458 S. Main St. Los Angeles, CA 90013 |
map |
Opened: The
Banner Theatre opened in 1910. It was on the east side of the street in the Burton Hotel
building, two buildings south of the
Regent. The theatre is seen on the far right in this c.1912 postcard. This copy was on eBay with a 1915 postmark.
The building flying the tallest flag is the
San Fernando, on the southeast corner of 4th and Main. The building on the left housed
Clune's Theatre
on the northwest corner of 5th and Main. The theatre entrance is a
couple doors down. We get an edge view of the theatre's electric roof sign
with the brick-colored Rosslyn Hotel beyond.
The Banner is on the right in this detail from the c.1912 postcard. The beige
building on the left is the Canadian, a 1909 structure by Parkinson & Bergstrom. Just this side of it is the building with the first
National Theatre, a building that would be replaced in 1914 by a larger National, the theatre now called the Regent.
Seating: The original capacity is unknown. In later years, with a possibly downsized auditorium, it was around 400. Ken Roe reports that the 1926 Film Daily Yearbook had it as 350. They list it as 630 in their 1941 edition and 400 in the 1950 edition.
Architect: Unknown.
Pipe Organ: Sometime around 1911 a German-made Wurlitzer Style 29-C Mandolin PianOrchestra (aka Philipps Pianella Model 29, Mandolino) was installed on the theatre's mezzanine, perhaps adjacent to the booth. It was walled up in place and not rediscovered until 1952. It's an instrument that's 10' tall, 6' 8" wide and 3' 4" deep with a shipping weight of 2,600 pounds. It didn't have a keyboard but played rolls and had a 6-roll automatic changer.
A c.1910 catalog illustration of the Wurlitzer 29-C from the page about the instrument on the site Mechanical Music Press. Part of the story on the page:
"According to the book 'Music Boxes, Their Lore and Lure' by Helen and John Hoke: 'Years went by while collectors ran down every lead for the vanished machine. In 1952, during the remodeling of the [Banner] theater, workmen were astonished to uncover the long-lost, walled-up Orchestrion – and Robert Huish spent eighteen months painstakingly restoring it.'...
"As the story goes: It was known to several collectors, including Bob Huish, that a Wurlitzer PianOrchestra had once been located in the old Banner Theater, an early nickelodeon theater located at the corner of 4th and Main Streets in downtown Los Angeles. No one, however, could remember what had happened to the machine. It had simply vanished without a trace. Huish, sniffing around the old theater for any hint as to what had happened to it, was tapping on a wall on the mezzanine, where the PianOrchestra had supposedly been located.
"Detecting a dead space in the wall, Huish was certain that the machine was secreted away behind it. After some fancy talking, Bob Huish got permission to poke a small hole in the wall. His suspicion was correct, through the little hole he could clearly see the long forgotten orchestrion. When the bricked-up wall was torn down, the derelict orchestrion was revealed, and beside it was a pile of music rolls. It was such an unusual discovery that a news story about the fantastic PianOrchestra long lost behind a brick wall appeared in the Los Angeles Times."
The instrument was restored and ended up with different collectors and was, for a time, located at Knott's Berry Farm. Thanks to Chris Rini for the research. He notes:
"After the orchestrion, the Banner got a Robert-Morton style 49 theatre organ. It was a baby theatre organ that was basically a photoplayer minus the piano."
Andrew E. Barrett comments about the use of photoplayers and orchestrions with silent films:
"In
the very early days of cinema, like the Nickelodeon Theatre days, it
was quite common to have an automatic instrument in the theatre such as
an electric piano or orchestrion, to play continually during the picture
without any sort of coordination to the action on the screen. This
seems unthinkable today but again in the 1905-1921 or so era was common
practice in thousands of Nickelodeon theatres and a few larger ones.
Movies were such a novelty then that it was felt that any music was
better than none at all!!!
"Obviously
the ideal WAS to have music coordinated with the picture, and to that
end tens of thousands of theatres DID have at least a piano and pianist
accompanying the movies, and/or sometimes a few other musicians to make a
small 'orchestra' (often just a two-piece with piano and drums or a
three piece with piano, violin and drums). But live musicians were not
always affordable to theatre management and were not always reliable in
terms of showing up on time, drinking on the job, etc. so when an
automatic alternative became available, theatre owners jumped at the
opportunity.
