Allen Theater

After Allen, the following owners had trouble with zoning and distribution practices as well, and testified at the U.S. Senate hearings of 1953. Taking over circa 1946, the new owners were Albert Hanson and son Wayne Hanson, South-Lyn Theatres. They also had the Arden and Lynwood Theatres (both acquired March 4, 1947) and closed the Lynwood in July 1950. The Circle and Nubel theatres in Bellflower were acquired Oct. 1, 1947. The Circle was closed July 23, 1950; the Nubel was remodeled in 1949.

The Allen is (thankfully) no longer purple. It’s is back to a shade of white. It is currently being used to host art exibits. It appears that the interior has been gutted, but the current owner would not allow any photographs once inside.

I lived a block away from the age of 4 to 7. We used to go every Saturday afternoon. 2 movies plus a serial in between. All for 35 cents.

On May 25, 1924, the Los Angeles Times announced construction commencement of a Class B one-story, brick building at Tweedy and San Gabriel. Plans showed store rooms in the front and a rear section designed for “theatrical and motion-picture purposes”. At the time of the news release, a five year lease for the theater had already entered into by 2 parties identified as Johnson and Martin. July 21, 1924, there was a progress report in the same paper stating construction would be complete in approximately 45 days. Once opened, the portion of the site devoted to entertainment activities was known as the “Garden Theater”. The building address was 3807 (not 3809) Tweedy Road (now Tweedy Boulevard) per the 1932 â€" 1933 South Gate Directory at the South Gate History Museum. The two most obvious explanations for the address discrepancy are: 1) either the address is a misprint (currently Yuri’s Records is at 3801 Tweedy and the Allen is at 3809 Tweedy with nothing else in between), or 2) The address changed when the previously mentioned 1936 remodel took place and the building was widened. At the time this outlying section of Los Angeles was part of the Home Gardens tract (later annexed by South Gate). The “Garden” name is reflective of the Home Gardens locale.
A Los Angeles Times news item (August 4, 1927) mentions the Camp Fire Girls of Magnolia Park (a nearby tract that was also eventually annexed by South Gate) were presenting a fund raiser show at the Garden Theater.
A display ad from the Los Angeles Times – dated September 4, 1927 â€" announces the Garden Theater of Home Gardens would be participating in the 10th annual “Paramount Week” â€" a studio promotional event. This meant showing only Paramount Movies for a designated seven day time frame.
Oliver Mitchell/Morosco suffered health set-backs in the 1930’s. The first occurred in 1934 when he had a heart attack. In 1936 he sustained a serious head injury as the result of a fall. Doctors did not initially expect him to recover from this accident. Along with the health challenges he faced personal issues â€" e.g., he went through his 3rd divorce in 1934. Shortly after the end of this marriage he legally challenged the settlement stating his mental state from the heart attack had influenced him to agree to certain terms of the divorce which impinged his rights to his own creative work(s) â€" past, present and future. 1936 is the same year the structural modifications, referred to in an earlier post by ronp, took place at the Garden Theater. If “the” famed Oliver Morosco was the driving force behind this renovation effort, the events in Mr. Morosco’s personal life during this period would help explain why he did not continue to have an active presence at the location. (These details were gleaned from various L.A. Times archival articles pertaining to O. Mitchell/Morosco. Dates: 9-6-34, 1-15-34, 7-24-36.)
The South Gate Guild continued to present live theater events at the Garden Theater during this period as remarked by a previous commentator. A playwright/director, Raymond Lee, is mentioned as being involved with live theater productions during the 1930’s at the Garden (L.A. Times â€" 10/22/39). This presents another identification challenge â€" is this the same Raymond Lee who worked with Charlie Chaplin as a child actor and went on to write for the San Fernando Valley issue of the Los Angeles Times as an adult?
Again, documentation supplied by the Los Angeles Times, March 28, 1949, furnishes this information: On March 26, 1949, Mr. William Lanier (W. L.) Allen, described as a 54-year-old theater operator, committed suicide. A first responder to the scene, found a note that included instructions to an unnamed brother about running a theater operation. Along with the note, payroll checks for his theater employees were found. Perhaps this incident was the beginning of the rumor about the Allen building being haunted.
There are at least 3 different names associated with this theater, i.e., Garden Theater, South Gate Theater, and Allen Theater. Exact effective dates for the name changes still remain elusive. (I say at least 3 since I have not been able to discover where the South Gate Avon Theatre (previously recorded as having been associated with the Allen Corp.) once stood and/or stands as the case may be. Perhaps the Avon, or, the Gem for the matter, eventually resulted from the project known only as “Class A Theater – Architect George Burnett” as posted by Joe Vogel, 11-22-04.
With respect to Joe Vogel’s observations and input, per Wikipedia not only was John C. Austin an important architect. He was an influential civic leader. His civic duties included serving as the President of the California State Board of Architectural Examiners and being a member of the National Labor Board responsible for labor disputes in Southern California.
Thanks to everyone for the various insights and photos provided above â€" they’ve all greatly contributed to my understanding of the theater’s history.

I’m not sure when the Allen adopted that name — perhaps just after WW2, but an ad in the 1 Nov. 1943 issue of the Compton News Tribune has the South Gate Theatre at that address (3809 Tweedy Blvd.). The theatre’s phone number at that time was LA 8888, but a 1969 listing for the Allen shows the number as LOrain 6-6157.

Ken Mc, Thanks for the update and photos re the Allen’s closure. It looks rather forlorn, and the purple paints doesn’t help. I guess we can take some solace from the fact that it survived longer than most neighborhood movie houses of similar vintage. Rick A.

The Allen is closed. I will post some photos later.

Advertised as the New Allen in the LA Times in January 1983.

Southwest Builder and Contractor, issue of 9/19/1930 says: “Class A Theater (South Gate) …Architect George Burnett…Evan Jones associate… are preparing plans for a theater building to be built on Tweedy Blvd, South Gate, for A.W. Swanson…”

The same magazine, in its issue of 11/17/1936 says that the theater at the corner of Tweedy and San Gabriel is to be altered, with plans by architect Clarence G. Smale.

Originally, the Allen’s lower facade was covered with maroon tile (ditto the ticket booth), but in recent years the tile was removed and replaced with cream-colored stucco. The ticket booth is gone but its outline can still be seen on the entryway floor.

Sounds like Rick Albright and myselft might have crossed paths at one time or another. We went to the same theaters in the Southeast area of Los Angeles that’s for sure. I was going to add the Allen myselft but Rick beat me to it. I remember the Allen well as a young man. A friend told me that his Church used the theatre for there services on Sunday mornings in the early 50s while there Church was being built on Tweedy Bl. The first time I went to the Allen was l960 and saw Midnight Lace with Doris Day. Later on in the mid 60s Fail Safe with Henry Fonda and the early 70s Vanishing Point. It was in that era that the theatre started to fall on hard times. It became dirty. I remember at that time all seats were $1.00. For that price I took a date there many times. I worked for many years in South Gate and was always going by the Allen and never had to look in the paper to see what was playing. My wife grew up in South Gate and went there many times as well.