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.

Seating: 900 

 

Pipe Organ: It opened with a four-rank "Style B" Wurlitzer.

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..." 

 

 

A February 15, 1925 article located by Ken McIntyre.  

 

An item in the February 13, 1925 issue of Southwest Builder & Contractor added that it was to be of brick construction with a cost of $50,000. The theatre opened December 24, 1925. 

 

Five explosions rocked the neighborhood in the early morning hours of June 17, 1926. 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. 

 

 

A June 17, 1926 photo from the Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum in the City of Industry that 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. 

The image above is a cropped version of a photo that appeared as part of the coverage in a June 17 Extra from the Los Angeles Record:  

In the upper left it's a photo of the Masonic Lodge that occupied the building's 2nd floor. On the right is a view of the projection booth and manager's office. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for finding the Record's coverage. At the lower center it's a shot of some of the dynamite they found. 

 

Photos from the L.A. Times on June 18 that were located by Ken McIntyre. The caption: 

"Building Ruined in Series of Early Morning Explosions - A photographic story of the bombing of the Brooklyn Theater. Left —Exterior of the partially wrecked playhouse. Center—An outside view of the demolished sidewall. Right—Officer O.D. Washburn getting an idea of the damage inside. Inset—William Graham, held by police in connection with the blast. His right name is said to be Graczefsky. [Times Photos]"

Also see Part One and Part Two of the June 18 Times article "Hunt Theatre Dynamiter" and "New Clew in Dynamiting" from June 19 and the June 22 story "Dynamiting Complaints Accuse Two." 

Despite the Times declaring that the building was a total loss, the damage was repaired and the theatre reopened in 1927. 

 

  Ken McIntyre found this item about a June 1927 ceremony honoring Fire Chief Scott. 

 

 

Ukranian basso profundo Glib Chandrowsky appears in December 1927. Ken McIntyre located the item.  

 

 

A 'plucky girl cashier" sent a robber running in August 1932. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for the story.    

 

 

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 private Facebook group. 

 

 

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

 

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. 

In December 1938 they were running film of a Boyle Heights Anti-Nazi Parade. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating the ad. In November over 10,000 people had marched on Brooklyn Ave. following Kristallnacht to protest Hitler's actions. See "The Anti-Nazi Parade, Boyle Heights" on the site Barrio Boychik. 

 

 

A Yiddish film with Molly Picon playing in May 1939. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for spotting the ad.  

 

 

More Yiddish programming in November 1940. It's another ad located by Ken McIntyre.  

 

 

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.  

 

A January 1960 listing in the Times with the Brooklyn still being operated by Eastland Theatres. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating this. Bill Gabel notes that the theatre was later operated by Statewide Theatres and Century Cinemas.

 

Running Spanish language product as a Metropolitan Theatres house in a December 1970 listing located by Ken.  

 

 

Playing "The Sting" in September 1974. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for the ad.  

 

 

Running action product in an August 1976 listing that Ken located.   

 

 

The last ad in the Times that Ken McIntyre could locate was this one for "Jungle Book" that appeared on August 2, 1984.   

Closing: The Brooklyn closed in 1989. At the end it was once again running Spanish language product.  

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. 

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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