Los Angeles Theatres: Globe Theatre: vintage exterior views

Globe Theatre: vintage exterior views

1912 - At the left of the photo, the framing is going up for the Garland Building. In the gulch to the right of that we're at the back of the 2nd balcony. It will get a lower roof than the rest of the auditorium off to the right. The space between the tops and bottoms of the trusses will become the attic. Below is the formwork for the front section of the 2nd balcony.

The photo, taken from the building just south of the theatre, appeared with a survey of the work of architects Morgan, Walls & Morgan in the January 1921 issue of Architect and Engineer. It's on Internet Archive. Thanks to Cinema Treasures researcher Joe Vogel for finding the photo.

1912 - The exterior toward the end of construction. Photo: Architect and Engineer - January 1921. Also on the page is a construction view at the back of the main floor.

1913 - The theatre opened as the Morosco on January 6. We get this small view of the entrance in the May 1913 issue of The West Coast Magazine. It's part of an article called "Los Angeles - A City" where Oliver Morosco talks about his new theatre. The issue is on Google Books.

1913 - A photo by C.C. Pierce looking north from 8th St. that's in the Los Angeles Public Library collection. At the time of the photo there hadn't been any vertical signs installed.

1913 - An early card looking north on Broadway from Brent Dickerson's "Later Around Broadway and 8th" chapter of his great "A Visit to Old Los Angeles" tour. He also has several other sections about Broadway, nicely illustrated with vintage postcards and photos. Details are on the site's index page. A version of the card, along with recent views, appears on Noirish Los Angeles contributor Ethereal Reality's Noirish post #16179.

The card gives us a bit of the Garrick Theatre in the lower center. In 1927 that would be the site for the Tower Theatre. The white Los Angeles Investment Co. Building on the corner, designed by Ernest McConnell, rose in 1912 and would be renamed the Chapman Building in 1920. It's now loft apartments. The Garland Building / Morosco Theatre is beyond.

1913 - A view of the new building from the Los Angeles Public Library Security Pacific collection. Note the two vertical signs.

1913 - Up in the Hamburger Department Store Building, later to become the May Co., looking north. It's a C.C. Pierce photo from the California Historical Society on the USC Digital Library website where they date it June 1.

1913 - A detail from the June 1 C.C. Pierce photo. Down the street we get a glimpse of the Orpheum (now the Palace), the Pantages (now the Arcade Theatre) and the tower of the old City Hall.

c.1913 - Another a C.C. Pierce photo taken from the Hamburger Bldg. It's from the California Historical Society collection and appears on the USC Digital Library website.

1913 - An October view of the Garrick Theatre (later the site of the Tower), the stud-lit Los Angeles Investment Co. Building, and the Morosco Theatre beyond. It's a G. Haven Bishop photo for Southern California Edison Company that's in the Huntington Library collection.

1913 - A detail from the G. Haven Bishop image.

c.1915 - An early postcard of the theatre from the collection of Brooklyn-based theatre historian Cezar Del Valle. Check out his Theatre Talks website or the Brooklyn Theatre Index Facebook page to see what he's been exploring lately.

c.1915 - This is the photo that the postcard above was based on. It's in the Los Angeles Public Library collection.

c.1915 - A postcard from the collection Penny Postcards From California. Thanks to Cinema Treasures researcher Joe Vogel for finding it.

late 1920s - Up on the roof of the Hamburger Building. The Morosco has a new vertical sign installation -- but only one this time around. Up the street we can see the Palace Theatre, until 1926 called the Orpheum. It's a photo in the USC Digital Library collection. They also have a similar shot that shows more of the Hamburger roof garden.

late 1920s - A detail from the previous photo in case you want to check out the new vertical.

late 1920s - Another detail from the USC photo giving us a closer look at the marquee. The lovely original Morosco lettering on the edge of the marquee got changed out for a more generic font and a readerboard was added above. "The Wasp's Nest Now Playing." At the time of the photo the theatre was still running as a legit playhouse.

