Lark Theatre

613 S. Main St. Los Angeles, CA 90014 | map |

Opened: Sometime around 1923. It's in the 1923 directory city directory as the Lark Theatre but not in the 1922 edition. The location was on the west side of the street just a bit south of 6th, across from the Pacific Electric Building. The c.1937 photo by Herman Schultheis of the "House of Hits" is in the Los Angeles Public Library collection.  

Seating: 250

The Lark was listed in a "Paramount Week" ad that ran in the September 1, 1923 L.A. Times. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for this detail from that ad, included as a comment to a post about several Main St. theatres on the Photos of Los Angeles Facebook page.

A 1923 accident at the theatre was discussed in a December 22 L.A. Times article located by Jeff Bridges:

"W.F. Tierney, manager of the Northwest Mutual Fire Insurance agency and of the Martin Insurance Agency, was in a critical condition at the Methodist Hospital last night as the result of a plunge from the window of his office at 822-825 Central Building, Sixth and Main streets. Tierney crashed through the roof of the Lark Theater, six stories below, while the theater was filled with a motion-picture audience, causing a near-panic in the place. He did not fall clear through the roof, however, his body lodging on some girders. Theater officials hurried to the roof and found Tierney lying unconscious some distance beyond their reach. They called police and Detectives Wild and Blythe in turn called the fire department, which used a ladder to reach Tierney.

"The insurance manager was found to be suffering from a basal skull fracture, which physicians said probably would prove fatal. T.E. Audet, an inspector for the agency, was in the offices at the time and said he believed Tierney had leaped from the window. He said Tierney came into the outer offices, where Audet was at work, talked with him for a time and then said: 'Well, I must be going.' A few moments later, Audet said, he heard the noise of the crash and when he attempted to enter the inner office, found the door had been locked from the inside."

The story also made the other papers. One December 22 article located by Ken McIntyre was headlined "Body Crashes Through Roof of Theater - William F. Tierney Tumbles From Window - Audience In Panic." Ken has a post of the story on the Photos of Los Angeles Facebook page.

 

The Lark went to an open-all-night policy in 1925, L.A.'s first such experiment. Jeff Bridges found the March 29 article about it by Arthur L. Mareck in the Times:

"...Los Angeles now has its first all-night cinema palace and can make the boast that the silver sheet is never dark in the film capitol. The film fan’s thanks are due to C.H. Drane, Main-street exhibitor, for, while other theater owners have been content to lock their doors and count up the receipts at midnight, it remained for Drane to meet the demand for longer programs. A sign displayed across the front of his Lark Theater announces to the film public that his is the only all-night theater in the city. 'We Never Close' and 'We Cater to Ladies and Family Trade,' are additional announcements regarding the policy of the unique house.

"That Drane’s idea has met with popular approval here is evidenced by the fact that his house, with seating capacity of 250, always is packed to the doors, even in the small hours of the morning, when one wonders where the crowds come from. The Lark Theater is located in the 600 block in Main street and directly opposite the Pacific Electric station, from which place, with its groups of passengers waiting for early morning trains, Drane draws his heaviest patronage. And, save for a sprinkling of all-night lunch rooms, the Lark, with its lobby illumination and the merry tunes of an electric piano, is the only bright spot on Main street during the dull hours between midnight and dawn.

"The audiences are cross-sections of a night life in our cosmopolitan city. Seated in the narrow rows of chairs are representatives of all of the types and races that make up the metropolis-all responding to the common lure of the celluloid drama-either that, or finding it a convenient haven of rest when there is no other place to flop for the night. For the sleepy ones, however, there is not much rest. A special officer in uniform, whose combined office is that of night manager and guardian of the law, walks the aisles at regular intervals and with gentle taps and an occasional poke preserves the peace and dignity of the house. On the occasion of the writer’s visit he found the audience either especially drowsy or unappreciative of the fine acting of John Barrymore, who was doing his best to keep the customers interested. On this particular morning (it was about 3:30 o'clock) the house was filled mostly with sailors from the visiting fleet at San Pedro.

"A few made brave efforts to sit upright in their seats out of respect to the great actor, others rested with a hand supporting the chin, but the most of them were either draped over the backs of their seats or let themselves sink to the floor. Here and there a 'down-and-outer,' with coat collar turned up close around his neck, propped his head against the wall for forty winks. In the last row, a young gallant stifled his yawns as he tried to be entertaining to both of the ladies who sat on either side of him. Farther down in front a sailor lad was all attention to the sweet young thing whose arm dangled across the back of his chair. The pictures? Well, they are not first run, as might be expected, but they are the pick of the second pickings. They are clearly projected and the programs are of sufficient length and variety to suit every taste. On the morning of my visit the offering consisted of an eight-reel feature, a five-reel western and five reels of comedy-for those who cared to look at them. There's no limit to the magnitude of the productions. D.W. Griffith's 'America' showed last week at 10 and 20 cents."  

 

A July 27, 1929 article located by Ken McIntyre. They did reopen. 

Lark operator John Revis was in trouble in 1937. Thanks to Jeff Bridges for finding a May 9 L.A. Times article headlined "Lobby Pictures Land Three Theater Owners In Jail." The other theatres mentioned were the Rosslyn Theatre at 431 S. Main and the Gayety Theatre at 523 S. Main. The news:

"Last night a collection of lithographs showing rotund young women in Gypsy Rose Lee postures but with less habiliments than La Lee customarily wears, lay scattered in a squad room of Central Police Station. The officers there were yawning or reading detective stories. And in the City Jail were three proprietors of Main street burlesque and honky-tonk shows, charged with suspicion of violation of the law governing lewd and indecent display of pictures in theater lobbies.

"The three are Harold Richards, 35 years of age, proprietor of a theater at 431 South Main street; Robert Levy, 21, showman of 523 South Main street, and John Revis, 23, 613 South Main street. The showmen, according to Detective Lieutenant C.M. Buxton, in charge of the vice squad detail raiding the theaters, refused to heed a police warning against displaying the posters. The lithographs over which the officers at Central Station yawned were confiscated in the raid."

Closing: It was was around as late as 1939.  It's not in the 1940 or 1941 city directories.

Status: The building it was in was demolished to build a bus loading area for Continental Trailways adjacent to the Central Building. The site of both the Lark Theatre and the Central Building are now parking lots.

 

1920s - A view of the west side of the block as we look north from 7th. The Lark was just this side of the Central Building. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating the card for a post on the Photos of Los Angeles Facebook page. 

 

c.1938 - Looking north from 7th St. It's a photo by Herman Schultheis that's in the Los Angeles Public Library collection.

1941 - A photo from the Automobile Club of Southern California that appears on the USC Digital Library website. That bus shed up against the Central Building was the site of the Lark.

The photo is part of a series labeled "undesirable stores and vacant lots." Thanks to Joe Vogel for spotting the photo in the USC collection. He notes that the Central Building is the one Mr. Tierney jumped from to land on the roof of the Lark. The storefront in the lower left of the image had once been the Republic Theatre at 629 1/2 S. Main.

2019 - Looking south from 7th St. The Central Building was once on the corner with the Lark in a single story building to its left. There's only a single historic building left on this side of the block, what is now called the SB Main, on the northwest corner of 7th and Main. That's the north wall of it on the left. Photo: Bill Counter

More Information: See the Cinema Treasures page on the Lark Theatre for some fine research.

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