Warner Downtown and Wiltern

First, it was supposed to be one post, so I could use some of my photos from my historical walk on Hollywood blvd. I said in it, that I'd just be scratching the surface, the more I find. Then I thought, I'll just cover the Big 5 and the Little 3, and I'll be on to another topic in 8 posts.

Well, this will be my third post of Warner Bros. in LA, so to quote the LA legend Vin Scully "If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans."

Warner Bros. Downtown (1938)

Now the Warner Downtown was on 7th and Hill, so one block over from the Paramount. And what a theater! The photo is was taken January 26, 1938. The film on the marquee, The Hurricane by Samuel Goldwyn was released in November of '37. It was distributed by United Artists, but as you'll learn, UA didn't have a theater chain (like Universal, making them two of the Little Three). Goldwyn made pictures for Paramount for a time, but was an indie filmmaker by the 1920s.

I found out about the Warner Downtown when I wrote the Paramount Studios post, I found this LA Times Ad, which reopened the Warner topic for me (and made me decide to do RKO pictures next!)

LA Times theater ad (1949)

It was a companion to the LA Times ad I featured in the last post, and it shows the two Paramount Theaters in LA proper. To the left of Paramount's Sealed Verdict, is Warner's New Adventures of Don Juan; with Errol Flynn! 

Errol Flynn was famous for his portrayal of Robin Hood, one of Hollywood's original swashbucklers. So perfect for the part of Don Juan. The ad shows the film is playing at the Warner Hollywood, which we've covered here. It's also showing at the Warner Downtown and the Wiltern. 

Wait, Warner Downtown? I mentioned that Warner built the Hollywood theater and opened in the 1928, but in 1929 Warner purchased the Pantageas theater downtown. Now the Hollywood Pantageas still is operational, but that was built in 1930 to replace the downtown one that Warner bought. I'm gonna have to dig into the Pantageas circuit, make a post out of it soon, since it keeps coming up. Remember the Pantageas in Portland, Oregon became a Warner theater as well. 

The Warner Downtown opened in 1929 with Gold Diggers of Broadway. This film is important because it's just the second ever all talking film done entirely in two strip technicolor. Color took longer to catch on than talking, and was reserved for the family film categories: musicals, costume pictures, and animated features. 

Gold Diggers of Broadway is considered a lost film, and the more known version is it's remake Gold Diggers of 1933. Unlike it's early version, this one is in black and white, and features the song "We're in the Money". A little bit of Warner musical history. 

The ad for Adventures of Don Juan calls it a technicolor hit! On the marquee for The Hurricane it's advertised as featuring Vitaphone (Warner's sound process). What a difference a decade makes : )

That still leaves the Wiltern. Named for the corner it sits on (Wilshire and Western), it was built in 1931 and opened as the Warner Bros. Western Theater. 

The idea was to run Vaudeville here, but that didn't work and the Warner closed a year later. It reopened in the mid 30s with the Wiltern signage, and became part of Warner's LA proper trio. The Wiltern is now a concert venue, it didn't make it past 1956 as a film theater. The Warner Downtown made it to 1975, and the Warner Hollywood was showing films up until the Red Line was built in the 1990s. 

I wonder what I'll find when I look into Glen Ford and Terry Moore performing in person on stage at the Pantageas and Hillstreet : )