1229 Hermosa Ave. Hermosa Beach, CA 90254 |
map |
Opened: June 27, 1923 as the Metropolitan Theatre with the world premiere of "Circus Days" starring Jackie Coogan as well as five acts of vaudeville. Thanks to Ron Felsing for sharing this early postcard view from his collection on Flickr.
Architect: Richard D. King along with the Los Angeles Engineering Co.
A drawing of the proposed theatre that appeared in the January 19, 1923 issue of the Hermosa Beach Review. Thanks to John Waltz for locating this to add as a comment to a thread about the theatre for the private Facebook group Vintage Neon Heaven. The Review used the drawing again the week of the opening. It was reproduced again in the December 12, 1996 issue of Easy Reader.
Joe Vogel comments that the project was also noted in the January 26, 1923 issue of Southwest Builder and Contractor.
The building is on the southwest corner of Hermosa Ave. and 13th St. The
theatre was a project of Ralph E. Matteson, of the First Bank of
Hermosa Beach, and his partners. The $200,000 building also contained
the bank, retail stores, offices on the second floor, and two lodge halls
on floor three.
Seating: 1,200 was the capacity mentioned in the announcement of the construction. Later, when still a single screen house, the capacity was listed as 864.
Pipe Organ: It was a Robert Morton.
It was renamed the Hermosa Theatre in 1930 or 1931. It's listed
as the Hermosa at 1231 Hermosa Ave. in the 1931 and 1936 city
directories. The address was 1229 in the 1947 and 1952 directories.
West Coast Theatres was the operator from the time the theatre opened. After that firm was renamed Fox West Coast in 1929 the theatre was advertised as the Fox
Hermosa. At some point the circuit dropped the house and it became an independent operation.
As a soft core porno operation the Hermosa was included in this 1973 L.A. Times ad. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating it. The theatre closed later in 1973.
Rebranded as the Cove, the theatre reopened under Malcolm Hardy's ownership and management in 1974. Malcolm was doing business as Century
Theatres, Inc. Locally he also had the Rivoli in Long
Beach, the Cameo in El Sereno, the Wardman (now known as the Whittier Village Cinemas), the Whittier
Theatre, the Whittwood and the Reseda. Malcolm also operated the Rialto and Highland Twin in San Bernardino, the Pismo Beach Theatre, the San Luis Obispo Drive-In, the Town in Gilroy and the Mt. Burney Theatre in Burney. Hardy's Century firm shouldn't be confused
with the larger Century Cinema Circuit operating in the 1970s by Fred
and Robert Stein.
They were calling it the Hermosa Cove in this November 1976 ad from the collection of Geoff Hagins. Thanks to Sharrye Hagins for sharing it as a post for the Lost Angeles Facebook group.
After a twinning project it was known as the Cove Twin Cinemas, the Cove
1 & 2 and the New Cove showing lots of art and cult films including
many midnight shows.
In 1983 it changed hands and on September 30 reopened as the Bijou Cinema 2, also known as the Bijou Twin Cinema. On the marquee it was called the Bijou Cinemas.
"Under New Ownership!" It's a September 30, 1983 ad. Thanks to Mike Rivest for locating it. Visit his site:
Movie-Theatre.org
Thanks to Harold Lloyd for locating this discount card for a post on the South Bay / Los Angeles Days of Old California Facebook group.
Closing: 1996
Status: Much of the interior plasterwork remains in the lobby as well as in the proscenium area. For years the lobby and rear of what had been the auditorium had been an art gallery called Gallery C. Since 2013 that area has been occupied as a Chase Bank branch.
What had been the front of the auditorium and the stage was until 2020 the headquarters of Jason Muller's
Beach City Capital, an investment and real estate development company. In 2021 they started work on what was envisioned on their site as a "
Beach-centric Co-Working Office Space" to be called Local Collaborative. The rebuild, designed by Gensler, ended up with one tenant, Marlin Equity, taking the whole thing.
Easy Reader had the "grand reopening" story in February 2022.
The Hermosa/Bijou in the movies: April Wright, who is from Hermosa Beach, includes shots of the theatre in her 2019 documentary "Going Attractions: The Definitive Story of the Movie Palace."
Interior views:
A c.1923 photo on display in the stage end of the building that, until 2020 was the offices of
Beach City Capital. The photo is still positioned inside the front door.
Looking into the lobby after the theatre had closed. Note the new wall creating a separate office space in the rear of the auditorium. It's a 2003 photo by Ron Pierce that appears on the
Cinema Tour page about the theatre.
Another 2003 view by Ron Pierce, this one revealing a bit more of the original plasterwork at the entrance. Head to the the
Cinema Tour page for 10 additional photos he took. Thanks, Ron!
The ticket lobby in use as part of a Chase Bank branch. Photo: Bill Counter - 2021
Looking toward house right in the inner lobby. Photo: Bill Counter - 2021
An inner lobby plasterwork detail. Photo: Bill Counter - 2021
A view back out toward the street. Photo: Bill Counter - 2021
House right plasterwork near the rear of the auditorium. Photo: Bill Counter - 2021
A closer look at the head house right. Photo: Bill Counter - 2021
A detail of the dancing maidens. Photo: Bill Counter - 2021
A proscenium view as construction was getting underway in the stage end of the building, a separate area behind the bank. Thanks to April Wright for sharing her 2021 photo.
