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Terrace Theatre

3945 City Terrace Dr. City Terrace (L.A. County), CA 90063 | map |


Opened: March 26, 1942 as the Terrace Theatre. The pre-opening photo by Julius Shulman appears with 400 of his other works on the auction site Artnet. Also see a page with this specific photo. The theatre was on the north side of the street just west of Hazard Ave.

Architect: Unknown

Seating: 811 was the capacity listed in the 1950 Film Daily Yearbook, according to Bill Gabel.



The March 26 opening day ad. Thanks to Mike Rivest for locating it. Visit his site: Movie-Theatre.org
 
 
 
In the 40s Eastland Theatres was running the Terrace. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating these April 1942 listings from the L.A. Times. He added this as a comment to a post of some 1935 East L.A. theatre ads on the Photos of Los Angeles Facebook page.   
 
 

"District's Newest Theater." It's a December 26, 1945 ad from the Eastside Journal. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for posting this as well as other East L.A. theatre ads from that day's paper on Photos of Los Angeles.

George A. Verdin notes that by 1957 the theatre was being operated by Aladdin Enterprises. 

Closing: 1963. It's not in the July 1963 telephone directory.

Status: It's been demolished. There's now a church on the site.


Interior views: 


A 1942 look to the rear of the house by Julius Shulman. Note the cry rooms upstairs. 



A detail of the mural on the side wall from Shulman's photo. Three wise men sitting on a rock?



An award presentation of some sort giving us a look at the curtain fabric. It's another 1942 Julius Shulman photo.

These two Shulman photos plus an exterior view of the Savoy Theatre on S. Central Ave. are lumped together as Shulman's "Job Lee-T: Savoy Theatre, Terrace Theatre, 1942." Perhaps the Lee in the title indicates S. Charles Lee was the designer of the Terrace and, as well, having the Savoy scoped out for a remodel project. Thanks to Noirish Los Angeles contributor Hoss C for finding the photos on the Getty site for his Noirish post #37256.


More exterior views:


1963 - An Alan Weeks photo in the collection of the Pacific Electric Railway Historical Society.



1963 - A detail from the Alan Weeks photo. The Terrace was running "Gigot," a November 1962 release with Jackie Gleason along with "A Child Is Waiting," a January 1963 release with Burt Lancaster.



2019 - The church now on the site. Photo: Google Maps

More information: See the Cinema Treasures page on the City Terrace for lots of data. 

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