Opened: May 27, 1925 as the West Coast Boulevard. The opening film was Joe Weber and Lew Fields in "Friendly Enemies." On the great stage was "Sally," a Fanchon and Marco "Idea." The theatre was on the northwest corner of Washington Blvd. and Vermont Ave. The pre-opening photo comes from the Los Angeles Public Library collection.
Seating: The numbers from different sources vary from 2,160 to 2,300.
Architect: Albert C. Martin, who, among many other buildings, designed the building that surrounds the Million Dollar Theatre.
A 1924 item in the Times that was spotted by Ken McIntyre.
The May 27, 1925 opening day ad. Thanks to Mike Rivest for locating it.
The cover for the program for the week of January 9, 1927. Thanks to Bruce Calvert for sharing it as a post on Cinema Treasures. He notes that the films that week were "The Flaming Frontier" with Antonio Moreno and "The Black Pirate" with Douglas Fairbanks in addition to the Fanchon & Marco stage shows. A March 1927 program noted: "Every Tuesday Matinee - Fanchon & Marco Professional Tryouts."
A September 1928 L.A. Times ad featuring the Boulevard.
A 1928 Christmas season ad. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating the Times ads.
West Coast Theatres, after 1929 called Fox West Coast, had offices in the building. In the 50s, the stage area was converted into four floors of additional office space and other facilities for the staff. The Boulevard was a convenient location for the circuit's offices as the side entrance on Vermont was in the heart of L.A.'s film row.
After the renovations Charles P. Skouras, the the head of the company, had a fifth floor penthouse with a swimming pool, a living room with film projection capability, and private elevator. The circuit's facilities also included a 50 seat screening room, barber shop, cafeteria, steam room and medical facilities. The Boulevard got an early Cinemascope installation in 1953 for an industry screening of the first Cinemascope feature, "The Robe," prior to its debut at the Chinese.
Fox sold the building and adjacent parking lot to the Thriftimart corporation in 1960. Thriftimart used what had been the Fox offices for their corporate headquarters. Fox had constructed new corporate offices in a building adjacent to the Carthay Circle Theatre.
Closing as a film house: The theatre closed in August 1964. In 1966 it was converted to a community center, the Inner City Cultural Center. The space was donated by Thriftimart.
"The ghettoized Negro, Oriental and Mexican-American historically have been denied access to the fine arts..." It's a 1966 Times article about the Boulevard getting turned into a cultural center. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating it.
The theatre's last use was by a
legit group called Inner City Repertory. Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun" was one of their 1968 productions.
It was called the Inner City Theatre in this ad for screenings of the 1971 film "The Murder of Fred Hampton." Thanks to Bob DiMucci for locating this.
After the cultural center stopped using the space,
Thriftimart used the auditorium for storage.
Status: The theatre was demolished in the mid 80s.
Interior views:
A look up the stairs in 1925. Note the murals up on the second level. It's a Los Angeles Public Library photo.
Another view of the stairs from the Los Angeles Public Library collection. This one they date as 1945.
The lobby at balcony level. The 1925 photo is in the Los Angeles Public Library collection.
Looking in along the house left wall. It's a Los Angeles Public Library photo that they date as 1937.
An early shot from the balcony that's in the Los Angeles Public Library collection.
The proscenium in 1944 after some redecoration by the Skouras team. It's a photo in the Los Angeles Public Library collection.
Another 1944 view from the Los Angeles Public Library collection.
The auditorium in 1966, about the time the theatre was being put to use as a community center. The photo is in the Los Angeles Public Library collection.
The Fox West Coast offices:
Here we are around on the Vermont side of the building. That's Marco Wolff, of Fanchon & Marco fame, on the left. The photo by Harry Wenger is included in a 117 page F & M scrapbook, each page with four photos of costumed performers or settings for a particular "Idea." Thanks to Bob Foreman for locating the photo in the Huntington Library collection. If you are interested in exploring archaic theatre technology, be sure to visit Bob's site Vintage Theatre Catalogs.
Until the Boulevard was built, West Coast Theatres had their offices on the second floor at 623 S. Olive St. In the 1926 city directory the company was using an address at the Boulevard of 1609 W. Washington and listing Michael Gore as president, Sol Lesser as vice president A.L. Gore as secretary and D.M. Croft as treasurer. In the 1927 directory the address used was 1619 W. Washington. Beginning in 1928 the company's address was listed on the east side of the building at 1837 S. Vermont.
