Brooklyn Theatre

2524 E. Cesar E. Chavez Ave. Boyle Heights (Los Angeles), CA 90033 | map |

Opened: December 24, 1925.  It was initially a West Coast Theatres operation. The location was on the south side of the street a block and a half east of Soto St. What is now Cezar Chavez Ave. was called Brooklyn Ave. when the theatre was operating.

The June 29, 1926 photo from the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum in the City of Industry appears with "Brooklyn Theatre's Mysterious Bombing, 1926," a post by Paul R. Spitzzeri on the Boyle Heights History Blog. On the marquee: "Brooklyn Heights Improvement Ass'n Show." The film "Welcome Stranger" was an August 1924 release.

Five explosions had rocked the neighborhood in the early morning hours. When the firemen arrived to investigate the fires inside the theatre, one discovered a lit fuse connected to 43 sticks of dynamite. He cut the fuse and the theatre was spared further damage. An additional 163 sticks of dynamite were later discovered. The main suspect was William Graham, a man who had a candy store and bakery in the building. Evidently he had been feuding with neighboring business people. The other suspect was never located. Graham was eventually acquitted without any determination as to who was really responsible.

Seating: 900

Architect: Lewis A. Smith. Robert E. Power Studios was the decorator.

A card in the Los Angeles Public Library's California Index has data from the January 30, 1925 issue of Southwest Builder & Contractor: "Class C theatre building -- L.A. Smith...is preparing plans for 2-story and part basement class C theater, store, office and apartment building on Brooklyn Ave. near Fickett St. for Lazar & Son; to seat 900; 2 stores, 2 offices..." An item in the February 13 issue of SB&C added that it was to be of brick construction with a cost of $50,000. 

 

 

An August 1935 ad for the Brooklyn and the Joy Theatre from the Eastside Journal. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating this for a post on the Photos of Los Angeles Facebook page. 

 

 

An August 1938 ad for the Wabash, Brooklyn and National that Ken McIntyre spotted in the Eastside Journal. It was another post on Photos of Los Angeles.  

 

Additional inducements to go to the movies. The Eastside Journal ad was included by Ken McIntyre in his Photos of Los Angeles post of 1938 ads.

 

 

By 1942 Eastland Theatres was running the Brooklyn. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating these April 1942 listings from the L.A. Times. He added them as a comment to his post of the August 1935 ad. 

The 1949 Film Daily Yearbook lists Eastland as being operated by Harry Popkin, Peter Lasher, Ray H. Robbins, Harry Goldfarb, Isadore Berman and Jack Y. Berman. The list of their houses that year:  Brooklyn, Crystal, Jewel, Joy, Meralta, National, Vern, Terrace and Wabash in East L.A. as well as the Linda and Largo in Watts. Some of these had been operated earlier by Southern California Amusement, a company run by Harry Vinnicof and Jack Berman. See the Congress page for a bit more about Vinnicof. 

Bill Gabel notes that the theatre was later operated by Statewide Theatres, Century Cinemas and Metropolitan Theatres.

Closing: The Brooklyn closed in 1989. 

Status: After a spell as a swap meet called La Barata it was bought and closed in 1996 by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority. They demolished it in 1998. It was intended to be the site of a subway station that never materialized. The land is still owned by the LACMTA.

An interior view:

This photo appeared in the December 28, 1929 issue of Motion Picture News. It's on Internet Archive. The page was a photo spread featuring Fox West Coast theatres that had been decorated by Robert E. Power Studios. Section Two of that issue was the "Theatre Building and Equipment Buyers Guide," also featuring photos of many other theatres.


More exterior views:

c.1967 - A strange double bill: "El Cid" and "A Man and a Woman." In Spanish. Thanks to Sean Ault for finding this photo.

1983 - A view from the now-vanished American Classic Images website.

1987 - A Leo Jarzomb photo in the Herald Examiner collection of the Los Angeles Public Library.

2019 - Looking east at the vacant lot where the theatre had been. Photo: Google Maps

 

The Brooklyn in the Movies:

Looking south on Fickett St. toward Cesar Chavez Ave. in a shot from Joel Schumacher's "Falling Down" (Warner Bros., 1993) with Michael Douglas. Thanks to Craig Bryan for the screenshot. Here the theatre building is being used as a swapmeet called the La Barata. Craig has a Scenepast Facebook page where he uses screenshots for "then and now" comparisons. You can also get the Scenepast app on the iTunes store.

More Information: See the Cinema Treasures page on the Brooklyn for lots of memories of a great neighborhood movie house.

Another Brooklyn: The National Theatre was called the Brooklyn when it opened at 2229 Brooklyn Ave. around 1914.

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