Los Angeles Theatres: Fox Pasadena

61 W. Colorado Blvd. Pasadena, CA 91105 | map |

Opened: March 1, 1911 as Clune's Pasadena Theatre, a project of pioneer showman Billy Clune. The opening night show was all live acts including singer Lilly Dorn, a saxophone sextette, and storyteller Frank M. Clark. The theatre had a full stage and occasionally presented plays. The location is on the north side of the street at the corner of Colorado Blvd. and De Lacey Ave. The 1927 photo by Harold A. Parker is in the Huntington Library collection.

Architects: Roth & Parker. The theatre got a new Mission style facade when Colorado Blvd. was widened around 1929. Some buildings got demolished and replaced. Those that survived lost a chunk off the front of the building. The Pasadena was shortened by 7'. Clifford A. Balch was the architect for the remodel. Spanish Revival or art deco were the two predominant styles for the street after the work was completed.

Seating: 1,194

Clune's best known theatre was Clune's Broadway in downtown Los Angeles, still around as the Cameo Theatre. He was also a film producer with his own studio, now a part of Raleigh Studios. See the Cameo page for a timeline of Clune's other exhibition ventures.

Clune's Pasadena had a rooftop sign with over 2,000 lamps. In addition to the theatre, the building had ground floor stores and a space housing the Pasadena Athletic Club. Moving Picture World for July 15, 1916 had an article about Clune that mentioned that the theatre was "exhibiting the largest picture in the world, the size being 23 by 32 feet on the screen."

Matt Hormann, in his now-vanished 2011 Hometown Pasadena article "Ghost Theatres on Colorado Blvd." noted:

"The theater could also boast of presenting composer John Philip Sousa, suffragist Sylvia Pankhurst, and American explorer Frederick Cook, during its early years...In March 1911, the Pasadena Elks Lodge staged a minstrel show featuring white actors in blackface portraying 'Wild Congo natives with war clubs and tom-toms.'

"An actor named Eugene F. Kohler, 'made a big hit' in the part of a 'coon,' wrote the Pasadena Star-News...The Birth of a Nation attracted controversy at Clune's. When the film arrived in Pasadena, the Pasadena Negro Taxpayers and Voters’ Association protested, resulting in a hearing before the city censorship board, and the cutting of several scenes from the film."

By 1920 the theatre had become Jensen's Pasadena.

A 1920 ad for the theatre as Jensen's. "Away Goes Prudence" was a July release. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating it for a post on the Photos of Los Angeles private Facebook group.

The W. F. Jensen noted as manager was Walter, one of the two sons of Henry Jensen, who in 1921 would build Jensen's Raymond Theatre nearby. For more on Jensen see "Henry C. Jensen, the Cunning Capitalist of L.A.," a 2013 article by Hadley Meares for KCET.

In 1921 the Bay Area circuit Turner & Dahnken came to town and made several theatre owners offers they couldn't refuse. This May 5 story appeared in the Long Beach Press. Thanks to Ron Mahan for locating it. The four theatres involved were the Pasadena, the Raymond, the Strand, and the Florence, later called the State.

Claude L. Langley had worked for T&D in San Francisco and moved south. Soon the Pasadena theatres of the firm were being known as the Turner, Dahnken & Langley circuit, or T D & L. In early 1923 West Coast Theatres bought out the 2/3 interest in the mini-circuit that was held by T&D and the chain was then known as West Coast-Langley. See the page on the Palace Grand Theatre in Glendale for more data about the circuit's evolution.

A c.1924 ad for the four Pasadena theatres operated by West Coast-Langley with Clune's then just called the Pasadena Theatre. The Los Angeles Public Library has the ad as a pdf in their California Index.

An ad for the house as the Egyptian Theatre offering the "Egyptian Theatre Orchestra and Atmospheric Prologue." The ad appeared in an April 1924 issue of "Stage and Screen Magazine," a publication that billed itself as "The official amusement publication of Pasadena." This brief fling with the Egyptian name positioned the theatre as the first of three Pasadena theatres to be called the Egyptian.

Warner's Egyptian opened in 1925 at 2316 E. Colorado Blvd. Later it was known as the Uptown Theatre. The building still survives with much of its Egyptian interior intact. As of 2020 it was vacant and without seats. Bard's Egyptian (also known as Bard's Pasadena and Bard's Colorado), another 1925 opening, was at 1003 E. Colorado Blvd. It's still around but was gutted to become a 6 plex called the Academy.

An ad and an Egyptian program from July 1924. Thanks to Ron Mahan for sharing these items. They appeared with an article about the theatre and Billy Clune in the January 1992 issue of the Tom B'hend / Preston Kaufmann publication Greater L.A. Metro Newsreel. It's an issue that's in Ron's collection. The full article is reproduced at the bottom of the page.

Soon the Egyptian idea was dropped and it was back to the Pasadena Theatre name.

A March 1925 ad for the Raymond and the other West Coast-Langley houses. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating this for posts on the America in the 1920s and Ken's Movie Page Facebook groups.

In May 1925 they would add a fifth Pasadena theatre, the Washington, much later called Cinema 21. C.L. Langley sold his 1/3 interest in the circuit in the fall of 1925 and all their theatres were then operated directly by West Coast. The West Coast Theatres circuit was renamed Fox West Coast when William Fox bought control in 1929.

