Los Angeles Theatres: Broadway Theatre

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

Opened: 1925 as the New Broadway in a space formerly a shoe store. The building that housed the theatre is on the east side of the street mid-way between 4th and 5th. This 1954 view south gives us a look at the big marquee on what was a tiny theatre. They're running "Rob Roy" and "Creature From The Black Lagoon." Thanks to Sean Ault for sharing the photo from his collection.

Architects: The building the theatre was in was originally called the Broadway Central Building, a 10 story steel frame structure dating from 1907 designed by Charles R. Aldrich. He's named on the February 27, 1907 permit. It was later known as the Judson C. Rives Building. It's now known as The Judson Building.

The architect and contractor for the $10,000 conversion project was L. McConville of 3203 W. Washington Blvd.

This building permit for the theatre conversion is dated November 10, 1924. Thanks to Noirish Los Angeles contributor Tovangar2 for locating it for Noirish post #30061. Permits are searchable online at the L.A. Department of Building and Safety website.

The owners are listed as M.A. Schulkin and J.H. Cohen. The latter was a gentleman who later changed his name to Corwin. The Morris Schulkin family and the Joe Cohen family had evidently operated theatres as partners in Sioux City, Iowa. The two families had moved to Los Angeles together in 1920. This first L.A. theatre for the two families was the beginning of what was built into Metropolitan Theatres. It's unknown when or under what circumstances the Schulkin family was eased out of the business.

An ad in the December 9, 1924 issue of the L.A. Times located by Cinema Treasures contributor Jeff Bridges noted: "Listen to the new Wurlitzer Organ in the New Broadway Theater, which will open soon at 428 S. Broadway."

By 1926 the theatre was just called the Broadway. It's listed that way in the 1926 city directory with Joseph H. and Lawrence E. Cohen (one of Joe's two sons) as managers. In March 1926 the Cohen and Schulkin families took over their second venue, the Rialto Theatre, at that time calling themselves the New York and Pacific Amusement Corporation.

The Broadway Central Building is seen in this detail from plate 002 of the 1910 Baist Real Estate Survey from Historic Map Works. Just south of the Broadway Central, the Bumiller Building was the home of the theatre, museum and exhibit hall Wonderland/Eden Musee in 1908.

Seating: 400

A 1941 Times ad for the company, then calling itself Downtown Broadway Theatres, advertising only three downtown theatres: the Broadway, Olympic and Orpheum. Soon it would be rebranded as Metropolitan Theatres.

A 1949 Times listings including seven downtown theatres for Metropolitan.

A 1950 listing for the company with seven downtown and five neighborhood houses.

A 1950 incident reported in the L.A. Times. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for finding the article.

In later years it was called the Teatro Broadway and ran Spanish language films.

A 1973 L.A. Times article. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating it.

Closing: The Broadway closed in the summer of 1988, still a Metropolitan Theatres operation.

Status: The auditorium area was split down the middle in 2007 and turned back into retail spaces. Above the ground floor in the renovated building it's now apartments.

This theatre was on Broadway for six decades yet there seem to be no interior photos.

More exterior views:

1907 - We're looking north on Broadway between 4th and 5th in an October photo. The Broadway Central Building, later the home of the Broadway Theatre, is the tallest on the block. Here it's still under construction. It's a California Historical Society photo in the USC Digital Library collection.

The Bumiller Building, this side of the Broadway Central, was in 1908 the brief home of the Wonderland/Eden Musee. The Optic Theatre at 446 1/2 S. Broadway, is seen in the squat building in the bottom right, below the sign advertising "On the Quiet" at the Belasco on Hill St., a theatre later known as the Follies.

c.1916 - Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating this card for a post on the Photos of Los Angeles Facebook page.

1925 - A view looking north from the California State Library collection. The tall building on the left would soon be home to the Broadway Theatre. Thanks to James J. Chun for locating the photo for a post on the Photos of Los Angeles Facebook page.

1928 - Looking south toward 5th with the Broadway Theatre in the Broadway Central Building. The June photo from the California Historical Society appears on the USC Digital Library website.

1928 - A detail of the theatre from the California Historical Society photo.

c.1930 - A bit of the Broadway's marquee is seen on the left in this view south toward 5th St. It's a photo that appeared, uncredited, in a Yesterday Today post titled "61 Vintage Photos of Life in Los Angeles during the 1930s." It's also been seen on the site Vintage Everyday. The vertical sign in the center of the image is for Walker's department store at 5th & Broadway.

1939 - A Dick Whittington view looking north from 5th. We get a glimpse of the theatre's signage in the middle of the block. Also note the signage for the Judson C. Rives Building (formerly the Broadway Central Building) that housed the theatre. The photo is in the USC Digital Library collection.

1939 - A closer view of the great marquee taken the same day as the previous photo. It's a Dick Whittington Studio photo in the USC Digital Library collection.

1939 - A detail from the Dick Whittington photo above.

1945 - An August 14 L.A. Times photo by Frank Q. Brown looking south toward 5th as Angelenos celebrate VJ Day. At the Broadway Theatre: Greer Garson in "Valley of Decision."

1954 - A detail from the photo at the top of the page. Thanks to Sean Ault for sharing the image.

1957 - Looking south on Broadway with the theatre over on the left. It's a photo from the Sean Ault collection.

1962 - A photo from the Los Angeles Public Library collection.

