THE FAIRFAX THEATER 7907 Beverly Boulevard
Historic-Cultural Monuments Status
Submitted by The Friends of the Fairfax Theater 1. Name: The Fairfax Theater 2. Street Address: 7909/7901 Beverly Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90048 3. Assessor Parcel Number: 5527036020 4. Legal Description: TR 6790, Lots 338,337,336,335, Map reference M B 74-32 5. Present Owner: Alex Gorby, B and F Associates LLC 710 Wilshire Blvd. Ste 409 Santa Monica, CA 90401-1719 Tel: 310-394-6100
6. Present Use: Theater/commercial
7. Architectural Style: Art Deco
8. Physical Description:
Exterior
The Fairfax Theater located on the northwest corner of Beverly Blvd. and Fairfax Ave. is a mixed use complex consisting of a cinema triplex surrounded by attached shops to the south and east of the theater. The structure is constructed of poured in place reinforced concrete with interiors consisting of metal lathe and plaster. A four story fly tower rises on the north end of the complex. The theater’s marquee, ticket booth and entry are south facing and situated on Beverly Blvd., flanked by two shop fronts. The first shop front, to the west, is a single story and the shop to the east has offices above. The east façade along Fairfax Avenue is lined with similar small shop fronts broken only by two gateways leading to emergency exits for the theater. The southernmost and northernmost of the shops have second stories. The west façade is an unadorned concrete wall articulated only by concrete buttresses with an entrance to the basement and another entrance leading to the backstage area. The north façade is a sheer concrete wall rising to a height of four stories to the west and descending to two stories closer to Fairfax to the east.
The building’s southern and eastern façades are designed in an elegant Art Deco style expressed through the use of fluted pilasters framing single jointed bays with shallow gables. These elements articulate the upper floor and parapet of the structure in an irregular serrated rhythm, which rises and falls with the various uses of the structure. The widest pilasters continue to street level and break the line of shop windows and doors up into individual units, which are crowned by transom windows. The structure’s second story windows are of various sizes, the original steel framed windows having been replaced by irregular aluminum windows.
The centerpiece of the building remains the theater entrance. It is here that the Art Deco design is most expressive. Like a great concrete geyser, the theater’s slender tower soars above the marquee and was crowned first by a spray of electric lights in imitation of oil well and later replaced by an electric globe of lights. A second truncated tower capped with a small concrete dome balances the entrance. In between a screen of corrugated concrete panels, its top portion recessed slightly, acts as a backdrop above the marquee.
The marquee itself is not the original. The first marquee was of metal and neon, with an arched front and side panels adorned with Greco-Indian decoration and capped with palmette acroterions above the center and at the corners. The current design utilizes corrugated metal decoration to mimic the concrete screen above the marquee and the larger jointed panels around the building. The underside of the marquee is a coffered ceiling each square containing a sunburst pattern with a light in the center. The recessed entry has a terrazzo floor, which has retained its original design. Other elements such as the fluted pilasters, the position of the lighting and the corrugated molding surmounted by a vaulted ceiling are all original.
The ticket booth is from the theater’s first redecoration during the 1940s to a more florid style, known alternatively as Regency Deco or “Skouras Style” after Fox West Coast Theaters and later Twentieth Century Fox president Spyros Skouras, who dressed up his deco theaters in Rococo accessories. The booth originally was a black lacquer Art Deco box with chrome trim and a tiered roof. The update transformed the booth, rounding its corners ad windows, as well as cladding it with a brushed nickel finish sheet metal and festooning it with flowing Rococo scrollwork.
Interior
The lobby reflects the 1981 redecoration. The original wooden doors with an 18-panel design, have been replaced by metal and plate glass doors with an Art Deco fountain etching. Inside, the original sloped floor has been leveled and covered in tile. To the left a handicap accessible ramp has been installed with a decorative metal railing. A series of new sconces lines the west wall. To the right a faux Streamline Moderne concession stand runs the length of the lobby. The walls have retained their original recesses and the crown molding, vaulted ceiling and skylight are all original.
A short series of steps leads to the theater vestibule, which runs the width of the theater. On either end are stairs with their original wrought iron banisters, leading to the restrooms, staff areas and film projection booths upstairs. There are three large doorways with tiered arches above them (now filled with neon sunbursts)which, at one time all led into the main theater. Since the division of the original auditorium into three theaters, the east and west doors lead to the small theaters and the center door leads to a long hallway and the main theater. This hallway has a faux Art Deco tiered ceiling dating from the 1981 remodel and a railing along its east wall. This area is carpeted.
