Venice Auditorium

on the Abbott Kinney Pier Venice (Los Angeles), CA 90291 | map - approximate |

Opened: The Venice Auditorium opened in 1905, a project of Abbott Kinney. Jeffrey Stanton, in his article about the Abbott Kinney Pier, relates that construction, begun in September 1904, was nearly complete on the pier and its two buildings when storms in February and March 1905 turned it all into a pile of driftwood.

Undaunted, Kinney started construction again and even expanded his plans, ending up with a longer pier than originally envisioned. The second attempt at constructing the Auditorium took about five weeks. The opening was July 4th for a two-month cultural event called the Venice Assembly. Also on the pier was the Venice Theatre, farther in toward the beach.

The c.1905 card appears on the site Penny Postcards from California. An early operator was Ward McFadden, even getting his name on some postcards. In the off season the auditorium was set up as a dining and music venue called as the Venetian Gardens or the Palm Gardens. In the 1913 city directory Speers & Middleton were listed as the managers. In the 1915-16 Santa Monica directory it was listed as being managed by George J. Cleveland, who soon moved down the pier to manage the Venice Dancing Pavilion. 

Seating: 3,000

Films were occasionally shown in the Auditorium. "Birth of a Nation" drew thousands in 1916. It appears that by 1917 it became a full time film house. The directory that year lists Charles Jacobs as manager of the "Auditorium Theatre" and noted "motion pictures." In the 1919-1920 edition of the city directory E.C. Willis was managing and they again noted "motion pictures." In that edition they listed the address as "Windward Ave. Pier."

 

A November 12, 1920 ad in the Venice Evening Vanguard. 

 

A December 17, 1920 Vanguard ad for D.W. Griffith's "Way Down East." Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating these two ads for a post on the Photos of Los Angeles Facebook page.

Closing: The end came on December 20, 1920 with a massive pier fire. A new pier was constructed for the 1921 season with various attractions added over the years. It had a dance hall but no theatre. It came to an end in 1946 when the City of Los Angeles wouldn't renew its tidelands lease and wanted it dismantled. 


Interior views:

A lovely view of the Auditorium set up with theatre seating in 1907. Thanks to Brooklyn-based theatre historian Cezar Del Valle for sharing the card from his collection. Cezar's card also makes an appearance on Ethereal Reality's Noirish Los Angeles post #10094. Keep up with Cezar's latest explorations via his Theatre Talks website, the Theatre Talks blog and his Brooklyn Theatre Index Facebook page.

A 1907 postcard view of the interior set up for refreshments and music. It's from Jeffrey Stanton's extensive collection and appears on his fine Venice History Site. He comments: "Kinney found an alternative use for his pier auditorium during the off-season and converted it into the Venetian Gardens. It served refreshments to patrons seated at tables while Ellery's 52 member Royal Italian Band entertained from the stage."


More exterior views: 

1905 - The Ship Cafe well underway and framing getting started for the Auditorium. It's a June 5 photo from USC's Los Angeles Examiner Photographs Collection appearing on the USC Digital Library website.

1905 - The Ship Cafe and the still uncompleted Auditorium. It's a photo in the Los Angeles Public Library collection.  The Ship, also at one time known as the Hotel Ship Cabrillo, was built on pilings.

 

1905 - Another view as construction was being completed. Here we can see the pilings under the Ship Cafe. It's a photo from the California Historical Society appearing on the USC Digital Library website. 

 

1905 - A view from the rear as construction progresses. Thanks to Noirish Los Angeles contributor Ethereal Reality for spotting this when oit was on eBay. It's on Noirish post #61036. 

1905 - A photo from the Los Angeles Public Library collection. Card Cow has a postcard using this photo that was postmarked in October 1905. 

c.1905 - An entrance view from the collection of the late Chrys Atwood.

1906 - A lovely view with an August 20, 1906 postmark from the Card Cow collection. Of course the site has many more Venice postcards to browse. Another version of the card appears on Ethereal Reality's Noirish Los Angeles post #10094.

1906 - The photo the card above was made from. It's in the California Historical Society collection and appears on the USC Digital Library website. The caption on the site calls our attention to the two American flags in the right foreground flying from what appear to be photo booths. Signage reads "Franklin Photo Co. Makers of Novelty Photos."

c.1906 - A photo by M. deHaaf in the USC Los Angeles Examiner Photographs Collection appearing on the USC Digital Library website.

c.1906 - A card based on a photo taken from up on the Ship Cafe. It's in the Venice collection on the site Card Cow.

c.1906 - A photo from the California Historical Society appearing on the USC Digital Library website. The structure on the shore with the peaked roof is the Venice Bandstand.

c.1906 - The artist has taken a bit of liberty with this card and brought in an exceptionally high tide. It's a card appearing in the Venice section on the site Penny Postcards from California. Presumably the card was done using the USC photo above.

c.1906 - The same "high tide" image but made into a night view. It's on the site Card Cow where they note that their copy has a 1909 postmark.

