Chimes Theatre

This opened on December 15th, 1917. Grand opening ad in the photo section.

I think this is mostly wrong. And, how the hell I happened to think of the Chimes tonight escapes me. I grew up on Shafter Ave. and lived there from 1939 until 1954. The Chimes was the place where I kissed my first girl (Jerilyn Sullivan) probably in 1953. The movie was Calamity Jane, and I can remember it to this day. Secret Love was the hit song that came from it. As a kid, we went to all the Saturday matinees, then played cowboys and indians all the way home. The building is still there, it never burned down. It’s been divided into two stores, but if you squint, you can still see what it was. Boy, that was a long time ago. I still wonder what became of Jerilyn; what a sweet girl she was.

In the early fifties I was in elementary school living on Hillegass near Claremont. During summer vacation, the Chimes had a Wednesday afternoon program, a respite for our mothers, who were all housewives, of course. We walked up to the Chimes and saw a few cartoons, a newsreel, a serial episode (Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen was featured one year), and two movies, all for 75 cents.

The Chino Theater, designed by S. Charles Lee, would directly follow this entry:

http://sclee.library.ucla.edu/002/01/i0020104.jpg

http://sclee.library.ucla.edu/002/01/i0020103.jpg

I think you are right gsmurph. Certainly the dates make more sense, and as you may be aware memories become a bit fuzzy after 35 years.

The Chimes (its original name, by the way) was built by the Beach-Krahn Amusements Company and opened in December 1917. Originally a Period Revival structure, it was the first US theater to feature a row of chimes (hence, its name) on a projecting bay 40 feet above the ground. The first of many remodels was by architect James Plachek in 1920; the projection room was re-equipped on February 14, 1929 from plans by Allen J. Yerrick. In 1931 it received a new Moderne exterior by Alexander Aimwell Cantin and was renamed the Uptown; Cantin would do a subsequent exterior remodeling in the 1940’s. By the late 1930’s the theater was once more called the Chimes (though the row of chimes was by then gone). By the early 1950’s the Chimes had closed as a theater.

In February 1958 a a skating rink was installed on the second floor; ads read in part “Chimes Skateland—-Just a Little Nicer.” A short-lived trampoline studio was aded in 1960, and in 1961, a bowling alley, “Chimes Lanes,” was built. But about 1963, a fire occured that closed the building for good, and in April 1965, the Cleveland Wrecking Company finished the job to make way for the Grove-Shafter (William Byron Rumford) Freeway.