1929 - A Christmas season Dick Whittington Studio photo. On the right we get the theatre, newly renamed the President. Henry Duffy, operator of a string of legit houses up and down the coast, had renamed the theatre. But his circuit fell apart around 1930. The photo is in the USC Digital Library collection.

1929 - A detail from the previous Dick Whittington photo giving us a closer look at the theatre's revamped vertical sign. Note we still have the original 1913 marquee but with the letters on the edge changed out to read President.

1929 - A wider Christmas view north toward 8th from the Dick Whittington Studio. On the right we get a bit of the Rialto marquee followed by the Tower and the Morosco/President. Over on the left in the distance there's Loew's State and the vertical for the Broadway entrance of the Paramount Theatre, formerly the Metropolitan. The photo is on the USC Digital Library website, part of a set of 7 photos surveying downtown decorations that year. Thanks to Stephen Russo for finding the photos in the USC collection.

1931 - Looking north toward 8th St. on July 25. Down across 8th St. the new marquee of the President said "Nothing In This World Like It." Over on the left we get the marquee for the short-lived Broadway entrance of Bard's 8th St. Theatre, renamed the Olympic in 1932. They were running "Born To Love," an April release with Constance Bennett. The Tower is there on our side of 8th. The main feature at the Rialto was "Shipmates," an April release with Robert Montgomery and Dorothy Jordan.

The image is a detail from a photo by Joseph Carter of the Dick Whittington Studio. It's from a set of ten images in the USC Digital Library collection taken during the May Company's Golden Jubilee. They were celebrating the founding of Hamburger's Department Store in 1881, originally called The People's Store.

1931 - This great postcard shows the marquee of the President Theatre in the left foreground. Here the house has gone to movies, running "Street Scene" with Sylvia Sidney, a September 1931 release. The vertical of the Majestic Theatre, demolished in 1933, is down the street on the right, just before the turquoise Eastern Columbia building. The card is one from the collection of Gerald DeLuca appearing on Photobucket.

1936 - A Dick Whittington view looking down on the President Theatre marquee. The vertical sign has been removed from the building. It's a photo in the USC Digital Library collection. It also makes an appearance on Noirish Los Angeles contributor Mdiederi's Noirish post #2745. On the far right that's a slice of the Tower Theatre's vertical.

1936 - A Detail from the previous Dick Whittington photo. The end panel reads "Robert Taylor Features" with a banner beneath for "The Gorgeous Hussy," released in August 1936. That title and Joan Crawford, his co-star in "Hussy," appears on the front. The second feature with Taylor looks like it might be "Society Doctor" from 1935.

1937 - Looking north from 8th toward the President Theatre. It's a Herman Schultheis photo in the Los Angeles Public Library collection. Their site notes that the theatre was running "Stella Dallas." It was an August 1937 release with Barbara Stanwyck, John Boles and Anne Shirley.

1938 - Looking north from 8th during "The Big Flood of 1938." It's a February 9 photo from the Dick Whittington Studio that's in the USC Digital Library collection. Thanks to the Historic Core Facebook page for locating this shot and the one below for a rainy day post.

1938 - Another February 9 photo from the Whittington Studio that's in the USC Digital Library collection. The President was running "Rosalie," a December 1937 release with Nelson Eddy and Eleanor Powell.

1938 - Looking down the canyon of Broadway toward the President Theatre. Down at 8th, we get a bit of the Tower Theatre. Thanks to Michelle Gerdes for finding this one in the Los Angeles Public Library collection.

1939 - The theatre in January as the Newsreel. The change in name and policy had occurred in August 1938. Thanks to Eric Lynxwiler for sharing this photo from his collection as part of the terrific "Los Angeles Theatres" album on Flickr. Eric is the co-author, with Tom Zimmerman, of the Angel City Press book "Spectacular Illumination: Neon Los Angeles 1925-1965."

The photo also appears in the "Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation Group Pool" on Flickr that's curated by Michelle Gerdes. A version acquired from Bay Area theatre historian Jack Tillmany appears in the Tom B'hend - Preston Kaufmann Collection, part of the AMPAS Margaret Herrick Digital Library Collections.

