Opened: 1913 as the Owl Theatre. It was on the south side of Temple St. between the 110 and Beaudry Ave. The theatre is in the 1914 city directory as the Owl. In the 1915 directory there's a listing at this address for W H Mansdorfer as the proprietor.
This October 1963 photo appears on Flickr. It's from nearly nineteen minutes of footage taken for the Temple Urban Renewal Project by the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency. The footage appears on the USC Digital Library website. Thanks to Nathan Marsak for the links. Alex Rojas notes that the footage is also on YouTube.
Seating: 520 after renovations due to a street widening.
Architect: Milwaukee Building Co.
Cinema Treasures researcher Joe Vogel found this item in the October 12, 1912, issue of Southwest Contractor & Manufacturer:
"BRICK THEATER—The Milwaukee Building Co., 317 Wright & Callender Bldg., has prepared plans and has the contract at $13,127 for the erection of a 1-story brick theater building on Temple St. near Beaudry Ave. for D. S. Kornblum. Concrete foundation, 50x140 ft., enameled glazed brick front, Silveroid roof, marble and tile lobby, staff work, tile cornice, ornamental iron grilles, steel I beams, plate and leaded glass, pine and birch trim, plumbing, electric wiring."
Thanks, Joe! The Milwaukee Building Co. was later the construction arm of the design firm Meyer & Holler.
A 1914 ad for the Owl. It's a detail from an ad listing 31 theatres. Jeff Bridges has the whole thing on Flickr.
A 1915 fire incident at the theatre when it was rented out for a grade school theatrical.
A 1923 Times item about a meeting held at the theatre. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for finding the Times items to add as a comments to a post on the Photos of Los Angeles Facebook page.
The Owl's management sued the City of Los Angeles in 1929 over the fact that building alterations necessitated by the widening of Temple St. would cost them 155 seats. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for finding the article for a post on the Photos of Los Angeles Facebook page.
Another fire in March 1930. The article was another find by Ken McIntyre.
The theatre is still listed as the Owl in the 1933 city directory. It's not in the 1934 directory. It shows up with the Granada Theatre name in the 1935 directory.
It was always an independently operated theatre. In the 1950s it was run by Harold Wenzler, who also had the Lux Theatre at 827 W. 3rd St. and the Oaks Theatre in Pasadena.
Status: The theatre was demolished as part of a 1960s urban renewal project. The site became a parking lot for a large data center building. As of late 2018 the property was getting redeveloped again as an apartment complex by developer Geoff Palmer.
The Granada on TV:
The Granada made an appearance in "Search in a Windy City," a 1963-64 season episode of "The Fugitive." Thanks to cop show detective Walter Simard for spotting the theatre about 4 1/2 minutes into the episode.
The site in 2017 with a data center there that's now been demolished. Photo: Google Maps
Other Granada theatres include the building that ended up as the Oriental Theatre at 7425 Sunset Blvd. There was a Walter Reade operated venue at 9000 W. Sunset in the 60s and 70s called the Granada. There was also a Granada Theatre in Wilmington
Inglewood had a Granada on Market St., later the site of the Fox Inglewood. The photo identified as the Granada on Temple on page 37 of the Arcadia Publishing book "Theatres in Los Angeles" by Suzanne Tarbell Cooper, Amy Ronnebeck Hall and Marc Wanamaker is actually the Granada in Inglewood.
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