"The
main usage period for uncoordinated coin pianos and Orchestrions with
the movies was circa 1905-1913 or so. By 1913 both American Fotoplayers
and Wurlitzer One Man Orchestras were available (with more makers
joining in building these starting in 1914 and 1915) and so these nearly
killed the market for uncoordinated coin pianos and orchestrions used
inside the theatres for music. Since of course, you CAN coordinate the
music with the screen via a photoplayer. Probably an estimated
6,000-8,000 photoplayers of all makes we’re sold for this purpose. Of
course live musicians were used all during this time, and what some
people don’t realize is that the photoplayers can also be played
entirely by hand as well, the rolls are optional."
Robert Huish with the Wurlitzer three years after he found it at the Banner. The photo appeared in the March 27, 1955 issue of the L.A. Times. Thanks to Brent Dickerson for locating this and other items about the theatre for his
Noirish Los Angeles post #60790.
History: The building presumably dated from the 1890s. In 1908 it was owned by E.J. Ingraham according to Brent Dickerson's research of permits for 456 S. Main that he shared on
Noirish Los Angeles post #60787. In May 1910 a building permit was issued for doing a remodel for "moving picture shows."
In the 1911 city directory W.H. Kerr and J.C. Watkins are listed as Kerr & Watkins under "moving picture theatres" at 456 S. Main. In July 1911 Brent notes that a permit was issued to "Replace old floor, change grade."
Evidently the venue was acquired in 1911 by John A. Quinn, in partnership with G. H. McLain. They also operated the
Bijou Theatre at 553 S. Main. A 1913 biography of Quinn on the site
Rootsweb gave a 1910 date for this and noted that by the end of that year they had split up with McLain keeping the Bijou and Quinn controlling the Banner.
A 1912 ad unearthed by Ken McIntyre with the Banner listed as one of the "Q" theatres. The 1912 city directory had the listing as Quinn Bros., 456 S. Main. See the page on one of Quinn's later ventures, the Superba, for more information about Quinn and his other theatrical holdings. Brent Dickerson notes that the L.A. Herald ran a 1912 item noting that the building at that time was part of the estate of Irving E. Ingraham, "an Eastern capitalist."
Harry Ransome then operated the theatre until 1913. See a 1937 clipping lower on the page about his return to the city after an absence of 23 years.
The Banner is identified as "THEATER" in the north storefront of the Burton Hotel building in this detail from plate 002 of the 1914 Baist Real Estate Survey Map from Historic Map Works. The other theatre a couple doors farther north, here shown with a 450 address, is the National, its lot the later location of the present Regent Theatre. The Burton is also on the Baist 1910 map but with no theatre indicated. That's Main St. running vertically up the image, 5th St. across the bottom.
In the 1917 city directory it's listed as at 456-8 S. Main.
Otherwise it's listed at 456 through at least the 1929 city directory. In the 1932 and later directories it's listed as at 458. 456 was later used as the address for the south storefront in the building just north of the theatre site.
Banner owner T.J. Campbell was in trouble for running "Purity" in 1918. It had been cut by the censors two years earlier but the distributors were now renting a version with the "disgusting" parts reinserted. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating this July 18 L.A. Times article for a thread about the Banner for the
Photos of Los Angeles private Facebook group.
Another of the Campbell clan, Robert M., was listed as the owner in December 1922. He was a 63 year old "plain dresser" until he began an affair with his 40 year old cashier. And he became a poet as well. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating the sordid story.
A fire in December 1922, the work of a "firebug." It's another story located by Ken McIntyre.
A March 1931 ad for the theatre that appeared in the California Eagle, a newspaper covering the African American community in Los Angeles. Even at this early date it was already running as an open all night grind house. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating this, added as a comment to a post on the
Photos of Los Angeles Facebook page about the Follies Theatre.
Harry Ransome, who had operated the Banner before 1913, comes back to town for a visit in 1937 and said that "Los Angeles had grown up so that if he had been dropped somewhere without anybody to show him around that he would have become lost." Thanks to Ken McIntyre for finding the January 1 L.A. Times article.
The building got a new facade in the early 1950s.
