Los Angeles Theatres: Cameo Theatre

4907 Huntington Dr. North El Sereno (Los Angeles), CA 90032 | map |

Opened: 1924. It's in the 1925 and 1926 L.A. city directories as the Cameo Theatre. The building is on the north side of the street between Castalia Ave. and Rosemead Ave. Thanks to the El Sereno Historical Society for the 1954 photo. It made an appearance in a 2019 post on the El Sereno Historical Society Facebook page with several other views and the ad below. Thanks to Jason Vega for spotting it. It's also on the society's website.

Architect: J.T. Payne designed the building. A card in the Los Angeles Public Library's California Index has data from the January 4, 1924 issue of Southwest Builder & Contractor: "A.S. O'Neill...has the contract to erect a two story theater, office and store building on Huntington Drive for M. Gates. J. T. Payne, architect...cost $35,000."

Seating: The capacity was given as 750 in the 1941 Film Daily Yearbook, according to Ken Roe.

A 1926 ad from the collection of the El Sereno Historical Society. J. Paul Swickard, who was running the theatre at the time, later had the Strand Theatre on Whittier Blvd.

An article from March 1929. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating this and the four items below for a post on the Photos of Los Angeles private Facebook group.

The ad for the week the Cameo went talkie: March 30 - April 5, 1929.

The theatre was an early acquisition of the Edwards circuit, perhaps around 1930.

In 1963 the Cameo was acquired by Julius Balkom. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating this.

A newspaper report in 1963 after the first week of operation of the "New" Cameo.

New equipment in 1964. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating this article and the ad below for a post on Photos of Los Angeles.

A 1964 ad for "My Fair Lady." The roadshow engagement had been at the Egyptian.

By the time of this 1970 listing it was being called the El Cameo. Perhaps they were running dubbed or subtitled prints.

Malcolm Hardy notes that in March 1974 his company, Century Theatres, Inc., bought the building from Julius Balkom. They dropped the "El" from the name and went back to the original "Cameo" and weren't running any Spanish language product while he had it. He comments:

"We ran a film called 'Snuff.' It opened to about 20 people on a Wednesday opening, and about 6 on the Thursday. On the Friday a local church (I think it was a church) started a protest about the film, they first parked a big truck outside to block the marquee. We had it removed because it was in a red zone, then they protested. We were on TV (live) for the next 5 days. We sold out both evening performances. Great publicity!! Biggest gross the theatre ever made."

He had started the company by taking over the Rivoli in Long Beach in 1973 and soon also had the Reseda Theatre, the Wardman (now known as the Whittier Village Cinemas), the Whittier Theatre, the Whittwood, and the Cove in Hermosa. Jim Lytel was his district manager.

Century Theatres also operated the Rialto and Highland Twin in San Bernardino, the Pismo Theatre in Pismo Beach, the San Luis Obispo Drive-In, the Town in Gilroy and the Mt. Burney Theatre in Burney. Malcolm:

"I was 28 years old when I started. It was great fun and I ran a top-notch operation. A number of theatres had first run product, we spent money of Dolby Sound, redecoration, new seats, new projection and platters. Our offices were in the 9000 building on Sunset. I operated the company for 18 years. Then came the building of the multiplex theatres! I just never had the money or the investors to get into the multiplex business. I then went to work for United Artists as manager of the Metro San Francisco, and later as district manager for Tom Moyer in Oregon, which was taken over by Act III Theatres."

Malcolm Hardy's Century firm shouldn't be confused with the mid-1970s Century Cinema Circuit headed by Fred and Robert Stein that was also operating in the LA area.

A 1977 ad for a morning rental at the theatre that was located by Ken McIntyre.

Closing: Malcolm Hardy notes that they ran the Cameo until around 1989. Century Theatres leased the building to a retailer for about four years and then did a sale to them. As Malcolm notes: "Single screens had little future…."

Status: It's now a 99 cent store. There's nothing of the original decor to see inside. But above the dropped ceiling, who knows?

1971 - The theatre as the El Cameo running "The Incredible Two Headed Transplant" and "Destroy All Monsters." The photo appears on the website for the El Sereno Historical Society where they credit it to the now-defunct site Lincoln HeightsLA.com. It was also a 2013 post on the ESHS Facebook page.