Mayfair Theatre

8734 S. Broadway Los Angeles, CA 90003 | map |

Opened: Around 1932. The building is on the east side of the street two and a half blocks south of Manchester. No, that large white building on the left up at Manchester wasn't a theatre but a smaller building this side of it was the AAA Theatre. Photo: Google Maps - 2020

Seating: 900

Architect: The original architect is unknown. The city gives a 1932 date for the building's construction. Paul Williams designed a 1944 renovation.

 

A July 1936 ad located by Ken McIntyre. 

By 1940 it was being operated by Fanchon & Marco's Southside Theatres chain. 

 

A January 1948 ad in the Southwest Wave. It's one located by Ken McIntyre for a post of South Central theatre ads on the Photos of Los Angeles Facebook page.

Closing: Sometime in the 1950s.

Status: It's been a church since the late 1950s. The New Temple Missionary Baptist Church has had the building since the 1960s.  

The Mayfair in the Movies: The theatre, then the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church, was the location for the 1972 shoot by Sydney Pollack of what ended up as the Aretha Franklin documentary "Amazing Grace." It was originally intended for a 1972 release by Warner Bros. but never finished. Alan Elliott was given Pollack's blessing to finish the film and in 2007, after Pollack's death, he acquired the footage that Pollack had shot, with unsynchronized sound.

Elliott finished the film but Franklin never wanted the footage released and sued to block a private showing in 2011 and public screenings at the Telluride Festival in 2015 and other locations in 2016. After Franklin's death her family came to an agreement with Elliott to allow him to do a release in 2019. The premiere was at the church.

The interior of the former Mayfair Theatre before the March 31 premiere of "Amazing Grace." It's a photo by Tim Greiving appearing with "Aretha Franklin's 'Amazing Grace' Gets LA Premiere In The Church Where It Took Place," an April 2019 article by Mr. Greiving on the NPR website. Thanks to Donavan S. Moye for spotting the story. Wikipedia also has a story about the film.


More exterior views:

2007 - Thanks to Bob Meza for this shot. It appears on the Cinema Tour page about the Mayfair. It's unknown if Paul Williams would have approved of that facade treatment. 

2007 - A photo by renowned theatre sleuth Ken McIntyre. 

2015 - A fine view of the deco terrazzo. Thanks to Laurie Avocado for sharing her photo as a post on Cinema Treasures.

2019 - The side of the building. Photo: Google Maps

More information: See the Cinema Treasures page about the Mayfair. The Cinema Tour site also has a page on the theatre.

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