Comments (0) Best Place to Look Around (1920s) - 2010
Union Theatre
The Union Theatre in West Adams was originally a silent-movie house dating back to before the 1920s. Erstwhile screen siren Louise Glaum temporarily turned the theater into an acting school and playhouse in the 1930s, but by 1939, it had returned to showing films. After the war, it was the headquarters for the Tile Layers Local 18, and in the 1970s, a USC student used the theater for an after-hours film series, screening cult and underground films and Saturday cartoon matinees for neighborhood kids. The space was abandoned in the early 1990s, and intermittently used as a storefront church until 2005, when the Velaslavasay Panorama moved in. Now, the Union Theatre features a circular image in its rotunda as part of the Velaslavasay’s mission to revive the 19th-century tradition of panoramic painting. The brainchild of founder Sara Velas, the Velaslavasay Panorama continues to use the historic Union Theatre as a venue for presentations, live performances, illustrated lectures and as an exhibition space for a 360-degree work of art. 1122 W. 24th St., West Adams. (213) 746-2166, panoramaonview.org. —Tanja M. Laden
