Los Angeles Theatres: Culver / Kirk Douglas Theatre

9820 Washington Blvd. Culver City, CA 90232 | map |

Opened: August 13, 1947 as the Culver Theatre with the film "Red Stallion." It's now reborn as a legit playhouse, the Kirk Douglas. Photo: Bill Counter - 2010

Website: www.centertheatregroup.org

Prior to the opening of this theatre, Mike Rosenberg's firm Principal Theatres, Inc. and Fox West Coast had been holding film showings in the 2nd floor auditorium at City Hall. See the City Hall Theatre page for data about that era. That venue was obtained when Rosenberg's previous location, the Meralta Theatre was destroyed by fire in 1943.

Architect: Albert R. Walker was the architect of record. Carl G. Moeller was the design consultant. Steven Ehrlich was the architect for the 2004 renovation into the Kirk Douglas.

Moeller was involved in a number of Fox West Coast projects. The interior of the Culver was a "Skouras Style" confection. At a time when much design was getting the modern look, the head of Fox West Coast Theatres, Charles Skouras, had his architectural team in the late 40s and early 50s take a different tack towards a lush neo-baroque feel.

The program was an attempt to create a program so theatres could be remodeled (or constructed from scratch) in an economical fashion while creating a new sumptuous feel for post-war audiences with new expectations of luxury.

Seating: 1,091 -- with the rear of the house in a stadium style configuration.

"The Home of First Run Pictures - 70 degrees all the time." Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating this November 1947 ad.

A 1950 ad. Thanks to Ken McIntyre locating this for a post for the Photos of Los Angeles private Facebook group.

A 1968 ad located by Ken McIntyre.

The Culver was operated by Fox West Coast and its successor companies National General Corporation and Mann Theatres. It was later an independent operation after being dropped by Mann.

The auditorium was triplexed in 1975 with a reopening on January 14, 1976. All three theatres were served from the original projection booth. It closed in 1989 and was gutted in 1994 after some of the triplexing work suffered damage in the Northridge earthquake.

Status: Interior remodeling began in 2002 for a 317 seat legit house operated by the Center Theatre Group, the Kirk Douglas Theatre. The venue reopened in 2004.

Vintage interior views:

A 1950s photo by Nate Singer of the Culver's snackbar. It's in the Tom B'hend and Preston Kaufmann Collection, part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Margaret Herrick Library Digital Collection.

Drapery at an auditorium exit. It's a photo from the Ken Kramer collection appearing in the Preston J. Kaufmann publication "Skouras-ized for Showmanship - Skouras' West Coast Theatres." It's available on Amazon. This 1987 Theatre Historical Society annual (#14) is packed with photos of theatres that Fox West Coast gave the moderne "Skouras look" in the 40s and 50s. THS website: historictheatres.org | THS on Facebook

A light fixture at the Culver. Photo: "Skouras-ized for Showmanship" - Ken Kramer collection

The auditorium of the Culver in 1947. It's a photo from the Ken Kramer collection appearing in the Preston J. Kaufmann THS publication "Skouras-ized for Showmanship - Skouras' West Coast Theatres."

While many of the Fox West Coast Skouras-style buildings ended up quite different from each other, you could always spot certain prefabricated elements: lush red draperies, exotic gold plaster swirls encompassing the proscenium, etched aluminum surround panels at the snack bar and drinking fountains, etc. The basic program was applied to hundreds of theatres.

While the components differed, the consistent style was unmistakable. Fox maintained its own huge assembly plant to produce many of the decorative elements. In a remodel it might be just a shiny "padded-looking" gold and aluminum snack bar and a few Skouras swirls below the proscenium like the Palace downtown. Or it could mean gutting the building and ending up with a totally new creation in an old shell like the Crest in Sacramento.

After the CTG remodel:

A lobby view. Thanks to George Vreeland Hill for his photo, one of five he included in a 2022 post on the SoCal Historic Architecture Facebook page.

A look at the inside the remodeled auditorium of the Kirk Douglas from a page about the project on the website of the design consultant ARUP. It's a photo by Elon Schoenholz.

Across the front of the auditorium. Photo: ARUP / Elon Schoenholz

A view to the rear from a page about the project on the site of Robert F. Mahoney & Associates, the acoustical consultants on the project. Theatre Projects acted as the theatre consultant.

More exterior views:

1947 - A fine view taken before the opening date was announced. Thanks to Jeff Zimmer for locating this to add as a comment to a post on the LAHTF Facebook page.

1947 - The city's website, CulverCity.org, once had a very nice "Then and Now" page that included this pre-opening view from Marc Wanamaker's Bison Archives. The section seems to be a victim of a re-build of the site. The photo has also been seen on the Vintage Los Angeles Facebook page.

1947 - A closer look at the marquee before the theatre opened. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for the photo.

1940s - A lovely view looking west taken from the top of the Culver Hotel that gives us a look at the side of the Culver Theatre. The vertical sign and marquee of the Meralta Theatre can be seen on the far left of the photo. That's Washington Blvd. veering off to the right, Culver Blvd. to the left. Thanks to Tyler St. Mark for sharing the photo on the Facebook page Vintage Los Angeles.

1963 - A photo taken from the Culver Hotel looking west along Culver Blvd. with Washington Blvd. veering off to the right. The entrance of the Meralta Theatre is on the left just beyond the first intersection.

