after dark

1926 Orpheum Theatre

1927 Tower Theatre

1930 Eastern Columbia Building

Downtown Los Angeles 

1927 United Artists Building, now the Ace Hotel + Theatre at the Ace Hotel

All photographs © Monika Seitz Vega, 2015.

All photographs taken the evening of the 7th Annual Night on Broadway.

a few from downtown

Just before Christmas I had a morning meeting downtown + planned ahead to take a walk afterward to photograph the Belle & Sebastian "Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance" billboard next to the Ace Hotel/United Artists Theatre. That image is the first one below, along with a few others from that day. 

In just a couple weeks, Bringing Back Broadway will be hosting Night on Broadway, I'm looking forward to visiting and photographing my favorite spots along Broadway in the evening. It'll be a fantastic night, I highly recommend attending if you're in the area.

"Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance" comes out in the US January 20th.
2015 marks 20 years of Belle & Sebastian.

I was elated to see that yarn bombing is still alive and well. Los Angeles has its own group, Yarnbombing Los Angeles,  which may be the ones behind this streetlamp in front of the former Rialto Theatre.

I saw this advertisement in the morning -- from the car -- when the light was nice, by early afternoon I unfortunately had to shoot into the sun to get it.

1930 Eastern Columbia Building. 9th & Broadway.

Not my favorite formal shop to photograph, as Steven's Bridal is now a Gap Outlet...

magenta positives

Earlier this month I spent an afternoon as a docent for the Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation's "All About the Wiltern Theatre" tour. It was a fantastic event that I am proud to have been a part of. Both before and after the tour I had time to photograph some old haunts as well as some new discoveries. 

It turns out that the slide film I was shooting that day hadn't aged gracefully. Here are some of my favorite photographs from the day's roll, in all of their magenta glory.

All photographs © Monika Seitz Vega, August 2014. Long live film.

postcards, part 4

This time around I chose city scenes from my collection of postcards. I love the linen postcards and artwork from the 1930s and '40s, the feel and color of them are so unique. These selections feature places I've had the opportunity to see myself (New York, Columbus), others to hopefully see in the future (downtown Boston), and the Carthay Circle Theatre, well... it's alive in film and photographs and, in a way, on Buena Vista Street. Enjoy.

front

back, postmarked August 17, 1940

front

back

The Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles opened in 1926 and was demolished in 1969. 

front

back, postmarked October 2, 1938

While the Deshler Wallick was demolished in 1970, the adjoining LeVeque Tower and Palace Theatre still stand.  

front

back, postmarked July 1, 1935 (It looks like I'm not the only one who has sent postcards to myself)

front

back

As this is part 4 of an ongoing and potentially infinite number of postcard entries, feel free to catch up with the previous entries via the links below. I've already got a theme picked out for part 5, so it shouldn't be long.

Postcards, part 1.
Postcards, part 2.
Postcards, part 3.

4 Polaroids from Wednesday

Wednesday morning I took a trip east in search of adventure. Here are four Polaroids I took that day.

Fox Theatre, Banning, CA © Monika Seitz Vega, 19 September 2012

Banning, CA © Monika Seitz Vega, 19 September 2012

Banning, CA © Monika Seitz Vega, 19 September 2012

Beaumont, CA © Monika Seitz Vega, 19 September 2012

While in Beaumont I stopped to photograph the 1939 Beaumont Theatre, which is now home of the Beaumont Antique Mall. The ladies running the place were lovely, and how could I resist "instant relatives" at two for $1?

Theatres of 2011 - Part 6

According to my incredibly scientific calculations, it looks as if there are 7 theatres remaining in the recap of theatres I visited and photographed in 2011. Honestly, I am pretty ready to be done with these posts as I am eager to move on to something else, so I am going to do my best to consolidate the remaining 7 into this and one additional post. 

#11 of '11 is the aptly titled Unique Theatre in East Los Angeles. I had wanted to visit the Unique for quite a while after seeing a Flickr friend's photograph of it in all its glory. For as often as I take the 60 into downtown, it wasn't tough to hop off a couple exits early to experience the Unique. Like most locations, time of day -- as well as time of year -- is critical when trying to get the best photograph. This early May trip to East LA made for a series of photographs starring a (some would say rare, but not me!) blue sky and white clouds in exchange for vibrant colors and detail. The 1920s Unique has been a dollar store for some time, but from what I can see and have heard, many of its features have been preserved (by "preserved" I mean "not completely obliterated", which is a lot to ask, apparently). The fact that the (horribly ugly) "Unique Dollar" sign is on a board in front of the original gives me hope that there's something amazing underneath. 

