85 N. Fair Oaks Ave. Pasadena, CA 91124 | map |
Opened: It debuted around 1908 as
Tally's Theatre, operated in a partnership by San Francisco theatreman E.A. Fischer and Edward J. Tally, a brother of the more famous
Thomas Tally.
The location was on the west side of the street between Union St. and Holly St. It wasn't listed in the 1907 Pasadena city directory. Scroll down the
College Theatre page for a timeline of E.J. Tally's other exhibition adventures. He took that one over around 1912.
In San Francisco Fischer had operated theatres both before and after the 1906 earthquake. The best known was the pre-quake
Fischer's Theatre on O'Farrell St.
His Los Angeles adventures include the 1905 opening of Fischer's
Theatre on 1st St. near the current City Hall. That house, running mostly stock productions, later was
renamed the
Princess. In 1908 Fischer opened the Chronophone Theatre at 423 S. Spring, a venue later known as
Horne's Big Show. In 1911 he took over the
Lyceum Theatre, 227 S. Spring, but didn't stay long.
Harold Hubbard, a writer for the Pasadena Star-News, noted in a 1977
article (reproduced below) that the house was built by Anthony Pearce
with some assistance from William Clune. Some of Hubbard's data was
sketchy (like the year of opening) and the involvement of these two
gentlemen hasn't been confirmed.
Seating:
The original count isn't known. It was 700 in later years. An article
in 1928 noted that they had expanded by 100 seats, adding a loge and
mezzanine.
Architects: The original architect is unknown. Joe Vogel found a
June 15, 1912 item in Southwest Contractor & Manufacturer noting
that the firm of Buchanan and Brockway were the architects for a remodel
to bring the theatre into code compliance. Work included a brick
proscenium wall, new fire doors, a sprinkler system and electrical
upgrades. Walter C. Folland of Pasadena did the 1925 remodel to turn it into the Fair Oaks Theatre.
In the 1908-09 Pasadena city directory there were listings for: "E.A. Fischer (Tally's Theatre) r. Los Angeles," "Tally, E.J (Tally's Theatre) r. Los Angeles" and "Tally's Theatre (Fischer & Tally, Los Angeles) 85 N. Fair Oaks."
By 1910 it was being called Fischer's Theatre. Tally had evidently exited the partnership.
Fischer's was included in this column of ads appearing in a June 1910 issue of the L.A. Herald. Thanks to Ken McIntyre posting it as a comment on a thread about early Pasadena theatres for the Photos of Los Angeles private Facebook group. The Crown Theatre also being advertised is one that had opened in 1909.
Joe Vogel found a mention in an insurance industry publication noting that the theatre had a fire on January 5, 1911.
It's in the 1911 city directory with Al Fischer listed as manager in the alphabetical listings and a
91 N. Fair Oaks address. In the "Places of Amusement" classified
listing that year the directory used an 87 N. Fair Oaks address. It's in the 1912 city directory as Fischer's Theatre, again with the 87 N. Fair Oaks address.
In the 1913-14 and 1914-15 directories it's listed as the Savoy Theatre at 87 N. Fair Oaks. Several accounts refer to the Savoy as a burlesque theatre.
This venue was the home of the Community Players before the opening of the
Pasadena Playhouse on El Molino in 1925. The company started with Gilmor Brown's arrival in Pasadena in 1916. He did a few productions at the
Shakespeare Club and then, in 1917, rented the Savoy. For a while he called the troupe the Savoy Stock Company.
The program for the April 1917 production of "Uncle Tom's Cabin." It's in the collection of the
Pasadena Museum of History. Thanks to Project Archivist Iris Shih for her research assistance. You can click on these images for larger views.
The Community Players were offering "The Gentle Honeymoon" at the Savoy in May 1918. This Pasadena Public Library view into the ticket lobby appears in "Playhouse!," Diane Alexander's 1984 book about the history of the Gilmor Brown troupe. It's available on
Amazon.
