Los Angeles Theatres: Vogue Theatre

735 S. Brand Blvd. Glendale, CA 91204 | map |

Opening: November 11, 1941. The Vogue was on the west side of the street just north of Windsor Rd. That's three blocks north of Chevy Chase Dr.

In this 1949 view north on Brand the theatre was running "Anna Lucasta," a July release with Paulette Goddard along with "The Great Sinner," a June release with Ava Gardner and Gregory Peck. Bruce Kimmel notes that this program played for one week beginning September 15.

The image is a cropped version of a photo from the Alan Weeks collection appearing on the website of the Pacific Electric Railway Historical Society. A version also appears on Flickr from the Metro Library and Archive. It's also on the Cinema Tour page about the theatre from the Gordon Bachlund collection as well as on an "Early Views of Glendale" W&PA Museum page.

The November 11, 1941 opening day ad. Thanks to Mike Rivest for locating it.

The Vogue was built for Grover Smith, who also operated the Cosmo Theatre across the street, as well as the Roxy Theatre at 417 N. Brand, the Atwater Theatre in Atwater Village and the York Theatre in Highland Park.

A photo of Smith that appeared with an April 11, 1940 San Fernando Valley Times article about construction beginning on the Atwater Theatre. Thanks to Ron Strong for locating the article. Visit his fine Bijou Memories site for tales of theatres he used to visit in Burbank and Glendale.

Architect: Paul Hartman, who also designed the Atwater Theatre. Thanks to Joe Vogel for the research. He notes:

"The architect of the Vogue was Paul Hartman, according to the announcement (in Southwest Builder and Contractor of July 11th, 1941), that he had begun the working drawings for the theater. There were to be 900 seats, and the cost was given as $30,000. The owner was John W. Lawson, the theatre was to be leased to Grover L. Smith, and the contractor was to be John T. Bibb. The address (before construction) was given as 733 S. Brand Boulevard."

Seating: 735 was a later number, presumably from a Film Daily Yearbook.

Another November 1941 ad for the Vogue's opening bill along with listings for the three other theatres operated by Grover Smith. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating it.

A December 1941 ad looking for tenants for the retail spaces. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for spotting this for a thread about the theatre on the Photos of Los Angeles private Facebook group.

A 1948 listing for the Vogue and Smith's other theatres spotted by Ken McIntyre.

Closing: 1955 or so. It's still listed in the 1955 Glendale city directory. Joe Vogel comments:

"The L.A. County Assessor’s report says that the building at this address was built in 1941, with an effective build date of 1955 (which would thus probably be the year the building was converted to another use)."

Status: It's been remodeled into a building for a Nissan dealership.

The remodeled building in 2010. Thanks to Deanna Bayless for her photo.

The closed building in 2019. Photo: Google Maps

3 comments:

Bijou MemoriesJuly 8, 2022 at 5:48 PM
The final date of operation for the Vogue seems to have been April 20th, 1955
This was the last newspaper listing for this ol' theatre.
It had just changed it's program to "Kiss Me Kate" and "Valley of the Kings".
No record if this single play date actually took place.