Broadway Theatre

Joe Vogel on April 23, 2009 at 4:08 pm

I’ve found mentions of the Broadway as early as the May 8, 1937, issue of Boxoffice Magazine. At that time, and for many years after, it was operated by Frank Ullman. The Broadway was later operated by Western Amusement Co., but the July 20, 1957,issue of Boxoffice said that Ullman was resuming ownership of the house.

I’m quite sure that the address the 1955 Film Daily gave for the Broadway, 431 Broadway, is the correct one. Google Street View shows a building with a box office still intact at that address. At the time the Street View photo was taken, the building was occupied by a church.

Here’s something to add to the address confusion. Southwest Builder & Contractor of August 7, 1936, said that Sterling Construction Company of El Segundo had received the contract to erect a movie theater for Frank Ullman, at 533 Broadway in El Centro.

One issue of Boxoffice mentions Ullman owning an Aztec Theatre in El Centro, but many more issues mention his Aztec Theatre in Calexico, so the reference to El Centro that one time might have been a mistake. In any case, Cinema Treasures has no other theaters listed on Broadway in El Centro. My guess would be that either Southwest Builder got the address wrong, or El Centro renumbered its blocks between 1936 and 1955, and the 1936 article pertains to the Broadway.

I don’t know what became of Frank Ullman. I’ve found no mentions of him in Boxoffice after 1957. The Broadway Theatre was apparently closed for a time in the mid-1960s, as the March 7, 1966, issue of Boxoffice mentions a Sidney Seymour who had reopened the Broadway in El Centro.