1967 - A William Reagh shot of protests on Broadway. We're looking north on the 400 block toward the Broadway Theatre in the upper left corner. It's a Los Angeles Public Library photo.

1967 - This view of the Broadway from Marc Wanamaker's Bison Archives appears on page 20 of the 2008 Arcadia Publishing book "Theatres in Los Angeles" by Suzanne Tarbell Cooper, Amy Ronnebeck Hall and Mr. Wanamaker. The page with the photo is included in the book's preview on Google Books. It's available on Amazon.

1968 - A view north on Broadway toward the theatre. Thanks to Sean Ault for sharing the photo from his collection.

1971 - A view north toward 4th St. from a minute of Broadway home movie footage 27:30 into Rick Prelinger's "Lost Landscapes of Los Angeles - 2019." We also see the Roxie, Cameo, Arcade, Globe and Tower 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.

1973 - A last look at the old marquee and vertical taken by an unknown photographer in December. It's way over there on the left. It's a photo from the Los Angeles Public Library collection.

1974 - This image appears in "Bruce and David Corwin: the Organization, the Business and the Community," a 6 minute tribute video made in 2017 by Stan Roden. Bruce died in 2021. Thanks to Chris Nichols for spotting this on YouTube. The original Italian title of the 1972 film starring Vittorio Congia was "Una cavalla tutta nuda." Chris covered the 2024 bankruptcy of Metropolitan Theatres in his LA Magazine story "L.A.'s Oldest Theater Chain Files for Bankruptcy."

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

1982 - A photo taken by Larry Armstrong for the L.A. Times. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating it for a Facebook post on Ken's Movie Page.

1983 - A detail from another photo in the American Classic Images collection.

c.1989 - "Miracle on Broadway" wasn't a film title, it was what they were hoping for. The Teatro Broadway had closed. It's a photo by filmmaker and cinematographer Gary Graver (1938-2006). See an article about him on Wikipedia. More of his theatre photos can be seen on two compilations on You Tube: "Second Run - part 1" and "Second Run - part 2." Thanks to Sean Graver for use of the photo.

c.1995 - The closed theatre is there in the shadows in this fine shot from Martin that appeared on his now-vanished site You-Are-Here.com. Here the marquee is gone but the Teatro Broadway vertical is still on the building. It would come down around 2005.

2007 - The Judson Building, minus its theatre. Photo: Bill Counter

2007 - Remodeling underway. Photo: Bill Counter

2007 - The exit doors of what had been the Broadway Theatre during construction. Photo: Bill Counter

2010 - The retail spaces back in business. The theatre's entrance had been over on the right. It had been a shoe store before the space was converted into a theatre in the 20s. Photo: Bill Counter

2018 - The 10 stories of the Judson. Photo: Bill Counter

2018 - A view toward the north. The new Perla condo project is rising on the left. It's the Bumiller Building on the right. Photo: Bill Counter

2019 - The neighborhood continuing to grow. Thanks to Kirk A. Gaw for his photo on the DTLA Development Facebook page.

The Broadway in the Movies:

We get a quick drive-by in a squad car with a look at the theatre's wildly flashing marquee in "He Walked by Night" (Eagle-Lion Films, 1948). They were running "Gone With the Wind." The film stars Richard Basehart as a quirky killer the LAPD is trying to catch. The ending features a terrific chase through L.A.'s storm drains. On the hunt are Scott Brady, Roy Roberts and Jack Webb. See the Historic L.A. Theatres in Movies post for a shot we see earlier in the film of the Mason Theatre's stagehouse from the top of the Hill St. tunnel.

We're supposedly in New York but find ourselves on Broadway about 80 minutes into "Candy" (Cinerama Releasing, 1968). Buck Henry wrote the screenplay based on the novel by Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg. Starring are Ewa Aulin, Richard Burton, Charles Aznavour, Marlon Brando, James Coburn, John Huston, Walter Matthau, Ringo Starr, Elsa Martinelli and Anita Pallenberg. Christian Marquand directed. The cinematography was by Giuseppe Rotunno. See the Historic L.A. Theatres in Movies post for shots of the Palace and Cameo theatres.

We get a glimpse of the Broadway in a cruise down the street in the opening credits of Dennis Hopper's "Colors" (Orion, 1988). You don't need to see the rest of the film. See the Historic L.A. Theatres in Movies post for views of the Million Dollar, State and Palace from the film.

More information: See the Broadway Theatre page on Cinema Treasures. Noirish Los Angeles contributor Broadwy Central Bldg. has photos he's taken of the building's entrance, lobby and basement on his Noirish post #30081.

For other theatres using the Broadway name see the pages on this site for Tally's New Broadway at 554 S. Broadway and Tally's Broadway at 833 S. Broadway.

See a lovely 1950s downtown map that shows many theatre locations including the Central and the Cozy. It's from a now-vanished website by Tom Wetzel about the history of L.A. transit.

Bruce and David Corwin are interviewed in "Bruce and David Corwin: the Organization, the Business and the Community," a 6 minute tribute video made in 2017 by Stan Roden. Bruce died in 2021. Thanks to Chris Nichols for spotting this on YouTube. Chris covered the 2024 bankruptcy of Metropolitan Theatres in his LA Magazine story "L.A.'s Oldest Theater Chain Files for Bankruptcy."

Broadway Theatre

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