Wonderland / Jade Theatre

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

Opened: Sometime around 1908. It was on the west side of the street just south of 3rd. In the 1908 and 1909 directories we have a listing at this address for Figge & Kaiser (under "theatres" in 1908, "moving pictures & machines" in 1909). The 1909 directory also has a listing for the Wonderland at the 315 S. Main address.

Whatever building on the site was being used in 1908 and 1909, it was replaced with a new structure, also called the Wonderland, in 1910. The 1910 city directory lists it as "Kaiser & Sturm." It's also in the 1910 directory (and later), as the Wonderland. Kaiser and Sturm soon took on a third partner, E. J. Tally, brother of the more famous exhibitor Thomas Tally. The three are mentioned in a 1910 L.A. Times article announcing that they were also building the Liberty Theatre, 266 S. Main. See the page on the College Theatre for a list of E.J.'s other exhibition adventures.

In 1912 it gets a directory listing as "A. J. W. Ross." The 1912 photo above was taken by G. Haven Bishop for Southern California Edison. It's in the Huntington Library collection. They identify this as being in Ocean Park but we are indeed on Main in Los Angeles. Also don't be misled by the banner at right advertising something at 137 & 139 S. Spring. The Devitt & Gollmer Saloon at left is listed in the 1915 L.A. city directory as at 317 S. Main St. Up on the second floor there's signage visible for the Pittsburgh Hotel, a business appearing on the 1910 Baist Real Estate map as at 315 S. Main.

Architect: Albert C. Martin.  A December 26, 1909 item in the Southwest Contractor and Manufacturer located by Jeff Bridges: 

"A.C. Martin is preparing plans for a one-story brick theater building 32x120 feet, to be erected for the owners of the Wonderland Theater on South Main street. It will have a stamped metal front, marble lobby with tile floor, and cement floors in auditorium. The cost will be about $20,000." 

Among many other projects, Mr. Martin also designed the Liberty Theatre and the building housing the Million Dollar.

Seating: In the 1941 and 1943 Film Daily Yearbooks the capacity was listed as 340, according to Ken Roe. In the 1950s the number given was 250.

 

 

A detail from Plate 002 of the 1910 Baist Real Estate Survey from Historic Map Works showing the Wonderland in the lower right at 315 as the "Theatre" in the Pittsburgh Hotel building. That's Spring St. at the top, 4th St. on the left edge, and 3rd on the right.

That "Turn Halle Theatre" to the left of the Wonderland was once called the Regal. At 337 it's the Belasco, later known as the Follies, with the Los Angeles Theatre behind it on Spring. Than one was later known as the Capitol, among other names. 

A September 9, 1921 L.A. Times article located by Jeff Bridges: 

"Fire in Theater - Crowd in Near Panic as Flames Burn Cinema Operator - While attempting to smother a blazing roll of film which caught fire from the heat of a projector in the operating room at the Wonderland Theater, at 315 South Main street early last evening, Milton Guion, age 23 years, the operator, was severely burned on the arms and face. A near panic was caused in the theater when the flames spread from the projector to the interior of the operating room. Many persons rushed to the street. Chemicals quickly subdued the blaze. The fire damage was nominal, but the crowd blocked traffic for more than twenty minutes."

The Times reported in 1928 that manager Jamie A. Titus was fined $100 "for displaying pictures of indecent acts in front of his theater." The photos featured "partly clad women." In 1929 the Times reported that Frank L. Titus pleaded not guilty to charges of exhibiting an three-reel film called "Bare Legs," a film determined "unfit for public gaze." This time the photos of scantily clad ladies were in the lobby instead of outside but it was determined they were still a problem. On May 16, 1929 the jurors couldn't reach a verdict even after a private showing of the film. Thanks to Larry Harnisch for the 1928 and 1929 Times items he included in a 2007 post on his blog The Daily Mirror.

It's still listed as the Wonderland in the 1936 city directory. In the 1937 city directory it's become the Jade Theatre, with the address that year listed as 315 S. Main. In 1938 they have it as 313 S. Main.

Gordon Bachlund recounts a booth adventure on Cinema Treasures: 

"The Jade Theatre on Main Street was run by the owner of the Cozy Theatre on Broadway, and I worked as relief projectionist there in the early 1950s. It was a sparsely furnished place that catered more to the wino trade than to movie goers, but the booth, with Super Simplexes and a Simplex sound system, and Magnarc lamps, was clean and well maintained. One night the DC power to the lamphouses failed, but AC power remained on. 

"As there were no rectifiers in the booth, I went down to the dirt-floor, brick-walled basement and found that the theatre was served at 125Vdc from the Department of Water and Power. Beneath the kw-h meter was an open fused switch and beneath the switch a ballast resistor for each lamp. The renewable link fuse was blown, so I replaced it with a new link and we were back in business. I later found that DWP still served many downtown buildings at 125Vdc for elevator power."

Closing: It was running at least into the mid-1950s. But there's nothing there in the 1956 or 1960 phone company criss-cross directories. 

Status: The building the Wonderland/Jade was in has been demolished. The site is now part of the Reagan State of California Building.

1912 - A detail from the G. Haven Bishop photo at the top of the page.

c.1932 - A look south on Main toward the Wonderland in the center of the image. Beyond is the Romanesque style Turnverein building formerly housing the Regal Theatre at 323 S. Main. At the time of the photo the auditorium had become a gym. Way down the block, the "Burlesque" vertical at 337 S. Main is on the Follies Theatre. It's a photo by Anton Wagner in the collection of the California Historical Society.

c.1932 - "The Rat" at the Wonderland. It's a detail from the Anton Wagner photo. Perhaps the theatre was then dormant and the public health department had a display up about the dangers of rodent infestations. Wagner took hundreds of photos of the L.A. area in 1932 and 1933 for a thesis topic having to do with the way the area's topology influenced the character of its inhabitants. The CHS has collected over 400 of them for their album "Anton Wagner: Los Angeles 1932-33."

2019 - Looking north on 3rd toward Main St. The yellow sign with the arrow is pointing to about where the Wonderland/Jade once was. That's the Reagan State Office Building now hogging the site on the west side of Main. Photo: Bill Counter

More Information: See the Cinema Treasures page on the Jade Theatre.

There was an earlier Wonderland Theatre on Broadway, a short-lived project of quite different scope evidently unrelated to this Main St. theatre.

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