Opened: Perhaps 1913. It's in the 1914 through 1922 city directories as the Olympus Theatre. In this 1960 photo we're looking east from Cummings St. with the Joy on the right. Thanks to Noirish Los Angeles contributor Ethereal Reality for spotting the photo on eBay for his Noirish post #25564. Down at the end of the block on the left there's a bit of the Meralta Theatre, 2035 E. 1st.
Architect: George E. Lubin. Thanks to Joe Vogel for the research. He reports: "The Olympus...was most likely the project which the April 26, 1913, issue of Southwest Contractor & Manufacturer described as '…a 2-story brick theater building for M. Minkus at 2014 E. First St., plans by George E. Lubin.' The item went on to note that contracts for the project had been let. Other items noted that the new theater was to have about 800 seats, and the building would be 50x148 feet."
Joe also notes that there had been a 1,200 seat project announced for the site in 1912 that was to be designed by Edward Borgmeyer, something that was evidently abandoned. He adds: "It’s interesting that in 1912 the property was under lease to an outfit called the Boyle Heights Picture Garden Company. That sounds like the name of an airdome theater, though no such business is listed for that address in the city directories for 1910, 1911, 1912, or 1913. This might have been an earlier theater project that also never came to fruition."
Seating: 807
A 1914 ad for the theatre as the Olympus listing R.F. Hale as the proprietor.
Thanks to Jeff Bridges for locating the ad for a post on Flickr. The Olympus listing was just one in a directory ad featuring 30 other
theatres.
Also in the ad was New Lyceum across the street, another house run by Hale. That one was later known as the Meralta Theatre. Another theatre in the neighborhood appearing in the same ad is The Nickelodeon, a house later known as the New Library Theatre, a block farther east at 2129 E. 1st St.
This theatre was still the Olympus in the 1929 city directory. Sometime prior to 1932 it became the Joy Theatre. It's listed that way in the 1932 city directory.
An August 1935 ad for the Joy and the Brooklyn 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 Meralta and the Joy 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 Joy.
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.
Closing: Presumably sometime around 1960.
Status: It's been demolished. On the site now is a post office that was constructed in 1961.
1960 - A detail from Ethereal Reality's photo appearing at the top of the page.
2014 - Looking west on 1st from St. Louis St. The Joy Theatre was once halfway down the block on the left. We don't see the Post Office now on the site in this view as it's set back from the street. That's the Meralta on the right, now a church. Photo: Google Maps
2019 - A view from farther down the block. The Post Office is on the site of the Joy Theatre. The overpass on the far right is the 5. Photo: Google Maps
More Information: See the Cinema Treasures page on the Joy Theatre for some fine research by Joe Vogel.
The saga on Noirish Los Angeles continued after the initial posting of the 1960 photo with C. King on his post #25568 identifying the location and noting that Cummings St. now acts as a a frontage road along the east side of the 5 freeway. Hoss C on his post #25569 added a current street view and suggested that the venue was later used for wrestling matches in the 1950s as the Eastside Arena, a building that was actually located at 3400 E. Pico.
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