Opened: 1925 as the Fuji Kan Theatre. The location was on the south side of 1st, east of San Pedro St. This July 29, 1941 photo looking west on 1st is in the Herald Examiner collection at the Los Angeles Public Library.
The building next door at 320 E. 1st that's seen here as Lem's Chop Suey was once the Progressive / Tivoli Theatre. The Tokyo Grill was in a building using a 318 address. The single-story Tomio Co. building, which still survives, is at 316.
The theatre was indicated as "Movies" in this detail from page 162 of Volume 2 of the Sanborn Fire Insurance Map in the Library of Congress collection. This copy had been updated as late as 1950. On their site it's image 45 of 115. The Sanborn Maps on the LOC site: L.A. County map list | Los Angeles 1950 Volume 1 | Los Angeles 1950 Volume 2 | Los Angeles 1950 Volume 3 - north side of 1st |
The theatre closed during World War II with the evacuation of the Japanese population to camps. The owner was arrested in January 1942 for spreading propaganda. He'd been running Japanese newsreels. During the war the neighborhood became predominately African-American when that population working the war plants in the area started looking for housing and filled up the vacancies.
The theatre was taken over by a Chinese businessman and reopened as the Linda Lea on February 10, 1945 with films plus a stage show. The story is that it was named for his wife. In the ad for the opening note the programming designed to appeal to the neighborhood's African-American residents. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for finding the ad, posted as a comment on the Photos of Los Angeles Facebook page.
A typical booking advertised in the Times in August 1946: "Blondie's Lucky Day" and "Two Fisted Stranger." They seemed to book a lot of westerns. Two playing one week in February 1947 were "Vengeance of the West" and "Blazing Six Shooters."
By 1948 they were playing Japanese films again at least part time. This L.A. Times listing was from May 1948.
July 24, 1955 was the last ad for this location using the Linda Lea name. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for the research. That operation, and the name itself, then moved to the theatre at 251 S. Main, a house that had been running as a burlesque theatre called the Aztec. See the page on the Linda Lea / Downtown Independent for information on that location.
This theatre on E. 1st was re-acquired by the Japanese family who had operated it as the Fuji Kan before the war. It was renamed the Kinema and reopened August 13, 1955. Sometimes Japanese movie stars were brought over for film premieres, often in conjunction with the annual Nisei Week parade. It was also known as the Nichibei Kinema.
Gerald Sato comments: "There used to be many Japanese language movie theaters around town. It seems the Japanese studios were exempt for several years from the antitrust rules which prohibited the studios from owning the theaters, Fox and Paramount could not limit their releases to Fox and Paramount theaters, but Toho could restrict its releases to Toho La Brea, Toei to the Kinema, similar 'tie ins' for the Kabuki on Adams and Kokusai on Crenshaw. But once the Japanese studios couldn't do that any more, the Japanese theaters including Linda Lea started to disappear."
Closing: The Kinema was was running as late as 1963. The operators were evicted when the property was acquired for redevelopment.
Status: The theatre has been demolished. The building currently on the site dates from 1964. For years it had been a Chase Bank branch but that closed around 2022. As of 2025 the building was vacant.
The Meralta Theatre, seventeen blocks farther east on 1st St., was later running as the Kinema East.
1944 - A detail from another shot that appears in the Critical Past footage.
late 1940s - A Toyo Miyatake photo looking west with the theatre, here renamed the Linda Lea, in the distance on the left, beside the telephone pole. Chinese or Japanese characters are on the marquee. The photo appears with the 2020 N.Y. Times story about the Ueyama family "After Internment, a Store Was Born. It's Still an L.A. Staple" by Bradford Pearson. The store is Bunkado, seen on the left, which opened in 1946. Thanks to Gerald Sato for spotting the story for a post on the Photos of Los Angeles private Facebook group.
1949 - Looking east on 1st from San Pedro. A bit of the vertical sign for the Linda Lea is seen behind the trolley. Thanks to Paul Ayers for finding the photo for a post on the Photos of Los Angeles Facebook group. He notes at the center it's LATL PCC No. 3150 inbound on the "P" line.
early 1950s? - A view of the theatre as the Linda Lea. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for finding the photo for a post on the Photos of Los Angeles Facebook group. The Toyo Miyatake Photo Studio seen on the right was at 318 E. 1st.