The east theater is a small room, which has been carved from the southwest corner of the original theater space. Again reflecting the 1981 remodel the décor is 1980s Art Deco with walls lined in drywall and mounted with decorative felt panels with new sconces. An aisle runs along the west side of the room. The front of the auditorium is dominated by the movie screen, above which hangs a Viennese style curtain. The original ceiling mural is covered by a dropped ceiling of foam panels. The seats are not original. The west theater is a mirror image of this auditorium with the aisle on the east side of the room. Arrangement and decorative scheme are identical.
The main theater is the northern half of the original auditorium. This is the most intact portion of the entire theater. The room retains the original proscenium arch and decorative organ screens which consist of a lattice of interlocking chevrons and diamonds painted gold. Beneath them are the exits leading to the outside and to the backstage access. The exits are surmounted by two large rococo scroll pelmets, which date from the second redecoration of the theater. The ceiling is metal lathe and plaster with a recessed central panel framed with a decorative cornice in which is set a Art Deco metal light fixture which is flush with the ceiling. The ceiling is painted with abstract floral designs, which date from the second redecoration with further embellishment from the third 1981 redecoration. The west and east wall retain their plaster deco pilasters. Three on each wall are visible. The rest of the wall is mounted with felt panels, modern sconces and speakers. The rear of the theater is from the 1981 remodel and is the rear wall of the two smaller auditoriums. The lower portion is mounted with speakers. The upper portion of the wall is recessed, mimicking a balcony, which masks the projection windows. The aisles are carpeted and the seats are not original.
Backstage is a narrow space of vast height. Built for live performances as well as movies, the Fairfax Theater’s backstage provided ample space for the storage of sets in either wing as well as above in the four story fly tower. All original curtains are now gone. There is a curtain of which is not original. The wooden plank floors are original. On either side of the stage there are metal ladders, which lead to two large sliding fire doors. The spaces beyond were to provide access to the organ piping. Rising up the east wall three stories up is a metal staircase, which leads to the former dressing rooms. On the east side of the stage was a stairway leading down to a small narrow concrete room, which was used as the organ well. Off of this is another small space beneath the stage. The organ is gone but the ventilator pipes remain.
The basement of the theater is accessed from the alley along the west side of the building. A metal stairway leads down past the water jets of the original swamp cooling system. At the bottom of the stairs are the original and updated electric panels. To the left a narrow hallway leads to the original cylindrical rotator fan of the cooling system and the to the right are the boiler rooms and storage areas. All walls are reinforced concrete.
The second floor of the theater has been much altered with the installation of the two new auditoriums and a multiple projection booths. Access to the second floor offices and dressing rooms was not available, however a description of the spaces was provided by Benjamin Barbash, former General Manager of the Fairfax Theater;
“The dressing room area consists of four separate rooms, a common area, and a half-bath (toilet & sink only), as well as a fire exit stairway leading down to the alleyway leading to Fairfax Avenue. Two of the rooms still possess wooden shelving and counters as well as electrical outlets consistent with "dressing rooms" designed to accommodate multiple performers at a given time. A third room between these two rooms has a large industrial sink and has been painted black, presumably for use as a darkroom within the last 25 years. All three of these rooms possess windows facing Fairfax Avenue. The fourth room is immediately to the right of the steel door entrance from the stage and appears to have been converted into some sort of private screening room, complete with gray ribbed fabric lining the walls as for soundproofing as well as an approximately 3'x5' motorized projection screen attached to the wall adjacent to the stage space.”
The stores along Beverly and Fairfax have all gone through multiple changes since construction as their storefronts and interiors would have been altered repeatedly with the changes of tenants and time. What if any historic elements remain would be buried under dropped ceilings and drywall.
9. Construction Date: 1930
10. Architect: W. C. Pennel
11. Contractor: William Simpson Construction Co.
12. Photo Documentation: attached
13. Condition: Good/Fair
14. Alterations:
The Fairfax Theater has undergone a great deal of alteration since its construction in 1930. Fortunately most of this work has been cosmetic on the exterior with the greater alterations taking place on the interior due to periodic redecoration. There are few of these alterations, which could not be reversed and little that would need recreation. The original roof signs however have been lost.
