Theatres of 2011 - The final installment

I'm full of sun tea and Peter Bjorn & John and am ready to wrap up the Theatres of 2011 retrospective. Here's a quick reminder of the locations I've profiled as of now:

Warners Huntington Park
Union Theatre - Los Angeles
5th Ave - Inglewood
Fox Inglewood
Arlington - Santa Barbara
Granada - Santa Barbara
Golden Gate
Star - Oceanside
North Park
Loma
Unique - Los Angeles
Academy - Inglewood
Ritz - Inglewood

There's just 4 left, so let's get to it.

Alameda Theatre, Los Angeles © Monika Seitz Vega, 2011

The Alameda Theatre, located on Whittier Blvd. in east Los Angeles, was once part of the United Artists chain. It was built in the 1930s, and was gutted in the 1980s to house retail. What would John Baldessari say about this photograph, I wonder?

Boulevard Theatre, Los Angeles © Monika Seitz Vega, 2011

A stone's throw from the Alameda, at 4549 E. Whittier Blvd., is the Boulevard Theatre. Built in the early 1920s, the theatre was originally named the Red Mill and has been used as a church for many years. Visible on the blade where "Boulevard" was once spelled is "Huggy Boy", the name of a popular Los Angeles radio DJ who once worked out of the building. 

Sunshine Brooks Theatre © Monika Seitz Vega, 2011

The Sunshine Brooks opened under the name Margo Theatre in the 1930s. After decades of showing movies, the Margo turned into a pussycat theatre and eventually closed in the (everybody together now!) 1980s. In the early 2000s the city of Oceanside acquired the theatre and renovated it for live performances, renaming it the Sunshine Brooks Theatre after a local financial donor. The theatre is located on Pacific Coast Highway in the heart of downtown Oceanside. 

For the final theatre, lucky #17 of the theatres of 2011, I figured I'd go out with a bang and do something I don't ever do, and likely won't do again.... I (lazily) used Photoshop to merge two images together. Wild AND crazy, I know. But here's the thing.... the Kirk Douglas Theatre -- originally known as the Culver -- in Culver City, CA is something to behold. Even across the street, with my trusty 22mm wide angle lens camera, I still wasn't able to get both building and tower in the frame. I plan to one day, as I also plan to photograph it at night (tower lit = a wonder to behold), but for the sake of this project, I'm including the photographs I took when I first visited the Culver, in the summer of 2011.

Culver Theatre © Monika Seitz Vega, 2011

The Culver has been a staple in Culver City (home of Sony and Columbia Pictures, for starters) since 1946. Originally a single screen, it had been split into multiple screens at one point in an effort to compete with bigger cinemas. The theatre was renovated and renamed the Kirk Douglas Theatre in 2004 and now hosts live performances and special events. Located at 9820 Washington Blvd., the theatre is visible from several blocks away and is a lovely place to stop on the way to or from an Angel City Derby Girls bout at the nearby Veteran's Memorial Auditorium (you can thank me later). 

Thanks to everyone who came along for this 17 stop trip through the theatres I visited in 2011. 2012's list is already swelling, and I plan to start sharing those very soon.