1951 - A Nisei Week parade photo by Toyo Miyatake Studios with the theatre in the background. The photo appeared with the 2006 Ed Fuentes "Where Joy Meets Soy" post on his [View] From a Loft blog. Thanks to Noirish Los Angeles contributor Godzilla for spotting the photo and including it on his Noirish post #24554, mostly about the other Linda Lea on Main St.
early 1950s - A Toyo Miyatake photo looking west with the Linda Lea in the distance. The photo appears with the 2020 N.Y. Times story "After Internment, a Store Was Born. It's Still an L.A. Staple" by Bradford Pearson. The store is Bunkado, seen in the second storefront.
early 1950s - A detail from the Toyo Miyatake photo. On the marquee: "Nippom Picture."
1957 - Looking east along the south side of the street toward the Kinema. The banners were out for the 17th annual Nisei Week Festival. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating the photo for a post on the Photos of Los Angeles private Facebook group.
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 Kinema site. At this time the ground floor was occupied by Merit Savings & Loan with some city offices on the upper floors. The single-story building beyond at 320 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.
2025 - Sitting vacant. Thanks to Yasmin Elming for sharing her photo. She notes that it's the former Fuji Kan/Kinema site behind the tree. At the time of her photo the Citibank branch had
been closed for several years and a gate was installed to try to deter taggers. The Progressive / Tivoli Theatre was once on the lot on the right.
More information: See the Cinema Treasures page on the Fuji Kan Theatre.
Cinema Treasures contributor Rkmovg4wd
discusses the theatre on the site's page about the 251 S. Main location:
"The Chinese businessman then opened the Linda Lea on Main St.. My G'Father bought it about 1957-1968. It was my Father’s voice that was on the theater schedule recordings. We sold the theater back to the Chinese businessman, who began showing Kung Fu movies. Of interesting note, an article in the Los Angeles Times in 2007, mentioned that while remodeling the theater for an office space conversion, they discovered a second wall was hiding the original. It still had the window boxes and the Japanese movie posters that my G'Father had left there when he sold the theater!
"In regards to the Fuji-kan theater on First St., G'Father renamed it Kinema (Later the Nichibei Kinema) in 1955. The theater was a success, and this allowed my G'Father to bring over Japanese movie stars for their premieres, and often tied their visits to the Nisei Week Parade, of which my G'Father was one of the founders. In 1968, ThriftyMart, who had purchased the property with cooperation of the City of LA and Mayor Bradley, evicted my Father (who had taken over the business) to create the present Little Tokyo Plaza. He moved the theater to East LA, Boyle Heights, and named it Kinema East, leasing the old Meralta Theater. The location failed to draw enough of the Japanese-American market, so he filed for bankruptcy in 1972. During the late 1950’s through the 1960’s, in their hey-day, they owned or leased nine movie theaters, including the NuArt Theater in Santa Monica."
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There was another japanese theater in los angeles, it was at 1st and gless ave same side as pecan park , my grandparents ran it, idont remember the name, if anyone has pics or remember the name please let this site know
ReplyDeleteAre you thinking of the one on E. 1st at St. Louis Ave.? Also known as the Meralta and the Kinema East? https://losangelestheatres.blogspot.com/2020/08/meralta-east-la.html If that's not it, go to our alphabetical list and look under "Japanese Language Theatres." There were a few.
Deleteit was on first street, i believe the adress was 1520 first street, shut down in 1971 because of earthquake
DeleteThe Meralta at 2035 E. 1st., noted in the reply above, was the Kinema East and running Japanese films from 1965 onward. It later ran Spanish language films and is now a church. The theatre at 1520 E. 1st had earlier been known as the Aliso. After it went to Japanese films one individual noted that it was called "Nippon Gekijo" or "Japan Theater." Here's our page about that one: https://losangelestheatres.blogspot.com/2020/08/aliso-theatre.html
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