Sierra Madre Playhouse

87 W. Sierra Madre Blvd. Sierra Madre, CA 91024 | map |

Opened: February 2, 1924 as the Wistaria Theatre with "The Virginian" starring Kenneth Harlan as the initial film. It's on the north side of the street just east of Auburn Ave. The July 2022 photo appeared as a Facebook post from the Museum of Neon Art taken after restoration of the facade neon.

Architect: Unknown. Ron Pierce notes that the building dates from 1910 according to the county assessor's office. It had been the Burgien Brothers "Furniture and House Furnishing Establishment." The Sierra Madre Playhouse website gives a 1923 opening date but several other dates they have are erroneous.

Seating: 400 was the number in the 1943 Film Daily yearbook where they had the name as "Wisterial," according to Ken Roe. In the 1940 edition it had been listed as closed. In the 1952 edition the capacity given was 390. 

At some point it was seriously downsized to 99 seats so it could qualify for Equity Waiver status. 

Website: sierramadreplayhouse.org

 

A 1930 ad from the Playhouse's collection that appeared in Patt Diroll's 2023 Pasadena Star-News article "Sierra Madre Theatre is all grown up, with 100th year on the horizon." Thanks to April Wright for spotting it. "They Had To See Paris" was a September 1929 release. "South Sea Rose" was out in December 1929.  

Mike Rivest notes that L.A. Times ads for the Wistaria didn't start appearing until 1940. The name is also seen as Wisteria.

The theatre kept the Wistaria name until 1943 when it was renamed the Sierra Madre Theatre. Ken McIntyre found an item in a January 1943 issue of Boxoffice: 

"Harold Stein, owner of the Boulevard Theater here and co-owner of the Ritz in Inglewood, is taking over the Wisteria in Sierra Madre from George Tiderik. Stein will change the name of the showplace to the Sierra Madre." 

Mike Rivest notes that the L.A. Times ads started using the Sierra Madre name in February 1943. Beginning in 1968 it operated as an art house called the Bogart Theatre. Matt Hormann notes that it ran as a film house until 1971.

Status: Since 1980 it's been the Sierra Madre Playhouse, a legit theatre operation. Initially it was a private operation, now it's organized as a non-profit corporation.

 

 

Interior views:

Inside the theatre's original lobby space. Photo: Bill Counter - 2025 

 

Standing at the back of what had once been the seating area, looking down the long corridor toward the entrance to the downsized auditorium. No, the entrance isn't that black portal on the left. It's the unassuming little white door to the right. Photo: Bill Counter - 2025

 

 The vista back toward the street. Photo: Bill Counter - 2025 

 

 

Looking in from the entrance door. The set was for "Flashes of Light," a new musical about the life of Nikola Tesla by Billy Larkin and Ron Boustead. Photo: Bill Counter - May 2025

 

A look down the house left aisle. Thanks to Ben Boquist for sharing this shot as one of seven photos in a 2024 post about the theatre for the private Facebook group Theatre Architecture. 

 

 

The back of the 99 seat house. Photo: Bill Counter - 2025

More exterior views: 

c.1946 - A photo from the Playhouse's collection that appeared in Patt Diroll's 2023 Pasadena Star-News article "Sierra Madre Theatre is all grown up, with 100th year on the horizon." Thanks to April Wright for spotting the story.

2005 - Thanks to Ken Roe for his photo, a post on Cinema Treasures.

2008 - Thanks to Ross Care for this photo, one he's posted on Flickr as "A Treasure of Sierra Madre."

   

2019 - A view west on Sierra Madre Blvd. Photo: Google Maps 

 

 

 

2020 - Thanks to the Pasadena Star-News for this photo. It's one of several dozen theatre marquee views from around the country that appeared with "The clever, funny and hopeful messages of shuttered theatres," a May 18 SF Gate article by Mike Moffitt.  

 

 

c.2020 - A salute to the local firefighters. It's a photo the theatre shared in a 2025 Facebook post.

 

2022 - Thanks to Kevin Fleming for sharing this photo he took in a post on the Southern California Nostalgia private Facebook group. 

 

 

2023 - A view that appeared in a post about the theatre on the Facebook page The Grand Marquee - Magnificent Movie Houses of Yesteryear and Today.  

 

 

2023 - Thanks to Jim Staub for catching this parade view. It's one of 19 shots of the event he shared in a Facebook post.  

2025 - The Eaton fire got within four blocks of the theatre. This image was shared in a January 10 post on the Sierra Madre Playhouse Facebook page. 

 

 

2025 - The show at the Playhouse at the time of this photo was "Flashes of Light," a new musical about the life of Nikola Tesla by Billy Larkin and Ron Boustead that ran from May 25 until June 9. Photo: Bill Counter 

The town of Sierra Madre in the Movies: The film "The Great Man's Lady" with Barbara Stanwyck and Joel McCrea (Paramount, 1942) was filmed in the town. See a c.1946 photo below with the film on the marquee. We see the a lot of Sierra Madre (playing the fictitious Santa Mira) in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (Allied Artists, 1956).

 

Florence Pugh and Cillian Murphy stroll by the Playhouse in Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer" (Universal, 2023). The theatre was standing in for a Berkeley movie house they called the Parkside. The film also stars Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Alden Ehrenreich, Scott Grimes, Jason Clarke, Kenneth Branagh and Tom Conti. Hoyte Van Hoytema was the cinematographer. The production design was by Ruth De Jong. This image is one appearing on IMDb. See the Historic L.A. Theatres in Movies post for four shots taken during the prep and filming.

The Sierra Madre Theatre on TV: 

  
Thanks to Lou Rugani for this 1955 shot. The theatre was running "Pete Kelly's Blues," a July release. The image was a post on Cinema Treasures where Lou comments: "That’s Thomas Mitchell in the photo, doing a scene as a doctor for the TV series 'Screen Directors Playhouse.' He was heading to the one-story art deco building next door, which is still there."

More information: See the Cinema Treasures page about the Sierra Madre Playhouse for all the available data. 

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