Progressive / Tivoli Theatre

320 E. 1st St. Los Angeles, CA 90012 | map |

Opened: Perhaps 1911. The Progressive Theatre was in the 1911 city directory but not in the 1910 edition. In the 1913 directory this address is listed as the Tivoli Theatre. The location was on the south side of the street just east of San Pedro St. 

 

 

That's 1st St. up the middle with San Pedro St. horizontally across the top. The building at 320, the 4th down from San Pedro, is identified as "THEATRE" in this detail from plate 004 from the 1914 Baist Real Estate Survey Map from Historic Map Works. They were working around some other lettering so the word also slops a bit onto the building shown as 318. 

The buildings seen on the block here were unchanged for the 1921 Baist map except the "THEATRE" designation is gone. The building at 322 would become the location of the Fuji Kan Theatre in 1925, using a 322 address for upstairs and 324 for the theatre.

Closing: Unknown. It's not in the 1914 city directory. By the time the 1915 directory had been compiled it was a restaurant called You Lum (or Yow Lum, depending where in the directory you look).

Status: Demolished sometime after 1975. It's now a parking lot.

 

1941 - The single-story building that had once been the Progressive and then the Tivoli Theatre is seen here in the middle of the image as Lem's Chop Suey. On the left is the Fuji Kan Theatre at 324 E. 1st. The two-story building with Tokyo Grill was at 318 and the single-story Tomio Co. building, which still survives, is at 316. This July 29 photo looking west is in the Herald Examiner collection at the Los Angeles Public Library. 

 

early 1950s? - The Fuji Kan, here renamed the Linda Lea, is seen on the left. The former Progressive / Tivoli Theatre is in the center as Lem's. The Toyo Miyatake Photo Studio seen on the right was in the building at 318 E. 1st. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for finding the photo for a post on the Photos of Los Angeles Facebook page. 

 

1975 - A view west with the L.A. Times and the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in the distance. The skinny building beyond the "INGS" vertical sign is the 1964 construction on the Fuji Kan / Linda Lea site. The single-story building beyond at 320, once the Progressive / Tivoli, was at this time a restaurant called Sapporo Ya.

It's a shot from "Friday Foster," a film directed by Arthur Marks starring Pan Grier, Yaphet Kotto and Godfrey Cambridge. Thanks to Sean Ault for noticing the buildings in the movie and getting the screenshot. 

 

 

2019 - The Fuji-Kan Theatre was once on the left at 324 E. 1st. There's nothing left where the Progressive once was, just a parking lot. The building that had been at 318 is also gone. The building on the right is at 316 E. 1st.  Photo: Bill Counter

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