Los Angeles Theatres: Strand Theatre

4409-4411 S. Broadway Los Angeles, CA 90037 | map |

Opened: August 18, 1921 with Charles Ray in "Scrap Iron." Thanks to Bill Gabel for the research. This stretch of S. Broadway was originally called Moneta Ave. The renaming happened around 1928. Thanks to Dallas Movie Theaters for locating this pre-opening trade magazine photo for a post on Cinema Treasures. The copy with it:

"Just weeks prior to Sol Lesser and the Gore Brothers' Strand Theatre launching, they puts up a banner trumpeting its $30,000 Robert Morgan orchestral pipe organ in 1921."

The operators, Sol Lesser and the Gore Brothers soon rolled their holdings into a new organization called West Coast Theatres.

Seats: 892 was a later count appearing in a Film Daily Yearbook.

Architect: Woodbury C. Pennell designed the building for owner Ed Golter. He also designed the Alvarado Theatre at 710 S. Alvarado (1914, with John C. Austin) and the Fairfax Theatre, 7907 Beverly Blvd. (1930).

This item appeared in the March 18, 1921 issue of Southwest Builder & Contractor:

"Theatre for the corner of Moneta and Vernon Ave; Ed. Golter, owner; W.C. Pennell, architect; cost, $66,000; 2 story brick theater, store and market."

The March 23, 1921 issue of The American Architect carried this item:

"Los Angeles, Cal - E. Golter, care W.C. Pennell, archt., 203 Chapman Bldg., having plans prepared for 1 and 2 story, 135 x 173 ft., brick theatre on Moneta and Vernon Aves. $100,000."

Joe Vogel comments:

"Though Pennell is cited multiple times in the California Index as the partner of prolific theatre architect L.A. Smith during the year 1920, I can’t confirm that there were any built theatres on which they collaborated. They were hired to design a large theatre on 6th Street in San Pedro in 1920, but this project seems to have remained unbuilt. I’ve never found any reference indicating that Smith had anything to do with the design of the Strand, built in 1921. The Pennell-Smith partnership was apparently brief..."

"The City Planning Department’s information for the parcel on which the Strand was located is a bit vague. The assessor’s report includes the address 4401-4413 S. Broadway and 316-336 W. Vernon, and claims there are five buildings on the property, but it gives the date of construction (1921) and size (29,017 sq.ft.) of only one of them..."

In the 1923 city directory it was listed with an address of 4409 S. Moneta. It's listed in a 1923 Paramount ad as at Vernon & Moneta. Ken McIntyre notes that they were advertising a 4411 address in 1933 and that it's listed as 4407 S. Broadway in the 1939 city directory.

March 1932. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating this ad as well as all the others appearing on the page.

"400 Good Seats - 15 cents Other Seats and Loges - 25 cents." It's an April 1933 ad that appeared in the Southwest Wave.

A 1936 L.A. Times listing for the Strand and several other South L.A. theatres.

A March 1940 ad with the Strand as part of the Southtown Theatres mini-circuit.

$600 cash offered in August 1941. The ad appeared in the Southwest Wave.

A Strand ad in 1943.

15 cartoons! It's a May 1947 ad. Vinnicof Theatres was running it in the 1940s.

A July 1947 Vinnicof ad.

Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating this December 1947 photo for a post on the Photos of Los Angeles Facebook page.

Great deals at the snackbar: "All Nickel Candy Bars 5 cents." It's part of a 1948 Vinnicof Theatres ad. Thanks, Ken! Among his other southend theatres, Harry Vinnicof also had the Madrid, the Congress and the Regent.

According to a Cinema Treasures contributor going by the handle "the projectionist," it was operated by Bob Scott in the early 1960s. He says he was working there the night Kennedy was assassinated.

Closing: It was burned out during the 1965 Watts riots and never reopened.

Status: The portion of the 1921 building that was the theatre lobby and retail spaces survives. The area that was the auditorium is now a parking lot.