In 1971 it got a remodel. Thanks to Mike Rivest for finding this February 19, 1971 ad.
A 1971 L.A. Times ad located by Ken McIntyre. It ran right above an ad for the Ice Capades.
Another 1971 ad in the Times located by Ken McIntyre.
Yet another 1971 ad located by Ken.
Closing: Perhaps in the mid-1980s. After 1977 or so it was a gay porn house.
Status: The building the Banner was in got demolished and for decades the site was a parking lot. In 2011 a mixed-use building with low income housing on the upper floors was constructed on the lot. The new structure also occupies the site of a building that had been next to the Regent.
More exterior views:
1920s - Looking north from 5th at the east side of
the block. The Banner's building is the second one in with the theatre just beyond the "Cut Rate" sign. The Regent, then with a triangular pediment atop its facade, is this side of the Canadian Building. It's a photo in the
Los Angeles Public Library collection.
1920s - A detail of the Banner's entrance from the Los Angeles Public Library photo.
c.1937 - "All Seats 10 cents Anytime." It's a Herman Schultheis photo in the
Los Angeles Public Library collection. The Braddock vs. Joe Louis fight was held in June, 1937. Playing with that were several oldies: Edward G. Robinson's "Man With Two Faces" (1934), Laurel and Hardy's "Dirty Work" (1933) and "Hello Trouble" with Buck Jones (1932).
Note the width of the Banner's entrance here and compare it to the
c.1937 photo above. There's an interesting
comment on Cinema Treasures from Docchappel who notes that when he
worked the house the booth was not on the theatre centerline. He
speculates that it wasn't built as a film house. That's not true -- but
what might have happened was that not only was the entrance downsized
but the auditorium as
well with its south side getting chopped off. The comment:
"By
the time I worked the Banner as a projectionist, it was a 'nudie cutie'
adult theater. Worse booth I ever worked. You could tell the theater
wasn’t originally a motion picture theater, because the booth seemed to
be added much later. It was off to one side on the south wall of the
house, projecting at an angle, and the picture was keystone all over the
place. But the movies didn’t have much of a plot, and nobody seemed to
care that one side of the picture was way taller than the other. Ran a
couple old Simplex XL heads here with Strong Lamps, off of tubed
rectifiers. If you could work this house, you could work anywhere."
1965
- A photo taken by Gene Hackley for the L.A. Times. We're looking south
with the Regent marquee on the extreme left. The Banner is the "Open
All Night Theatre" just beyond Funland. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for
finding the photo on
Calisphere. It's from the UCLA Times Photographic Archive.
1973 - The east side of the 400 block with the Banner hiding there in the north storefront of the second building in. It's just this side of the "Cafe Funland" sign. It's a photo by Victor R.
Plukas in the
Los Angeles Public Library collection.
1981 - An Anne Knudsen photo taken for the Herald Examiner gives a
look north toward the Banner with its "Open All Night" sign this side of the "Cafe Funland" sign. Thanks to Sean Ault for finding it in the
Los Angeles Public Library collection.
1983 - A look at the Banner thanks to the now-vanished American Classic Images website.
2019 - The new mixed-use building on the site of the Banner. Photo: Bill Counter
The
Banner in the Movies:
In the 1960 Universal-International release "Too Soon To Love" we get
Jennifer West and Richard Evans on Main Street. They're looking for an
abortionist. See the
Historic L.A. Theatres in Movies post for another Banner shot as well as several views of the Galway Theatre down in the 500 block.
We get a look at the Banner as part of an opening montage displaying
many of L.A.'s high culture sites near the beginning of "The Swinger"
(Paramount, 1966). The film stars Ann-Margret and Tony Franciosa. She's a
journalist posing as a swinger to get magazine editor Tony to publish a
story she wrote while his goal is to get her to pose for the centerfold
instead.
Thanks to Nathan Marsak on Noirish Los Angeles for the screenshot. He included it with several other shots from the film on his
Noirish post #50768. See the
Historic L.A. Theatres in Movies post for a Banner boxoffice view as well a shots of five other theatres seen in the little travelogue.
More information: See the Cinema Treasures page on the Banner Theatre. See Brent Dickerson's Noirish Los Angeles post #60787 for a fine rundown of various building permits issued to 456 S. Main St.
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