible that there is still someone around who knows if there was a person named Linda Lea for whom the theater was renamed in 1945. If there was a Linda Lea, given the programming of the theater at that time, she was probably African American. I suspect that if anyone ever discovers the origin of the name it will be someone researching the history of the Black community in Los Angeles.

Mr. Vogel: I’m sorry I can’t really be more specific; it has been over 45 years and my memory is not what it was. It might have been the California, but IIRK, didn’t the Pussycat chain pretty much overhaul the interiors of their theaters, obliterating much of whatever remained of the of the original decor? It is entirely possible my recollection of the opera house claim may have been an exaggeration by some manager or other staff as to the provenance of the theater; some of them were also of an age when their own memories were ‘fuzzy’.

I moved to LA from San Francisco in early 1970 and quickly got a job working at a bank data processing center located on Main St. between 4th and 5th street. I worked the swing shift, starting at about 4:00pm and ending at about 1:00am. The entire area was a sort of a 24/7 battle zone. Just up the street was the old Follies Burlesque and just down the street, opposite was the Regent. There were a few “hole-in-the-wall” theaters and some arcade setups, some of which defy description other than “sleaze”. One of the times I went to the Follies, not long before its final closing, I got to go backstage and to an area upstairs where the were still posters, standups, and other advertising objects from the burlesque glory days. The Rolling Stones did some still and video photography for their “Exiles on Main Street” album cover art and promo films on Main St., Downtown LA. Some of the stills, on the original cover art, show some of the entrances and exterior lobby displays of some of the theaters; there are “Exiles” related videos on YouTube also showing film footage of some of the theater exteriors.

The Linda Lea was used for filming after its closure; I recall seeing the interior lobby used in the film “The Crow: City of Angels” and in a couple of TV crime drama series.

Regarding the photo link — I apologize on two counts:

1) I just found this website the same night I made my first post and didn’t know how to properly post a link;

2) I was also unaware of the “Photos” tab at the top of the Linda Lea Theater page; the photo in question is the first one to the left when the tab is clicked and the year in the caption is 1937; I should have known, on a site as extensively detailed as Cinema Treasures, someone had already posted the picture

I’m sorry I couldn’t be more specific on the theater you were asking about and thank you for you response and comments.

I couldn’t open a couple of the photo links in the other comments, so please excuse if this is a repeat:

http://photos.lapl.org/carlweb/jsp/FullRecord?databaseID=968&record=4&controlNumber=5072735

The description says ca. 1937, but it seems to be perhaps a bit earlier.

Starting around 1974, I used to go see movies at the Linda lea on an almost weekly basis, interspersed by viewings at the Toho La Brea and the Kokusai. I loved that old Linda Lea theater and was both saddened and angered by the theater’s fate. If you called the theater, a recording would give you the list of films (there were 3 films per bill) and their starting times. The recording would start off in English and whoever did the recordings tended to sound a bit like the villain in an old WWII move; the opening phrase: “This is the Linda Lea Theater, the home of Toei Films, exclusively!” Imagine this being said in a voice reminiscent of Sessue Hayakawa. After the English version, the whole spiel would be given again in Japanese.

The inside of the theater was basically one big box with the screen taking up pretty much all of the west wall; there were two, IIRC, exit doors below the screen in either corner. The theater did have a balcony and the balcony had a feature you don’t see anymore: a crying room; this was a walled off section of south side of the balcony with a large floor-to-ceiling pane of heavy glass; at the rear of the section were heavy drapes to muffle any sound from the area; in earlier days, patrons with small crying or fidgeting children who still wanted to see the film would be ‘exiled’ to the crying room so as not to disturb the other patrons.

There were quite a few aspects of the theater that held over from the earlier periods. The men’s restroom had “scratching plates” mounted on the wall next to the urinals so the men could strike their matches and light up a smoke while answering natures call. When I first came t LA in 1970, I was fascinated by all the old theaters still existing in downtown LA, particularly those east of Broadway. Those fine old theaters, some a bit worse for wear, some on their last legs, were like magnets to me and I spent a goodly amount of time visiting them and exploring the insides. One, whose name I have forgotten, I found out later had been the very first opera house in LA; st the time I saw it, it was an x-rated movie house, but a great deal of the old interior was still intact. Sadly, it was torn down, like a lot of the old Main St. theaters, often for nothing better than to become one more parking lot. I am thankful I got to see them before they faded away and I am very thankful for the help of the sometimes befuddled theater managers or projectionists who put up with me asking questions rather than seeing the films, or whatever, was on the bill.

It was NOT demolished. But it did it undergo a major reconstruction since there was nothing worth saving other the the concrete walls which are original. And it is now the Downtown Independent Theater which has a separate listing on this site that needs to be either combined with – or linked to – this listing.

A photo from January 2002:

View link

I don’t see it linked in any comment above, so here’s another photo of the Arrow from the USC Digital Archive. The newest cars on the street appear to be from about 1940. The theater was showing Spanish language movies, and there was a sign reading “Stage Show” above the marquee.

Does anyone recall seeing films here (when it was the Linda Lea, of course)? Any of the projectionists work here?

Here is part of a December 21, 1956 article in the LA Times:

Another of those Japanese cinematic objets d'art in the superb tradition of “Rashomon” and “Gate of Hell” was previewed Wednesday night at the Linda Lea Theater. Entitled “47 Ronin”, the film-in that prize-winning Eastman color-is based upon Jiro Osaraga’s novel of feudal Japan in the 18th century.

The photography is as delicate as watercolor but there is nothing pastel about the performances. “47 Ronin” will begin its run at the Linda Lea on New Year’s Day.

Here is a July 1956 item from the Pasadena Independent:

The other night I drove down to the Linda Lea Theater on S. Main Street in Los Angeles, bent on seeing the movie “Seven Samurai”. Parking in the theater’s free lot, I was accosted by a grizzled ancient who wanted to charge me for parking because he wouldn’t believe that I was really going to see a Japanese film. Well, I didn’t believe he was employed there, so I muttered my entire Japanese vocabulary of twelve words to him and walked away.

The manager of the Linda Lea is a genial, red haired chap who used to manage the old Tower Theater in Pasadena. I used to work in a movie house myself, so while waiting for the break we chatted about the crazy business. In the meantime a large crowd was accumulating in the lobby and the foyer. The manager, cognizant of my early theatrical training, asked if I would help to control the people until the auditorium was cleared. I said sure.

The audience disgorged, I helped usher in the new mob. When they had all been seated, I got the best seat that was leftâ€"first row, next to the wall. Seeing a three-hour movie with English subtitles from this angle is somewhat of a strain, but I managed to move back to a good seat during the intermission, readjusted my eyeballs to their normal sunken position and began to really enjoy the picture.

Here is a 1939 photo from USC:
http://tinyurl.com/dkxtqj