Opened: 1918. It was a former bowling alley remodeled by a group that had been started by Neely Dickson in September 1917. The address is between Hollywood Blvd. and Yucca St. on the east side of the street. It's listed as the Community Theatre under motion picture theatres in the 1918 city directory.
Neely received financial support from Cecil's B. DeMille's brother William as well as from Aline Barnsdall. This was at the time Aline was staging shows at the Los Angeles Little Theatre, a venue on Figueroa later known as the Musart.
The Community Theatre was discussed in Henry Christeen Warnack's November 11, 1917 L.A. Times article titled "Hollywood Discovers the Community Theater." The Times covered one show in their March 11, 1918 article "Fifth Production at Community Theater."
In 1919 after Aline had purchased the Olive Hill property, Neely and her group were offered a corner piece to build a new theatre with the proviso that they would have to raise the money for construction. The project was discussed in "Plans of Hollywood Community Theater," an August 10, 1919 Times story. That project wasn't pursued.
A September 24, 1920 ad in the Hollywood Citizen-News that was located by Lisa Kouza Braddock.
A 1922 Holly Leaves article discussed plans for a new theatre for the group. It's unknown if it got built. See a "Studio of the Theatre" article about their new season on page 12 of the September 29 issue. It's on Google Books.
The Community Theatre of Hollywood was active at least into 1928.
Thanks to Brent Dickerson for locating this January 29, 1929 L.A. Times article for his Noirish Los Angeles post #59670.
In the 1930 city directory they're listed as Troupers Green Room.
Closing: The date is unknown. There are no listings for this address in the 1931 or 1932 city directories.
Status: The building on Ivar has been demolished.
In 1941 the Las Palmas Theatre was being called the Hollywood Troupers Theatre. In the mid 1950s and beyond the Troupers Club was located at 1625/27 N. La Brea where they occupied a house and an adjacent auditorium building. There's now an apartment complex on that site.
More Information: See a long article on the beginnings of the Hollywood Community Theatre in a 1919 issue of Theatre Arts. It's on Google Books.
The Art Theatre of Hollywood was offered a building site on the Hollywood Bowl property. The article appeared in the September 16, 1926 issue of the L.A. Times. It was going to be a 1,024 seat design by Morgan, Walls & Clements but never got built.
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