431-433 S. Spring St. Los Angeles, CA 90013 | map |
Opening: It was the location of the Edison Phonograph Agency as early as 1902. The building was on the west side of the street in the middle of the block between 4th and 5th.
Later it became a penny arcade called, appropriately enough, Penny Arcade. It was operated by the San Francisco firm Johns & Devlin and appears to have transitioned into a nickelodeon by the time the 1906 Sanborn map was researched. It closed soon after that.
c.1895 - The building the arcade/theatre would be in hadn't yet been constructed. It would soon rise just beyond the Niles Pease building. It's a photo from the Los Angeles Public Library collection. Yes, this is the block between 4th and 5th, despite that 334 number on the building on the right. The numbering changed around 1890 and they hadn't yet repainted.
c.1900 - An undated drawing of part of the south end of the 400 block. The theatre would later be in that 3-bay building that's the second in from the left. This is from the Los Angeles Public Library collection. It's also indexed a second time under a different URL. Beginning on the left it's Niles Pease Furniture, U.R. Bowers & Sons, B. Wynns & Co., Wills & Sonocer, Lewis & Alderson, N. Strauss & Co., D. Whitney & Co. and, at 421 near the right, George Elliott, stationery and artists' materials.
1902 - The Edison Phonograph Agency, with Peter Bacigalupi, Jr. as manager, was listed in the city directory at the 431 S. Spring address. This seems to be a return engagement for Bacigalupi. He was running an Edison agency on Spring St. in the 1890s and then turned the business over to Thomas Tally, who operated his Tally's Phonograph and Kinetoscope Parlor business at a number of Spring and Main St. locations.
There were a variety of tenants upstairs at 431 1/2 including the Fidelity Wall Paper Co. and a lady advertising her services under "Baths."
1904 - The city directory this year listed the Penny Arcade at 431, operated by T.W. Johns & Co. with Thomas W. Johns and Frank J. Devlin as principals. The directory noted that in addition to the arcade they were "dealers in all sorts of amusement machines." 433 was listed as a curio shop operated by the Kakiuchi Brothers.
An ad appearing in the 1904 city directory.
T.W. Johns and his Penny Arcade were in trouble concerning obscene films running in his machines. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating this December 13, 1904 article. It's one he added as a comment on a thread about various early Main and Spring St. venues on the private Facebook group Photos of Los Angeles. See more about Harry Temperly's operation on the Automatic Vaudeville page.
1905 - The company had become Johns & Devlin by the time of the city directory this year. The business at 431 was listed under "Places of Amusement" and it's noted that the firm is from San Francisco. It was McKee's Cafe at 529 and a Japanese Fancy Goods store at 433, operated by Shibata Jugiro (or Jujiro, listed both ways). 435 was Benford & Levy, a men's clothing store. Upstairs at 431 1/2 were many tenants including a tailor and dyer, a physician, a photographer and a dentist.
1906 - The business at 431-433 is seen indicated as "Moving Pictures" in this detail from image 7 of Volume 2 of the 1906 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map that's on the Library of Congress website. That designation implies that they were actually running a nickelodeon. It differs from how a peep show parlor was usually indicated: "Auto. Slot Machines."
Closing: Sometime in 1906 or 1907. There's no listing for anything at 431 or 433 in the 1906 city directory. By the time of the 1907 directory the Postal Telegraph and Cable Co. had taken over 431 for their offices. The directory listed 433 as a jewelry store.
c.1908 - Looking south toward 5th St. Note that the Niles-Pease Furniture Co., just beyond the theatre building, got a new four-story home sometime around 1900. On the right edge of the image it's the Angelus Hotel, a building completed in 1901. In April 1908 the Chronophone Theatre opened at 423 S. Spring, in the three-story building at the center. It's a photo from the Los Angeles Public Library collection.
c.1908 - A detail from the Library's photo indicating the building the arcade/theatre had been in at 429-435.
c.1910 - A Los Angeles Public Library photo. On the right we're looking north on Spring. That's a view west on 5th on the left.
1914 - 431 and 433 are seen here as a Postal Telegraph office. It's a detail from plate 002 of the 1914 Real Estate Survey from Historic Map Works. The 1910 Baist Map shows similar information for this address.
1930s - Looking south after construction of the Trust Building on the site. It's the gleaming white edifice half way down the block. It's a Los Angeles Public Library photo.
More information: Well, there isn't any yet about the Johns & Devlin operation.
Nearby was the Chronophone / Horne's Big Show at 423 S. Spring. Also on the block, but on the east side of the street, were the Automatic Vaudeville arcade at 434, the Edison Theatre at 436, the Unique Theatre at 456 and the Herman Theatre at 460 S. Spring.
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