Alpine / Carmen / Kim Sing Theatre

722 N. Figueroa St. Los Angeles, CA 90012  | map |

The news: Redevelopment is planned for the site with the theatre facade preserved and a new seven-story mixed-use building to rise behind.

Thanks to L.A. Magazine senior editor Chris Nichols for spotting "Apartments + retail planned at 718 N. Figueroa Street in Chinatown," Steven Sharp's August 7, 2024 story for Urbanize. Steven notes: 

"Indra & Company, the owner of the property, has proposed the new construction of a seven-story building featuring 77 studio, one-, and two-bedroom apartments with approximately 10,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space and parking for 53 vehicles....

"LOHA is designing the proposed development, which would retain the exterior of the existing Kim Sing Theatre as its ground floor facade. A rendering shows a modulated design for the project, with upper level terraces creating private and common decks for residents."

Opened: The theatre opened in 1925 as the Alpine Theatre, a neighborhood film house. It's on the southeast corner of Figueroa and Alpine St. It's in the 1926 city directory at 826 Alpine. Some years it was listed as at 834 Alpine. Photo: Kim Sing Facebook page

Website: kimsingtheatre.com

Seating: The original count was around 500. 410 is a number that appeared in a later Film Daily Yearbook.

 

 

Already in trouble with the building up for auction in February 1926.  Note the theatre's entrance on the far left edge of the image. Initially the corner space was used for a retail tenant. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating this as well as other items appearing here for a Facebook thread about the theatre on Ken's Movie Page. 

 

Whoever was running the Alpine in October 1929 had a good lease but was trying to sell his business. Ken found it listed in a column of business opportunities along with a few other theatres.

Joe Vogel found an item in the February 29, 1936 issue of Motion Picture Herald mentioning that the theatre, which had been closed, would be reopened by D.F. Lyon. 

 

 An "Arabic talking-singing production" advertised in August 1936.

It's still listed as the Alpine as late as 1938. Beginning with the 1939 directory it's listed as the Carmen Theatre at 722 N. Figueroa.

 

"L-U-C-K." A December 1941 ad located by Ken McIntyre shows the theatre being run, or at least booked and advertised, by the same operator as the Lux, the Union, and the Kinema.

 

 

"Two Glorious Operatic Hits...Together." It's a November 19, 1948 as in the paper L'Italo Americano di Los Angeles. Thanks to Gerald DeLuca for the research. This and three other 1948 and 1949 ads from that paper appear on Cinema Treasures.

 

"Elixir of Love" playing in January 1949. And you certainly wouldn't have wanted to miss that Vatican-approved short. Thanks for locating this, Ken!

An item in the September 2, 1950 issue of Boxoffice located by Ken McIntyre noted: 

"For various reasons, more showhouses in the southland have shuttered, mostly temporarily...The Carmen on north Figueroa will be dark for a few weeks while it is being renovated and while owner Harvey Thedium is away on a vacation trip..."

In the 70s and 80s as the Kim Sing it showed Chinese films with English subtitles, many from Hong Kong and lots from the Shaw Brothers. This part of the neighborhood didn't have a substantial Chinese population until the 1960s.

 

 

An August 1974 listing in the Times. "Gossip Street" was the Chinese film originally titled "Duo ju jie."

 

A 1984 ad for the Chinese language houses in town that appeared in the Mandarine Commercial News. See the pages for the Sing Lee/King Hing, Pagoda/Cinemaland, Kuo-Hwa/San Gabriel, Monterey and Garfield theaters. Thanks to Ron Strong for sharing the ad. Visit his Bijou Memories site for many articles about the theatres in the area he once attended. 

 

An April 1987 listing in the Times that was spotted by Ken McIntyre. 

 Closing as a film house: The date is unknown. It was still running in December 1987.

Willard Ford, son of Harrison, purchased the building in 1999. The exterior and its neon got a restoration around 2005. The theatre spaces were converted at that time by XTen Architects into an events center, showroom and residence for the furniture and fashion interests of Ford. His company, Flagship, was headquartered there. The residential portion of the space was a 3,500 s.f. two story area with three-bedrooms and four baths. The former auditorium space was hosting exhibitions, commercial events and parties. At the time, one of the four Figueroa side storefronts was a gym, Strong Sports.

