There were three sequential locations in Ocean Park:
-- In the Ocean Park Auditorium Building, from about 1906 until sometime in 1909.
-- Across the street at 3015 Ocean Front Promenade, until the September 1912 pier fire.
-- In a new building that replaced the one lost in the fire, running until 1923.
Location #1
Auditorium Building,
Ocean Front Promenade between Pier Ave. and Marine St.
Ocean Park (Santa Monica), CA 90405 |
map - approximate |
The
La Petite Theatre, a film house with limited vaudeville, moved into
one
of the storefronts on the south end of the
Ocean Park Auditorium Building sometime in 1906, the year of the building's opening. Here we're looking north along the building with the theatre's signage seen above a south storefront. It's a card that was located by the late Chrys Atwood. There's a copy of the card on the site
Card Cow that has an October 1908 postmark.
It may have been the first of many small theatres that Southwest Amusement Co, used the name for. It's listed as the
La Petite Theatre No. 1 in
the 1907-1908
Henry's Official Western Theatrical Guide.
It's on Google Books. Henry's gives an address of just "Ocean Front."
Mark Hanna is listed as manager. The capacity is listed as 150 and they
were running 10 shows a day. The same information appears in the
listings in the trade magazine The Billboard for 1906, 1907 and 1908.
The Santa Monica Outlook of June 11, 1908 refers to the theatre as the
"La Petite in Ocean Park." In an ad in the October 30, 1908 Outlook Bert Atwood is
listed as manager. They're offering "Refined Vaudeville & Motion
Pictures." The program was changing 3 times a week and included four
reels of motion pictures, two illustrated songs and one act of
vaudeville. Admission was 10 cents with nightly shows at 7:15 and 8:15.
There was also a
La Petite
in downtown Santa Monica as well as several in Los Angeles. Southwest Amusement was a firm operated
by Billy Clune and C.M. Bockoven. For a time Southwest was also operating the Family Theatre in the
Casino Building, just north of the pier. By 1908 the company was being
dissolved and the various theatres were unloaded on other operators.
Clune was also involved in the the
Starland Theatre, opening out on the pier in 1911. Head to the bottom of the page on downtown L.A.'s
Cameo Theatre for more about Southwest Amusement.
The Outlook for January 15, 1909 mentions the "La Petite
Theatre, Horseshoe Pier Auditorium Building on Ocean Front." In a
January 20 listing it's just called the "Horseshoe Pier Bldg." They
didn't stay much longer.
Closing: Sometime in 1909. The space was evidently repurposed for retail use. Early in 1909 the La Petite management, then
under the direction of B. A. Wheelock, was already constructing a new
building across the street at 3015 Ocean Front Promenade.
c.1906 - Looking north along the Auditorium Building when the La Petite was a tenant. On the far right it's a bit of the
Casino, a building that had opened in 1903. It's a card from the collection of Chrys Atwood.
c.1907 - A view south with the "La Petite 10¢ Theatre" signage on the building.
That's the
Venice Auditorium in the distance, out on the end of the Abbott Kinney Pier. Southern California Realty Co. was on the south corner with the La Petite in the next two bays. That space just to the left of the bandstand has signage saying "Home of the Post Card." It's a card in the
USC Digital Library collection.
c.1908 - A view south from the site
Card Cow. This copy has a September 1909 postmark. White sign in the lower right is for a shooting gallery that has moved into one of the storefronts.
c.1908 - Another view south from the site
Card Cow. Note that the Examiner has taken over the storefront to the right of the bandstand.
Location #2:
3015 Ocean Front Promenade Ocean Park (Santa Monica), CA 90405 |
map - approximate |
Opened: Sometime in mid-1909. The very theatrical
building on the right, at the corner of Marine St. was the second
location of the
La Petite Theatre, across the Promenade from the original location in the Auditorium Building. It's hard to see in this view
but look at the corner of the building and you can see the edges of the
letters hung on the corner saying "La Petite."
They were certainly open before December. The
December 24, 1909 Santa Monica Outlook ran an ad for the Pacific
Souvenir Co. in the Auditorium Building, "opposite La Petite Theatre." That's the Auditorium on the left, with the Crescent Vaudeville Theatre located inside.
