Opening: Sometime around 1907. The 1907 city directory lists the proprietors as Roberts and Goodrich. There's a listing in the 1908 city directory under "amusements, places of" for E.G. Roberts at this address. It's in the 1909 city directory as the Picture Theatre.
The 1910 photo appears on page 227 of Jan Olsson's 2008 book "Los Angeles Before Hollywood - Journalism and American Film Culture, 1905-1915." It's available from Amazon or as a free pdf from the National Library of Sweden. "A Race Track Tout's Remembrance" was a September release. The photo is from the AMPAS Tom B'hend-Preston Kaufmann Collection.
It was a busy block. In addition to the Picture, theatres on the west side of the block included the Gayety at 523 S. Main, the Star at 529, the Optic at 533, the Art at 551 and the Bijou (until 1914) at 553. On the east side of the street were the Rounder at 510 (around in 1910), the Galway at 514, the Sherman at 518 (running until 1919) and the Burbank at 548.
Seating: 250
In the 1913 city directory the listing is for "Huntoon & Rolfes" and in 1914 "W C Rolfes." In the 1919 directory it's listed as "Noyers & Gibbs, props. " It's the Picture in the 1915 through 1918 and 1922 and 1923 directories. It's listed in a "Paramount Week" ad that ran in the September 2, 1923 L.A. Times.
Closing: It ran at least into 1926. Ken Roe reports that it was in that year's Film Daily Yearbook. It's not in the 1926, 1927 or 1928 city directories.
Status: The building it was in has been demolished. The site shows up as a parking lot on insurance maps as early as 1931. It's still a surface lot just south of a monster parking garage that hogs most of the block. .
c.1907 - Looking north along the west side of the 500 block. The building housing the Picture Theatre is in the lower center. The little sign in the middle of the parapet wall says "Adams Hall," a 2nd floor venue later used as a dance hall. The Optic would be built just beyond in 1910. It's a California Historical Society photo on the USC Digital Library website.
The building with "G. A. Theil Wallpaper" sign on the side would later be the home of the Star Theatre. To the right of the Theil building the theatre later to become the Gayety is seen here as the Peoples Theatre. In the upper left note the Alexandria Hotel on the southwest corner of 5th and Spring. The steel going up is for the Security Building on the southeast corner of 5th and Spring.
1911 - Looking north from the Pacific Electric Building at 6th & Main. The building the Picture was in is the third in from the corner of 6th. The 2nd building is the Howell Hotel Building. At the time of the photo it housed the Bijou Theatre at 553 S. Main. Later it would house the Art Theatre at 551.
The "Vaudeville" vertical on the Rowan & Co. building is for the Optic, a single story building just this side of it. In the distance beyond 5th note one of the early Rosslyn Hotel Buildings. Thanks to Tom Ohmer for spotting the photo when it was posted by the Los Angeles Times. It appeared on the "Framework" section of their website but that's now vanished. They titled it "Congestion on Main St."
2019 - The Picture Theatre was once upon a time just to the left of where the parking garage now is. We're looking south with 6th St. off to the left. Photo: Bill Counter
More Information: See the Cinema Treasures page on the Picture Theatre.
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