Park Theatre

1375 N. Fair Oaks Ave. Pasadena, CA 91103 | map | 

Opening: Christmas Day, 1928 with  "Captain Swagger" starring Rod La Roque. It was on the west side of the street a half block north of Washington Blvd. Thanks to Dallas Movie Theatres for locating this pre-opening newspaper shot for a post on Cinema Treasures.

Seating: 760 

Architects: Orlopp & Orlopp. Cinema Treasures researcher Joe Vogel found an item in the Southwest Builder & Contractor issue of May 13, 1928 reporting that a permit had been issued for construction of a theater at 1373 N. Fair Oaks Ave. with that firm as designers. He adds that the firm was evidently based in Dallas.

 

An ad for the new theatre that appeared December 24, 1928. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating it for a post on the Photos of Los Angeles private Facebook group.

 

Thanks to Ken McIntyre for sharing the Pasadena Post page this June 27, 1929 ad was on as a post for the America in the 1920s Facebook group.  

 

 "Always Cool, Comfortable and Airy." Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating this 1930 ad.

A 1931 ad for the Park. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating it.  

In 1936 it got a renovation and reopened July 2nd, according to research by Dallas Movie Theatres.

In the 1940 Film Daily Yearbook the theatre was listed as part of the Robb & Rowley chain, based in Dallas. At the time they also had the Pasadena Theatre (the former Clune's/Fox Pasadena) and the State Theatre, both on Colorado Blvd. In its later years the Park was operated by Fox West Coast, as were the other two houses. Robb and Rowley became part of the United Artists circuit in the 1960s. Thanks to Mike Rivest for the research.

There's no question that the L.A. area was a racist environment and various minorities were gently (or not so gently) encouraged to go to theatres in the neighborhoods in which they lived. There are very few detailed, credible accounts of segregation practices in specific theatres. Thanks to Patricia Zeider, assistant archivist at the Pasadena Museum of History, for adding this to the record:

"For those who are interested, I did find mention of movie theater segregation in Pasadena in the 1920s/30s in an oral history of Elbie J. Hikambottom. Hikambottom was an African American man who was born in 1924. He states that 'Theaters [in Pasadena] were segregated. I remember when there was only one theater that blacks could go to, and that was called the Park Theater. And even then you had to sit in the first ten rows on the left side. 

 

"Oh, I remember that, because it was some distance from where we lived, and I was a little fellow. And my sister used to actually carry me on her shoulders....It was on North Fair Oaks, three or four doors above Washington Boulevard.' The oral history was transcribed in 2006. I believe Hikambottom died in 2004. He served as the only black member of the Pasadena School Board from the 1970s into the 1990s and was involved in the contentious school desegregation of Pasadena (i.e. busing) in the 1970s."

Closing: Fox West Coast was the final operator. They closed it March 18, 1951. The final program was Lauren Bacall in "Bright Leaf" along with John Wayne in "Dakota." Thanks to Dallas Movie Theatres for the research. 

 

Thanks to Kelli Shapiro for locating this 1955 shot of the then-closed theatre in Marc Wanamaker's Bison Archives collection. Kelli includes it on page 123 of her fine 2024 Arcadia Publishing book "Inland Empire and San Gabriel Valley Movie Theatres."

Status: The building was demolished in the 1970s. There's now a little strip mall on the site. Joe Vogel comments on Cinema Treasures: 

"I had occasion to travel along this stretch of Fair Oaks Avenue a number of times over the years, and I recall the Park Theatre building still standing in the early 1960s. I don’t recall what, if anything, occupied the building at that time. 

"There has been some speculation that the theater was in the building now occupied by the Berry & Sweeney Pharmacy, but the Historic Aerials web site shows the building immediately south of the pharmacy, still standing in 1972 but gone in 1977, with what appears to be a small stage house at the rear. 

"I’m pretty sure that’s where the Park Theatre was. It was somewhat larger than the pharmacy building, which looks too small to have housed a theater with 760 seats. The commercial building now on what I believe was the theater’s site appears in the aerial from 1980.

 

 

The lot the theatre was on now uses a 1367 Fair Oaks address. The tenant closest to the street at the time of this shot was Louisiana Fried Chicken. Google Maps - 2024   

 

 

 

Looking south on Fair Oaks. This older brick pharmacy building north of the theatre site uses a 1377 Fair Oaks address. Image: Google Maps - 2024 

More Information: Cinema Treasures has page on the Park but there's not much additional data.

| back to top | Pasadena theatres | Downtown | 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 |