A fine January 2022 view of the house house left organ grille and part of the proscenium taken by Mike Hume.
A backstage view. At the left it's the rear of the house right organ grille. Farther along we're behind the proscenium. Above, note that a ceiling has been installed part way up in the stagehouse. Thanks to Mike Hume for this 2022 photo.
For a real treat visit Mike's Historic Theatres Photography website for tech information, history and thousand of great photos of many of the theatres he's explored.
More exterior views:
1923 - The building under construction. The auditorium is off to the right. The photo from the Hermosa Beach Historical Society appears with "
The Bijou Theater: a Hermosa Classic," a 2017 article by Denise Kano on the site Digs. Thanks to April Wright for locating the story for a post on her
Going Attractions Facebook page. It's a photo that's also on display upstairs in the building.
1923 - A photo from the Hermosa Beach Historical Society appearing with Michael Hixon's March 2020 Daily Breeze story "
Hermosa Beach's Bijou Theater is focus of museum exhibition..."
Thanks to Michelle Gerdes for spotting it. A copy of the photo
is on display upstairs in the building. At the time of the photo they were running the
August release "The Common Law" with Conway Tearle and Corinne
Griffith.
1923 - The Metropolitan running "The Miracle Baby," an August release with Harry Carey and Margaret Landis. It's a photo from the Hermosa Beach Historical Society appearing with Denise Kano's article about the theatre on the site
Digs.
1923 - The theatre playing the Ernst Lubitsch film "Rosita," a September release with Mary Pickford. Thanks to Ron Felsing for sharing the photo on
Flickr where he also includes a history of the theatre by Patricia Gazin.
1923 - A view from the north from the Hermosa Beach Historical Society appearing with Denise Kano's article about the theatre on the site
Digs. There's also a version in the collection of the
Los Angeles Public Library where they note that the bank on the corner was the First Bank of Hermosa Beach.
1938 - The theatre as the Hermosa running "The Adventures of Marco Polo," an April release. It's a
Los Angeles Public Library photo.
1938 - "The Valley of the Giants" was a September release. Laurel and Hardy's "Block-Heads" was available in August. Thanks to Scott T. Rivers for locating the photo for a post on the
Laurel and Hardy Facebook page. And thanks to
Dave Greim for spotting the post and sharing it on his own Facebook post.
1940s - The theatre is seen toward the lower right in this shot. Thanks to Joseph Snyder for locating it for a post on the South Bay/Los Angeles Days of Old Facebook page.
c.1970 - Looking north toward the Hermosa, at this time still running as a single screen operation. Thanks to Sean Ault for sharing the photo from his collection.
1982 - The theatre in its days as the twin Cove Cinema. The photo appeared on the now-vanished American Classic Images website.
c.1990 - A view of the theatre as the Bijou that once appeared with Sam Gnerre's nice 2009 Daily Breeze survey "
South Bay Movie Theaters of the Past." The article is still online but this photo doesn't appear in the current version.
1992 - Thanks to Chris Cenci for sharing this shot on the I Love Hermosa Beach Facebook group.
1996 - The theatre near the end of its life as the Bijou Cinemas. Thanks to Mary Jo Brookes for locating the photo and also to David Zornig for posting it on
Cinema Treasures.
2003 - Thanks to Ron Pierce for this photo, one that appears on the Cinema Tour page about the theatre.
2005 - The theatre space as Galley C. It's a photo from Joan S. on
Yelp.
2009 - A photo taken by Ken McIntyre on one of his many wanderings.
c.2019 - A view with the auditorium and stagehouse shown in yellow that appears on the Beach City Capital
page about their vision for the "Beach-centric Co-Working Office Space."
2019 - The alley along the south side of the building. Photo: Bill Counter
2019 - A look along the north side. Photo: Bill Counter
2019 - The stage end of the building. Photo: Bill Counter
2020 - The loading door on the south side of the building. Thanks to theatre explorer Mike Hume for his photo. Visit his terrific
Historic Theatre Photography site for thousands of photos he's investigated in the L.A. area and elsewhere.
2021 - From the building's third floor a look across the roof toward the stagehouse. Photo: Bill Counter
2021 - The back wall as seen from the pier. The orange-vested city employees on the top of the stagehouse are preparing to unfurl a blue tarp to hide the mural prior to the official June 28 unveiling ceremony, a fundraiser for the city's mural project. The light beige structure we see to the right of the stagehouse is the third floor of the portion of the building in front of the auditorium. Photo: Bill Counter
More information: See the Cinema Treasures page on the Bijou Theatre for more history. The Cinema Tour page has twelve 2003 exterior photos by Ron Pierce. See the History of the Bijou Theatre page on the Hermosa Beach Historical Society website.
There was also an earlier nickelodeon in town called the Hermosa Theatre. Particia Gazin comments: "The very first theatre in Hermosa Beach, a nickelodeon, preceded the Metropolitan by at least ten years. This was the Hermosa Theatre operated by C.J. Barlow, located, approximately where Loreto Plaza now stands."
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