1939 - Looking north on Spring at 8th St. in a Dick Whittington photo. Note the recently painted "Newsreel Theatre" signage on the back of what formerly was the President Theatre. The photo is in the USC Digital Library collection.

1940 - A rainy January view looking north across 8th toward the Newsreel Theatre. That coffee cup on the left is part of the signage for Maxwell House on the Merritt Building. Thanks to Scott Collette for locating this Dick Whittington Studio photo in the USC Digital Library collection. It's one he included in his great post on the Forgotten Los Angeles Facebook page of 17 downtown Whittington views from 1940. Part of the set is also on Instagram.

1940 - Looking north in January. It's another Dick Whitttington Studio photo that Scott Collette located in the USC Digital Library collection. Thanks!

1940 - "Warship - Plane - Vaval..." It's a detail from the previous Dick Whittington photo.

1940 - Looking south from Bullock's toward the Garland Building and Newsreel Theatre, here still with the old boxy marquee it had from the President days. At the State: "The Man I Married," an August release. The photo is in the USC Digital Library collection.

1940 - "Actual Films - Sea Battles." It's a detail from another version of the shot above that's also in the USC Digital Library collection. Down at the Tower it was something with Mickey Rooney plus "Forty Little Mothers."

c.1940 - Looking north from 8th with the Newsreel on the right. On the program is a March of Time newsreel, a series that began in 1935. The photo, taken by Bob Plunkett, is from the James Rojas collection and appears in an album from the Metro Library and Archive on Flickr. Thanks to Stephen Russo for spotting it. Michelle Gerdes also had found it for a post on the Facebook group Photos of Los Angeles.

1942 - A 4th of July parade up Broadway -- note the "Newsreel" signage on the theatre above its new triangular marquee. It's a photo from the Herald Examiner collection at the Los Angeles Public Library.

1943 - A fine view north on Broadway from 8th. Martin Turnbull comments: "We can see on the marquee of the Newsreel Theatre the name 'Pantelleria' which is an Italian island east of Tunisia. During WWII, it was a stepping stone for the Allied invasion of neighboring Sicily en route to the Italian mainland. The invasion of Pantelleria took place on June 11, 1943, so I’m guessing the theatre was running a newsreel about it, which I’d say places this photo not long afterwards."

The photo from Nathan Marsak Collection appears on page 48 of "Spectacular Illumination: Neon Los Angeles, 1925-1960," the terrific 2016 book from Angel City Press by Tom Zimmerman and Eric Lynxwiler. It's available on Amazon or direct from Angel City.

Articles about the book have appeared on Curbed L.A., the website for Los Angeles magazine, the L.A. Daily News website, LAist, the KCRW blog and the website CityLab. Thanks to Sean Ault for spotting the photo. Details from the photo have also appeared on the Facebook page Photos of Los Angeles.

1945 - A photo by Harry E. Surerus that was once in the collection of Tony Heinsbergen. Thanks to Tom Ohmer for finding this one in the AMPAS Tom B'hend and Preston Kaufmann Collection. The photo has made appearances on the Facebook page Photos of Los Angeles and with a May 2014 Curbed L.A. article. The battle of Iwo Jima took place in February and March.

1945 - Looking south toward 8th in a shot by Frank Q. Brown for the L.A. Times. On the marquee it's "Skyscraper Plane Crash" plus something about Russia. The Times dates this as 1946 but the plane crashing into the Empire State Building was July 1945. The photo appeared with the print version of Thomas Curwen's May 8, 2021 Times story "Has the Golden State lost its luster? California population shrinks for first time ever." The caption: "Cars clog downtown Los Angeles' Broadway in 1946. Workers flocked to California after World War II for jobs in the growing defense industry."