On the exterior the most significant alterations concern the marquee, the shop fronts and the windows. The marquee in historic photographs was a projecting neon and metal sign with Greco-Indian design motifs. This marquee was redesigned in the 1980s and refaced in corrugated metal design, which mimics the Art Deco rhythms of the building itself. Across the front and sides of the marquee is now a large fluorescent light box upon which Plexiglas lettering is placed. Cascades of colored neon connect the marquee to the two towers above it, making them landmarks at night. The recessed entry beneath the marquee has also undergone change with the redecoration of the ticket booth in Regency Deco style, the replacement of the original wooden doors with metal ones, the tiling of the walls between the poster cases and the loss of the Art Deco mural of the horn blower above the doors.
The shop fronts have seen the most dramatic alteration over time, from the removal of the original wooden doors and window framing with aluminum, to the elimination of recessed and articulated entryways and display windows, the blocking up of transom windows and the installation of unsympathetic signage. The original second story wooden windows have also been removed and replaced by aluminum windows of irregular sizes, which do not match the originals.
The interiors of the Fairfax Theater complex have also seen a great deal of change over the decades. The individual shops have been altered repeatedly with the change of tenants as well as the installation of modern services and conveniences. The theater itself has experienced various redecorations and re-orientations. In the lobby the original sloping floor to the theater entrances has been leveled off and a concession stand and handicap access ramp with railing have been installed. The carpets have been changed and the floor of the lobby is now tiled.
The main auditorium has been broken up into three spaces, two small new theaters and the truncated main theater, which comprises the front half of the original auditorium. All carpet, seating, curtains, speakers, projection equipment and the majority of lighting is all new. Although the painted ceiling decorations remain, there have been additions and embellishment with each subsequent redecoration scheme.
Backstage much of the theater equipment has been removed. The organ and blower have been removed as well as the elevator, which would have raised and lowered it. All sets and the asbestos curtain are gone, however curtain rigging still remains.
Upstairs the layout has been altered with the expansion of the projection booth to accommodate three modern projectors, film storage and staff uses. Both ladies and men’s restrooms have been updated. As access was limited no other alterations were noted.
15. Threats to Site: Private Development
16. Is it on its original site: yes
17. Significance: The Fairfax Theater is an important example of early Art Deco theater architecture, which meets the requirements of the Cultural Heritage Ordinance because of the high quality of design and the retention of its original, form, detailing, and integrity. The Fairfax Theater also stands as a distinctive cultural monument being associated with the history of the Fairfax Neighborhood and Jewish Community and its architectural, cultural and social development.
History
On June 2nd, 1929 a headline in the LA Times proclaimed “Beverly Boulevard Playhouse Announced”. Beneath the headline was a rendering of the new theater in “modern style” surrounded by a series of single story shop fronts, a marquee and slender tower embellishing the theater entrance and a large neon sign hovering over the fly tower with the name, FAIRFAX THEATRE. The article quoted the builders who said that the 1800 seat theater would be complete in 90 days time and cost $400,000, a later article would site $150,000 and 1500 seats, which was the actual number.
The property was owned by Nelson C. Stein and the theater was to be leased an operated by the Fairfax Theater Co. owned by Harry Srere, Gus A. Matzger, and Charles A. Nichthauser. These gentlemen ran a small independent consortium of theaters including the opulent Forum Theater on Pico Blvd.
The Fairfax Theater was designed by architect W. C. Pennell and the firm of William Simpson & Co. was the contractor. Pennell during this period was the partner of eminent Los Angeles architect John C. Austen. During their collaboration, the pair designed many civic and industrial projects as well as such landmarks as the West Adams Methodist Episcopal Church (now the Greater Temple Page Church of God), The Hotel Leighton on MacArthur Park (now Lost), and The Bronson Block 527 W. 7th Street (now the Collection Building). Earlier in his career WC Pennell was a partner of theater architect Lewis A. Smith. Pennell alone is also attributed as architect of the Strand Theater (now lost), which was located at 4407 S. Broadway and burned during the Watts Riots of 1962.
The Fairfax Theater has operated as a movie theater, concert hall and community auditorium for nearly eight decades. As early as 1931 the theater was used to sneak preview movies such as “The Lightning Flyer” with James Hall and Dorothy Sebastian and “Headline Woman” in 1935. The theater also played host to live entertainment such as a 25 player mini symphony conducted by Salvatore Santaella each Sunday.