A 20s view of one of the circuit's offices in the theatre taken by Mott Studios. It's a photo from the California State Library collection. They have four views of the office area, all cataloged as their set #001387138.
The Gold Room in the office area. It's a 1966 L.A. Times photo that appeared with this caption: "For The Arts - Board members of the Inner City Cultural Center meet in the Gold Room of the old Boulevard Theater in south-central Los Angeles." Thanks to Ken McIntyre for finding the photo.
More exterior views:
1925 - A photo from the Los Angeles Public Library collection. That banner across the street saying "All Welcome" was for the Plymouth Church that was renting the theatre for Sunday services.
1920s - A detail from USC's version of the previous photo.
1928 - Ballyhoo in the street for the film "The Shield of Honor." Thanks to Dallas Movie Theaters for locating the trade magazine photo for a post on Cinema Treasures.
1936 - Running "Tale of Two Cities" and "Broadway Hostess." Thanks to the Ronald W. Mahan Collection for sharing the photo by
Peerless Photo Service that was once in the collection of Johnny
Bresnik.
1944 - Running "Rationing" and "Lost Angel." It's a photo from the Los Angeles Public Library collection.
1958 - A view west toward the theatre from the Los Angeles Examiner. It was for a story about the installation of the new style of traffic signals. The photo is in the USC Digital Library collection. Thanks to Noirish Los Angeles contributor Torrmaline for including it in Noirish post #44060.
1958 - A detail from the USC photo. They were running "Jamboree" with the Count Basie Orchestra, Fats Domino and Jerry Lee Lewis along with "The Tin Star" with Henry Fonda.
c.1958 - A photo from the Sean Ault collection. Thanks, Sean!
c.1958 - Thanks to Sean Ault for locating this shot when it was offered for sale online.
c.1962 - Thanks to Sean Ault for this view north on Vermont. Note the built up third floor of the retail/office wing on this side of the building, constructed as part of the expansion of the Fox West Coast office area. At the street level, check out the little marquee at the office entrance. Where it once said "Offices - West Coast Theatres, Inc." and later "Fox West Coast" here it says "Thriftimart." The theatre was still running until 1964 but Fox had moved their offices to a new building adjacent to the Carthay Circle.
1963 - A look west on Washington from Vermont. Thanks to Sean Ault for sharing the photo from his collection. He comments: "This shot would have been April or May 1963 due to the fact the streetcar wires are gone but tracks have yet to be paved on Vermont. Note the Helms truck."
1967 - Some of the added Skouras construction on the roof can be seen in the upper right in this detail from a photo from the Blackstock Negative Collection at the Los Angeles Public Library. At the bottom of the photo it's the plant for the outdoor advertising company Foster & Kleiser.
1969 - A terrazzo detail from Glen Norman's archives. He comments: "This
was during the Inner City Repertory Theatre period. Our English class
saw 'Macbeth' (gawd awful), 'Room Service' (funnier than the Marx Brothers
version), 'West Side Story' (quite good), and 'The Fantasticks" there."
2017 - The intersection of Washington and Vermont. On the left we're looking west toward where the theatre once was. Photo: Google Maps.
More information: See the Cinema Treasures page for lots of research and discussion by Jeff Bridges, Patrick Howard, Bill Gabel and other contributors. Howard worked as an usher in the theatre in the 50s while his father was managing the house. Regarding the office areas, he comments:
"...In addition to Charles P. Skouras' fifth floor penthouse, with private elevator and full film projection facilities, the corporate offices also contained an employee cafeteria, barber shop, complete medical and steam room facilities, as well as a 50 seat screening room...on the first floor was the the FWC cafeteria bordering Washington Blvd. and the 50 seat screening room, on the Vermont Ave side. The theater and commercial spaces occupied the rest. My father’s office [as theatre manager] was just off the second landing of the stairs leading to the theater’s balcony. One could access the FWC offices from both sides of the first landing and opposite my father’s office on the second landing...
"If I remember correctly, the executive offices and conference room were on the 4th floor facing east to Vermont Avenue...The medical facility, showers and steam room, etc. were also on the 4th floor. Skouras suffered from heart disease; hence, the closeness of the medical facilities to the executive area. The penthouse was on the fifth floor and the elevator opened onto a fairly good sized rooftop patio with numerous planters. A 20' walk led directly into the penthouse, although a side path took one to the stairs to the upper level full sized projection booth that provided movies to the main penthouse living room.
