Center Theatre
4760 Whittier Boulevard,
East Los Angeles,
CA
90022
4760 Whittier Boulevard,
East Los Angeles,
CA
90022
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Closed in 1969 and reopened on November 24th, 1971. Tiny grand opening ad posted.
This opened (or reopened) on May 31st, 1939 as an $85,000 Ultra Modern CENTER Theatre. Grand opening ad posted.
My Dad just told me, that while he was working as an usher at the Golden Gate Theatre in the 1940’s, sometimes the Center Theatre needed ushers and would call up and borrow a few of the young men & women for the day. That was the practice for several of the theatres up and down Whittier Blvd even though they had different owners. I take this Fathers Day tale with a grain of salt but it sounds good. He worked for $.50 per hour back then.
The last ads in the LA Times for the Center are in early 1971.
Here is a May 1969 ad from the LA Times:
http://tinyurl.com/545wha
I used to go to the Center when I was young (9-10 years old) in the late 40s. They used to have contests for kids on the stage on Saturdays before the movies started. The last movie I saw there was East of Eden. I also went to all the other theaters on Whittier Blvd., including the Jewel and Garmar.
Here are some photos from June 2007:
http://tinyurl.com/2l8u58
http://tinyurl.com/3dxtq3
http://tinyurl.com/3c4nu2
http://tinyurl.com/3cqk2b
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http://tinyurl.com/365pfk
http://tinyurl.com/2teqq9
http://tinyurl.com/3dwqvy
Maybe demolished, maybe not. The back of the building looks old. The front looks like possibly wooden paneling covering the old exterior. Maybe the theater portion in the front was demolished for retail and they left the rest of the building intact. I took some pictures which I will post later.
Advertised at 4762 Whittier Boulevard in the LA Times on 7/16/69. Featured films were “All Male-All Gay-All Color, continuous from 10 a.m.”
The Center Theater was the first movie house I ever went to. The first movie I ever was Godzilla.
What I remembered most about the Center was there was a hotdog stand attached partly to the lobby and part of it outside to the street. This allowed patrons to buy hotdogs or hamburgers from inside or out outside the theater. I never saw anything like it again.
In the 1960’s, on Sunday afternoons, my family would drive up and down Whittier Boulevard to see what movies were playing at the three local cinemas: The Golden Gate, Boulevard, and the Center. And while I have vivid memories of the Golden Gate’s beautiful courtyeard and building, and the Boulevard’s great marquee, the Center seemed less distinguished. I do remember watching “The Omega Man,” “Man in the Wilderness,” and a few Elvis movies. When my uncle would visit from Mexico he would drag me to the Alameda, the Spanish language cinema. It was a nice theater but at the time I just wasn’t into Mexican cinema.