Olympic Theatre (Los Angeles)

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Olympic Theatre
Bard's Eighth Street Theater.png
The theater in 1927
Olympic Theatre (Los Angeles)
Former namesBard's Eight Street Theatre
Address313 West Eighth Street
Los Angeles
Coordinates 34°02′40″N118°15′18″W / 34.0445°N 118.2550°W / 34.0445; -118.2550
Type Movie theater
Capacity 600
Construction
Built1925
OpenedApril 2, 1927
Renovated1942, mid-2000s, 2017
Closed1986 or 1997
Architect Lewis Arthur Smith (1925)
Charles Matcham (1942)

Olympic Theatre, formerly Bard's Eighth Street Theatre, was a movie theater located at 313 West Eighth Street in the Jewelry District in the historic core of downtown Los Angeles. It is currently a two-story retail building.

Contents

History

The building that would become Olympic Theatre originally opened as a restaurant in 1917. [1] [2] The building was converted to a theater by Lewis Arthur Smith, an architect known for many theaters in southern California, most notably the Vista, El Portal, Highland, Rialto, and Ventura. [3] This theater, the last of Louis L. Bard's numerous theaters to open, was built in 1925 at a cost of $200,000 ($3.59 million in 2024). [2] It opened as Bard's Eighth Street Theater with the premiere of Oh Baby on April 2, 1927, and had a capacity of 600 at opening. [4] [5]

Bard's Eight Street Theatre was renamed Olympic Theatre in 1932, a rename that corresponded to the Olympic Games being held in the city that year. [4] A blade sign was added to the building in 1934 [6] and the theater's exterior was remodeled, including the addition of a ticket office, in 1942. Charles Matcham led the 1942 remodel, which cost $1,500 ($28,867 in 2024). [4]

Metropolitan Theatres, who operated Olympic Theater as a Spanish-language movie theater its later years, closed the theater in either 1986 [1] [5] or 1997. [2] [4] The building was renovated in the mid-2000s and reopened as a chandelier and French rococo furniture store in 2007. [5]

COS moved into the building in 2017 and also restored the building's facade to its original color and look. [7]

Architecture and design

Olympic Theatre is rectangular in plan and made of concrete with stucco cladding, wood casement windows, and a tiled entryway. The building features a flat parapet, symmetric facade, and is decorated with a belt course and pilasters. [1]

The theater interior was originally Chinese-styled, but this was later removed. [4] Additionally, sometime between 1986 and 2004, the theater's interior was stripped to its four walls, leveled, and painted white, and the two stairways that connect the lobby and auditorium were cemented into ramps. [5]

Olympic Theatre was featured in the 1971 film The Omega Man . [5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Historic Resource - Olympic Theatre - 313 W 8th St". City of Los Angeles. August 22, 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 Sharp, Steven (August 9, 2017). "The Curtain Lifts at the Olympic Theatre". Urbanize LA.
  3. ↑ Michelson, Alan. "Lewis Arthur Smith (Architect)". University of Washington Pacific Coast Architecture Database . Retrieved December 14, 2024.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Michelson, Alan. "Bard's 8th Street Theatre, Los Angeles, CA". University of Washington Pacific Coast Architecture Database . Retrieved March 26, 2025.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "Olympic Theatre". downtownla.com. Retrieved March 26, 2025.
  6. ↑ "Olympic Theatre". Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation. Retrieved March 26, 2025.
  7. ↑ Directo-Meston, Danielle (August 25, 2017). "Minimalist-Cool Label COS' Third LA Shop Takes Over DTLA's Olympic Theater". UncoverLA.
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