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Paradise Theatre

9110 S. Sepulveda Blvd. Westchester (Los Angeles), CA 90045 | map |


Opened: August 23, 1950. "Push Back Seats  RCA Sound  60 Ton Ice Machine." Thanks to Stephen Russo for locating the pre-opening photo for a post on the private Facebook group SoCal Historic Architecture. It used to be in the Los Angeles Public Library collection as their #00036957 but seems to have vanished. There's a similar photo by Ed Braslaff with different cropping and no phone lines in the Library's Herald Examiner collection. 

Part of the complex was a bowling alley and cocktail lounge just south of the theatre. It was a project of Alex and Max Schreiber. The initial theatre operator was Fanchon & Marco's Southside Theatres. The company was owned by Fanchon Simon and her three brothers Marco, Ray and Rube Wolff. The building is on the southeast corner of Westchester Parkway (formerly Will Rogers St.) and Sepulveda Blvd. It's just north of LAX. Its neighbor the Loyola, a Fox West Coast house, had opened in 1946 only a third of a mile north on Sepulveda.



An August 23, 1950 ad. Thanks to Mike Rivest for locating it. 



The opening of the theatre was covered by Boxoffice on page 62 of their August 26, 1950 issue. They mangled Mr. Rogvoy's name a bit.

Seating: 1,314 -- all on a single level

Architects: Arthur Froelich in Los Angeles and Theodore Rogvoy, based in Detroit.



A rendering for the complex by Ted Rogvoy that appeared in Michigan Architect and Engineer. Thanks to Benjamin Gravel for locating it for a post on the SoCal Historic Architecture Facebook group.


The design was given an award as "most beautiful built this year" by Woodbury College. It was featured in "A Trend Toward Shopping Centers," an article in the July 22, 1950 issue of Boxoffice where they noted that "Theatres are following the movement of population away from congested areas." The full article is reproduced at the bottom of the page.

There were no footprints in the forecourt. The gimmick here was that they did a time capsule honoring the award winners each year buried under a plaque for the year in the flagstone flooring of the entrance. The lobby featured a "Wall of Fame" that highlighted Academy Award winners since 1927. In the auditorium, recesses on either side of the proscenium held potted plants. There was a cry room at the rear of the house at main floor level.

Bill Gabel quotes one trade magazine account: 
 
"The front is of fieldstone, brick and glass in the modern California style. Live plants under the canopy give this area an outdoor patio effect. After passing through a mirrored and planted lobby with a curved refreshment stand and a manager’s office at one side, the patron enters a magnificent foyer with pastel walls trimmed in redwood and aquamarine carpeting studded with yellow and beige stars. Special features on the auditorium include a rear crying room and Telesonic Theatrephone hearing aids for the hear of hearing patrons."
 

A January 1951 ad. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating it for a comment on a thread about the theatre on the private Facebook group Photos of Los Angeles.

Michael Hyatt commented on Cinema Treasures: 

"What a wonderful place; the auditorium was wide,...the Cinemascope was really spectacular, and the sound was tremendous. The front of the theater had an unusual spacious, snaking corridor. One entered in front, but it actually lead to the right. Once inside, the auditorium was on the left. And it was big! As I recall the entryway added to the mysterioso of the place, and as a kid of thirteen I had no idea what to expect...

"Certainly, the lazy, open nature of the whole place lent it an air of the movie scene of the fifties, and if one asked I would have said the theater was the perfect example of Southern California at the time, seen on a postcard with a smiling, cartoon sun sipping a mai tai, and wearing dark glasses. It should be mentioned that the theater was located just north of LAX, and the wide unencumbered street of Sepulveda Blvd. with its modern stores then gave it a comfortable jet-setter feel..."

By 1958 Pacific Theatres was operating the Paradise. 

Closing: June 25, 1978. The last chain to operate the theatre was Pacific. After they ditched it, it had a short spell as an independent before closing.

Status: The building still stands but it was gutted in 1978 for office use. It's now sort of a two story mini-mall inside the auditorium.


