Campus Theatre

1020 N. Vermont Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90029  | map | 

Opened: The Campus Theatre opened November 22, 1939. The name derives from the location across the street from Los Angeles City College. It's just south of Santa Monica Blvd. Thanks to Michael Moran for the c.1968 photo from his collection. David Zornig has posted it on Cinema Treasures. At some point the entrance got rebuilt and the building shortened resulting in the loss of the moderne facade. The now-shorter building has a courtyard in front. 

Architect: S.E. Sonnichsen. He's listed as the architect on the May 25, 1939 building permit and on a separate permit for the tower issued June 16. Ralph E. Marvin was the building's engineer. Rose A. Yule was listed as the owner. Thanks to Mike Davison for the permit research. Sonnichsen was at one time associated with B. Marcus Priteca.  

Seating: 850 originally, perhaps 400 at the end.

An item in the November 4, 1939 issue of Boxoffice that was located by Christopher McPherson noted that "Alex Mounce and George Bromley will open their Campus Theatre shortly on a 15 cent admission scale..."  A November 18 item announced that the partners "have thrown their Campus open for public inspection although it is not scheduled to open until the end of the month."

 The November 22, 1939 opening day ad. Thanks to Mike Davison for locating it.   

 

Although just Bromley is mentioned as the proprietor in items in the January 13 and July 6, 1940 Boxoffice issues, both he and Mounce are noted as proprietors in a May 20, 1941 L.A. Times story about hearings scheduled to air complaints about restraint of trade in licensing films to independent theatres. It's unknown when this team stopped operating the theatre.  

 

In the booth c.1942. Thanks to Mike Davison for the photo of his grandfather, who worked the Vista before coming to the Campus. The equipment includes Brenkert Enarc lamps, Motiograph Model K projectors (introduced in 1936) and Motiograph SH-7500 soundheads. Also see a 1941 booth view from a trade magazine that was posted on Cinema Treasures. 

 

 

 

Forget your matches? The theatre had you covered. Thanks to Nessa for sharing this on Cinema Treasures. 

 

 

 

An image of another matchbook shared by Nessa on Cinema Treasures. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for spotting it for a post on the Photos of Los Angeles Facebook page.  

 

A February 1948 ad for "Body and Soul." Thanks to Ken McIntyre for posting it on Photos of Los Angeles.

A 1948 snackbar view. Thanks to Christopher McPherson for spotting it in the December 4 issue of Boxoffice. The caption:

 

"Refreshment service counter of the Campus Theatre, Santa Monica Blvd. and Vermont, Los Angeles. The counter, which is located directly behind the center entrance door in the middle of the rear foyer wall, incorporates a Hollywood Servemaster for pre-popped corn and equipment for dispensing candy, cold drinks, and ice cream bars."

 

 

Going to Spanish language product in 1981 as the Cine Campus. Thanks to Mike Rivest for locating the April 13 ad. Visit his site: Movie-Theatre.org

Closing and afterlife: The Campus closed for films in 2006, last operated by Metropolitan Theatres running mainstream product with Spanish subtitles.

For a while after that it was a live theatre venture known as Teatro Los Chuperamigos. They left in 2011 and it then became a nightclub, the Teatro Casablanca. For several years it was then sitting vacant. David Saffer reported on the LAHTF Facebook page in October 2015 that the owner wanted to remove the seats and level the floor so he could do banquets and other events.

Status: It has been turned into a music venue called Vermont Hollywood. 

 

The remodeled interior. Thanks to urban explorer Haley S. for this November 2020 photo. 

 

The club is a venture of MCAP Partners, a firm with Alexander Massachi and other partners. It's a design by the Santa Monica firm Ryder Design & Architecture. Capacity is 1,200. Bianca Barragan had a July 2018 story on Curbed L.A.: "East Hollywood music venue, the Vermont Hollywood, scheduled to open next year."

 

 

A rendering from Ryder Design & Architecture that appeared with the Curbed article. 

More exterior views:

c.1942 - A view of a bit of the entrance and of the Campus Spa in the storefront north of the theatre entrance. Thanks to Mike Davison for the photo. He notes that the Spa wasn't a health resort but rather a store where they sold sandwiches and Carnation ice cream.  Mike identifies the people in the photo as his mother, grandmother and uncle.

c.1942 - A photo from Mike Davison with his uncle in front of a poster for "Tarzan's Secret Treasure," a film that had opened first run at the Chinese and Loew's State in March 1942. He comments that his mother remembers the horizontal bands on the facade as being green. Thanks, Mike! 

1964 - The theatre running "The Carpetbaggers" and "The Secret Invasion." Thanks to Sean Ault for locating the photo.

1983 - A photo of the flashy neon on the Campus before it lost its marquee -- and the rest of the facade. The photo appeared on the now-vanished American Classic Images website.

 

1983 - Another view from American Classic Images.

 

 

1983 - An entrance detail taken from the previous image. Thanks to Sean Ault for locating this.  

2006 - The theatre near the end of its film days running "Chronicles of Narnia." Thanks to Jeterga for sharing the photo on Cinema Treasures.
 

  

  2007 - A view once posted on Flickr by Patrick Cates, but now vanished from that platform. 

 

 

 

2008 - Thanks to Ken McIntyre for this photo. 

c.2009 - Thanks to Don Solosan for this view. At the time the theatre was a Spanish language legit operation. The photo was taken as part of the L.A. Conservancy Historic Theatres Committee survey documenting surviving theatre buildings. Thanks to Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation co-founder Hillsman Wright for making the photo available.

 

c.2011 - The building for lease after closing as the Teatro Casablanca. It's a photo by Michael Moran. Thanks to David Zorning for spotting it for a post on Cinema Treasures.

2011 - The vacant theatre. Photo: Google Maps

2017 - Construction was beginning at the Campus. Thanks to Matt Spero for this October photo.

 

 

2022 - The new look as Vermont Hollywood. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for sharing his photo. 

 

 

2023 - Construction resumes on the new facade. For months it was just the two steel beams jutting out. Photo: Bill Counter - October 31

The Campus in the Movies:

It's one of many Los Angeles area theatres (including the Monica and the Esquire) that we get a quick look at in "Let's Go To The Movies," a nine minute short available on Internet Archive. It was produced by RKO in 1948 for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. See the Historic L.A. Theatres in Movies post for shots of other theatres seen in the film.

 

Donavan S. Moye spotted the Campus clip from the short and got this screenshot from its appearance about 39 minutes into Inés Toharia Terán's 2021 documentary "Film: The Living Record of Our Memory." Donavan notes that the footage of the Campus also made an appearance in Leon Gast's 2010 documentary "Smash His Camera," a film about photographer Ron Galella. The shot also appears in the 2021 documentary "Film: The Living Record Of Our Memory."

Karen Black drives by the Campus  in "Cisco Pike" (Columbia, 1971). This bit in the upper left is about all we get to see, other than a small section of the readerboard a moment earlier revealing that they were running the 1970 release "Soldier Blue." Karen's not happy about having to pick up her boyfriend, Kris Kristofferson, stranded after he's fled to avoid the cops when a drug deal turned out to be a setup. This was Kristofferson's first movie.

Bill Norton directed the film, which also stars Gene Hackman, Harry Dean Stanton, Viva, Joy Bang and Roscoe Lee Browne. The cinematography by Vilis Lapenieks features lots of time in Venice, nice shots of the ruins of POP, and many scenes in other locations on the west side of L.A.

More information: See the Cinema Treasures page on the Campus Theatre. On the Cinema Tour page there's a 2002 facade photo by Bob Meza.

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