Los Angeles Theatres: Starland Theatre

on the Fraser Pier, 3000 Ocean Front Promenade
Ocean Park (Santa Monica), CA 90405 | map - approximate |

Opened: The weekend of June 17, 1911 with the opening of Alexander Fraser's "Million Dollar Pier," between Pier and Marine avenues. That's the Starland Theatre, with its roof sign, over toward the right. This lovely 1911 card was a find on eBay by late Chrys Atwood. She had it as a post on the Venice, Ocean Park & Santa Monica Facebook page.

The mountain behind the Starland was part of the Grand Canyon Scenic Railroad, whose track you see stretching along the far side of the pier. The low building in front of the Starland is the Breakers Cafe. On the left out at the end of the pier is a huge dance hall, in this rendering seemingly without a roof. On the far right of the image is a bit of the south side of the Ocean Park Auditorium Building.

Seating: 1,000

Architect: Evidently it was Alfred F. Rosenheim, noted for a few L.A. theatres including the Cameo and the Arrow, in the Hamburger Department Store building. Joe Vogel has the report:

"An item in the November 6, 1910, issue of the Los Angeles Herald said that W.H. Clune and associates were planning a theater on Fraser’s Million Dollar Pier, and that the syndicate had secured exclusive rights to present vaudeville and movies at the pier. The theater must have been the Starland. The plans for the project were being drawn by architect A. F. Rosenheim."

In December 1910 the trade magazine Nickelodeon repeated the news with their item:

"A large theatre will be erected on Fraser's Million Dollar Pier for W. H. Clune and Associates, who have secured exclusive rights to the vaudeville and moving picture privileges. The auditorium will have a seating capacity of 1,000 persons."

See the Cameo Theatre page for more on Billy Clune. The Cameo, opening in 1910 as Clune's Broadway, was also a design by Rosenheim.

Evidently Clune didn't stick around very long. It then passed to a Mr. J.M. Boland and by August 1912 had been taken over by the Globe Amusement Company.

An August 1012 news item about the "absorption" of the Starland. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating this as well as many other Globe items for a Facebook thread on Ken's Movie Page.

Thanks to Joe Vogel for locating this item in the September 7, 1912 issue of Moving Picture World:

"Announcement that the Globe Amusement Company has acquired another motion picture theater, making six in all, was made this week. The new house is the Starland Theater, located on the $1,000,000 Frazer pier at Ocean Park. It is one of the finest motion picture houses in California. J. M. Boland, former owner of the house, is to be retained as resident manager.

"The Globe Amusement Company is planning to build or acquire and to operate, 15 houses in and around Los Angeles. No. 1 is at Fifth and Los Angeles Streets, No. 2 at Central Avenue and Jefferson Street, No. 3 at Sunset Boulevard and Echo Park road, No. 4 at 18th and Main Streets and No. 5 at Sixth and Palos Verdes Street. All except the last named, which is in San Pedro, are in Los Angeles proper."

Later there was a Globe #7 was at 2624 N. Broadway in Lincoln Heights, a house later called the Starland. The company's takeover of this house on the pier was not a case of good timing.

The demise: The theatre and all the other structures on the pier burned in a fire on September 3, 1912. The Santa Monica Outlook reported that the burned theatre had been operated by the Globe Theatre Co.

The fire burned not only the pier but the entire five block business district along Ocean Front Promenade and all the way east to Trolleyway, a street now known north of Marine St. as Neilson Way and south of Marine as Pacific Ave.

After the pier was rebuilt, the Rosemary Theatre opened in a similar spot in 1913, but oriented with the backstage wall facing south. It was the 3rd location for the Rosemary. The pier burned again in 1924. And was again rebuilt. In 1958 the pier area was remodeled into Pacific Ocean Park, running until 1967.

1911 or 1912 - A view of the back of the stagehouse from out on the pier looking in toward shore. On the left is the building for a carousel, an attraction added after the opening of the pier. Thanks to Jeffrey Stanton for this card from his extensive collection. See his fine article on Fraser's Million Dollar Pier, part of the terrific Venice History Site hosted on Westland.net. On his map of the Fraser "Million Dollar" Pier - 1912 the Starland appears as #16. Beyond the Starland we're looking at the back of the Ocean Park Auditorium Building.

1911 or 1912 - A view of the pier from the south, from up in the Ocean Park Bathhouse. Note the added carousel between the dance hall and the Starland Theatre. The card is on the site Card Cow. If you want to go browsing, the site has lots more to look at: Venice postcards | Ocean Park cards |

The book "Early Los Angeles County Attractions" from Arcadia Publishing has a black and white reproduction of the card on page 117 along with other Ocean Park views. The page is included in the book's preview on Google Books. That's the south side of the Auditorium Building on the right edge of the image.

1911 or 1912 - The matching daytime view. It's a card in the USC Digital Library collection. On the back the legend was "On the Road of a Thousand Wonders."

1911 or 1912 - A photo by H.F. Rile. Thanks to Michael Hayashi for posting it on the Venice, Ocean Park and Santa Monica Facebook page. It can also be seen on the Santa Monica Public Library website.

1912 - A look at the pier in August, the month before the fire. It's a photo by G. Haven Bishop taken for the Southern California Edison Co. that's in the Huntington Library collection.

1912 - A detail from a wider view that Mr. Bishop took from farther south. It's also on the Huntington Library website. Also see a night view he took of the Revolving Grotto Cafe that was north of the pier.

1912 - The pier on fire in September. Thanks to Michael Hayashi the photo, one added as a comment to a post of his on the Venice, Ocean Park and Santa Monica Facebook page.

1912 - A postcard view of the fire from the south that appears in the collection on the site Card Cow. That's the Ocean Park Bathhouse on the right.

2019 - Looking out to where the pier once was. Behind us it's all condos. There's no more Ocean Park business district unless you go several blocks east to Pacific Ave. or Main St. Photo: Google Maps

Thanks to Jeffrey Stanton for this map of the Fraser "Million Dollar" Pier - 1912 appearing on the site Westland.net. The Starland is #16, over on the right. 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.

Los Angeles Theatres

Starland Theatre

No comments:

Post a Comment