Sherman Theatre

518 S. Main St. Los Angeles, CA 90013 | map | 

 

Opened: January 6, 1916 under the management of S. H. Friedlander. The initial film was "The Greater Will" with Cyril Maude and Lois Meredith. The Sherman Theatre name came from the name of the property owner, General M.H. Sherman.  It was on the east side of the street between 5th and 6th. 

 

Architect: The Loewen brothers were the builders so the assumption is that someone on their staff designed the house.

 

It was a busy block. In addition to the Sherman, theatres on the east side of the block included the Rounder at 510 S. Main (around in 1910), the Galway at 514 and the Burbank at 548. On the west side of the street were the Gayety at 523, the Star at 529, the Optic at 533, the Picture at 545 (until 1926), the Art at 551 and the Bijou (until 1914) at 553.   

 

Pipe Organ: A Peerless, valued at $10,000 according to the newspaper stories. Professor A.E. Drake was the initial organist. 

 

 

 

"A Revelation For Average Size Theatres." Thanks to Tom De Lay for this Peerless ad from the June 10, 1922 issue of The Music Trades. He comments: "Robert Morton was involved with Peerless. A Peerless photoplayer would be extremely rare back then, let alone now. Far as I know, they did not build organ-only instruments. They were primarily builders of orchestrions."

Seating capacity: Unknown.

 

 

 

"The decoration, both exterior and interior, will be lavish." The project was announced in this December 5, 1915 article in the L.A. Times. 

 

 

A January 1, 1916 story that Ken McIntyre located for a thread about the theatre on the private Facebook group Photos of Los Angeles. 

 

A January 3, 1916 item that Ken McIntyre located. 

 

 

A January 3 ad spotted by Ken.

 

A January 5 item in the Times. 

 

The news in the Times on January 6. 

 

 

A January 7 review of the opening that was located by Ken McIntyre. 

 

"Nice Place to Go" was the Times review of the "auspicious opening" of the theatre that appeared in their January 7, 1916 issue.

 

Also in the Times on the 7th was this incorporation of the Sherman Theater Company by Mr. Friedlander and his partrners L.B. Turner and E.E. Morris. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating this. That next item involved Otis Hoyt, operator of the Liberty Theatre in Long Beach. 

The Sherman was listed in the 1916 and 1918 editions of the city directory. 

 

 

 

A c.1916 California Historical Society photo appearing on the USC Digital Library website. The Sherman is off to the left but we get a bit of its signage advertising "6 reels first run pictures 5 cents" and "Entire change of program Monday and Thursday."

Closing: Perhaps the end was around 1919. It's not listed in the 1919 or later city directories.

Status: The building the Sherman was in has been demolished. The city planning department shows a construction date of 1924 for the single-story building currently on the site. After decades as a newsstand, a business at this location returned to movies (of a sort) as a porno arcade called Nero's Nook Theatre in the 70s. It appears that it was just an array of peep show booths.

The former Sherman location is on the right, at the time of this 1974 photo occupied by the porno arcade Nero's Nook Theatre. It's not the building that was there when the Sherman was on that lot. That's the Galway Theatre, 514 S. Main, in the center of the image. Thanks to Sean Ault for spotting this one on eBay. 

 

 

In this 1974 shot the Galway is lost in the gloom on the far left but we do get a fine look at Nero's Nook. This is from the same batch as the previous photo. Also see a view from this batch of this side of the block looking south from 5th. 

 

A closer look in 1974 from the same photographer as the previous two photos. Thanks, Sean!

 

Another look at the c.1924 replacement building on the site. The covering of the facade that we see here has now been stripped off. The beige building to the left once housed the Galway Theatre. At the time, the Nickel Diner was doors off to the right at 524 S. Main. Photo: Google Maps - 2010

The cleaned up building on the site, now housing Chrysalis Enterprises, a non-profit organization. The earlier building housing the Sherman was located where the left storefront of the Chrysalis building now is. The Nickel Diner closed in 2023. Photo: Bill Counter - 2019

518 S. Main St in the Movies:

Walking north on Main past the site of the Sherman in the 1979 epic "The Clonus Horror." Politicians are looking for an eternal hold on power via cloning. Main Street is, of course, the place to go if you're trying to hide from the evil scientists. The former Sherman location at this time was an adult movie arcade. See the Historic L.A. Theatres in Movies post for another shot here as well as a look at the Galway Theatre, two doors to the north at 514 S. Main.

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