We're looking north toward Pier Ave. This c.1910 card was a
find on eBay by Chrys Atwood for a post on the
Venice, Ocean Park & Santa Monica Facebook page. There's also a version of it on the site
Card Cow.
Architect: Evidently it was Alfred Rosenheim. Thanks to Joe Vogel for locating a January 25, 1909 article in the Santa Monica Outlook detailing the plans of B.A. Wheelock of the La Petit Theatre [sic] to engage Rosenheim to design a theatre in Ocean Park. Joe adds that the February 16, 1909 Outlook announced that a contract for the building had been let.
The
April 26, 1910 Santa Monica Outlook had an article about the attorney
for La Petite's Wheelock (and partner J.M. Boland) protesting against a frame
theatre building being constructed on the Marine St. Pier "within the
fire limits" and "being constructed without the necessary building
permit." The building they were protesting was the
Starland Theatre, a project of Billy Clune's that opened on the pier in 1911 as part of the "Fraser's Million Dollar Pier" expansion project. Rosenheim was also the architect for that project. Boland ended up taking it over from Clune and then unloaded it on Globe Amusement. The timing was unfortunate. The theatre burned after only 15 months of operation, within a month or less of Globe's takeover.
The La Petite is in the 1911 city directory at "Ocean Front
Promenade ne cor Marine." In February, 1912 the
operation of Wheelock and Boland was sold to Messrs. Kramer and Stineman
who planned to erect a larger theatre on the site. Joe Vogel located a February 12, 1912 Venice
Vanguard article announcing the purchase.
The demise: If the new owners had embarked on a building project, the timing was unfortunate. Whatever theatre was there burned in
the September 3, 1912 pier fire. The September 4, 1912 Santa Monica Outlook
reported that the fire caused a $25,000 loss for the owners of the La
Petite. A new theatre was constructed on the site.
1910 - A trade magazine view. Thanks to Dallas Movie Theaters for finding this one for a post on
Cinema Treasures. Note no vertical sign on the corner of the building yet.
c.1910 - The La Petite is on the far right in this look north. Note the vertical sign letters protruding from the building. Here we can also see down the Promenade to where a carousel and the
Dragon Gorge Scenic Railroad would soon be. It's a card
appearing on the site
Card Cow.
A monochrome version appears on page 117 of the 2008 Arcadia Publishing
Postcard History Series book "Early Los Angeles County Attractions" by
Cory & Sarah Stargel. The page with the photo is included in the
preview on
Google Books.
c.1912 - Thanks to Rod Nelson for locating this one. In the lower right we see a
bit of the letters for the La Petite, at the corner of Marine St. and
the Promenade. A copy of this one also appears in the
Card Cow collection. Also see
a night postcard derived from the same photo.
Location #3:
3015 Ocean Front Promenade Ocean Park (Santa Monica), CA 90405 |
map - approximate |
Opening: 1913. The theatre got a new building after the September 1912 pier fire. It was at the same location as before, on the northeast corner of Ocean Front Promenade and Marine St. Or actually, one storefront north of the corner. The corner space soon became a drug store that survived for decades. The upper floors of the building were the Decatur Hotel, with an entrance around on the side at 107 Marine St.
The
1913 Santa Monica city directory lists the La Petite as being on the Promenade
between Pier and Navy in the classified section under "theatres" and between Pier and Marine in the alphabetical section. At the time, E.D. Hostetter was president of the La Petite Theatre Co. with S.B. Kramer as secretary-treasurer, F.L. Stineman as vice-president and manager. One listing noted they were "opposite Ocean Park Pier."
The 3015 Ocean Front Promenade address is listed in the
1915-16 city directory. Stineman evidently staged a coup. He's become president with H.W. Levengood as vice-president and D.H. Wagar as secretary-treasurer.
The theatre was the subject of a discrimination lawsuit
in 1916 for refusing to seat a black patron on the main floor. It's recounted on page 204 of the book "
The Negro Trail Blazers." It's on Google Books. In the
1919-1920 directory the address is 3017 Ocean Front Promenade.