The Theater has always been an enduring presence in the neighborhood’s strong Jewish community playing host to variety of Jewish charitable and religious organizations such as Associates of the Jewish Orphans Home, the Jewish Center Association, Hadassah, Temple Etz Jacob and the Fairfax Temple. During WWII, propaganda films such as After Mein Kampf (1940) where shown at the Fairfax and later war bonds events were also held at there. The movie “Naked Among the Wolves” (1967) a rare East German film about the experiences of Bruno Apitz, survivor of the Buchenwald concentration camp, also made its Los Angeles premier at the Fairfax. The theater would later welcome new Russian Jewish emigrants to Fairfax by playing Russian language films on weekend mornings.
The Fairfax Theater has also been host to visits of famous personalities. Gene Autry performed in the theater in 1951 to benefit two children’s institutions. Later during the 1960 Kennedy campaign Eleanor Roosevelt came and spoke before a crowd at the Fairfax Theater. A special honor to the Jewish community was during the 1960s when Yaacov Meridor author of “Long is the Road to Freedom” and the leader of the Jewish Patriots of the Hebrew National Liberation Movement, the Irgun Zvai Leumi, paid a visit to the theater.
The theater made a brief attempt at being a full fledged performance venue in 1969 with the production of the avante garde “Oh Calcutta!”. The planned performance caused significant media attention due to its salacious nature and almost entirely nude cast. The buzz caught the attention of the LA City District Attorney’s office who attended a preview show with three judges and several police officers. During the second week of performances officers arrested seven members of the cast on charges of lewd and indecent exposure as well as the show’s producer Lou Shaw. The show finally closed in Jan 1970, after legal and financial troubles mounted. Since then no other major production has been attempted at the Fairfax other than smaller theater productions and revues of live bands in the early 1980s.
In 1981, the Fairfax Theater was purchased from the Mann Theater chain by Sidney and Christopher Kurchin. The new owners began the renovation of the theater, including the division of the main auditorium. Much of their work is still in evidence today. In 1985 Cineplex Odeon who took over the theater planned a full rehabilitation of the exterior of the building. The planned project however never materialized. Today the theater is managed by Regency Theaters who operate the theater as a bare bones operation. The current owners of the site, B and F Associates, have made no significant investment or upkeep of the building since acquiring the property a decade ago. Current plans are to demolish the theater and commercial shop fronts and build a 71 unit condo development with underground parking, while retaining the façade and theater entrance.
The Fairfax Theater in context: Art Deco
As Los Angeles came out of the Roaring Twenties and into the Great Depression it began to look past the influence of the romantically inspired Spanish and Period Revivals for a new style which could exemplify the emerging status of Los Angeles as a large and dynamic American city. The wellspring of inspiration during this period was the Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes, held in 1925 in Paris, France, which harkened the arrival of a new “modernistic” style. The style, which came to be known as Art Deco, spoke to the aspirations of people everywhere with its clear modernity and references to technological progress. This suited the purposes of a city like Los Angeles, which was eager to associate itself with a style, which projected its new-found sophistication, freedom from convention, and business innovation. This created a demand for Art Deco design in a wide range of building types, many of them newly created to meet the needs of new industries. Men’s wear purveyor James Oviatt attended the Paris Exposition and while there retained French designers and craftsmen to design the interior of his proposed new building in Los Angeles (Albert Walker and Percy A. Eisen 1927-28). When the owners of Bullock’s Department Store decided to build a new flagship store on Wilshire Boulevard, they too chose the new style. Bullock’s Wilshire (John & Donald Parkinson, Feil & Paradise, Jock Peters, et al) built in 1929, not only set a new standard for department stores but also the way in which architecture and interior design integrated the Art Deco style. There are a wide variety of buildings in Los Angeles which demonstrate the enthusiasm of the city for Art Deco. Other early examples included the Sunset Tower (Leland A. Bryant 1929), and the Eastern Columbia Building (Claude Beelman, 1930). Los Angeles adopted the Deco style as its signature long before 1930, but in the years between 1929 and 1933, while the rest of the country struggled with the Great Depression, it reached its zenith, further evidence of the strength, maturity and vivacity of the city. In its formative years Art Deco followed two very distinctive paths—two interpretations of a single philosophy. Los Angeles had seen glimpses of modern architecture in the work of Irving Gill, Rudolph Schindler and Richard Neutra, all of whom took their inspiration from one directive which rejected ornamentation of any kind, but looked upon architecture as “beautiful machinery.” (Le Corbusier). While that certainly was a new approach, these architects executed their vision of modernism largely in the domestic realm. The lavish decoration of Art Deco answered the need for an architecture which would express a new attitude in commercial, industrial, and domestic design, as well as the social atmosphere of the country in general and Los Angeles in particular. The Fairfax Theater is an outstanding example of a neighborhood movie house and performance hall, yet with all the hallmarks of a prominent, first-run theater, such as the Pantages. Its scale is suited to its siting on the block and within the community, but it offers the type of elegance and unity of design that is usually associated with more high-profile theaters. That it remains in use as a theater makes it even more unique; most of its contemporaries, such as the Pan Pacific (demolished), the El Rey (a nightclub), or the La Reina (converted to retail) no longer represent the neighborhood movie theater in an original context.
