Happy Hour Theatre

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

Opened: Sometime around 1906 on the west side of the street between 1st and 2nd. In the alphabetical section of the 1906 and 1907 city directories Thos. W. Johns is listed as running an "amusements" business at this address. It started with peep show machines and segued into becoming a real nickelodeon.

This postcard view looks south from 1st with the Natick Hotel on the corner on the right. The building housing the Happy Hour is in the center of the image. It had four storefronts plus hotel rooms on the second floor. Mott's Hall, at 133 S. Main, is the building with the three arched windows just beyond. The high-rise on the other side of 2nd St. is the Higgins Building, dating from 1910. 

The Grand Opera House at 110 S. Main is the building on the left of the card that's flying the flag. Out of sight down the block beyond the Opera House was the Novelty/Liberty Theatre at 136. Thanks to Brent Dickerson for including the card in the Main St. Part 1 chapter of his epic "A Visit to Old Los Angeles." 

 

125 S. Main is shown as an arcade with "Automatic Slot Machines" in this detail from Image 10 of Volume 2 of the 1906 Sanborn Real Estate Map that's in the Library of Congress collection. Frequently that "slot machines" designation meant peep show machines manufactured by Mutoscope, Edison and others.

"Where To Go Tonight." The "Original Penny Arcade" was included in this September 1907 column of ads from the Los Angeles Record. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating it for a post on the Photos of Los Angeles Facebook page. 

One would guess they had made a transition to being an actual theatre by this point with their copy saying: "And motion picture theater. Best pictures in town. 5c."

The other advertisers: The Royal Theatre was at 246 S. Broadway. "Automatic Vaudeville" at 434 S. Spring was evidently the theatre later known as the Edison. The Theatorium at 444 S. Main was just north of the location of the current Regent Theatre. The Scenic Theatre was, as the ad says, at 522 S. Spring. The business at 258 S. Main offering "all the latest songs and moving pictures, 1c" was Kingsley, Moles & Collins Co. They were mostly a printing and stationery firm and it appears that they added some peep show machines.

In the 1908 city directory under "theatres" the proprietor is listed as T.W. Johns. In 1909 he's under "moving pictures and machines." The 1910 and 1911 listings are as the Happy Hour Theatre. In 1912 the listing is for Johns again. The 1913 and 1914 listings are for it as the Happy Hour.

Closing: 1914 might have been it for Johns and the Happy Hour. The theatre isn't listed in the 1915 and 1916 city directories. 

Status: The building is long gone. The Los Angeles Police Department headquarters building now occupies the whole block.

 

The building the Happy Hour had been in is indicated in green on this detail from plate 003 of the 1921 Baist Real Estate Survey from Historic Map Works. That's 2nd at the bottom of the image and 1st across the middle. The theatre toward the upper left on 1st was the Princess.

 

 

The building at 119 to 127 S. Main is circled in this detail from a 1928 photo in Marc Wanamaker's Bison Archives collection. Mott's Hall, with its little stagehouse protrusion, is this side of it. Thanks to John Bengtson for including the image in his Silent Locations post "The nearly last - Safety Last - joke." The Natick Hotel is in the upper left.  

 

A c.1930 California Historical Society photo that appears on the USC Digital Library website. We're looking north across 2nd St. The building the Happy Hour had been in is down the block, just this side of the Natick Hotel. Thanks to John Bengtson for finding this in the USC collection.

 

The three arches of the Mott building are in the center of this detail from the previous photo. The former home of the Happy Hour is just beyond.  

The building the Happy Hour had been in is in the center of this c.1939 Dick Whittington Studio shot that's in the USC Digital Library collection. The building with the bay windows at the left once had a Tally's Phonograph and Vitascope Parlor location at 137 S. Main, in the north storefront. That parking lot between the two buildings had been the location of Mott's Hall, a building using 129-121-133 addresses.  

 

A detail from the previous photo. The nearest storefront in the two-story building, 127 S. Main, appears to have some sort of temporary show set up. The second storefront, the one with the awning at 125, had once been the Happy Hour.  

 

The Happy Hour's building had been demolished by the time of this July 1950 Examiner photo that's in the USC Digital Library collection. 

 

Looking north c.1956 after demolition of the Natick Hotel. It's a Palmer Connor photo in the Huntington Library collection. Thanks to John Bengtson for finding the photo. 

The west side of the block with the LAPD building on it. On the left that's the Higgins Building at 2nd and Main. Photo: Bill Counter - 2019

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