1448 4th St. Santa Monica, CA 90401 | map |
Opened:
Sometime between 1941 and 1944 by ABC Theatres, one of three theatres eventually operated under the Hitching Post name. It was on the west side of the street between Broadway and Santa Monica Blvd. Their other theatres were in Hollywood (later called the Paris) and Beverly Hills (later called the Beverly Canon).
Architect: Unknown
Seating: 600, according to Cinema Treasures.
The building was evidently retail space prior to conversion to the Hitching Post. In the 1940 city directory 1450 4th is listed as the location of a toy store and 1446 as a restaurant.
The city
directory for 1947 and 1948 just lists it as the Western Theatre. It's
in the 1947 through 1950 phone books as the Hitching Post.
The
ABC circuit later abandoned the westerns and by 1950 turned
the venue into an art house, the Riviera Theatre. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for finding this 1950 listing in the L.A. Times.
It's listed as the
Riviera in the February 1951 phone book but in the 1952 book it's back
to being listed as the Hitching Post, perhaps an error. It's still listed as the Hitching Post
in the Film Daily Yearbooks of 1950 and 1952.
The assumption is that the westerns continued for the weekend matinees, as they did at the Beverly Hills Hitching Post.
Closing: The date of closing is unknown. It's listed as vacant in the 1952/53 Santa
Monica city directory and it's not in the 1953 phone book. By 1954 it had
become the home of the Santa Monica Colonial Furniture Co.
Status: The building has been demolished. There's now a parking garage on the site.
More Information: See the Cinema Treasures page on the Hitching Post. But ignore the Pussycat Theatre comments. The Pussycat was at 1442 2nd. See the Pussycat Theatre page here on this site for more details on that one.
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