The Art Deco Theater
Los Angeles did not suffer in the Depression to the same extent as the rest of the country. This was due in large part to the movie industry, which produced and exported the common antidote to people’s misery. Pre-Depression Los Angeles experienced a boom in the construction of lavish movie palaces and local movie houses as the studios sought to extend their reach into the business of marketing, as well as making, movies. In the decades preceding the Depression, on Broadway downtown and on Hollywood Boulevard, the great movie and vaudeville palaces such as the Egyptian (1922), Grauman’s Chinese (1928), The Mayan (1927), the French Renaissance style Orpheum (1926), and the Churrigueresque Million Dollar Theater (1918) exuded sumptuous exoticism intended to enchant audiences even before the show began. While the Egyptian, Mayan and Chinese theaters exhibited—to a greater or lesser extent—glimmers of Art Deco in their various architect’s and designer’s interpretation of indigenous architectural elements, these theaters by and large held fast to traditional influences and historic prototypes. The dawn of the great Depression created the right atmosphere for Art Deco. Theater owners began to look for less expensive alternatives to their grand historically inspired movie palaces which were expensive to build and to maintain. Charles S. Lee, an early proponent of the Art Deco, exclaimed that during the depression, “you couldn’t afford to build monuments and we looked for another type of stimulating architecture”. In Art Deco they found a style, which was not only new, but progressive and economical as well. Architects and designers liked it because it “offers the decorator a fresh and fertile field for the play of imagination”. Marcus Priteca commenting on his designs for the Pantages Theater said that Art Deco as a style was, “an original treatment that would best exemplify America of the moment…motifs that were modern, never futuristic-based on time-tested classicism of enduring good taste and beauty.”
Both studio behemoths Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Brothers embraced Art Deco creating a series of dazzling theaters in the new style, which was then adopted by smaller theater chains and independents. These early theaters included; Fox Belmont (1929), Pantages Theater (Hollywood, 1930), Fox Wilshire (Beverly Hills, 1930), Warner (Huntington Park, 1930), Warner Grand (San Pedro, 1930), Fox Wilshire (Santa Monica, 1931), Roxie (Los Angeles, 1931), and the Wiltern (1931).
The Fairfax Theater
It is in this context that the Fairfax Theater is set. Designed and begun in 1929, completed in 1930, the Fairfax is among the earliest of Los Angeles’ Art Deco Theaters. The developers of the Fairfax were clearly trying to catch the rising tide of movie viewership, which was to reach an all time high in 1930 and most likely appreciated the economy of the Art Deco. But what the style of the Fairfax also provided was aspiration, referencing for the middle class community of Fairfax the class of Bullock’s Wilshire, the glamour of Hollywood, and the wealth of Beverly Hills. As they passed under its mini tower, they entered an Art Deco atmosphere, which reflected the Art Deco fantasies at play on the screen.
WC Pennell’s Art Deco design for the Fairfax Theater showed his deep grounding in Beaux Arts and classical architectural training as well as his taste for simplicity. Pennell’s work with John Austin on the design of the Wade Art Tile and Pottery Factory in Wilmington, the design for Anaheim’s Polytechnic High School and the Alhambra Savings Bank were clear classical compositions, strict and ordered in their arrangement. His revivalist churches and his craftsman Tudor houses were also clean lined and sober. His design for the Fairfax reflects this desire for order and simplicity as well as his struggle with a new stylistic vocabulary.
The first rendering of the Fairfax shows a unified single story façade of seemingly unified shop fronts only broken by the slender tower, theater entrance and the exit gates on Fairfax Avenue. The original design shows the second story recessed behind the serrated edge of the parapet. Pennell’s stark white design utilizing fluted pilasters with no capitals, friezes, flourishes or ornament to articulate the building’s various uses spoke more of the work of Irving Gill or John C. Austin’s L.A. City Hall than the Parkinson’s Bullock’s.