Thanks to theatre researcher Bob Foreman for locating this image and others appearing in "Playhouse!" For a wealth of theatre history information check
out the
Master Index to Bob Foreman's Photo Essays that includes Bob's sites Vintage Theatre Catalogs, Fox Fact, and others.
Later in 1918 the company renamed the theatre the Community Playhouse.
An undated look to the rear of the house. The Pasadena Public Library photo appears in Diane Alexander's "Playhouse!" Thanks to Bob Foreman for spotting it.
A view of the proscenium and the set for an unidentified show from the Pasadena Public Library collection. Thanks to Bob Foreman for spotting it in "Playhouse!"
The cast for a production of "Twelfth Night." It's a photo appearing in a c.1958 souvenir "Pasadena Playhouse Pictorial" that's in the collection of the
Pasadena Museum of History. It's unknown which production this was. They did it in January 1918, July 1923 and December 1924.
The set from a production of "Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch." It's an April 1918 Pasadena Public Library photo appearing in Diane Alexander's "Playhouse." Thanks again to Bob Foreman for locating these photos. "Mrs. Wiggs" was on the boards again in November 1918.
The theatre is on the right in this c.1920 photo. Someone had taken a
marker to it and obliterated signage on both buildings. The
building in the center
is the Masonic Lodge, dating from 1905. Its main meeting room was used in the 1960s and
70s as
Cinematheque 16, a venue for experimental films. It's a photo by Albert Hiller from the Pasadena Public Library appearing on the
Pasadena Digital History Collaboration website, their #ppl_458.
Thanks to Scott Babcock for finding the photo in the collection for his
Noirish Los Angeles post # 44134.
This 1923 photo comes from the
Pasadena Playhouse Archives and appeared on an "Over 100 Years of Theater"
email campaign. The "Community Playhouse" sign is a once popular type
that could be swung out when the theatre was operating. The small sign
in the arch was advertising "Boy o' Dreams," a play by Claudia Lucas Harris that opened April 30.
A detail from the 1923 photo above. When the image appeared in Diane Alexander's 1984 book "Playhouse!," she noted the "T" designs in the light fixtures either side of the entrance, left over from the theatre's early days when it was called "Tally's."
In 1925 Gilmor Brown's troupe moved into the new Pasadena Playhouse on El Molino Ave.
Walter C. Folland of Pasadena did the 1925 remodel to turn it into the Fair Oaks Theatre. It's unknown if the theatre had earlier had a stagehouse that got removed in the remodel. Joe Vogel found an item in the Southwest Builder & Contractor issue of April 10, 1925 noting that Folland was the architect and that work was to include a new front, floors, marquee, seats and interior redecoration. The theatre also got an organ installation in 1925.
A 1925 sketch by the architect of the upgraded entrance and new signage of the Fair Oaks from a PDF file about Walter Folland from the Los Angeles Public Library. Thanks to Joe Vogel for finding it in the
collection.
A photo of Folland from the Library's pdf.
Folland's logo.
As the Fair Oaks, the theatre operated as a movie house. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for spotting this 1925 ad for a post for the
Photos of Los Angeles private Facebook group.
The architect's sketch appeared with a story in the August 16, 1928 issue of the Pasadena Evening Post to kick off that year's "Greater Movie Season." Note the mention of an auditorium expansion, adding 100 seats in a loge and mezzanine. That run of "Al Jolson's popular picture, 'The Jazz Singer'" would have been a silent version. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for sharing the page this was on as a post for the
Ken's Movie Page Facebook group.
The ad that appeared in the August 16, 1928 issue of the Post.
Western Electric equipment arrives for Mary Pickford in "Coquette," a film that had its first-run engagement at the United Artists downtown. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for sharing the page this June 27, 1929 ad was on as a post for the
America in the 1920s Facebook group.
A 1930 ad. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating it for another post on the
Photos of Los Angeles private Facebook group.
Around 1945 it got renamed the Oaks Theatre, perhaps coinciding with reconstruction after being gutted by a 1945 fire. Joe Vogel reports finding an item in the February 3, 1945 issue of Boxoffice noting the fire and saying that plans were underway for immediate reconstruction.
