The Tower Theatre, at 802 S. Broadway, is a historic movie theater that opened in 1927 in the Broadway Theater District of Downtown Los Angeles.
Video Tower Theatre (Los Angeles)
History
The Tower Theatre, at S. Broadway and W. 8th Street, was commissioned by H.L. Gumbiner. He would also build the Los Angeles Theatre in 1931.
The Tower was the first theater designed by architect S. Charles Lee. Seating 900 on a tiny site (50ft wide by 153ft long), replacing the 650-seat 1911 Garrick Theatre, it was designed in powerful Baroque Revival style with innovative French, Spanish, Moorish, and Italian elements all executed in terra-cotta. Its interior was modeled after the Paris Opera House. Its exterior features a prominent clock tower, the very top of which was removed after an earthquake.
The Tower was the first filmhouse in Los Angeles to be wired for talking pictures, and it was the location of the sneak preview and Los Angeles premiere of Warner Bros.' revolutionary part-talking The Jazz Singer (1927), starring Al Jolson. It was the first theater in Los Angeles to be air conditioned.
It opened in 1927 with the silent film The Gingham Girl starring Lois Wilson and George K. Arthur.
For a while during the early 1950s, the name was changed to the Newsreel Theater.
Maps Tower Theatre (Los Angeles)
Use as a filming location
The Tower Theatre's exterior and/or interior can be seen in the following films and TV series:
- The Omega Man (1971)
- The Mambo Kings (1992)
- Last Action Hero (1993)
- Fight Club (1999)
- Coyote Ugly (2000)
- Mulholland Drive (2001)
- The Prestige (2006)
- Transformers (2007)
- Twin Peaks (3rd season, 2017)
Landmark status
The Tower Theatre has been declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument, HCM #450, by the Office of Historic Resources, Department of City Planning, City of Los Angeles.
Current use
As with many other historic theaters in Downtown Los Angeles, though largely intact, the theater was abandoned for many years because of migration of cinema attendance to Hollywood Boulevard and other Los Angeles locations. Over the years, its lobby has been leased to various vendors, and the auditorium has been used by the Living Faith Evangelical Church.
Potential future use
In November 2015, website DTLA Rising reported "insider info" that Apple Inc were interested in leasing the Tower for a retail store. Six months later the Los Angeles Business Journal reported that Apple were "in the process of securing a lease: On August 2, 2018, the Los Angeles Times reported that Apple was submitting plans for the renovation of the building. The company also released an artist's rendering of the converted space.
See also
- Los Angeles Theatre
- Million Dollar Theater
- Orpheum Theatre (Los Angeles)
References
External links
- Official website
- CinemaTreasures.org: Tower Theatre
Source of article : Wikipedia
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