642 S. Grand Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90017 |
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Opening: December 15, 1917 as the
Kinema with Cecil B. DeMille's "The Woman God Forgot" with Geraldine Farrar. DeMille himself served as master of ceremonies. The opening of the theatre was covered on page 65 of the January 5, 1918 issue of Moving Picture World.
It's a 1920 photo from the collection of Fred McSpadden, longtime California and Arizona theatre manager. On the back Fred wrote: "Note STEAM URNS each side of front - At night steam flowed - with colored lights shooting thru steam." He noted he was on the house staff here as "doorman and asst. mgr." Also on the back: "Photo by J.C. Milligan, 422 1/2 S. Broadway, Los
Angeles, California PLEASE CREDIT." And so we have.
Fred was quoted in the Arizona Daily Star of May 3, 1959 talking about the Kinema: "I had best time of my life there…any afternoon of the week you could expect Charlie Chapman, Lon Chaney, Mary Pickford or some other famous star to show up for a matinee. They would just walk in and sit down." Thanks to Bill Buehler
of the Memories Project at the
Tucson Fox for sharing the photo.
The theatre was designed specifically for films -- the stage was only 7'
deep. Too bad that Grand Ave. never developed into a theatre district.
The building was on the west side of the street between 6th and 7th. It's
just south of Wilshire but that didn't get cut through until the 1930s.
What is now Wilshire a few blocks west of Grand was formerly called Orange St. Down in the next block was the
Grand Theatre.
Architect: Architect William J. Dodd and engineer William Richards of the firm Dodd and Richards designed one of the earliest deluxe film houses downtown. It was a project for the Kehrlein Brothers with Shirley C. Ward acting as contractor.
Seating: 1,856
On October 21, 1917 the L.A. Times reported "Gallery Stands a Severe Test" as 6,000 bags of concrete (1,500,000 pounds total) were placed on the balcony as a load test. Thanks to John Crosse for finding the L.A. Times item. It appears in a 2012
Southern California Architectural History post of his that covers an amazing variety of theatrical topics (in addition to the Kinema opening) and includes discussion of personages as varied as Rudolph Schindler, Edward Weston and Frank Lloyd Wright.
By 1918 Thomas Tally had control of the theatre. It's listed in the 1919 city directory as
Tally's Kinema. By 1920 it was operating under the direction of the Gore Bros. and Sol Lesser. In the 1918, 1921 and 1922 directories it's just called the Kinema again.
A Kinema ad from March 1920 in the
Vintage Cinema Adverts collection of Charmaine Zoe on Flickr.
A 1923 L.A. Times ad for Charlie Chaplin's "The Pilgrim," a February release. Thanks to Noirish Los Angeles contributor Ethereal Reality for including the ad in his
Noirish post #5739.
Later in 1923 it became the
Criterion Theatre with "A Woman of Paris," written and directed by Chaplin, as the gala re-opening attraction.
Vitaphone at the Criterion: In 1927 Warner Bros. leased the Criterion for the west coast premiere of "The Jazz Singer" on December 28, 1927. Al Jolson put in an appearance at the premiere.
An ad on the side of an unidentified building for "The Jazz Singer" at the Criterion and "Sunrise" at the
Carthay Circle. The photo is from the
Tom B'hend and Preston Kaufmann Collection, part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Margaret Herrick Library Digital Collection.
full size view
"The Jazz Singer" was expected to run 6 months but lasted only until the end of February 1928, when it moved over 3 blocks to
Tower Theatre, where it had earlier done a sneak preview. See the
Film & Theatre Tech page for more on Vitaphone.
Becoming a Fox House: In March of 1928, the Criterion was taken over by Fox. An item in the March 28, 1928 issue of
Variety (on Internet Archive) said they were going to call it "The Movietone House" and have "Sunrise" and the "Four Sons" as their first two features. The article also mentioned that the sort of Fox presentations that had been playing the Carthay Circle ("at $1.50 top") would now go into the Criterion. They termed the format a "de luxe grind policy."
Soon William Fox took over the West Coast Theatres circuit and this house was folded in. In February 1929 it started to be advertised as the
Fox Criterion.
70mm Fox Grandeur process at the Criterion: Parts of "Fox Movietone Follies of 1929" (or perhaps the whole film) were run in 70mm in New York at the Gaiety Theatre. Also on the program in New York was a 70mm Fox Movietone newsreel. The film opened at the Criterion on May 24, 1929. It's unknown whether the Los Angeles premiere at the Criterion was in 70mm. The "
70mm & Wide Gauge: The Early Years" page on the informative website From Script to DVD lists the Criterion run but who knows? The "
Grandeur" page on In70mm.com discusses the "Follies" issue.
Theatres running the Grandeur process used specially built Simplex projectors designed to accommodate the widescreen process. You'll find more on Fox Grandeur on the
projection & sound page for the Carthay Circle, which definitely got equipped (as did
Grauman's Chinese). Also see the
Film & Theatre Tech page for more about the process.
Tally's involvement: Thomas Tally either had owned the building from 1919 to the end or had lost it and regained ownership. In any case, his name resurfaces in connection with the theatre from about 1933 onward. Between 1933 and 1938 it was being called
Tally's Criterion.
