Los Angeles Theatres: City Hall Theatre

9770 Culver Blvd. Culver City, CA 90232 | map |

Opened: Culver City's first purpose-built City Hall opened in 1928 at the corner of Culver Blvd. and Duquesne Ave. This construction view is from the Los Angeles Public Library collection.

Architect: Orville L. Clark, who also designed the Washington Building, opposite the City Hall site on the north side of Culver Blvd.

The second-floor auditorium was used as a commercial movie theatre beginning in 1943 following an August fire that year which destroyed the town's only theatre, the Meralta. Mike Rosenberg's firm Principal Theatres, Inc. had been the lessee at the Meralta when it burned. He had been running it in conjunction with Fox West Coast.

The area needed entertainment for military personnel and defense plant workers during the war so a lease deal was struck with the City. After installing a projection booth, the venue opened as the Meralta Theatre, carrying over the name from the pre-fire location.

It wasn't the first time in Culver City history that the City Hall and a movie theatre shared a building. The Culver City Theatre, opened in 1915, was on the ground floor of a building on that had the City offices on the upper floor. The Culver Hotel is now on the site of that building.

Mike Rosenberg decided to rename the new location the City Hall Theatre when it became evident that the Meralta was going to get a rebuild --and keep its name. It's unlikely anyone had it all figured out after reading this January 1945 article from the Culver City Evening Star-News:

Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating the article. Read it carefully. Ken notes that there will be a quiz. Note that Rosenberg was promising a new theatre "as soon as priorities are available," whatever that meant. The new theatre, the Culver, would open in August 1947.

A February 15, 1945 ad for the City Hall Theatre from the Culver City Evening Star-News. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating it.

An April 1945 ad located by Ken McIntyre for a Facebook post on Ken's Movie Page.

The Meralta Theatre got its rebuild and reopened later in 1945. But neither Principal Theatres nor Fox West Coast were then involved in the operation. It was run by Pearl Merrill and Laura Peralta, the team that had built the first Meralta on that site in 1923. Earlier they had run the first theatre in town, located on Main St.

They were calling it the Culver City Theatre at the time of this 1947 ad in the Evening Star-News for Roberto Rossellini's "Open City." The film was available in rthe U.S. Beginning in February 1946.

A 1947 ad for the venue as the Fox Culver Theatre. It was a week of revivals. "Magnificent Obsession" was a 1935 release. "100 Men and a Girl" was from 1937. Thanks to Ken McIntyre locating this for a post on the Photos of Los Angeles Facebook page.

A March 1947 ad located by Ken McIntyre in the Culver City Evening Star-News.

Closing: Presumably they ran the City Hall location until August 1947 when the new Culver Theatre opened, a block away on Washington Blvd.

Status: The 1928 building was demolished in 1995 and replaced with a new City Hall building. The booth that had been installed in the auditorium in 1943 remained until the demolition.

A 1930s view from "Getting Ready to Mark History," a 2019 article by Julie Lugo Cerra on the Culver City Historical Society website.

Parking a horse. Thanks to Sandi Hemmerlein for locating this photo, one she included as a comment to her Facebook post about the City Hall replica facade.

Laurel and Hardy evidently did a shoot in front. Thanks to Mike Hume for the photo.

This 1950s photo appears on "Historic Site #1: 1928 City Hall," a page about the building from the Culver City Historical Society.

All that's left of the 1928 City Hall at Culver & Duquesne. It's a 3/4 size reconstruction with the Heritage Park behind it occupying the demolished building's footprint. The new City Hall is beyond. If you were to turn around 180 degrees, you'd be looking at the back of the Culver Theatre. Photo: Bill Counter - 2011

The replica facade is stop #16 on walking tour #1 outlined in an Art in Public Places PDF from City's website CulverCity.org.

More information: See the other pages about Culver City theatres: Amazon's Culver Theater | Culver City Theatre | Meralta Theatre | Culver / Kirk Douglas Theatre. The page on the Culver City Theatre has a few Culver City history resources listed.

Los Angeles Theatres

City Hall Theatre

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