Twin City Theatre

 822 S. San Fernando Blvd. Burbank, CA 91502 | map |

Opening: It looks like the beginning was 1926. The address used at the time was 822 E. San Fernando Blvd. That's on the east side of the street between Elmwood and Valencia, a bit over a block north of Alameda. These days the big landmark is IKEA, on the other side of San Fernando Blvd.

 

Thanks to Marc Chevalier for locating this item in the September 4, 1926 issue of the trade magazine The Billboard: 

 

"BURBANK, Calif. - The Twin City Theater, 822 East San Fernando boulevard, has opened. W.H. Church is manager."  

 

The theatre was looking for "Women Solicitors" in 1926. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for including the ad in a thread about various Murphy's Comedians venues on the Photos of Los Angeles private Facebook group.

 

This November 5, 1927 item in The Billboard was another located by Marc Chevalier:

 

"MIL AND LIL HOUSMAN advise that after 25 weeks with a Southern show, they have returned to the Coast, and have signed for a season of stock with Murphy's Comedians at the Twin City Theater, Burbank, Calif."

 

 

 

A December 16, 1927 ad for the dramas "The Undercover Kid" and "The Family Pride."  Thanks to Ken for locating it. It's nice that they gave us an address! 

 

 

 

"Just a few steps west of the Burbank and Glendale City Line." It's a January 19, 1928 ad Ken McIntyre located. 

 

 

 

A January 1928 ad for the Murphy's Comedians production of "The Unkissed Bride," a "Hilarious Farce Comedy." And the following Wednesday it would be "The False Alarm," an appropriately themed show for a firemen's benefit.  

 

 

 

The theatre got a fine writeup about their production of "The Unkissed Bride" in this column from the January 23, 1928 issue of the Burbank Daily Review. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating it. 

 

 

A c.1928 ticket for shows by the group Murphy's Comedians. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating this for his Murphy's Comedians thread on the Photos of Los Angeles private Facebook group.

Horace Murphy's companies toured widely, with shows happening simultaneously in many venues. The Colonial in South Pasadena was later known as the Ritz Theatre. See the page about the Tent Theatre in Hawthorne. The page about the Embassy Theatre in Gardena includes a newspaper story about a 1931 booking in that town, at what was then called the Alamo Theatre. 

Murphy's career was discussed in "Murphy Comedians Open Showhouse...." an April 10, 1931 article from a Glendale paper was located by Jerry Miles. It's about a tent theatre that Murphy was erecting in South Pasadena. Some of their comments about Murphy:

"...There is perhaps no better showman in the west than Horace Murphy. For the past twenty years he has been engaged in theatrical work in Southern California, Arizona and New Mexico, at one time having more than twelve companies. He has had theaters in Glendale, Burbank, Ontario, San Bernardino, Santa Ana, Orange, Hawthorne, Oxnard and Los Angeles in this vicinity and in Phoenix, Tucson, Douglass [sic], Prescott Arizona. At the present time he is showing in Glendale, Los Angeles and Oxnard, California... Mr. Murphy makes a specialty of showing high class legitimate shows at popular prices..."

See the full article at the bottom of the page about the Colonial/Ritz Theatre in South Pasadena.  

Closing: Sometime in the 1930s. 

 

Marc Chevalier notes that by the time the 1939 Burbank city directory was compiled 822 East San Fernando had become an auto dealership operated by J.E. Robertson.   

 

 

These days Harbor Freight is at the 822 S. address. We're looking north. That's Valencia St. taking off on the right. The banners for IKEA are on the left, down in the next block. Image: Google Maps - 2022

More information: There isn't any about the Twin City. Nor have any photos yet emerged. 

Burbank had a tent show in the mid-1920s. In the 1926 San Fernando Valley City Directory there is a listing under "theatres" for Tent at 310 N. Providence (or 310 Providencia, if you looked in the alphabetical section). The proprietor was one Jos. Aubrey.

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