Los Angeles Theatres: Nickel Theatre

255 S. Main St. Los Angeles, CA 90012 | map |

Opened: It was opened in late summer 1906 as the Nickel Theatre. It's in the 1907 city directory with Western Amusement Co. listed as the proprietor.

C. M. Bockhaven is listed as manager in the 1907-08 Henry's Official Western Theatrical Guide with a mention that the shows ran continuously. The publication is on Google Books. The trade magazine The Billboard has it on their lists from 1906 to 1909, also spelling the manager's name as Bockhaven. The 1908 Billboard list is on Google Books. His name is spelled Bockover in one 1907 city directory listing. Usually it's listed as Bockoven.

Seating: 250

The Nickel gets a mention by Jan Olsson on page 123 of "Los Angeles Before Hollywood - Journalism and American Film Culture, 1905-1915." The 2008 book is available on Amazon or as a free pdf from the National Library of Sweden. Olsson notes that a permit for renovations was issued July 13, 1906 with the estimated cost being $300. Although the permit was signed only by Bockoven, Olsson asserts that Billy Clune was co-owner. In any case, the two were soon teamed up and this is considered the first theatre for the partnership that was incorporated as Southwest Amusement Co. on February 11, 1907.

The second theatre opened by the team, in late 1906, was at 349 N. Main. That one is also listed in the 1907 city directory as the Nickel Theatre, a name later changed to the Playo Theatre. The firm was dissolved in 1908 and they went their separate ways. Most of the theatres were then sold off to other operators but Bockoven stuck around for several years more at the Nickel. See the Cameo Theatre page for a timeline of Clune's other theatrical adventures

The Nickel at 255 S. Main gets a listing in the alphabetical section of the 1908 city directory. In the 1908 directory under "theatres" there's also a listing at 253 S. Main for a C.D. McIntosh. The alphabetical listing for McIntosh clarifies that this was a penny arcade next door to the Nickel rather than a theatre.

In 1909 the directory listing there are listings both for the Nickel as well as Wm. Rolfus at 255 S. Main. In 1910 there's a listing for Rolfes & Bockoven. It's also listed in the alphabetical section as the Union Theatre in 1910.

The center of this detail from plate 002 of the 1910 Baist Real Estate Survey from Historic Map Works shows the 253-261 S. Main building occupied by the Nickel/Union Theatre but doesn't show a theatre as a tenant. That's Main St. running horizontally through the image with 3rd up the middle.

There's no listing for this address in 1911 under "theatres" but in the alphabetical section C.M. Bockoven is listed with his business as "moving pictures." In 1912 it's listed as F. S. Hoyt. In 1913 and 14 it was called the New York Theatre. It also gets a 1913 listing as Stone & Robinson. An article in the November 20, 1913 L.A. Times located by Ken McIntyre discusses a film fire at the New York:

"Tries To Stop Theater Panic - One man nearly sacrificed himself yesterday to stop a fire which later got beyond his control and gutted the New York Theater, a little moving picture show place at 255 S. Main Street. Ralph Miller, 22 years old, was turning the reel when the celluloid caught fire. Immediately it puffed into a vicious flame. Realizing the panic that would come in the crowded theater below if the alarm spread, Miller staid (sic) in his sheet-iron coop, fighting heroically to stop the flames before they could burn him out of his nest.

"Before Miller could save himself he was terribly burned about the head and hands. He was taken to the Receiving Hospital and later to his home. Miller, however, had not succeeded in preventing a panic. He was still fighting the fire when the smoke crawled through the lantern window and soared over the audience. A rush followed, and with the mass of patrons that came trooping out was an old rat, weak from age and also panic-stricken. It got out under the feet of the crowd without an injury and and walked to the end of the sidewalk, where he stood sniffing for safety directly under the feet of the horses, who were more afraid of the rat than he was of them."

It's still the New York in the 1915 city directory. Sometime in 1915 it became the Western Theatre. It's in the alphabetical listings in 1916 as the Western.

Another little catastrophe was described in the L.A. Times issue of December 12, 1915. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for finding the item: "By Way Of Climax - A film depicting a fat woman slugging a tall, thin man exploded in the Western motion picture theater, No. 255 South Main Street, yesterday, causing a temporary panic among several hundred patrons who were deep in giggles when the alarm occurred. The flames shot from the machine cage. The crowd made a rapid exit, and the loss was confined to $300 by the quick work of the house attaches. W.B. Allan, in charge of the projecting machine, averted serious damage by closing the door to the cage as he escaped."

Status: 1916 might have been the end for the Western. It's not in the 1917 or 1918 city directories. The building the theatre was in survived into the 60s but was later demolished. There's a parking lot now on the site.

The Arrow Theatre, later known as the Linda Lea, was built just to the north at 251 S. Main in 1925. It's now been replaced by the Downtown Independent.

c.1925 - A look south toward 3rd from the Los Angeles Public Library collection. The theatre had been in that second storefront beyond the Arrow Theatre but by this time it was long gone.

c.1937 - Another look at the storefront once home to the Nickel. Here it's become the Pozar Shoe Co.. The end storefront with the arched opening had once been a penny arcade. It's a Herman Schultheis photo in the Los Angeles Public Library collection.

1939 - A detail from a Dick Whittington Studio photo that's in the USC Digital Library collection. The Nickel was once in the fourth of the five single-story storefronts. That's the Higgins Building down at the end of the block.

c.1960 - A photo by Ralph Crane for Life showing the building with the five storefronts still surviving. It was a shot from in front of the Union Rescue Mission when it was still located on the 200 block of Main. The photo appears in the Google/Life Images collection.

Los Angeles Theatres

Nickel Theatre

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