Seville Theatre
6405 West Boulevard,
Inglewood,
CA
90302
6405 West Boulevard,
Inglewood,
CA
90302
No one has favorited this theater yet
Showing 22 comments
The Seville was gutted in the early 50’s. The theater building became Stegs Restaurant Supply and the soda fountain/candy store became Marcus' (greeting cards, toys, etc.
My recollection of the (closed) Seville is that in the same building there was a shoe repair shop and a small cafe just south of the Seville and attached to it. There were a very few stools and booths. The booths were high backed wooden affairs, as I recall. Very tiny place and I only had lunch there a couple of times with my aunt. She also knew the shoe repair man, Mr Thon. This happened about 1952-ish. Does anyone remember these 2 businesses?
I can tell you for a fact it has. I grew up at 3612 w 64 st. right behind the theater in the house on the alley. Steg’s moved to Hawthorne in 1972 and the building was damaged in 1970’s earthquake. I went to the Mesa to see the Guns of Navaron as a kid.
This is a 1972 aerial photo. There is a building on the southwest corner that was replaced by the church that I photographed a while ago.
http://tinyurl.com/ylzxnnv
Thanks Joe. That should end the speculation about which building was the theater.
The L.A. County Assessor says the building on the southwest corner of West Blvd. and 64th Street (that would be the church) was built in 1994. The building facing West Blvd. north of 64th Street dates from 1941. The Seville Theatre has undoubtedly been demolished.
My Grandmother owned a Boarding house on Grace West of Hillcrest in Inglewood throughout the 50s (not the 60s)and often took me along when she shopped at Stegs Restaurant Supply on West Blvd. The building was cavernous and oddly-configured for a warehouse so it was likely the old theater location.
I think the Seville was located in the now empty lot across from the church I photographed a while. We all agree that the church is not the former theater. The Christian Life book store seen in the Google photo corresponds with an article in the LA Times in 1925 about a new market building being constructed immediately adjacent to the Seville.
The Seville was in the LA Times theater guide in April 1950. Click on the guide for a better view.
http://tinyurl.com/c4ds6e
Here is an excerpt from the lawsuit I mentioned back in December 2006:
Suffice it to say for the present that what the plaintiff is complaining of is that the Seville Theater was arbitrarily removed from one zone to another, and that by reason of such changed zoning she had been damaged because of her inability to secure first and second run pictures, ad theretofore, but was compelled to secure them in accordance with the new zoning. The Seville Theater was located at the extreme northeast corner of the city of Inglewood. Inglewood is bounded on the north and east by Los Angeles City. We may ignore a cemetery which forms a part of the cast boundary of Inglewood and lies between the boundaries of the two cities. Thus, the Seville Theater is at the point of a wedge extending about a mile and three-quarters into the side of Los Angeles City. The Seville is located in residential territory. There is nothing to distinguish the territory in the city of Los Angeles from that in the city of Inglewood other than the street marking the boundary between the two municipalities.The plaintiff and her husband, who was her business partner, selected the location of the Seville Theater, which was built for them and purchased by them in February of 1924 because of its favorable position with relation to zoning. The Seville Theater was able to secure motion pictures at the same time — that is, first or second run — as in the downtown theaters in Inglewood, the Inglewood Theater, and later the Granada Theater, which was opened in the fall of 1924, the former 1.83 miles away and the latter 1.73 miles away from the Seville, but separated from each other by only a block. The nearest theater in Los Angeles City was the Rivoli, 2.95 miles distant from the Seville. Subsequently another theater, the Carlton, was opened in the fall of 1924 in Los Angeles 2.30 miles distant from the Seville, and .65 miles south of the Rivoli, both being located on Western avenue. By the zoning system in force at the time the Seville was built, it was enabled to secure first run pictures before the Rivoli or any other theater between the Seville and the larger downtown theaters in Los Angeles, some 10 miles distant. Later the Mesa Theater was built in Los Angeles City at the corner of Slauson avenue and Crenshaw boulevard, distant .75 miles from the Seville, and opened April 15, 1926. The Mesa seated 1,700 and the Seville 786, the Rivoli between 900 and 1,000, the Granada 1,000, and the Carlton about 1,200. Thus, after the Seville was opened, theaters having four times its seating capacity were opened in that vicinity. When the Mesa Theater was building, the zoning committee of the producers and exhibitors decided that the Mesa and Seville Theaters were competing theaters and put them in the same zone so that they could compete on equal terms. This arrangement was protested by plaintiff’s husband, who was managing the Seville Theater, but his protest was overruled.
Aside from being too small, and not looking at all like something that would date to the 1920s, the church building in Ken’s photos from last August faces on 64th Street, and shows no signs of ever having had an entrance on the West Boulevard side. Surely it was never the Seville Theatre. I don’t know about the building across the street and parking lot to the north, but unless there was some serious inconsistency in the numbering system, or we’ve got the Seville’s address wrong, I don’t see how it could be the Seville either. Can we get a confirmation of the address as 6405?
Sounds like the Congress. It has a page here.
/theaters/3477/
lol i dont blame you,say ken there was a theatre off of imperial and im guessing vermont?(its wide enough for the old red cars to go north and south both ways),anyways i tried doing a search for it via the zip code but found nothing.can you help?its a church now,and if memory serves me,its like a dark color like blue or green,and its kinda art deco.
charlie
I’m not going back to that neighborhood.
The church does not look like it was a 830 seat theatre. Across the street going north there is a building that is around that size for a theatre.
There are several references to the Seville as a silent film theater in the twenties, but then nothing after that in the LA Times archives, excepting the story above. I don’t think the church on the property today was the original Seville.
The indomitable Mrs. Robison won her lawsuit against some heavy hitters, according to this LA Times story dated 4/7/33:
Theater Owner Wins Film Suit
Inglewood Woman Awarded $35,336 Damages
Mrs. Fae Robison, erstwhile partner of the Seville motion picture theater in Inglewood, who used the provisions of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act in a suit for damages against a number of motion picture producers, won a verdict for $35,336 damages and attorneys fees amounting to $3533. The suit was tried before United States District Court Judge Cosgrave.
Included in the list of defendants were First National Pictures, Inc, Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc, Metro-Goldwyn Distributing Corporation, Universal Film Exchange, Fox Film Corporation, Los Angeles Film Exchange Board of Trade and thirty two other film boards of trade.
The woman theater owner asserted in her complaint that the defendants entered into a conspiracy in December 1925 to place her Seville Theater in a second zone, subordinating her house to a nearby competitor, compelling her to exhibit second-run pictures instead of first-run which she had been displaying to her patrons. It was intimated that the defendants will take an appeal.
Joe, any idea if that’s the theater building? There aren’t any photos of the theater in existence, as far as I know.
The Seville Theatre was where organist Gaylord Carter was working in the mid 1920s when he was “discovered” by Harold Lloyd, an event which led to his employment as chief organist of the Million Dollar Theatre downtown and his first touch of fame.
This is the building at the location today. I’m not sure if this is the theater or a replacement:
http://tinyurl.com/386a6l
http://tinyurl.com/399pqe
http://tinyurl.com/38xckb
http://tinyurl.com/32ye5t
Fae Robison and her husband owned and operated the Seville in the early thirties, according to this lawsuit:
http://tinyurl.com/yholpc
The Seville was located in Inglewood on the corners of West Blvd., and 64th Street. Not sure when the Seville closed, but the building became a “Stegs” restaurant supply business in the mid to late 60’s.
Mesa