1723 N. Highland Ave. Hollywood (Los Angeles) 90028 | map |
Opened: This location for the Troupers Club debuted in 1943.
The Troupers Club was formed in November 1926. Or was it 1925? Stories differ. In 1929 they took over the Hollywood Community Theatre at 1742 N. Ivar. In the 1930 city directory it was listed as Troupers Green Room. Originally they required 30 years
experience on stage or screen to join. By 1930 that had been reduced to
20 years. That year they had 700 members.
By 1931 they were in a Troupers Club House at 1634 N. El Centro. In 1934, to recruit new members, they dropped the experience requirement to five years. By 1940 they had taken over the Las Palmas Theatre
and had renamed it the Troupers Theatre. The 1942 city directory still lists that Las Palmas location as "Troupers Inc."
In 1943 members of the Troupers Club and their guests attended a dinner and ribbon cutting for an upstairs club room
at the new Highland Ave. home of the organization. Thanks to Lisa Kouza
Braddock for locating this grand opening shot that appeared in the in the May 17 issue of the Hollywood
Citizen-News. It was part of a post Lisa did about the Troupers for the
Lost Angeles Facebook group. The paper's caption:
"RIBBON CUT - While 200 Troupers and guests cheered from banquet tables last night, Judge Benjamin Scheinman, center front, cut ribbons to give access to an upstairs clubroom at 1723 N. Highland Ave., new Troupers home. At his right arm was the Rev, George Fox, and at his left hand, Tom Regan, president of Troupers. Holding the ribbon, at right, was Adabelle Driver, secretary, standing with other officers. At left, in light dress, stood Louise De Vatney, 'emcee' for the entertainment which followed dinner. -- Citizen-News photo"
In the 1942 city directory 1723 had been listed as Shikani's Restaurant. 1725 was an optometrist. On the second floor a couple buildings up the block was the
Movie Parade Theatre, a revival house at 1737 N. Highland. It was later known as the Comoedia Theatre and Highland Playhouse.
An early single-story building on the 1723-25 site is indicated in green in this detail from page 10 of the
1913 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map
that's in the Library of Congress collection. At that time the tenant was
a grocer. Also see page 5 of the
1907 Sanborn Map in the LOC collection where the address is shown as 123-125. There's also a
1921 Baist map of the block on the David Rumsey Map Collection site.
A c.1920 look at the territory from the Los Angeles Public Library collection. That's Highland going up the right side. The photo makes an appearance on "
A Charming Hostelry: The Hollywood Hotel Story," a KCET page by Hadley Meares.
A detail with the location indicated of the earlier single-story 1723-25 building on the site. It was later replaced with a longer two-story building before the Troupers arrived in the 40s.
A 1939 view east toward the back of the building the Troupers occupied. "Stanley and Livingstone" was at the
Chinese and the
El Capitan was running a production of "The Mikado - In Swing." Thanks to the
Historic Los Angeles Facebook page for sharing this version of the photo.
A detail with the newer two-story 1723-25 building indicated.
The building that the Troupers were in at 1723-25 N. Highland is indicated in this detail
from page 1018 of volume 10 of the Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from the
Library of Congress collection. The LOC has this page as image 21 of the volume as reproduced on their site.
The map was originally drawn
in 1919 and updated as late as 1950. If you
look at the full page on the LOC site you also get
Grauman's Chinese
farther to the left. The
Movie Parade revival house was up the block at 1737 N. Highland, the building seen at the top of this detail.
Status: The building the club was in on Highland has been demolished. The Hollywood Hotel and several buildings north of it on Highland came down in 1956. A building for First Federal Savings later went up on the corner. That was demolished for the 1999 construction of the Hollywood and Highland Mall, now rebranded as Ovation.
No comments:
Post a Comment