Los Angeles Theatres: Neptune Theatre

1417 Ocean Front Walk Venice (Los Angeles), CA 90291 | map |

Opened: May 22, 1911 as Hyman's Theatre. It was between Market St. and Horizon Ct., opposite the Plunge. As the Hyman it ran mostly as a vaudeville house but also screened films with the "Venice Orchestra" as accompaniment.

Thanks to Paul Tanck for the photo. He shared it in 2014 as a post on the private Facebook group People and Places of Venice. In 2023 Paul also used it for a post for the Lost Angeles group.

Architect: B. Cooper Corbett

Seating: 1,000 was the initial capacity that was announced. 750 was a later number.

It was originally owned by David Evans and operated by Arthur Hyman who had the Hyman Theatre (later called the Garrick) and the College Theatre in downtown L.A. For more about the Hyman circuit see the page on the College Theatre. Hyman advertised this one as "Hyman's Theatre Beautiful." In 1911 it had a brief fling with Kinemacolor, an early color process requiring special projectors.

It appears that Hyman originally intended to call the house the Mermaid Theatre. This item had appeared on page 303 in the February 11, 1911 issue of Moving Picture News. It's on Internet Archive. Zephyr Ave. was renamed Market St. in 1925.

T.R. Remick, on the Venice, Ocean Park and Santa Monica Facebook page notes:

"It was closed in November 1911, when Arthur Hyman left for New York after declaring bankruptcy. A new operator took over and reopened the Neptune Theatre as a nickleodeon movie theatre in 1912 and it continued as a movie theatre until closing in 1928."

A 1914 ad located by Ken McIntyre for a Facebook post on Ken's Movie Page.

A 1920 ad. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating this one for a post on the Photos of Los Angeles Facebook page.

The address of the theatre was sometimes listed as 1415 Ocean Front Walk (1913/14, 1918 and 1919/20 city directories) and at 1409 Ocean Front (1923-24, 1925 and 1927 directories). In 1920 it would be joined on Ocean Front Walk by the California Theatre (later renamed the Venice), located a block farther south.

On the left the Neptune is indicated as "Moving Pictures" in this detail from image 61 of the 1918 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map for Santa Monica that's in the Library of Congress collection. At the Speedway end of the building they note "stage and scenery." On the right at Windward Ave. is the St. Marks Hotel.

Closing: 1928 was it for use of the building as a theatre.

Status: The building was later used for retail, got a seismic retrofit in the 60s, and was not demolished until the early 1990s. What survived was missing the front 15' with the colonnade as well as the upper floor. There's now a new building on the site dating from 1993 that pays homage to what was there with a colonnade and fancy column capitols.

c.1912 - Looking north on Ocean Front Walk. On the side of the Merryland penny arcade note the entrance for a restaurant called the Cafe de Paris. It's a card that was located by the late Chrys Atwood on eBay for a post on the Venice, Ocean Park and Santa Monica Facebook page. Her copy had a 1913 postmark. There's also a copy of the card with a 1913 postmark on the USC Digital Library website.

c.1915 - A look south toward Zephyr Ave., now known as Market St. Thanks to Jeffrey Stanton for the postcard, one appearing on his Venice History Site. He notes that the red building on the left is currently the Sidewalk Cafe. The Neptune is at #31 on Stanton's 1925 Venice map. Also see his Venice Timeline. Mr. Stanton is the author of the lovingly researched book "Venice California - Coney Island of the Pacific."

c.1915 - A view north with the edge of the white Neptune Theatre building on the right with Merryland this side of it. On the left, the salt-water bathhouse known as the Plunge opened in the summer of 1907 as an open-air pool. The building above it was completed in 1908 and was once advertised as the largest indoor saltwater pool in the world. The building also contained restaurants and the Ocean Hotel. This copy of the card on the site Card Cow has a January 1923 postmark. If you care to browse their site: more Venice views | Ocean Park views |

c.1920 - Happy tourists are posed on one of the trams that ran along the Ocean Front Walk between Venice and Santa Monica. In the background the Neptune is seen to have finally added an electric sign. It's an L.A.Times photo on the UCLA Library website. The Times collection also has over 100 additional Venice photos to browse. Or check out the full L.A. Times Times Photographic Archive of over 20,000 photos.

c.1921 - Looking north on Ocean Front Walk from Windward. On our right it's the St. Mark's Hotel at Windward and Ocean Front. Down in the next block on the right there's a glimpse of the arches of the facade and a protruding sign plus a new readerboard at the Neptune.

That green thing sticking out on the left just beyond the "Billiards Bowling" sign is the marquee of the California Theatre, which opened in 1920. The large structure just beyond is the Plunge. It's a card that appeared on the Venice Line page of the now-vanished Uncanny.net site of Tom Wetzel that lovingly chronicled the history of L.A.'s urban railways. A version of the card also appears on the site Card Cow.

c.1922 - A look south with the theatre's readerboard saying "Today - Busby's Minstrels." It's a photo by Keystone Photo Service from the Ernest Marquez collection that appears on the Huntington Library website. The California Theatre is seen in the distance on the right.

c.1922 - A postcard version of the previous photo. The card, with a 1926 postmark, was a find on eBay and appeared as a post of the late Chrys Atwood on the Venice, Ocean Park and Santa Monica Facebook page. See that page's wonderful set of 52 photos in a set titled "Trams Through The Years."

1922 - The Neptune is advertising "Step On It!," a May release with Hoot Gibson and Edyth Murgatroyd along with a vaudeville show. The card appeared as a post on the Vintage Venice Reel to Reel Tours Facebook page where they noted that this point is where the famous opening tracking shot ends in Orson Welles' 1958 film "Touch of Evil."

1923 - The Neptune playing "The Ne'er-Do-Well," an April release with Thomas Meighan. It's a photo in the Los Angeles Public Library collection. The theatre closed in 1928 but the building didn't get demolished until the 1990s.

1953 - Looking north across Market St. after many changes. The apartment building on the left of the image survives. The building in the distance with the colonnade survives as the Sidewalk Cafe and All World Books. Just this side of it is the Neptune building, minus its front 15' feet with the colonnade, as well as the upper floor. Closer to us, just across Market St., is a building on the old Merryland lot. The Fortune Bridgo building in the foreground no longer exists. It's a photo from the Herald Examiner collection at the Los Angeles Public Library.

2019 - A view south toward Market St. along turquoise facade of the building that replaced the one the Neptune was once in. The building with the awning, in addition to the bookstore, houses the Sidewalk Cafe. Photo: Bill Counter

2019 - A closer look at the replica columns. Photo: Bill Counter

Los Angeles Theatres

Neptune Theatre

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