 

c.1909 - The stage end of the building. It's a photo in the Los Angeles Public Library collection. The Library also has a 1910 shot of a woman on the beach with the Auditorium in the background.

 

 

c.1909 - A view from the beach from the California Historical Society collection. The photo appears on the USC Digital Library website. Note the back of the Dance Hall on the left. It went up in the summer of 1906, completed (more or less) in 17 days.

 

 c.1909 - A card with a March 25, 1911 postmark from the site Card Cow. On the right that's the more decorative side of the Dance Hall. Also see a nice 1909 card of the front of the Dance Hall on Card Cow. A different card of the Dance Hall is on the site Penny Postcards from California.

 

 

c.1915 - Thanks to Mark Flores for sharing this shot looking toward the beach. The auditorium is on the left. Note that "Vaudeville" sign strung across the pier. Mark comments: 

"The man posing was Mason Abner Grover. They were visiting from North Dakota. They must have liked the weather. Years later they moved to Inglewood."

 

On the far right is a new glass blower's shop with a Ferris Wheel and the masts of the Ship Cafe beyond. The Ferris Wheel was new for the 1911 season and had come from the Seattle's Yukon-Pacific Exposition. The "Rink" signage across the pier refers to an outdoor track this side of the Ferris Wheel in an area that had opened as a circular Automobile Races attraction in 1911. Jeffrey Stanton notes that the center was left open when it was converted to a rink in 1914 so skaters could look down at the ocean. By the time the 1918 Sanborn map (below) was issued, the Rink was reduced to being only a semi-circular configuration.   

1918 - This lovely map of the pier appears as image 62 of the Sanborn Fire Insurance Map for Santa Monica that's in the Library of Congress collection. Also see the pier map on image 34 of the 1909 Sanborn Map. On the LOC site you can zoom in to look at details.

1920 - Thanks to Jeffrey Stanton for this Abbot Kinney Pier map appearing on the site Westland.net. The Auditorium, way out on the pier, is #11. The version on the site has links that once went to many photos from his collection. They still go to some text but all the photos have vanished.

Map Key 
1. Venice Plunge
2. Sea Swings
3. California Theater
4. Bandstand
5. Billiard Hall & Bowling Alleys
6. Cafeteria
7. Dance Hall
8. Virgina Reel
9. Whip
10. Great American Racing Derby
11. Auditorium
12. Aquarium
13. Flying Seaplanes
14. Tea Garden & Zoo
15. Over the Falls
16. Hellarity Hall
17. Captive Aeroplanes
18. Clay Pidgeon Gallery
19. Roller Skating Rink
20. Ferris Wheel
21. Ship Cafe
22. Ocean Inn
23. Merry-go-round (Dentzel)
24. Noah's Ark
25. Mill Chutes
26. Big Dipper roller coaster

Mr. Stanton is the author of "Venice California - Coney Island of the Pacific," available from the author by check or money order for $59.57, including tax. He's at 12525 Allin St. Los Angeles 90066. His email: jeffreystanton@yahoo.com. 

 

 

1920 - The pier burned in a few hours on December 20. It's a photo from the Ernest Marquez collection appearing on the Huntington Library website. 

1920 - This photo from Jeffrey Stanton's collection appears with his article about the Abbott Kinney Pier. He notes that the fire started in the Dance Hall and quickly spread along the pier in both directions. The buildings along Ocean Front Walk were spared only due to a change in the direction of the wind. The pier and its buildings were a total loss. See a view the next day in the Huntington Library collection.

A new pier was built for the 1921 season and opened May 28. It survived until 1946. See Stanton's Venice Amusement Pier article for that history and a fine discussion of its attractions. Stanton notes that Venice was annexed to the City of Los Angeles in November 1925 and due to L.A.'s blue laws and various licensing restrictions, business started shifting north to Santa Monica's Ocean Park. When the pier closed it was because the City of Los Angeles refused to renew the Kinney Company's tidelands lease.

2019 - Looking west from Ocean Front Walk in search of the vanished pier. Photo: Bill Counter

More Information: Visit Jeffrey Stanton's terrific Venice History Site hosted on Westland.net. Don't miss his Venice Timeline and the article on the Abbott Kinney Pier.  Also see a separate Venice History section on the site that was compiled by others.

Other Venice history resources are listed at the bottom of the Theatres Along the Coast survey page here on this site. 

| back to top | Theatres Along the Coast | Along the Coast - list by address | Downtown theatres | Westside theatres | Hollywood | Westwood and Brentwood | [more] Los Angeles movie palaces | Los Angeles theatres - the main alphabetical list | Los Angeles theatres - list by address | theatre history resources | film and theatre tech resources | contact info | welcome and site navigation guide |