Ideal Theatre

134 S. Spring St. Los Angeles, CA 90012  | map |

Opened: Evidently in the late 20s. The building it was in had been around since at least the 1890s. 

The Ideal Theatre is listed in the 1929 and 1932 city directories. The address puts it in the middle of the block on the east side of the street between 1st and 2nd. An earlier theatre on the block was the Lyric Theatre at 128 S. Spring.

Closing: The date is unknown. It's not in the 1933, 1934 or 1936 city directories.  

Status: All the early buildings on the block have been demolished. The Los Angeles Police Department headquarters building now occupies the entire block.

 

The building that would much later house the Ideal Theatre is seen as the tallest on the east side of the block in this 1896 drawing from the Los Angeles Public Library collection.  

 

We're still a bit early for the Ideal with this c.1920 view north from 2nd St. The Ideal would be in that four-story building that's the third in from the right. This photo was shared by Jack Feldman in a post on the Images and Memories of Los Angeles Facebook group. It appears on a W&PA Museum page of Early Street Views. Another take from the same shoot is in the Los  Angeles Public Library collection. 

 

The four-story building that would later house the Ideal Theatre is seen in the center of this detail taken from the c.1920 shot above. Until 1919 or so the Lyric Theatre had been in the building just to the left.

The block between 1st and 2nd in 1921. It's a detail from plate 003 of the Baist Real Estate Survey Map from Historic Mapworks. The building the Ideal would later go in is seen on the right side as the third up from the corner, 132-134 S. Spring. Earlier the Lyric had been in the next building north, 128-130. That building indicated as "Theatre" up on 1st just east of Spring was the Princess. 

The LAPD building took the whole block. The Ideal would have been in the middle of the block, a bit past the end of the building. We're looking south from 1st St. with 3rd St. way down there beyond the red-striped parking garage. Photo: Bill Counter - 2019

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