The burlesque theaters of S. Main Street, as seen in 1936 (and late-1940s).
So these first six shots were taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt, and for the longest time I’ve been scrolling past them, mistaking them as duplicates all taken at the same theatre. Something about how busy and cluttered the text and photos are that makes it much more difficult to see the buildings underneath. Looking closer, I see there are three theaters here, organized as follows:
1-3. Taken at the Follies Theatre at 337 S. Main St., with shows every Saturday at midnight. Opened as the Belasco in 1904 (predating the current Belasco), it became a vaudeville theatre in 1912, then started running follies & burlesque in 1919, which continued into the 1950s. See slides 8-9 to see it in the late-1940s.
4. Taken at the Rosslyn Theatre at 431 S. Main (thanks to IG follower 'thrift_store_rescues' for identifying it), which opened in 1925 and was not known for burlesque. Tried finding more info on the "Girlesque" show and learned there was actually once an unrelated Girlesque Theatre one block over which was shut down in a vice raid in 1930. This appears to be a temporary stop for a touring "Girlesque Revue," which debuted at a carnival on the LA County fairgrounds in 1936 and then went on tour around town, also hitting San Pedro & Wilmington.
5-6. Taken at the Burbank Theatre at 548 S. Main St, which opened in 1893. Started running burlesque in 1927, and continued into the late-1960s.
7. Exterior of the Burbank Theatre, 1937
8-9. Taken outside of the Follies theatre in the late 1940s, about ten years after the photos in Slides 1-3. You can see that the building has gone through some major changes, with a neon-lined marquee added, lowered to the first story - likely part of a $60K renovation done in 1938.
10. Dressing room at the Follies, late 1940s.
11. LA Daily News, July 11, 1936
12. A 1936 program from the Follies Theatre
13-15. Follies lineup announcements, 1935
16. 1938 clipping
17. Follies ad, May 8, 1936
18. Burbank ad, 1937
19. LA Daily News, Jan. 10, 1936
20. Burbank ad, May 7, 1936
—
1-6. via LIFE Magazine; 7-10. via @lapubliclibrary ; 12,16,18. via Bill Counter's Los Angeles Theatres Blog (or see: Los Angeles Theatres)
No comments:
Post a Comment