1948 - A Times photo on Calisphere from the UCLA L.A. Times Photographic Archives. Looking south we see the vertical of the Tower Theatre, at the time of the photo called the Music Hall. The photo's copy: "PROTEST -- Marching along Broadway in drizzle, members of Costa Rican colony in Los Angeles parade in protest against government at home which they charge is Communist-dominated. In center of front row carrying a placard is Ezequiel Gutierrez Ross, who headed the demonstrators. Beside him is his son, Edgar Gutierrez, 18."

1955 - In this sad view north we see the theatre renamed the Globe running "Wichita," a July 1955 release with Joel McCrea. The Newsreel format and the neon letters that had been above the readerboards were moved half a block south to the Tower Theatre. It's a photo by Vivian Maier that appears in the book "Vivian Maier: Out of the Shadows" by Richard Cahan and Michael Williams. Thanks to Don Goldberg for spotting the photo.

From the Amazon blurb on the book: "Presenting her breathtaking photographs alongside revealing interviews with those who knew her best, this volume is the first attempt to put Vivian Maier's work in context and create a moving portrait of her as an artist. Though she created more than 120,000 negatives during her lifetime, only a few were ever seen by others." Also see VivianMaier.com.

1963 - "3 Features - Smoking in Balcony." Thanks to Sean Ault for spotting this one on eBay. On the right: the pre-1965 version of the vertical at the Tower Theatre.

1964 - A view north from 8th. On the left note some Millard Sheets sculpture on the Merritt Building in its slab-faced Home Savings days. Thanks to Sean Ault for locating the photo.

1960s - A Dick Whittington Studios photo in the USC Digital Library collection.

1960s - "3 Top Hits." It's a detail from the Dick Whittington photo.

Wayne Lawless comments: "I remember when the Globe showed 3 movies and changed the bill mid-day on Wednesdays and Sundays. You could see 6 movies for 50 cents if you wanted."

1971 - A view south toward 8th St. from a minute of Broadway home movie footage beginning 27:30 into Rick Prelinger's "Lost Landscapes of Los Angeles - 2019." We also see the Broadway, Roxie, Cameo and Arcade theatres. Rick's hour and thirty minute program of wonderful clips from a variety sources was presented at the Los Angeles Public Library by the organization Photo Friends as part of the series L.A. in Focus. Also see an earlier compilation: "Lost Landscapes of Los Angeles - 2016." Both programs are on Vimeo.

1971 - The Globe as a Spanish language film house running "Chico Ramos." Thanks to Sean Ault for the photo from his collection.

1972 - A view looking south on Broadway from the Sean Ault collection. The Globe has "El Rey de Acapulco" as their main feature.

1972 - A photo in the Los Angeles Public Library collection.

c.1972 - Ads still visible from the theatre's Newsreel era: "90 Minutes of World Wide News" - "New Program Every Friday." Thanks to Matt Golden (aka Matt Man) for sharing this shot of the stage end of the building. This one, along with five other photos he took around town in the same era, are in a November 2024 post on the Lost Angeles Facebook group. Thanks to Lisa Kouza Braddock for spotting Matt's post. Visit his website: lostlalocations.net

1976 - The Globe is all dressed up as a burlesque theatre for the Peter Hyams film "Peeper" (20th Century Fox). Private eye Michael Caine is in the distance running to the theatre to rescue Natalie Wood from a kidnapper. See the Historic L.A. Theatres in Movies post for more shots from the film.

1980 - A photo from the now-vanished American Classic Images website.

1983 - A nice night view thanks to the American Classic Images collection. Look at that great neon work on the front.

1985 - An entrance view from an unknown photographer.

1986 - A look into the ticket lobby from the Janet Jackson music video "Nasty." Thanks to Sean Ault for spotting it. See the Historic L.A. Theatres in Movies post for several more images from the video. The auditorium shots were done elsewhere. The theatre closed in fall 1986.

c.1989 - The theatre's entrance repurposed for retail use. Thanks to John Rice for the photo. It appears as a contribution from him on the Cinema Treasures page about the Globe.

c.1995 - Another shot taken dring the lobby's retail era. The photo is one of many fine views on the Broadway Theater Tour page from Grace Market Research.

Los Angeles Theatres

Globe Theatre: vintage exterior views

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