1441 3rd St. Promenade Santa Monica, CA, 90401 | map |
The news: AMC has closed the Broadway 4. The last day of operation was September 22, 2024. Thanks to Russ Jones for spotting "AMC Broadway 4 movie theater shuts doors on Promenade," a September 25 story by Thomas Leffler in the Santa Monica Daily Press.
AMC also has the Santa Monica 7 several blocks away. Also still operating downtown is the six-screen Laemmle Monica Film Center. Nearby, for a while anyway, was the ArcLight complex in the mall, sitting vacant since 2020. The six-screen Criterion Theatre, also on the Promenade, was an AMC operation until 2013. It's been gutted for office and retail uses.
Opened: 1934 as the Elmiro Theatre. Admission was 20 cents. The building is on the east side of the street between Broadway and Santa Monica Blvd. The Mott Studios photo is from the California State Library, one of eleven photos in their set #001387147. The opening attractions, seen here on the marquee, were "The Cat and the Fiddle" with Ramon Novarro, Jeanette MacDonald and Frank Morgan along with "Six of a Kind" starring Charlie Ruggles, Mary Boland and W.C. Fields. Both were February 1934 releases.
Phone: 888-AMC-4FUN, 310-458-3924 Website: www.amctheatres.com
Architect: Norman W. Alpaugh
Seating: 900 originally. The replacement 4 plex seats 1,200.
The original lessee was Fred Miller, who at various times also operated the Alhambra on Hill St., Miller's Theatre and the California Theatre on Main St., the Gateway Theatre in Glendale, the Carthay Circle Theatre on San Vicente and the Figueroa Theatre south of downtown. The building owner was Southern California Newspapers Associated.
The new theatre was celebrated in the Better Theatres section of the August 25, 1934 issue of Motion Picture Herald. Many thanks to Bob Foreman for finding the article. See his Vintage Theatre Catalogs site for a vast trove of tech and theatre history information that he has collected.
Despite the name showing up as "El Miro" in the Motion Picture Herald article it was always advertised as the Elmiro, without a space.
The theatre was later operated by a number of circuits including
Century, Statewide, Loew's, General Cinema and Metropolitan. It has also
had spells as an independent operation.
By 1981 it was an independent operation called the Cine Latino that was running Spanish language product. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for spotting it in this listing that appeared in the L.A. Times that year. Later Metropolitan Theatres took over the operation and retained the Spanish language format.
The theatre closed September 7, 1987 and the portion of the building behind the facade was demolished. Alan Citron profiled the theatre in a Times article titled "Full House No Winner for Cine Latino." Cineplex Odeon became the operator of the 4 plex in the new mixed use building with the theatre's opening in October 1989. Since that reincarnation it's been called the Cineplex Odeon
Broadway 4, the Loews Cineplex Broadway Cinemas 4 and the AMC Loews
Broadway 4.
Back
in 2009 it looked like its days were numbered. AMC was in negotiations
with the city to build a new complex and the city wanted the Broadway 4
closed as a condition as they were strangely concerned about the town being over-screened. The landlord, however, wanted the space to remain
a cinema.
And he got his wish. AMC, after several years of
talks, decided in 2012 to abandon plans to put a big new complex on the
site of a city parking garage. Said the numbers didn't pencil out right. So this one remains open. In 2013 AMC closed the nearby Criterion 6 which is now retail space. With new screens at the ArcLight and the Laemmle Monica Film Center, there were more screens than ever. The ArcLight closed in 2020 and never reopened.
AMC gave the house a renovation in 2015 and installed recliners. Only the facade of the original building remains. It was called the AMC Broadway 4.
Status: It's closed and vacant. The last day of operation was September 22, 2024. Thanks to Russ Jones for spotting the news in "AMC Broadway 4 movie theater shuts doors on Promenade," a September 25 story by Thoimas Leffler in the Santa Monica Daily Press.
More interior views of the original theatre:
More exterior views:
1963 - A Christmas season L.A. Times photo looking up 3rd Street. It's on Calisphere from the UCLA Los Angeles Times Photographic Archives. "Irma la Douce" was at the Elmiro.
1970 - A look north from Broadway in the Santa Monica Public Library collection. At the time it was a Loew's house. The photo by Leslie Storrs was donated to the Library by the City of Santa Monica. Thanks to Matt Spero for work on the color.
1972 - A view of the theatre still with Loews signage. They exited the southern California market later that year. It was a find by Ken McIntyre for the Photos of Los Angeles page on Facebook. General Cinema took over the Loew's locations.
c.2000 - Thanks to Irene Wohlfarth for this Cineplex era view. The photo appeared as a post for the private Facebook group Photos of Los Angeles.
c.2000 - Another view from up in the mall. Here we get a wider look at the upper floors of the new condo building behind the historic facade. The photo appears on a Water and Power Associates Museum page "Early Views of Santa Monica."
2017 - A look up. It's a Shawn Dudley photo that appeared on the on the LAHTF Facebook page. Thanks, Shawn!
We get a look at the theatres over on the left when Jamie Lee Curtis gets dropped off on the Promenade in "Freaky Friday" (Disney, 2003). Well, actually it's Lindsay Lohan in Jamie's body. They've switched places because of a strange event involving a fortune cookie at a Chinese restaurant.
Lindsay/Jamie,
realizing that she has credit cards in the wallet, wanders the Promenade
to get a haircut and go shopping. The film, adapted from the
book by Mary Rodgers, also features Chad Michael Murray, Mark Harmon,
Ryan Malgorini, Haley Hudson, Christina Vidal and Harold Gould. Mark
Waters directed. The cinematography was by Oliver Wood.
Driving south on 3rd in "Leave it to Beaver." The theatre, still in its Elmiro days, is on the right. Thanks to John Bengtson for the screenshot.
More Information: See the Cinema Treasures page on what they style as the El Miro Theatre. They also have a page on its replacement, the AMC Broadway 4, with lots of links to recent exterior photos. The Cinema Tour page has several exterior photos by Scott Neff.
Nathan Masters did a fine 2016 KCET story with many photos about the evolution of the 3rd St. Promenade: "How Santa Monica's Third Street Became a Promenade."
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I worked Elmiro Theater 1968. Usher. Had wear Western Style outfit showing "True Grit". I invited my hotel manager to a freebie. Had ask him put out his cigar during movie! Kids would stare at candy counter. Salesgirl helped: "This candy will last longer". I learned how fold hot dog paper boat into a cup to snitch a soda pop drink.
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