Los Angeles Theatres: DeLuxe / California / Fox Compton / Compton Theatre

136 E. Compton Blvd. Compton, CA 90220 | map |

The first of two buildings on the site:

Opening: The first theatre on the site was running by 1914. The opening date is unknown. It's listed as the DeLuxe Theatre at 224 E. Main St. in the 1914-15 Watts city directory. They gave it a 240 E. Main address in the 1922-23 Watts-Compton city directory.

Ken McIntyre notes that the L.A. Times in 1924 was carrying ads for the California Theatre in Compton. In the 1925 Watts directory it gets listed as the California with the 240 E. Main address. Evidently it got renamed the Compton Theatre after the 1925 directory was compiled.

The Compton Theatre, with a sign protruding from the facade, is seen just this side of the funeral directors building. It's a c.1925 parade on Main St., now called Compton Blvd. The image is a detail from a photo in the Cal State Dominguez Hills collection.

Neel & Towne, the funeral directors advertised just beyond the theatre, show up at a number of different addresses. The building there is evidently the IOOF Building, 234 E. Main. At one point they were located there. The Neel Furniture Co. that's in the building is listed in the 1922-23 city directory as at 238 E. Main. That puts the theatre at 240, thus it's the same theatre earlier named the DeLuxe and the California.

A slightly wider Main St. view on a postcard. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating this for a post on the Photos of Los Angeles Facebook page.

In 1925 the Symphony Theatre in Compton was hosting a live show one evening performed by alumni from a local high school. Following a description of the show they noted: "For those wishing to see a motion picture on this evening there will be Hoot Gibson in "Spook Ranch" at Compton Theatre on E. Main."

A 1926 ad for the Compton and the nearby Symphony Theatre. The Symphony is the only theatre listed for Compton in the 1927-28 Watts-Compton city directory.

The demise: It closed as a result of the 1933 Long Beach Earthquake.

The second Compton Theatre:

Opening: 1934, initially as an independent operation. It was on the south side of the street a half block east of the Pacific Electric (now Metro) tracks.

Architect: William Allen. Thanks to Joe Vogel for the research. He notes that the January 20, 1934 issue of Pacific Constructor had an item about the project:

"PREPARING PLANS. COMPTON, Los Angeles Co., Cal. – W. Allen, 1008 Washington Bldg., Los Angeles, is preparing plans for a theater building to be built at 134 East Compton Blvd., Compton, for August Frankl, Sunset Theatres Co., lessee. The structure will have a seating capacity of 800 and will contain stores and offices. Reinforced concrete construction, composition roofing, concrete floors, structural steel, plate glass, etc."

Joe comments:

"The architect W. Allen was probably William Allen, who was active during this period. He designed a number of civic buildings for the nearby city of South Gate, and the Streamline/Deco Burbank City Hall, probably his best known work, in partnership with architect W. George Lutzi. I haven’t been able to determine if the partnership had been formed by 1934."

Nathan Marsak added:

"A heretofore unknown William Allen? Cool. He had mostly done Hollywood apartment buildings before this (the Marcelle, the Mayfair, the Lido) and got into small housing by the late 30s; I think the first Allen & Lutzi project was South Gate Civic Center plan in ‘42, and the Burbank City Hall around the same time of course.

"Then they did Rodger Young Village, and a bunch of fire stations, and medical buildings through the 50s until their modernist masterpieces like the Alhambra City Hall, civic buildings in Norwalk and Montebello, through the 60s. No idea about the theater. Even did the superior court County bldg in Compton in '78, which is a stone’s throw from the old Compton Theater."

Seating: 618 was the number listed in the 1935 and 1944 Film Daily Yearbooks. Joe Vogel notes that the earlier listing was just as the Compton, perhaps not yet part of the Fox circuit.

It's listed as the Fox Compton in the 1940 city directory, as just the Compton in 1949. It's unknown when Fox West Coast stopped operating the theatre.

There was sale or lease to a new company called Allied Theatres in 1962. Thanks to Mark Brandl for locating this article in the May 15 issue of the Lynwood Press. The story, while about the Arden Theatre in Lynwood, also mentions the Compton as an earlier acquisition:

Another Allied acquisition mentioned, the Vogue in South Gate, was a design by S. Charles Lee. It's not known how Allied fared with their various acquisitions or how long they stayed in business.

Closing: The date is unknown. It was obviously still running in 1962.

Status: It's been demolished, along with almost every other vintage building in downtown Compton. The site is now part of a parking lot for a huge strip mall. The town has no movie theatres.

1953 - You can get coffee mugs, mouse pads and more with a photo of the Fox Compton running "White Witch Doctor" starring Robert Mitchum. If any of those items are something you'd like, head to the site Happy Days in Southern California.

1955 - A postcard view looking east on Compton Blvd. toward the Fox Compton. The cross street in the foreground is Willowbrook Ave. They were running "Rage At Dawn," a March release. Thanks to Michael Phillips for posting the card on the Photos of Los Angeles private Facebook group. He notes:

"The Pacific Electric tracks can be seen faintly in the foreground...still there only it is now called the Metro Blue Line. The Compton station for the Blue Line is out of sight to the left and it occupies the site of the original PE station/ Southern Pacific freight station. Nearly every one of the buildings are long gone."

c.1980 - The theatre after closing. Thanks to Nathan Marsak for the photo. It's one of four photos in his Compton Theatre set on Flickr.

c.1980 - A look deeper into the entrance. It's another photo from Nathan Marsak's Compton Theatre set on Flickr.

Los Angeles Theatres

DeLuxe / California / Fox Compton / Compton Theatre

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