Broadway Theatre / Garnet / Tally's New Broadway

554 S. Broadway Los Angeles, CA 90013 | map |

Opened: December 8, 1903 as the Broadway Theatre. It was a vaudeville theatre project of San Francisco lawyer Alfred Morgenstern that, from the beginning, was also using films to fill out the bills. The vaudeville was booked by David and Sid Grauman, also based in San Francisco.

It's in the 1904 and 1905 city directories. The theatre was on the east side of Broadway near the corner of 6th in the north end of the same building as Silverwood's department store. This somewhat wrinkled, but otherwise terrific, c.1904 look at the theatre was a find on eBay by Noirish Los Angeles contributor Ethereal Reality. It's on his Noirish post #16475.

Seating: 600 initially

Stage size: 37' wide x 22" deep 

 

An article appearing in the December 6 edition of the L.A. Times. When they noted it was "Another Theater On South Broadway" there weren't many at this point. Blanchard Hall had opened in 1899 at 233 S. Broadway, the Unique Theatre was at 629 S. Broadway and the Mason Theatre had opened in June 1903 at 127 S. Broadway. 

 

They didn't get open on December 7 as planned. This item appeared in the Times on December 8 in a column titled "The Playhouses."

 

 "Talent From New York delayed one day." This was the ad in the December 8 Times.

The ad on December 9. Evidently those "Eastern performers" still hadn't arrived. 

 

 

"Talent from New York." The Times ad on December 11, 1903

 

"Moving pictures complete the bill." It's a review of a show at the Broadway that appeared in the Times on January 28, 1904.

 A review for a program at the Broadway appearing in the Times on August 16, 1904.

 

 "Coolest and Best Ventilated Theater In The City." This ad appeared in the Times on August 18, 1904.

It's likely that the financial muscle behind this theatre came from Mrs. Emma Summers, widely referred to as "the oil queen of Los Angeles." Morgenstern had been scheming to take over the Casino Theatre on Spring St. at least since 1904. With Summers' backing, he got it in early 1905. But there were battles over control, both in court and with armed thugs employed by Oliver Belasco and H.C. Wyatt. So he was in, out, and back in again. At some point in early 1905 Morganstern let the Broadway Theatre go. He fled town in July 1905 leaving lots of debts but soon returned after coaxing by Summers. He finally lost the Casino when the oil queen ceased backing him.

 

 

In late 1905 this one was running as the Garnet Theatre, a "Family Theater, catering to ladies and children," operated by William Onslow. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating this December 23 ad as part of a thread about several Main St. theatres on the private Facebook group Photos of Los Angeles.

By March 1906 this theatre had become Tally's New Broadway and the theatre prospered. It gets a listing in The Billboard for 1906 through 1909 as running 3 shows daily. It's listed in the 1907-1908 Henry's Theatrical Guide, a publication on Google Books. The 1909 city directory has listings for both Tally's New Broadway and Tally's Film Exchange.

Tally had had earlier exhibition adventures on Spring and Main but in an article in the July 15, 1916 issue of Moving Picture World  he says that, for him, the real beginning was on Broadway. "It was here, Mr. Tally says, that the first craze on motion pictures started and people used to be lined up for a block or more to get into his theater. The seating capacity of this house was 500 and considered very large. Admission charged was ten cents."  The issue is on Google Books.

This operation shouldn't be confused with the later Tally's Broadway at 833 S. Broadway which opened May 2, 1910. Head down to the bottom of the page about that theatre for a timeline of Tally's other exhibition adventures.

A detail of plate 002 of the 1910 Baist Real Estate Survey map from Historic Map Works showing the 500 blocks of Broadway and Spring. The New Broadway Theatre is there on the NE corner of 6th & Broadway. Actually, it was just in the north half of the space shown -- Silverwood's had the corner storefront. Eventually they took the whole thing. The Arcade Building is now on the site of Mercantile Place. What's indicated to the north of it as the Delaware Hotel is now the Pantages/Arcade Theatre, a house that opened in September 1910.

Closing: The theatre's last day of operation was probably May 1, 1910, the day before Tally's new house at 833 S. Broadway opened. Cinema Treasures researcher Joe Vogel found a May 4, 1910 Los Angeles Herald article discussing the closure that would lead you to believe May 2 was the last day. The page can be viewed on the Library of Congress website. Silverwood's wasted no time expanding into the space.

Status: The building the theatre was in has been demolished. The replacement Silverwood's building currently on the site dates from 1921.

 

late 1905/early 1906 - The Broadway is on the far right edge of this California Historical Society photo, perhaps by C.C. Pierce, that's in the USC Digital Library collection. Note the A-frame sign on the sidewalk advertising a 2:30 matinee. One of the banners across the street is advertising a Midwinter Carnival in Venice on January 14, another advertises a horse show in Pasadena in March. 

Also see a companion photo most likely taken the same day but taken closer to 4th, again looking north.

 

 

 

c.1906 - Business looks good in this photo from Marc Wanamaker's Bison Archives, possibly taken at the reopening as the New Broadway. It appears on page 121 in "Los Angeles Before Hollywood: Journalism and American Film Culture, 1905-1915" by Jan Olsson. There's also a fine discussion of the career of Thomas Tally beginning on page 119. The 2008 book is available as a pdf from the National Library of Sweden. It's also on Amazon. 

c.1908 - Looking north from just above 6th. That's Mercantile Place heading off to the right, a shopping street that connected Broadway and Spring. It was demolished in 1923 for construction of the Arcade Building. Thanks to Michelle Gerdes for sharing the card from her collection.

 

c.1908 - We're looking north across 6th St. to the Silverwood's building containing the theatre. In the foreground it's excavation work for the Walter Story Building on the SE corner of 6th and Broadway. The photo from the California Historical Society is in the USC Digital Library collection.

 

c.1908 - A detail from the California Historical Society photo.

c.1910 - Looking south on Broadway with the theatre on the left. Note the more elaborate signage on top. It appears Tally just moved that array down to his new building at 833 S. Broadway when it opened in May 1910. The large white building is the Walter Story Building, opened in 1909. Thanks to Michelle Gerdes for sharing this postcard from her collection.

 

1910 - The New Broadway playing "Roosevelt in Africa." It's a photo that's in the collections of the USC Digital Library, the Los Angeles Public Library and the AMPAS B'hend - Kaufmann Collection.

 

 

1910 - A detail from the "Roosevelt in Africa" photo.

May 1910 - "A New Show" coming to the theatre. But Mr. Silverwood meant clothing, not movies. It's a photo that appeared with an article about Silverwood's expansion in the May 4, 1910 Los Angeles Herald. The page can be viewed on the Library of Congress website. Thanks to Joe Vogel for finding the article.

c.1913 - Looking down on Silverwood's, in the lower left, after they had booted out the theatre and occupied the whole building. That's 6th St. headed east up the center of the photo. Thanks to Joe Vogel for finding the photo in the Los Angeles Public Library collection.

2018 - The NE corner of 6th and Broadway. This new Silverwood's building went up in 1921. Photo: Bill Counter

2018 - A closer look at the portion of the block where the New Broadway once was. To the left is the Elden Hotel, a survivor from the 1890s.  A slice of the Arcade building is on the far left. Photo: Bill Counter

More information: See the Cinema Treasures page on the theatre, which they list as the Garnett, with two 't's. 

Visit the Tally's Broadway page here on this Los Angeles Theatres site for more about Tally.

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