A 1930 ad for the August 15 grand opening as the Fox Pasadena. The big remodel was necessitated by the widening of Colorado Blvd. which required the front of the building to be sheared off and rebuilt. This Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating the ad for a comment to a post of other Pasadena theatre ads on the Photos of Los Angeles private Facebook group.

Closing: The theater closed in the 1950s. Bill Gabel notes that it was still running in 1956 but closed by 1957.

Status: The building was slightly modified for retail use. Joe Vogel notes that it was a Salvation Army thrift shop beginning in the late 50s with the stage and proscenium still intact and most of the main floor still sloped.

After the thrift shop closed around 1985 the building sat vacant. In 1987 a roof truss collapsed causing a partial roof failure and damage to the building's east wall. More damage was caused by the 1987 earthquake. The walls and remaining portion of the roof were braced until the building was renovated around 1990.

It became a health club and then was a Crate & Barrel and Gap. There is no trace of the theatre left inside. The building sold in 2019 and got remodeled for a new retail tenants along Colorado Blvd. Part of the building is now a co-working space called Industrious that's using a 21 Miller Alley address.

An interior view:

The theatre on opening night in 1911. It's a photo from the collection of the Pasadena Museum of History. Thanks to Matt Hormann for locating it for a now-vanished Hometown Pasadena article.

The photo also makes an appearance on page 27 of the 2007 Arcadia Publishing book "Pasadena, A Business History" by Patrick Conyers, Cedar Phillips and the Pasadena Museum of History. The page with the photo is included in the book's preview on Google Books.

More exterior views:

1925 - The theatre is on the right in this view looking west during the Rose Parade. The Pasadena Public Library photo once appeared on the website of the Pasadena Digital History Collaboration. Thanks to Joe Vogel for spotting it. The were playing a film with "Paris" in the title and advertising Vaudeville on the bottom line of the marquee.

c.1926 - Looking west after the Rose Parade. The signage for the Pasadena Theatre can be seen adjacent to the flag on the left. It's a photo from the California Historical Society appearing on the USC Digital Library website.

1927 - A detail from the Huntington Library Harold A. Parker photo at the top of the page. The theatre was closed at the time, perhaps due to the imminent street widening project. The end of the marquee reads "Raymond Theatre Open Now." On the front: "Raymond Theatre Now Playing Big Pictures and Fanchon and Marco 'Ideas.'"

1931 - A fine view of the marquee and the theatre's new facade from the Los Angeles Public Library collection.

1939 - A January 2 photo by Herman Schultheis showing crowds leaving after the Rose Parade. We have the Fox Pasadena at the left, with Western Auto the retail tenant on the corner. Thanks to Carol Momsen for spotting the photo in the Los Angeles Public Library collection.

1940 - Looking east in an Auto Club of Southern California photo appearing in a short "Then and Now: Pasadena" video clip from KCET. Thanks to the Los Angeles City Historical Society for posting it on their Facebook page.

1940 - A detail from the Auto Club photo. They were running "Arise My Love" with Claudette Colbert and Ray Milland along with "Tin Pan Alley" with Jack Oakie. Note that "Fox" had been taken off the marquee.

1941 - An entrance detail with a poster for "The Night of January 16th" on the left. Thanks to Bill Gabel for finding the trade magazine photo for a post on Cinema Treasures.

c.1957 - "Theater For Sale or Lease." Fox West Coast was gone and soon the auditorium would be turned into a thrift store. Thanks to Ron Mahan for the image. It appeared in an article about the theatre and Billy Clune in the January 1992 issue of the Tom B'hend / Preston Kaufmann publication Greater L.A. Metro Newsreel. It's an issue that's in Ron's collection. The full article is reproduced at the bottom of the page.

2003 - Looking southeast at the back of the stagehouse. Thanks to Bob Meza for his photo. It's one of five photos he took that appear on the Cinema Tour page about the theatre.

2010 - On the left we're looking down De Lacey Ave. along the west side of the building. The stage was at the far end end. The loading doors there now accept housewares rather than scenery. Photo: Bill Counter

2010 - The east end of the facade. On the right it's Miller Alley with the entrance to the iPic Pasadena back in the courtyard. Photo: Bill Counter

2010 - In the One Colorado courtyard with a view of the east wall and the signage on the stagehouse. Photo: Bill Counter

2011 - Thanks to Matt Hormann for this view of the Clune's signage on the back of the stagehouse. The photo appeared with the vanished Hometown Pasadena series "Ghost Theatres on Colorado Blvd."

2014 - A look down at the gutted stagehouse and the signage on the back. Thanks to Escott O. Norton, Executive Director of the Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation, for posting the image on the LAHTF Facebook page.

2020 - A closing notice for the Gap after the building got sold. Thanks to Alex Rojas for the photo.

2022 - New tenants after the remodel. Photo: Google Maps

A 1992 article about the theatre and Billy Clune:

The article appeared in the January 1992 issue of the Tom B'hend / Preston Kaufmann publication Greater L.A. Metro Newsreel. The issue is in the Ronald W. Mahan Collection. Thanks to Ron for scanning it.

Thanks, Ron!

Los Angeles Theatres

Fox Pasadena

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