A 1934 ad for "Angkor" at Tally's Criterion. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for finding it. See the
Cameo Theatre page for a timeline of Tally's other exhibition adventures.
The theatre ended its days called the
Grand Wilshire.
Status: Tally was advertising the property for sale in 1941. It was then demolished that year to make room for an office building that didn't happen. The site was a parking lot for decades. There's now a mechanical plant there for the One Wilshire building next door.
More exterior views:
c.1917 - An early shot from the
Los Angeles Public Library collection.
1921 - A rare view of the Kinema from Marc Wanamaker's
Bison Archives. They're playing "Lessons in Love" starring Constance Talmadge. Also on the bill was the "Royal Purple Syncopated Orchestra." The photo appears on page 37 of the Arcadia Publishing book "
Theatres in Los Angeles" by Suzanne Tarbell Cooper, Amy Ronnebeck Hall and Mr. Wanamaker. There's a preview of the book you can browse on
Google Books.
1921 - Usherettes in front of the Kinema. Thanks to Stacey Hartley for sharing the photo from her collection.
1921 - Usherette Bernice Cooper at the Kinema. It's a photo from Stacey Hartley's collection. Bernice Cooper was her grandmother.
1924 - The Criterion is down in the lower right in this photo from the
Los Angeles Public Library collection.
1929 - The facade during the run of the "Fox Movietone Follies of 1929," a May release. The photo appears with "
Harold B. Franklin Analyzes Theatre Personality," an article in the Motion Picture News issue of December 28, 1929. It's on Internet Archive. The
Los Angeles Public Library also has the photo in their collection.
c.1929 - An aerial view by Dick Whittington Studio in the
USC Digital Library collection. Thanks to Noirish Los Angeles contributor Ethereal Reality for finding the photo for his
Noirish post #5739, where he also has other Criterion views.
c.1929
- A detail from the Dick Whittington photo. The sign on the roof says
"Fox Criterion 'Dynamite' Now." The Cecil B. DeMille film was a
December 1929 release. On the side wall they're advertising Lon Chaney
in "Phantom of the Opera" from 1925. The sign across the top of the
facade announces the theatre as the "House of Hits."
1930 - A Dick Whittington panoramic shot in the
USC Digital Library collection that was taken from the top of the Richfield Building tower shortly after its completion. Thanks to Noirish Los Angeles contributor HossC for finding the photo for his
Noirish post #24347, where he's got a giant size version of it. It's down below another very similar shot, also by Dick Whittington, that's in the
Library of Congress collection.
1930 - Thanks to Noirish Los Angeles contributor HossC for this detail he's made of the area around 7th and Grand from USC's Dick Whittington photo. Hoss has it on his
Noirish post #24347.
1930 - A closer look at the Criterion from the USC Dick Whittington panoramic shot. The signage on the theatre's north wall advertises "King of Jazz," an April release with Paul Whiteman.
1930 - Joan Crawford in "Paid," a December 1930 release. The photo is included in the Herald Examiner collection of the
Los Angeles Public Library.
1931 - A look at the entrance of the Criterion for "Bad Girl" that was featured in a two page spread about the great uses the theatre was making of its display case area in the October 3, 1931 issue of the
Motion Picture Herald. It's on Internet Archive.
1931 - "Your Show Window! Are You Using It?" It's another view from the October 3
Motion Picture Herald article. The feature the week of the photo was Cecil B. DeMille's "Madam Satan."
The article also has smaller photos showing details of the way the display cases were dressed for "A Connecticut Yankee," "All Quiet on the Western Front," "Transatlantic" and "Secret Six."
1931 - "Criterion Says It With Big Letters" was a fine spread in the October 10, 1931 issue of
Motion Picture Herald showing the impact of large changeable letters on the facade of "The House of Hits." Also note the changeable copy up on the roof sign.
c.1931 - Looking east from 7th and Figueroa toward the Criterion in the distance right of center. The blocks between Figueroa and Grand would soon get sliced up for an extension of Orange St. as part of Wilshire Blvd. The California Historical Society photo appeared in a 2010 post on the site
Urban Diachrony where they credit it to the USC Digital Library collection. Thanks to Sebi Garcia for finding the image for a 2013 post on the
Photos of Los Angeles Facebook page.
1934 - A December view east from Figueroa after Wilshire was cut through. There's a parking lot at Grand where Wilshire deadends. A bit of the Criterion facade is visible just to the right of that. The California Historical Society / USC Digital Library photo appears in a 2010 post on the site
Urban Diachrony. They note that while the widening of Wilshire between MacArthur Park and Figueroa St. wasn't completed until 1934, the three block extension between Figueroa and Grand was punched through in 1931.
The Criterion was demolished in 1941.
1946 - Looking west across Grand toward the extension of Wilshire Blvd. The site of the Criterion is out of the frame to the left. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for finding the photo.
1946 - Another parking lot view looking a bit farther north on Grand. One Wilshire is now on the site of this parking lot. Thanks again to Ken McIntyre for locating the photo.
2018 - The site of the Criterion. 7th St. is off to the right. Photo: Bill Counter
More Information: See the Cinema Treasures page on the
Criterion Theatre for lots of information unearthed by Joe Vogel, Jeff Bridges and a number of other contributors.
See the post by Nathan Marsak about the architects, Dodd and Richards, on the blog
On Bunker Hill.
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