United Artists Theatre

[Gistok]

Well since I've had way too much caffeine tonight...

I'll share some info on the Detroit United Artists sister theatre in Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles UA was built a year earlier than the Detroit UA. It was the first forray of Detroit theatre Architect C. Howard Crane into building a west coast theatre, and also his first attempt at an exotic theatre.

Personally I think that he was a little bit over the top on the Los Angeles UA. The exterior looks somewhat like an overdecorated wedding cake. See 1st attached pic, a colorized historic postcard.

I think that Crane learned to control his more garish impulses by 1928 when he finished the Detroit UA and later that year the Detroit Fox [[with the St. Louis and Brooklyn Fox Theatres coming online in 1929).

The exterior of the Los Angeles UA had Gothic detailing that looked just a little bit too much like it belonged on a church, rather than an office building. The 2nd attached pic shows a photo of the theatre entranceway in the office block, and sort of shows what I mean.

The interior of the Los Angeles auditorium had a "cave Gothic" look to it, where the detailing of the organ screens reminds one of stalagtites. The detailing is so busy that it is not easy to focus on it [[3rd image)

Compare that detailing to a closeup of the organ screen of the Detroit UA [[4th image), and you can see that the Detroit theatre has crisper, richer detailing.

Anyway, the Los Angeles UA is located in downtown LA on Broadway St., in LA's theatre district. It is used today as a church, and is well maintained.

Downtown LA's theatre district has a lot of unrestored theatres... but they never had to deal with the thaw/freeze cycle nor burst frozen water pipes ruining plasterwork that Detroit theatres have had problems with, so they're not in bad shape [[mainly peeling paint and some plaster damage from minor earthquakes). Many of the LA unrestored movie palaces are still open and show Spanish language movies today.