Automatic Vaudeville

340 S. Spring St. Los Angeles, CA  90013 | map | c.1904 - 1907 

434 S. Spring St. Los Angeles, CA  90013  | map | 1907 - c.1910

Opening: Harry Temperly's peep show arcade called Automatic Vaudeville had opened by 1904 at the 340 S. Spring address. This was on the east side of the street mid-block between 3rd and 4th. You could put your pennies in various Mutoscope, Bioscope or Kinetoscope machines and design your own program.

 

Ladling out "moral filth." Harry Temperly and F.W. Johns, another arcade operator, were in trouble concerning obscene films running in their 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 for the private Facebook group Photos of Los Angeles. See more about Johns on the page about the Penny Arcade, located at 431 S. Spring.  

 

Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating this November 3, 1905 promotional item.  

 

Spring St. is at the top with the the Automatic Vaudeville operation at 340 identified as "Auto. Slot Machines" in this 1906 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map. It's a detail from image 8 of Volume 2 from the Library of Congress collection. 

 

The Hotchkiss Theatre behind it at times went by other names including the Casino, Los Angeles, Empress and Capitol. At the time of this map they note the "Entrance" to it at 344. Later it was moved a few doors north to 338, sometimes listed as at 340. At the bottom of the image it's the Belasco at 337 S. Main St., a theatre later known as the Follies.  

 

A c.1907 view looking south toward 4th St. The photo by Putnam Studios is in the California State Library collection.  

A detail from the Putnam Studios photo. The arch at the left is the not-quite-finished new entrance to the Hotchkiss Theatre at 338. Just beyond it's "Automatic Vaudeville" at 340. A couple doors farther down is the original arched Hotchkiss entrance at 344. That's the H.W. Hellman Building beyond, built in 1903.

Closing at this Address: The date is unknown, presumably sometime in 1907. See a 1913 photo of the Hotchkiss/Empress Theatre by G. Haven Bishop from the Huntington Library collection. To the right of the theatre entrance is the former Automatic Vaudeville location, by the time of the photo used as a restaurant. 

Nearby: Also on the block but on the west side of the street at various times were Tally's Phonograph and Vitascope Parlor locations at 311 and 339 S. Spring.

Status: The site of the building is now a parking lot just south of the Reagan State Office Building. See a lovely 1956 photo of the lot by Palmer Connor that's in the Huntington Library collection where we're looking through from Spring toward the back of the Follies Theatre on Main.

Moving to 434 S. Spring: In 1907 Temperly moved his Automatic Vaudeville operation. The new location was a building on the east side of the street between 4th and 5th with three storefronts at 432, 434 and 436 plus upstairs office space.  

"Where To Go Tonight." Automatic Vaudeville, calling itself "The most popular playhouse in town," appeared in this September 1907 column of ads in the Los Angeles Record. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating this for for a post for the private Facebook group Photos of Los Angeles.

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. The Theatorium at 444 S. Main was just north of the location of the current Regent Theatre. 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 appears that they added some peep show machines. 

In the 1907 city directory the 434 space had been listed as a curio shop operated by a Mr. Wing Hing Long and the 436 space to the south was the Savoy Restaurant. In the 1908 directory 434 was listed as being occupied by Automatic Vaudeville, operated by Harry G. Temperly. By the time of the 1908 directory the 436 storefront south of Automatic Vaudeville had become a movie house operated by Hummel and Ward, listed in later directories the Edison Theatre.  

Closing: Sometime around 1909 or 1910. Automatic Vaudeville is still listed in the 1909 directory. By the time of the 1910 book it had become a novelty manufacturer run by Werner Gerson. 

 

This detail from plate 002 of the 1910 Baist Real Estate Survey from Historic Map Works shows 432, 434 and 436 S. Spring as storefronts between the Johnson Bldg. on the south and the Delta Bldg. on the north.

The 1911 and 1912 directories have no listing for 434 S. Spring. 

Later use: Stella arrived in 1915.

 

 

This ad appeared in the December 25, 1915 issue of the L.A. Times.

 

A January 3, 1916 ad for "Stella" that was located by Ken McIntyre. 

Status: The building once housing the arcade and theatre space been demolished. The site is now a park between the El Dorado lofts on the north and the Rowan Building on the south.

The Spring Street Park is now on the site of the Automatic Vaudeville / Edison Theatre building. The Rowan Building dates from 1912. Photo: Bill Counter - 2019

More Information: See the page about the Edison Theatre, next door to Automatic Vaudeville at 436 S. Spring. Theatres on this side of the 400 block also included the Unique Theatre at 456 S. Spring and the Herman Theatre at 460 S. Spring. Across the street there was the Chronophone / Horne's Big Show at 423 and the Penny Arcade / Johns & Devlin Nickelodeon at 433 S. Spring. 

| back to top | Downtown: theatre district overview | Hill St. and farther west | Broadway theatres | Spring St. theatres | Main St. and farther east | downtown theatres by address | downtown theatres alphabetical list | 

| Westside | Hollywood | Westwood and Brentwood | Along the Coast | [more] Los Angeles movie palaces | the main alphabetical list | theatre history resources | film and theatre tech resources | theatres in movies | LA Theatres on facebook | contact info | welcome and site navigation guide |