Interior views:


This look out toward the front doors was featured in an ad for RCA theatre carpeting on page 115 of the October 7, 1950 issue of Boxoffice. The full ad is reproduced at the bottom of the page.



The Paradise snack bar got featured on page 150 of the October 7, 1950 Boxoffice issue in an article about concessions. Their caption: 

"Outstanding among new refreshment stands is that of the Paradise Theatre in Westchester, Calif. Not only is uniform, pleasing overall lighting given the area, but in addition, accenting is carefully provided. Of decorative interest is the contrast in textures between masonry wall, wooden paneling, drapery and growing plants. A Super-Vend coin operated drink machine is shown at the left of the counter."



A look down the curving hall of the lobby toward the panels celebrating Academy Award winners. This hallway was to the right as you entered. Along the hall, the entrances to the auditorium were off to the left. The photo appeared with a story about the theatre in the October 7, 1950 issue of Boxoffice. The full article is at the bottom of the page.



An inner lobby view from page 114 of the October 7, 1950 issue of Boxoffice. We're looking back out toward the outer lobby and snackbar area.  It was part of an ad for Spongex rug padding. The full ad is at the bottom of the page.



A look toward the screen from the cover of the September 2, 1950 issue of Boxoffice.



This view of the rear of the auditorium was included in the October 7, 1950 Boxoffice article.


 More exterior views: 


1950 - A photo appearing with the story about the theatre in the October 7, 1950 issue of Boxoffice.



 
1953 - A look north toward the Paradise -- "Kids Free." The theatre was running "The Happy Time" and "Eight Iron Men." It's a photo by Julius Shulman that's in the collection of the Getty Research Institute. Shulman was out photographing branch offices for Bank of America. This was his Job #1434. Thanks to Noirish Los Angeles contributor Hoss C for digging through the collection to find these photos for his Noirish post #30745.
 

1953 - A detail from the Shulman photo. Bruce Kimmel notes that this double bill opened January 14.


1953 - A view south toward the Paradise. It's a detail from a larger Julius Shulman photo. See the three photos in the Job #1434 set on the website of the Getty Research Institute.  If you'd like to go browsing, the Getty has thousands of photos in their Julius Shulman Photography Archive.



2013 - Paradise re-purposed. Photo: Bill Counter



2019 - Along the north side of the building. Down the alley, we're looking at the back of what had been the theatre and, beyond, the back of the bowling alley building. Photo: Google Maps



2019 - Paradise got a new paint job. Photo: Google Maps


Paradise artifacts: 


Thanks to Noirish Los Angeles contributor Flying Wedge for this photo of the plaque in the office complex giving some of the building's history. It's on Noirish post #30778.



21 of the display panels formerly in the lobby that honored Academy Award winners are now dispersed along the halls of the complex. Photo: Flying Wedge -  Noirish post #30778 - 2012

The Wedge comments: "Here is one of the restored Academy Award plaques; in the top photo, Douglas Shearer is receiving the 1936 Oscar for Sound Recording (for MGM's 'San Francisco') from the self-proclaimed 'Father of Radio' Lee de Forest."



A view of a plaque in the flagstone entrance above one of the buried time capsules honoring the award winners for a particular year. This is above whatever "momentoes" were buried for 1952. Photo: Flying Wedge -  Noirish post #30778 - 2012


The theatre's coverage in Boxoffice:


July 22, 1950



September 2, 1950



October 7, 1950



October 7, 1950 



October 7, 1950


More Information: See the Cinema Treasures page on the Paradise. Cinema Tour has a page that includes three 2003 exterior views. Also on Cinema Tour is a pdf of the August 18, 1950 L.A. Times story "Westchester Theater Will Open Wednesday."

See Sam Gnerre's 2019 South Bay Daily Breeze article "The Paradise becomes Westchester's second theater on Sepulveda."

A 1963 aerial view from Loyola Marymount University appears on Flying Wedge's Noirish Los Angeles post #13248. California Pete has a 2009 photo of the building on Flickr. Ken McIntyre posted a 2020 photo of the theatre on the Photos of Los Angeles private Facebook group where a number of other items and comments were added to the thread.

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