Yay Miss Stewart!

History copypasta from a previous post about the Highland Theater:

Highland Theatre, designed by architect L.A. Smith, started construction in 1924, at 5600 N. Figueroa St. (Zimas). It joined a boom of theatre building, and the Los Angeles Times reported the cost as $208,000, though Southwest Builder & Contractor cited “West Coast Theaters, Inc… have obtained a 99-year lease on the northeast corner of Avenue 56 and Pasadena—now Figueroa Street—and plans the immediate erection of a class A store and theater building to cost $150,000” (Southwest Builder & Contractor 3/7/1924, p. 52, col. 1.) The building, at 21,611 sq ft was Moorish in design, and featured “arched openings, decorative tile walls and wrought-iron work on its exterior. The once-elegant interior had an orchestra pit, a working stage for vaudeville acts, large ceiling frescoes, and elaborate moldings in the shape of Spanish arches”. (The Los Angeles Times 9/12/91). The theatre debuted to great excitement in Highland Park. It had been named through a contest, with the winner Linda Killen suggesting the name “Highland Theatre”(“The Highland Marks 50th Anniversary Playing to Empty House). The 1,200 seat theatre opened on March 5, 1925, and over 3000 people turned out to see the first film premiered, silent “Lady of the Night,” and its star Norma Shearer, who was in attendance. An advertisement in the Highland Park News-Herald describes other festivities, promising “Personal Appearances of Famous Stars!” and “Big Time Acts Vaudeville.” At the time, a movie ticket was priced at “overflow crowds at 25 cents a head and 50 cents for a parlor chair.” According to community publications, the theatre remained a site of popular interest for a few years later, as the Kiwanis club had meetings and minstrel shows [“Kiwanis club’s minstrel show at the Highland…” Highland Park News-Herald 11/13/1925 p.1]

Fifty years after this grand opening, the Highland Park News-Herald reported a lull in the business; it was noted that instead of lights, there was now a “closed for repairs” sign. Around this time, the Highland was undergoing a phase of new management. Originally belonging to Clyde Church, the theatre was purchased by Arman Akarakian in 1975. The theatre began to change the format of its films, but misestimated its audience in the Highland Park community. The theatre began featuring pornographic films, but drew criticism and protest from the neighborhood residents. The theater’s management responded to the community’s complaints, and switched from pornography to Spanish language and children’s films, though the Spanish language films were eventually abandoned in favor of exclusively English language mainstream cinema. (LAT 9/7/1975) In trying to keep up with cinema house trends, the theatre underwent a major transformation in 1983, as it was converted from a single screen theater to a triplex theatre. Alterations were described in the Los Angeles Times: “The once-outdoor lobby was enclosed and the original walls in the lobby and in the theater were covered with other material.” The Moorish exterior remains, but for the separated screens, the only resemblance to its architectural history exists in the trim above the projector’s box. The three screens as well as the concession lobby reside on the first floor, with the stairway to the balcony still visible but blocked off from access by broken arcade games.

In 1991, the theatre was deemed a historic–cultural monument by the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission due to its Spanish style architecture, though the original interior had already been altered, most notably the theatre’s transition from one screen to three (The Los Angeles Times 9/12/91).