1624 Sunset Blvd. Echo Park (Los Angeles), CA 90026 | map |
Opened: September 14, 1912 as the Globe Theatre #3. It was built for the Globe Amusement Co. by Henry
Jensen. The location was on the south side of the street two blocks east of Glendale Blvd.
Seating:
900 was the announced capacity during construction. It later sat 732.
Ken Roe notes that in the 1950 and 1952 Film Daily Yearbooks it's listed
as having 780 seats.
Architect: Unknown
"Let Your Money Work For You." Well, it didn't work for long. Globe was a short-lived venture. This ad for their stock offering appeared in the L.A. Times on March 31, 1912. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating this as well as many other Globe items for a Facebook thread on
Ken's Movie Page.
The Globe folks projected a circuit of 15 theatres and got at least as far as seven. The
Globe #1
was at 5th and Los Angeles downtown, Globe #2 was constructed for the firm at 3511 S. Central, a venue later
known as the Amusu and the
Florence Mills Theatre. This one in Echo Park was #3. Globe #4 was at 18th and Main, later renamed the
Victor. #5 was the
Globe Theatre in San Pedro. Unit #6 in the chain was the
Starland
on the Ocean Park Pier. It was not commissioned by the chain but
acquired soon after it opened. And not long before it burned. #7 was at
2624 N. Broadway in Lincoln Heights, a house later called the
Starland. The facades of these (except #6) shared a similar look with a huge entrance arch and a big dome with a lit globe on top.
Construction on the Globe house for Echo Park was announced in the April 7, 1912 issue of the Times. They promised that:
"Over 2500 electric lights
will illuminate the front and top of a mammoth dome will circle a
large searchlight of 1000 candle-power... The interior will be richly
furnished in the most up-to-date opera chairs, floor coverings and
draperies. The ceilings and side walls will be tastefully decorated in
subdued colors. The foyers will be finished in Italian marble, white
tile and stucco work. The prevailing color schemes will be in white,
greens and red."
This drawing, the same one they used in their March stock offering ad, appeared with the April 7, 1912 Times article. The facade was a design that
would be replicated for other theatres of the circuit.
The full April 7, 1912 Times article. The replacement of the Globe #1 with a ten-story building and a 1,400 seat vaudeville house never happened. That building on E. 5th St. was later turned into a bus station. Thanks to Jeff Bridges for finding the article for a post on
Flickr. Ken McIntyre also shared it on the
Photos of Los Angeles Facebook page.
This September 15, 1912 Times article outlined the progress the circuit was making. But there were problems. That five-story project on W. 3rd St. near
Figueroa was never built although there were two smaller projects opened around this time: the Tunnel Theatre at 712 W. 3rd. and the Lux Theatre at 827 W. 3rd. The 9th and Georgia house appears to be the venue later known as the Georgia Theatre but it's unknown if Globe ever operated it. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating the article. Regarding this Echo Park house way down at the bottom they note:
"Globe Theater No. 3, on Sunset boulevard, near Echo Park, was opened yesterday evening."
The Globe circuit didn't last long. In the 1914 & 15 city directories there's a
listing for "C. T. List" as the operator. And by 1914 it was being advertised as the Sunset Theatre. Thanks to Jeff Bridges for locating this ad listing the theatre that he posted on Flickr.
Jensen, who had started as a brickmaker, then becoming a contractor, soon found himself a career as a theatre operator. In the 1916 through 1919 and 1921 directories it's listed as
Jensen's Theatorium. In addition to this one he ended up building a few more such as the nearby Melrose Theatre, the Palace Grand in Glendale, and the Raymond Theatre in Pasadena. Another Jensen project nearby was the Jensen Recreation Center, opened in 1924. See several photos down at the bottom of this page.
In the 1923 directory it's listed just as
the Theatorium.
This January 1924 column of ads located by Ken McIntyre included the venue advertising as the Theatorium.
It had become the Hollyway by 1925 and was still listed
that way in the 1929 city directory. The name got shortened to Holly in
1941. At some point along the way it was also advertised as Jensen's Holly.
Status: As a theatre it made it until mid-1951. It was converted into a branch bank later in 1951, then a
market. In 2024 it became a climbing gym called The Stronghold. No trace of its theatrical past remains.
The former theatre building as a climbing gym. Photo: Bill Counter - 2024
A few exterior photos:
1916 - A great photo of the theatre as Jensen's Theatorium. Thanks to Dallas Movie Theaters for the post on the
Cinema Treasures page about the theatre.
