Looking southeast across Wilshire Boulevard at Berendo Street towards Immanuel Presbyterian Church and the Talmadge Building. Further east is Bullock's Wilshire (far left). Photograph dated August 4, 1936
Originally opened as the Mason Opera House in 1903, the theatre was one of the city’s most popular opera venues for more than twenty years. In 1930, it was leased as a playhouse by R.K.O., and then in 1937, it was leased by theatre operator Frank Fouche who sought to turn it into a “Mexican Music House.” By the mid-1940s, the theatre had a screen installed on the stage, and they ran Spanish-language films for about ten years before it was torn down in 1956 to make way for construction of the Junipero State Office Building, which in turn was torn down in 2006 to make way for the new US Courthouse.
The Jalopy Journal