It was an adult theatre at the end of its life. At one point there was a 30 seat house upstairs called the Tom Kat that ran gay porno.
The Oaks was discussed by Matt Hormann in "The Lost Adult Theaters of Pasadena," his 2015 article for Hometown Pasadena that's now been lost online. He noted that around 1959 it became the first of Pasadena's theatres to go to an adult format. First with artie European product and then gradually sliding into stronger stuff. He says:
"It was so well-known in its day that that it even appeared in author 'The Graduate' author Charles Webb’s Pasadena-set novel 'The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker' (1970). Operated by Harold E. Wenzler, a well-liked local businessman, the theater started showing European art house films in the late 1950s. These included 'Room at the Top,' a critically-acclaimed British film, and 'L’Amant de lady Chatterley,' a French film that was banned across the U.S. from 1955 until 1959 for 'promoting adultery.'
"The latter landed Wenzler in trouble with the City of Pasadena – the first in a string of incidents for the theater operator. This was the same decade, after all, in which Langston Hughes’s poetry was removed from Pasadena school libraries for being 'subversive.' The city, which still had a film censorship board at that point, demanded Wenzler edit the film. Wenzler refused, and was eventually successful in helping to abolish the censorship law in 1961."
Owner Harold E. Wenzler in 1961. It's an L.A. Times photo appearing with Matt's article. Thanks to Linda Hammonds for spotting the story.
At various times Wenzler had also run the
Lux at 3rd and Figueroa, the
Granada on Temple St., the
Daly in Lincoln Heights and the
Roxy in Glendale. Before operating his own theatres Wenzler had a
long career as a theatre PR guy with clients including Sid Grauman.
Part of a January 1961 story about Wenzler's troubles with the City of Pasadena. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for including this in a 2023 thread about the Lux Theatre and Wenzler for
the Photos of Los Angeles private Facebook group.
A 1970s facade view from the Pasadena Public Library's collection appearing on the website of the
Pasadena Digital History Collaboration, their #ppl_8382. They suggest that it may have been taken by the Pasadena Redevelopment Agency.
On Holly St. with a view of the side of the theatre. The 1970s photo from the Pasadena Public Library appears on the website of the Pasadena Digital History Collaboration, their #ppl_8381.
Status: The Oaks was demolished in 1977. The Pasadena Star-News had the story in "It's Curtains for Oaks Theatre in Pasadena," an article that appeared on February 17, 1977:
Thanks to the Pasadena Museum of History for sharing the article. It's in their "Theatres" clipping file.
This story has a few issues. It includes this sentence: "The theatre was built in 1910 by Anthony Pearce with some
assistance from William C. Clune who, some years later, built Clune's Theatre around the corner on Colorado Boulevard." The Oaks, as Tally's, was obviously open earlier than 1910.
Clune's Pasdadena opened in 1911. Hubbard also notes a 1915 name change to the Savoy but it occurred a bit earlier.
A 1977 demolition photo by Ed Norgard of the Star-News that the Pasadena Museum of History has in their files. The caption when the photo appeared on February 23:
"OAKS TUMBLES - Workers demolish the Oaks and Tom Cat theatres, 85 N. Fair Oaks Ave., Pasadena. Built in 1910 [sic], the structure housed burlesque and legitimate theatre as well as movies. The Oaks is making was for an expansion of the Ralph M. Parsons Co."
"Now You See It... Now You Don't."
It's a 1977 L.A. Times before-and-after view that appeared with "The Lost Adult Theaters of Pasadena," Matt Hormann's now-vanished 2015 article for Hometown Pasadena Thanks, Matt!
Status: There's a new building on the site.
More Information: The Cinema Treasures
page has more data about the building. Bill Gabel and Joe Vogel
did the great research.
The theatre in its Savoy days gets a mention regarding it being a precursor to the
Pasadena Playhouse in "State Theater of California," an article on the site Netstate.
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