1925 - A view of the theatre, then called the Hollyway, from the October 17, 1925 issue of
Motion Picture News. It's on Internet Archive. The feature is Buster Keaton's "Seven Chances" but all the
ballyhoo is for a now-lost fifteen part serial called "The Great Circus
Mystery" starring strongman Joe Bonomo. Thanks to Brooklyn-based theatre
historian Cezar Del Valle for the find. He's got it in "
The Circus Comes to Echo Park," his Theatre Talks blog post.
1931 - The Hollyway running Josef von Sternberg's "Dishonored" starring Victor McLaglen and Marlene Dietrich. It's a photo from the L.A. County Natural History Museum that makes an appearance with "
The Early Entertainment Complexes of Henry Jensen," a 2010 post by Elisabeth L. Uyeda on the blog Los Angeles Revisited. The photo originally appeared in the 150th Birthday of L.A. edition of something called "Los Angeles Saturday Night." Many thanks to David Zornig for spotting the post.
1931 - A detail from the L.A. County Natural History Museum photo.
c.1946 - A view looking west. The theatre's facade is down there above the back of the streetcar. Many thanks to Sean Ault for sharing the photo from his collection.
1951 - The view west toward the Holly near the end of its career. It's a Julius Shulman photo in the collection of the
Getty Research Institute. Shulman was out photographing various branch offices for Bank of America. The Getty indexes his set of three photos of this location as
Shulman's job #1050.
1951 - A detail from the Shulman photo. The facade of the Holly, except for the new marquee, was unchanged since its nickelodeon days. Here they're running "Two of a Kind," a July 1951 release with Edmond O'Brien and Lizabeth Scott. Beyond in the next block is Jensen's Recreation Center. Thanks to Hoss C for finding the shot in the Getty collection. It's part of his
Noirish Los Angeles post #31016.
1951 - An L.A. Times article posted by
Jeff Bridges on Flickr detailed the proposed conversion of the theatre into a bank by architect Arthur Drielsma. Occupancy was expected in the summer of 1952. Included in the article was this photo. The article has also been seen on
Photos of Los Angeles.
c.2010 - The back of the former theatre. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for sharing his photo.
2011 - The front of the former Holly Theatre as a market. Photo: Bill Counter
2024 - The new tenant: a climbing gym called The Stronghold. Photo: Bill Counter
2024 - Around the back. Photo: Bill Counter
The Globe/Theatorium in the Movies: The
1913 Keystone comedy "Mabel's Dramatic Career" with Mabel Normand,
Fatty Arbuckle and Mack Sennett appears to have used the theatre for
exterior shots. We see the Globe name in the ticket lobby tile. Studio
sets were used for the interior shots. See the
Historic L.A. Theatres in Movies post for a few more screenshots.
We get a look at the Theatorium Sweet Shop that was in the theatre's east storefront near the beginning of the Ben Turpin comedy "A Studio
Stampede," later known as "Out of Control" (Vogue Films, March 1917). The 1917 city directory, under confectioners, listed a shop at 1622 Sunset that was run by S.S. Holmes. Thanks to John Bengtson for
getting some screenshots. See the
Historic L.A. Theatres in Movies post for another Sweet Shop shot as well as views of the entrance of the Iris Theatre, 6417 Hollywood Blvd.
Sennett
was back at the Theatorium in 1918 for exterior shots for "Her Screen Idol," another film
involving moviegoing. Thanks to John Bengtson for the screenshot. See
the
Historic L.A. Theatres in Movies post for another shot in closer to the entrance doors.
More information: See the
Cinema Treasures page on the Holly. There was also a
Theatorium in Long Beach, but not related to Jensen's operation.
KCET had a fine 2013 story by Hadley Meares: "
Henry C. Jensen, the Cunning Capitalist of L.A."
Jensen's Recreation Center: The Holly Theatre location on Sunset was just a half block east of another Jensen project, the Jensen's Recreation Center.
The 1924 vintage building at 1710 Sunset Blvd. didn't have a theatre
but did have lots of other interesting facilities including a bowling alley, a
billiard hall, street level retail and 46 apartments above.
In 1998 it became City of Los Angeles Los Angeles Historic-Cultural
Monument No. 652. It was designed by the same architect as the Melrose
Theatre,
Elimar E.B. Meinardus.
A 2011 view looking west. Photo: Bill Counter
A roof sign detail from
Kansas Sebastian on Flickr. The sign has been restored.
Diane Pell Omori on Facebook remembered that: "The bowler on the roof used to
'throw' the bowling ball and the neon lights would light up in a way
that actually looked like he was bowling. It was pretty cool."
The basement bowling alley. The photo, from the California State Library collection, makes an appearance on Flickr from
Mary-Austin & Scott.
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