The Tower Theatre, at 802 S. Broadway, is a historic venue that opened in 1927[1] in the Broadway Theatre district of Downtown Los Angeles.
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The Tower Theatre, at S. Broadway and W. 8th Street, was commissioned by H.L. Gumbiner,[2] who would later also build the Los Angeles Theatre in 1931. The Tower was the first theatre designed by architect S. Charles Lee.[1] Seating 1,000 on a tiny site, it was designed in powerful Baroque style with innovative French, Spanish, Moorish, and Italian elements all executed in terra-cotta.[1] Its interior was modeled after the Paris Opera House.[2] Its exterior features a prominent clock tower, the very top of which was removed after an earthquake. It opened in 1927 with the silent film The Gingham Girl starring Lois Wilson and George K. Arthur.[3] The Tower was the first filmhouse in Los Angeles to be wired for talking pictures, and it was the location of the sneak preview[4] and Los Angeles premiere[2] of Warner Bros.' revolutionary part-talking The Jazz Singer (1927), starring Al Jolson.
The theatre was the first in Los Angeles to be air conditioned.[2]
For a while during the early 1950s, the name was changed to the Newsreel Theatre.[5]
The Tower Theatre's exterior and/or interior can be seen in the following films:
The Tower Theatre has been declared a Historic Cultural Landmark, HCM #450, by the Office of Historic Resources, Department of City Planning, City of Los Angeles.[6]
As with many other historic theatres in Downtown Los Angeles, though largely intact, the theatre was abandoned for many years because of migration of cinema attendance to Hollywood Blvd. and other Los Angeles locations. Over the years, its lobby has been leased to various vendors, and the auditorium has been used by the Living Faith Evangelical Church.[1]
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