"Once inside the penthouse entryway, you could either step down a stair or two into a very large, white carpeted living room or walk up to another level with a full bar. The living room had a very high ceiling, to accommodate the higher bar level. This also enabled a large, but scaled down Cinemascope screen to electrically descend from the ceiling for the screening of movies. When lowered, this screen covered the room’s large fireplace and mantle. The decor was mostly light colored furniture and blonde wood, typical of 1950’s style furnishings...Not surprisingly, I do not recall a television set, as this was during the height of the TV vs Motion Pictures war.
"The upper bar level also contained two floor to ceiling, glass enclosed, lighted shotgun display cases with several dozen shotguns...My impression of Mr. Skouras, on the one or two occasions I saw him, was that of a rather short, stout and pleasant individual, whose presence was not overly intimidating, despite his iconic stature in the industry..."
After moving out of the Boulevard, the offices for the Fox West Coast circuit, then operated by National General Corporation, were in a building on the site formerly occupied by the Carthay Circle Theatre. Photo: Google Maps - 2019
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I worked in Fox West Coast Headquarters building from 1965 - 1969 at 1837 S. Vermont when it was the headquarters for Thriftimart, Inc.
ReplyDeleteIs it possible that the Boulevard Theater at one time became known as the "Inner City Theatre"? The ad at the link below has the Boulevard's address at its bottom. The film was released in 1971, but this showing could have been any time after that.
ReplyDeletehttps://i.imgur.com/P7O8X4j.jpg
Thanks, Bob! Evidently that was the case. You proved it. While I had noted on the page that it was used by Inner City Repertory, I had never seen any ads for that period so had no idea that they had dropped the Boulevard name. Great to get another data point. I'll get the ad included on the page. Cheers!
DeleteBased upon my recollections from working there for a number of years in the 1950’s the photo showing a balcony lobby purportedly located in the Boulevard Theater was not taken at the Boulevard. I recall no such balcony lobby. Furthermore, there would not have been room for such a lobby at the top of the staircase. You can see in other photos where the staircase exited into the balcony seating area. Maybe such a lobby existed prior to 1946 when my father began his tenure as manager, but I cannot figure where it could have been located.
ReplyDeleteHi, Patrick -- Well, there's no doubt that the photo of the balcony lobby area was taken at the Boulevard. Everything matches what we see in the other 1925 shots. And it's easy to see where it was in the building -- you'd go either right or left and up a few more steps from that first stair landing. But I certainly have no idea what Fox did in their 40s remodel -- maybe just closed it off. As far as the stairs going right into the center vomitory in the balcony: absolutely. But the lobby area in question was below that level. It's interesting that the balcony lobby area was so small -- for a theatre this size I would have expected something bigger. Sad that we don't have more photos. -- Bill
DeleteIn retrospect, I think you are right. The masonry, stair railing, etc. all match. The only thing I can figure out is that with the remodeling the whole balcony lobby area was demolished and, perhaps, replaced by upper balcony seating. By the late 40’s and into the 50’s the neighborhood had deteriorated. An upper level lobby where patrons could congregate would not have been a good idea. I spent many hours as an usher in the balcony, not only to check tickets(balcony cost more), but also to keep the area clear of disruptive elements. On weekends, we had an off duty police officer to escort disruptive people out of the theater. Neighborhood gang elements always presented a problem.
DeleteWell, adding extra seating wouldn't have been feasible as the area in question was actually below the slope of the balcony. And the place was way too big anyway! So, I bet it was just walled off -- as you note, the area would have been difficult to police later anyway. Again: I wish we had more photos. Cheers!
DeleteJust for the record and to preserve continuity, I am the author of the comment of December 24, 2022, identified as “Anonymous.” Always glad to bring out any recollections of my days working at the Boulevard from1954 through 1957. Fun and some not so fun times for a young teenager. The building was amazing as it was a maze of corridors, tunnels, basements and various nooks and crannies. Add to this the enormous office spaces of the Fox West Coast Corporation, succeeded by the National General Corporation, whose sole purpose seemed to be the disposal of theater properties for profit. Many fine old theaters disappeared under National General’s aegis. The age of Charles Skouras had ended with his death and this chain of theaters disappeared in relatively short order. However, I did continue working for the company through mid-1962 at the Stadium Theater at Pico and Robertson and subsequently the Culver Theater, now the Kirk Douglas legitimate theater. My relationship with the theater industry then ended with my college graduation and entry into the United States Air Force. Glad to have had the opportunity to be part of an amazing industry. Patrick Howard
DeleteThanks, Patrick!
Delete