The 1919-20 city directory lists the same officers as in 1916. The news was that with a lot of filming on the
beach, the La Petite folks also got into the movie props business with
their props department listing an address of 3017 Ocean Front Promenade for that. It's still in the 1921-1922 city directory as well as being in the Film Daily Yearbook for both the 1921 and 1922
editions.
Closing: The
La Petite was around until 1923 when it was converted into a store. Joe Vogel found mention in a February 17, 1923 Venice Vanguard article noting the conversion. The
1923-24 city directory lists this address as "Hamberger's Art Shop" and
in 1927 as "O M Hamberger - ladies clothes."
c.1915 - That white three story building on the left with the arch is the
post-1912 La Petite. There's a sign advertising a Mack
Sennett attraction hanging out from the building. Take a left beyond
the La Petite building and you're on Marine St. That Moorish looking
fantasia in the distance is the Ocean Park Bathhouse. And where's the
Dome dance hall, later to become the
Dome Theatre? It would come along in 1916.
We're looking south on the Promenade. The building
on the far right is the one that would soon be converted to become the
Rosemary Theatre
location #4. Just beyond, if you take a right, you're heading out onto the pier. This lovely card was a find on eBay by Chrys Atwood for a post on the
Venice, Ocean Park & Santa Monica Facebook page.
1916 - Furs and a wagon to attract attention to the run of "God's Country and The Woman." Thanks to Suzanne O'Connell for sharing this photo on the
Vintage Los Angeles Facebook page. She noted that her grandfather, actor and director George Ansell Holt, was in the film and lived on 5th St. in Santa Monica.
Russell Potter commented: "Many of the extras in the film came from the Eskimo Village then operating at the Ocean Park pier in Santa Monica ... it was an exciting production, as the actors became snowbound and had to subsist upon crackers, prunes, and (according to one article) the boiled strings of one actor's violin!"
c.1921 - A lovely view north toward the La Petite building at Marine St. from the
Santa Monica Public Library collection. The entrance toward the right end of the building was for the Decatur Hotel.
On the upper left note the sign for "Dome Dancing." The building, unseen here opened in 1916 and was converted into the
Dome Theatre in 1922. The vacant lot on the right is still seen to be vacant in photos of the September 1924 pier fire but they evidently had started work at the time on the Palace dance hall that would rise there.
c.1921 - A closer look at the La Petite, on the right. It's a
Santa Monica Public Library photo. They credit it both of these views to the Ansco Company, Binghampton, N.Y. Presumably they just did the processing or they were printed on their paper.
c.1921 - An entrance detail from the Library's photo.
c.1921
- The La Petite is in the upper center. The
Dome is over on the right and seaward of it on the new Lick Pier
they're building the Zip roller coaster, which opened April 15, 1922.
The Ocean Front Promenade is running
horizontally across
the top of the image with Pier Ave. down the left side. In the upper
left, the building with the circular
structure on the roof was the
Rosemary location #4. Here it looks
like there's scaffolding up to add a stagehouse.
In the upper center the first building this side of the Promenade is a
billiards hall and bowling alley. Below it is the Breakers Cafe. And the next building out closer to us on the pier is the
Rosemary location #3, by the time of the photo renamed the Rialto Theatre. It's a detail from a photo from the
Ernest Marquez collection appearing on the
Huntington Library website.
1926 - No, the La Petite building didn't perish in the big 1924 fire. It's there, although at this point no longer a theatre, across Marine St., beyond the new Palace dance hall. Unlike the 1912 fire, which destroyed nearly the whole Ocean Park business district, the 1924 event only wiped out buildings on the ocean side of the Promenade. Thanks to Ken Roe for locating the photo.
A smaller version of the image appears with Jeffrey Stanton's fine
article "
Ocean Park Pier 1926-1956."
Here the old Dome Theatre entrance is seen as repurposed for the new
Rosemary Theatre. The big Dome in the distance is over the new entrance to the Ocean Park
Pier. The new
Dome Theatre location is actually this side of it.
2019 - A view southwest to where the intersection of Ocean Front Promenade and Marine St. once was. Photo: Google Maps.
More Information: The listings at the bottom of the
Theatres Along the Coast survey page for some Ocean Park history references.
See Joe Vogel's fine research on the theatre on the
Cinema Treasures page about the La Petite.
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