Later changes to the program however produced a different outcome, with a second story rising to the height of the theater entrance. The result reduces the prominence of the theater entrance obscuring it behind the bulk of the building’s mass on the corner. This arrangement also breaks the up massing of the exterior making it appear as several different buildings connected only through color and decoration.
While Pennell’s discomfort with the balancing of his classical instincts, programmatic requirements and Art Deco styling, is evident on the exterior of the building, he found transcendence in his treatment of the interior. The audience coming off the street would pass through a series of transitory spaces again articulated only by the simplest of decoration. An undulating cornice, a fluted pilaster, a vaulted ceiling inset with a modern skylight, the only flourish was the repeating pattern of the carpet. Original pictures of these spaces recall the vestibules to classical tombs or temples, a far cry from the raucous snack bar atmosphere today.
Once through the door to the auditorium, Pennell’s classicism again asserts itself, this time without the hindrance of programmatic details. Here symmetry and proportion reigned, the sweeping lines of the aisles mimicked by the intricate moldings and chevron murals on the ceiling, and the repeated series of pilasters with cubist capitals, which line the walls again recalling the idea of the temple. The room was illuminated by frosted glass and metal sconces, which were centered between the pilasters. There were also two large metal and frosted glass skylights depicting an abstract design, which is vaguely reminiscent of Frank Lloyd Wright.
At the end of the room, two convex organ screens flank the stage. With these Pennell continues his use of pilasters however without the capitals and fills the bays in between with elaborate molded plaster screens of a repeating diamond and chevron pattern. The stage itself is simple with an unadorned proscenium arch crowned by a shallow curved eave which projects out from the top of the stage. The effect of Pennell’s restrained Art Deco classicism is both striking and elegant.
The late 1930s and early 40s saw the emergence of another variant of Art Deco known as Regency Deco. Like Streamline Moderne, Regency Deco softened the hard lines and crystalline structures of early Art Deco favoring the horizontal over the vertical curves over straight lines and corners. Unlike Streamline Moderne, Regency Deco utilized swirling oversized Rococo ornament and sweeping drapery to create theatrical effects. Like many theaters, the Fairfax underwent a redecoration in this new style which introduced murals in the auditorium and Rococo elements as well as swags of billowy curtains and even a faux night sky. The original ticket booth was also replaced with a new Regency one. These small details and cosmetic changes shifted the atmosphere of Pennell’s theater from sophisticated severity to swirling fantasy.
18. Sources:
“Beverly Boulevard Playhouse Announced: Theater and Store Buildings Will Be Erected Within Ninety Days”. Los Angeles Times Jun 2 1929.
Breeze, Carla. American Art Deco. (New York: W.W. Norton &Co., 2003)
Chazanov, Mathis. “Delays Make Some Skeptical of Project Keyed to 30’s Revival”. Los Angeles Times Aug. 15 1985.
Cooper, Suzanne et al. Theaters in Los Angeles. Images of America Series. (San Francisco; Arcadia Publishing, 2008)
Folven Edwin. “Fairfax Theaters May Face Curtain Call”. Beverly Press Vol. 19 No. 29 July 16th 2009.
Grant, Lee. “One Day Laborer at the Fairfax- It’s No Matinee for the Idle” Los Angeles Times Sept. 9 1981.
“Ground Broken For a Playhouse on Beverly”. Los Angeles Times Oct 20th 1929.
Kendall, John “Show Cancelled After Arrest of ‘Oh! Calcutta!” Performers”. Los Angeles Times Dec 18th 1969
Knapp, Dan “‘Oh! Calcutta!’ Closed by Legal, Financial Troubles”. Los Angeles Times Jan 8 1970.
Luther, Marylou. “Cast Was Bare, but the First-Nighters Dressed”. Los Angeles Times Dec. 5, 1969
McFarlin A. B. for Cosgrove and Company Inc., Fox West Coast Theatres, Fairfax Theatre, Original Inspection Report. February 16th 1935.
Putnam, Michael, intro Robert Sklar. Silent Screens: The Decline and Transformation of the American Movie Theater. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000)
“Six Bands At Fairfax Theater” Los Angeles Times Mar 18 1980.
“Theater Will Give Concert”. Los Angeles Times Mar 22nd 1931
Valentine, Maggie. The Show Starts on the Sidewalk: An Architectural History of the Movie Theater. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994
19. Name: Brian Curran Jr. for The Friends of the Fairfax Theater 855 South Highland Ave. Los Angeles CA 90036 323-397-5375
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