Unique Theatre, Los Angeles, CA © Monika Seitz Vega, 8 May 2011 

Unfortunately the sun to cloud ratio wasn't balanced enough that day to get good detail on the blade sign. Here's another image from down the street/around the corner of some rough looking neon signs. Revisiting these today, I  realize I need to get off at Gage more often. The Unique is on East First, just north of the 60 freeway, in a pretty interesting old neighborhood.

© Monika Seitz Vega, 8 May 2011

Theatres 12 and 13 are a trip back to Part 2 of this series of posts, Inglewood, CA. I can't say it enough.... I love Inglewood. I plan on a future post focusing on my non-theatre images of Inglewood, of which there are many.

The Academy, located at 3141 West Manchester, opened in the fall of 1939. The theatre was originally designed by renowned architect S. Charles Lee to be the home of the annual Academy Awards ceremony, which unfortunately never happened. Movies were premiered and exhibited at the Academy until 1976, when it (you guessed it!) became a church. It is a lovely location, and well taken care of by pastor Hart and his congregation. I was told that the tower is illuminated only occasionally, what I wouldn't do to be nearby on one of those occasions.

Academy Theatre, Inglewood, CA © Monika Seitz Vega 17 April 2011 

Less dynamic in history and aesthetics is downtown Inglewood's Ritz Theatre. Though it was built in the 1930s, like the Academy, it is rather non-descript and not the kind of place I get particularly excited about. It was a cinema, then a church, and now it's vacant. The end?

Ritz Theatre, Inglewood, CA © Monika Seitz Vega 17 April 2011 

Theatres of 2011 - Part 4

For theatres 7 and 8 of the 2011 retrospective I'll be profiling two heavily contrasting locations, different in origin, lifespan, distance, and design -- East Los Angeles' Golden Gate and the Star Theatre in Oceanside.

If this is your first time here, welcome. I love vintage movie houses. Every year for the past 4 years I've sought out and photographed as many "new" (by this I mean new to me, locations I hadn't personally been to before) theatres as I could. At the end of each previous year, I would compile a list with links to the images. For 2011's list, I'm sharing them two-at-a-time via this blog, with some history and extra whateveredness included. 

 If you're interested, previous years' collections are on view via Flickr:

2010 Theatre Retrospective

2009 Theatre Retospective

2008 Theatre Retrospective

Let's get started...

 The Golden Gate Theatre in East Los Angeles is located at 5176 Whittier Blvd., just south of the I-60. This majestic art deco theatre opened in 1927 and closed in 1986 (the dark days of the '80s strike again). Once surrounded by retail buildings that were razed after the Whittier Narrows earthquake of 1987 -- taking the theatre's marquee and blade signs with them -- the Golden Gate has been abandoned since then, lonely in the middle of a paved over plot of land on a corner of town that is easily forgotten. There has been talk for many years of the theatre building being transformed to house a Walgreens or CVS pharmacy, even though the building has been on the National Registry of Historic Places since 1982. Preservationists such as The Los Angeles Historic Theatres Foundation are working to prevent something horrific (perhaps more horrific than allowing the building to sit and decay for over 20 years) from happening to the Golden Gate. There are a couple other theatres in this area that I photographed and will revisit later, though none are as precious in either history or architecture of the Golden Gate.

Golden Gate Theatre, 2011 © Monika Seitz Vega

And now for something completely different, the Star. Located on Pacific Coast Highway in Oceanside, CA, the Star opened in 1956 and has maintained more or less in one variation or another -- church, movie house, Pussycat theatre, live venue -- since. It's a cute corner theatre which originally held just under 1,000 patrons (about 2/3 the capacity of the Golden Gate). In the late 1990s the theatre was vacant, I remember passing by it countless times on my Vespa journeys from San Diego to Orange County and back, the bright yellow marquee blank, until one day it wasn't anymore (if memory serves, I believe a Van Halen tribute band was passing through town and was going to rock the Star). The stars and the marquee are wonderfully colorful and stand out amongst the other buildings in downtown Oceanside. 

Spending the day in Oceanside allowed for both daytime and nighttime visits to the Star. Here is a half-frame image of the marquee detail.

Star Theatre, 2011 © Monika Seitz Vega

For the nighttime photograph, I took a long exposure from the corner to the south with a little help from the street lamp to illuminate the front of the building.

Star Theatre, 2011 © Monika Seitz Vega

I'm not quite sure where Part 5 will take us yet, but we'll get there soon. Until then...