City Hall, with the "Culver City" roof sign is visible on the left side of Culver Blvd. beyond the theatre. The tower of the Culver Theatre is in the upper right of the photo. It's an L.A. Times photo in the UCLA L.A. Times Photographic Archive. It makes an appearance in "Culver City: From Barley Fields to the Heart of Screenland," Nathan Masters' fine KCET article about the city's history.

1963 - A closer look toward the Culver Theatre. It's a detail taken from the L.A. Times photo.

1969 - A view of the facade from the Los Angeles Public Library collection.

1970s - Looking east on Washington Blvd. toward the Culver in a nice view from the Sean Ault collection. That's part of the Sony (old MGM) studio complex on the right.

1977 - A photo by John Margolies taken when the theatre was operating as a triplex. It's in the Library of Congress collection. Julia Wick, in a 2017 article about the photographer on LAist, calls him "the King of Roadside America." The Library also has 146 additional photos of California theatres by this photographer. Thanks to Mike Hume for spotting the photo and doing the other research. Check out Mike's own great theatre photos on the Historic Theatre Photography section of his website.

1983 - Thanks to the now-vanished American Classic Images website for this photo.

1983 - Another view from the American Classic Images collection.

c.1987 - A look at the Culver's tower from the Theatre Historical Society Facebook page. It's a photo by Robert Finucan. Thanks to Jason Vega for spotting the post.

1987 - Looking west toward the theatre. Thanks to Mike Tuggle for his photo, appearing as a post on the private Facebook group Photos of Los Angeles.

1988 - John L. Rouse took this photo. He had posted it on the Facebook page Vintage Los Angeles but it seems to have gone missing from there.

c.1990 - A view of the Culver Theatre taken after closing by Gary Graver. Gary (1938-2006) was a noted filmmaker and cinematographer. More theatre photos by him can be seen in two compilations on You Tube:"Second Run - part 1" and "Second Run - part 2." Thanks to Sean Graver for the use of the photo.

1995 - Thanks to Socal09 for posting this November image on Cinema Treasures.

1995 - A marquee detail from Socal09 that was shared on Cinema Treasures.

c.2002 - A construction view from the unstoppable L.A. architecture fan Martin. It once appeared on his now-vanished site You-Are-Here.com.

2004 - A view up the tower and facade. Photo: Craig Schwartz for Center Theatre Group.

2004 - A photo taken during the first season as the Kirk Douglas. Photo: Craig Schwartz for Center Theatre Group

2004 - The theatre's grand reopening. Photo: Craig Schwartz for Center Theatre Group

2005 - An evocative look at the Culver Theatre neon at night. Thanks to world-wide cinema explorer Ken Roe on Flickr.

2007 - A photo by Steve Lyon appearing on Wikimedia.

2008 - A view of the facade by T N Jones appearing on Flickr. It's part of a Culver City set. More from TN: boxoffice | tower | exterior looking west | other theatres |

2008 - The Culver's boxoffice. Thanks to Ikurnarsky for sharing this photo on Flickr.

2010 - A look at the 1940s terrazzo at the Culver. Photo: Bill Counter

2010 - More terrazzo. Photo: Bill Counter

2010 - Another look at the neon. Photo: Bill Counter

2010 - A detail of the marquee. Photo: Bill Counter

2011 - The rear of the theatre. Photo: Bill Counter

c.2012 - Another look at the back of the building. Thanks to Martin for his photo, one that had appeared on the now-vanished site You Are Here.

2014 - Thanks to Mark Smith for sharing this photo from his collection.

2015 - The top of the Culver's sign by drone, one of many treats on "Los Angeles," Ian Wood's 6 minute video. It includes flyovers of Capitol Records, the Griffith Observatory, City Hall, the canals of Venice, Lake Hollywood and more. Don't miss it!

2016 - Thanks to George Chialtas for this lovely shot of the Culver's neon, a post on the Photos of Los Angeles private Facebook group.

The Culver in the Movies:

A policeman played by Barry Sullivan walks by the theatre's Skouras-style boxoffice in John Berry's "Tension" ( MGM, 1949). The film about a meek pharmacist who plans to murder his wife's lover stars Richard Basehart, Audrey Totter and Cyd Charisse. The cinematography was by Harry Stradling, Sr. See the Historic L.A. Theatres in Movies post for five more shots of the scene at the theatre.

More information: See the Cinema Treasures page for lots of stories about the Culver. The Cinema Tour page has 26 photos of the exterior, boxoffice and lobby. There's a Culver City Historical Society site with information to share.

Debra Jane Seltzer has several nice photos of the Culver on her immense site Roadside Architecture. See California Theatres page 6.

See the pages here on this site about several nearby theatres. The Culver City Theatre ran from 1915 to 1923. The page has a few more Culver City history resources listed. The Meralta, its replacement, opened in 1924.

Also see the page about the City Hall Theatre for data on the use of the auditorium at the City Hall as a theatre after the Meralta burned in 1943. It went under at least four names: The Meralta, the City Hall Theatre, the Culver City Theatre and the Fox Culver Theatre. This theatre, of course, took the Fox Culver name when it opened in 1947.

Los Angeles Theatres

Culver / Kirk Douglas Theatre

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