Opened: 1905 as the Empire Theatre, a venue offering vaudeville, revues and stock company presentations. It was on the south side of 3rd, a bit west of Los Angeles St.
Architect: Robert Brown Young. Thanks to Nathan Marsak for providing the the photo. It comes from "The Architecture of Robert Brown Young," a book in the Los Angeles Public Library's rare books collection that was published in 1905 by J.L. Le Berthon. The Empire is mentioned in a short biography of Young that's in the book. It's reproduced at the bottom of the page.
Young was a prolific commercial architect. His other theatre work includes the Burbank Theatre in 1893 (548 S. Main St., finishing a project started by James M. Wood), the 1905 Novelty/Gayety Theatre (523 S. Main St.), and the 1911 Orpheum / Palace Theatre (630 S. Broadway, with G. Albert Lansburgh). In addition, he designed the c.1890 Rosslyn Hotel Building at 431 S. Main St. (later housing the Rosslyn Theatre) and the 1906 Blackstone Building at 320 S. Broadway (later home of the Cozy Theatre).
A portion of the 1905 building permit showing Young as the architect for the "music hall and two store rooms." Thanks to Nathan Marsak for locating this.
The listing in the 1905 city directory for the Empire Theatre Co. had Richard J. McCarron as president, Percy S. Seymour as vice president, H.C. Doyle as secretary and William L. Banks as manager. There had previously been a Chinese laundry on the site.
The Empire appears on this 1909 "Red Coupons" list from the Los
Angeles Express. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating it for a thread about early theatres on the private Facebook group Photos of Los Angeles.
It's still listed as the Empire in the 1909 city directory. In the fall of 1909 it was renamed the Unique Theatre under the management of Flora E. Hentz and John U. Zallee. An ad in the Los Angeles Herald for October 6 promised:
" UNIQUE THEATER—Hentz & Zallee, Props. 138 [sic] East Third Street. REOPENING OF UNIQUE THEATER IN THE BUILDING FORMERLY OCCUPIED BY EMPIRE THEATER. Offering strictly high class vaudeville and comedy dramas under direction of popular Al. Franks. Matinees Mon., Wed., Sat. and Sunday. Evenings two performances. Ladies' souvenir matinees Wed."
The Herald issue is on the website of the California Digital Newspaper Collection.
An October 24, 1909 ad called the theatre "cozy and attractive." They were offering "excellent vaudeville" and the "Unique Comedy Company" on a reserved seat basis.
The H&Z team had previously run their operation at a number of other locations including a Unique Theatre at 456 S. Spring St. and the Unique Theatre at 629 S. Broadway. See the page on the Broadway location for more about the team, including photos and a program. Hentz and Zallee stayed with the 3rd St. operation less than six months.
This detail from a 1910 C.C. Pierce photo taken from a
balloon shows 3rd St., with its jog at Main, on the right. The Empire Theatre is in the lower right. The stagehouse has a single
smoke vent and "...Keene.." something or other is on the side of the building. Thanks to Joe Vogel for finding
the California Historical Society photo in the USC Digital Library collection.
That's Main St. running left to right. In the center of the image, the lot strewn with rubble
is where the Panorama building had been and the Adelphi Theatre (later called the Hippodrome) would be constructed in 1911. Across the street from the
Panorama location note the Belasco Theatre (later called the Follies) at 337 S.
Main. Just to the left of its stagehouse, note the stagehouse of the
Casino/Empress Theatre on the 300 block of Spring St., a theatre later known as the
Capitol.
The stage end of the Empire is seen in the center of this detail from the downtown map by Birdseye View Publishing that's on the Library of Congress website. The Belasco and Turner Hall are in the upper left. The latter had an auditorium known by many names including as the Regal Theatre.
Soon the venue was back to using the Empire name. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating this shot that appeared in the Los Angeles Herald on April 22, 1910.
Closing: 1910 might have been the end. There's no listing
for the Empire or the Unique in either the 1910 or 1911 city
directories.
Status: By 1914 the building was being used as a garage. It was demolished at some unknown date.
That first parking lot was once the site of the Empire Theatre. If this were pre-1952, we'd be able to see the north side of the Hippodrome Theatre. Main St. is off to the right. The big thing is the Reagan State Office Building. Photo: Bill Counter - 2019
More information: See the Cinema Treasures page on the Hippodrome for lots of discussion by Jeff Bridges and other researchers about the Empire Theatre.
A sketch about the architect that appeared in the book "The Architecture of Robert Brown Young," published in 1905 by J.L. Le Berthon:
| back to top | Downtown: theatre district overview | Hill St. and farther west | Broadway theatres | Spring St. theatres | Main St. and farther east | downtown theatres by address | downtown theatres alphabetical list |
| Westside | Hollywood | Westwood and Brentwood | Along the Coast | [more] Los Angeles movie palaces | the main alphabetical list | theatre history resources | film and theatre tech resources | theatres in movies | LA Theatres on facebook | contact info | welcome and site navigation guide |
No comments:
Post a Comment