The latest NEW THEATER REVIEWS are embedded in this week's COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGS; also, see this week's THEATER FEATURE on Kevin King's The Idea Man
L.A.'S OWN “GOLDEN GATE”
Left photo by William Gabel, 1965; Right photo, 1998, by RoadsidePeek.com
Update May 13, 2 p.m. from Anita Guttierez, L.A. County Planning Commission re the 9 a.m. hearing:
“The Commission requested additional information be analyzed in the
[Environmental Impact Report], and continued the case until Aug 19,
2009.”
The Golden Gate Theatre, a 1,454-seat movie palace built in 1927, on Whitter and Atlantic boulevards in unincorporated East L.A., faces a possible renovation, which would include removal of the theatre's interior features for use by a retail pharmacy. The Los Angeles Regional Planning Commission is holding a hearing on the project today, May 13.
The Spanish Churrigueresque-style theatre was built by developer Peter Snyder, known as the “Father of the East Side.”
Golden Gate (continued)
It was designed by William and Clifford Balch, who also participated in
the design of the El Rey Theatre on Wilshire Boulevard and the Fox
Theatre in Pomona. The Vega Building, a historic retail building that
once surrounded the theatre, suffered damage from the Whittier
Earthquake and was demolished in the early 1990s.
The Golden
Gate Theatre is one of a handful of neighborhood movie palaces from the
1920s that remain in Southern California, and is the sole remaining
intact neighborhood movie palace in East Los Angeles.
The Los
Angeles Conservancy has objected to the proposed removal and covering
over of interior features, leaving the space virtually unrecognizable
as a theater, and also threatening its listing in the National Register
of Historic Places. The Conservancy has requested changes to the
design that would leave the interior intact and visible to the public,
and has also urged the developer to seriously consider other, more
compatible community-oriented uses – such as a live theater,
restaurant or club use, or use as an assembly space for religious
congregations.
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