The Theatorium

444 S. Main St. Los Angeles, CA 90013  | map |

Opening: Presumably 1907, advertising "Illustrated songs and moving pictures." The location was the east side of the street just south of Winston St. Winston is in the middle of the block between 4th band 5th. It starts at Main and goes east. 

 

 

"Where To Go Tonight." The Theatorium is included in this September 1907 column of ads from the Los Angeles Record. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating it for a post on the Photos of Los Angeles Facebook page. 

The other advertisers: The Royal Theatre was at 246 S. Broadway. "The Original Penny Arcade" at 125 S. Main was a venue later known as the Happy Hour Theatre. "Automatic Vaudeville" at 434 S. Spring was evidently the theatre later known as the Edison. The Scenic Theatre was, as the ad says, at 522 S. Spring. The business at 258 S. Main offering "all the latest songs and moving pictures, 1c" was Kingsley, Moles & Collins Co. They were mostly a printing and stationery firm and it sounds like they added some peep show machines. 

Haagar DeClark, a photographer, was listed at 444 S. Main in the 1907 city directory. Joseph W. Nethery, in the slot machine business, was also listed. Nethery, but not DeClark, also shows up in the 1908 directory. A number of early theatres started with peep show movie machines such as those by Mutoscope or Edison ("slot machines") and then transitioned by hanging a screen and buying projection gear.

Closing: Sometime around 1909 at the latest. 

Status: It's been demolished. The lot where the Theatorium was located ended up being the location of the south storefront of the Canadian Building, constructed in 1909. 

There's no building shown on the 444 site in this 1906 Sanborn Real Estate Map. We're looking at the east side of the south half of the 500 block with 5th St. on the left and Winston St. on the right. It's a detail from Image 21 of Volume 2 of the version of the map that's in the Library of Congress collection.

The National Theatre opened in a storefront at 448 around 1910. It was later replaced with a larger and more opulent National, now called the Regent Theatre, with 446-448-450 addresses. 

 

 

The full 400 block with 5th on the left, Winston angled in the middle and 4th on the right. It's a detail from Plate 002 of the 1910 Baist Real Estate Survey from Historic Map Works. Here they have the Theatorium's location numbered as 436.   

The Canadian Building at Main and Winston dates from 1909 but isn't seen on this map. That lot 17, here seen as 436 and 446, would be subdivided with 446 becoming the location of the north storefront in the Regent Theatre building. 

A detail from plate 002 of the 1921 Baist Real Estate Map from Historic Map Works. The 444 lot had become the location of the south storefront in the Canadian Building. That's the Regent's north storefront at 446, labeled as a store called "George's."

Looking north toward Winston St. in 2019. On the right it's a slice of the Regent Theatre. The Canadian Building is in the center. The Theatorium had been in a earlier building where that "For Lease" storefront is on this end of the Canadian. On the far left that's the San Fernando Building on the southeast corner of 4th & Main. Photo: Bill Counter

More information: Theatorium appears to be a semi-popular name with no indication that the different operations were related. We had a Theatorium in Long Beach and one in Echo Park, a theatre later called the Holly.  

The Main Theatre was later located in the Canadian Building at 438 S. Main.

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