The building's exterior and marquee has been declared a City of Los Angeles Cultural-Historic Landmark. In 2014 it was on the market again. "Buy Chinatown's 1926 Live/Work Kim Sing Theatre for $4.5 MM" was Bianca Barragan's March 2014 story for Curbed L.A. The article once had lots of photos, now vanished from their site.

Status: Since 2017 it's continued as an events space but also available for rent as a hotel. A July 2017 Curbed L.A. story by Jenna Chandler titled "Kim Sing Theater: Old Vaudeville House in Chinatown Reopening as Small Hotel" noted that you could book it for a nightly rate of $1,199 for up to 10 guests.

The new owner of the building, Ash Pathi, founder of the real estate firm Indra & Company, calls it a "micro hotel." Thanks to Sandi Hemmerlein for spotting the Curbed story and sharing it on the LAHTF Facebook page. 

 

Auditorium views: 

 

A c.1999 look to the screen before the auditorium was gutted. It's from a 2013 episode of the HGTV show "You Live in What?" that featured the remodel of the theatre building. The episode is on Vimeo. 

The theatre had been profiled before in a June 2007 episode of HGTV's "What's With That House?"

 

A view of the rear of the house from "You Live in What?"

 

 

A closer look at the off-center projection booth. 

 

The gutted auditorium during Willard Ford's remodel project. Thanks to Ron Strong for these screenshots from the program "You Live in What?"

 
Post-remodel courtyard views:

A 2011 courtyard photo from Chelsea M. on Yelp.

A courtyard photo that appeared with a March 2014 Curbed L.A. story. Those are the store spaces fronting on Figueroa over on the right.

A 2020 photo of the courtyard from the Kim Sing Facebook page.  

Post-remodel interior views:

A shot of the former auditorium space that appeared with a March 2014 Curbed L.A. story.

A 2012 photo from Chelsea M. on Yelp.

Another 2011 photo from Chelsea M. on Yelp. We're looking back to where the booth had been.

Yet another 2011 view from Chelsea M. on Yelp. Their page has 90 photos to browse.

A 2017 view from Indra & Company appearing on on Curbed L.A. 

More exterior views: 

1982 - A photo that appeared on the now-vanished American Classic Images website.

 

c.1990 - A look at the theatre from the Los Angeles Public Library collection.

 

1990s - A marquee detail appearing in a 2013 episode of the HGTV show "You Live in What?" that was about the remodel of the theatre. It's on Vimeo. Thanks to Ron Strong for the screenshot. 

2002 - Thanks to Elizabeth Uyeda for this photo, one of two on a 2011 post on the site Chinese Historical Society of Southern California. Included on the post are the recollections of many filmgoers who frequented the Kim Sing. 

2002 - Another view by Elizabeth Uyeda. She notes that at the time of her photos that the building had already been sold and work had begun stripping out the interior.

c.2005 - A lovely look at the neon by Martin that once appeared on his now-vanished site You-Are-Here.com.

c.2005 - Another photo by Martin from You Are Here. Thanks!

2009 - A look south on Figueroa. Photo: Google Maps

c.2012 - Thanks to Ken McIntyre for sharing this one on a 2012 post on the Photos of Los Angeles Facebook page.

2017 - A photo by Juwan Li for Indra & Company. It appeared with a 2017 article on Curbed L.A.

2020 - A mid-pandemic view. Photo: Bill Counter

2020 - A wider look at the building. Photo: Bill Counter

More Information: See the Cinema Treasures page on the Kim Sing for research by Joe Vogel and other contributors. A blog post on Los Angeles Revisited has many comments about moviegoing at the Kim Sing.

An L.A. Times story (with photos) about the Kim Sing Theatre, "Reel Living," appeared in the October 1, 2006, issue of their magazine "West."

The Carmen Theatre was one site of altercations in the 1943 Zoot Suit Riots. Thanks to David Zornig for finding a page on the Zinn Education Project site that mentions the theatre.

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