Fischer's Theater
121 W. First Street,
Los Angeles,
CA
121 W. First Street,
Los Angeles,
CA
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Google Maps is putting this theatre on First Street in San Pedro. The downtown address has not existed since the late 1920s, of course, so I guess Google is confused. Maybe adding the zip code (90012) would help.
On the right side of the page is a February 1907 newspaper ad from the Library of Congress:
http://tinyurl.com/ygg9o6y
Fischer’s Theater had been operating since at least 1906.
I have an ad from the Los Angeles Herald of October 8, 1906, which reads:
FISCHER’S THEATER First st., bet. Spring and Main.
Week commencing October 8.
THE PRICE OF HEIDELBERG
Fred L. Griffiths' romantic farce-comedy with all the Fischer favorites. Latest novelties in vaudeville and motion pictures. Matinees daily, except Monday.
Ladies' souvenir matinee Thursday. Prices 10c, 20c. Reserved seats 25c.
It looks like there are two AKAs per vokoban’s post of 12/25, the Princess and Spanish Theaters.
Here is part of a 1909 map. The theater is misidentified as “Fishers”:
http://tinyurl.com/3u36xm
It seems as though Fischer’s was renamed the Princess and then the Spanish Theater. I don’t know if it had any other names before it was demolished for City Hall. This is from the LA Times:
(Jun 17, 1922)
Nearly 150 patrons of the Spanish Theater, 121 West First street, were in peril at 9 p.m. yesterday, when a motion-picture film became ignited and exploded. The audience and the members of the Spanish company on the stage at the time, terrorized by the noise and the burst of flame, rushed for the exits, and for a short time panic ensued. The motion-picture operator, A.W. Donovan, was slightly burned in an attempt to beat out the flames with his hands. He was soon forced to flee………
The establishment, formerly the Princess Theater, is now a combination house for both the spoken and the silent drama for the benefit of Spanish-speaking people. The flames were extinguished with nominal damage.
Here is the aforementioned “Vaudeville 10&20” sign from 1908, via the LA Library:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater2/00015291.jpg