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Downtown Independent

Movie theater in Los Angeles

Field	Value
name	Downtown Independent
logo_image	File:Downtownindependent.png
image	File:DowntownIndependent.jpg
former_names
address	251 S. Main Street
city	Los Angeles, CA
coordinates
capacity	500 (1924), 222 (2007)
screens	1
built	October 1924
opened	1924 (as Arrow Theater)
renovated
closed	March 17, 2020
years_active	1924– 1980, 2007–2020
architect
general_contractor	A.A. Laisy & Co. (1924)
website

The Downtown Independent (formerly the ImaginAsian Center) was a one screen theater and cinema located at 251 S. Main Street in the downtown area of Los Angeles, California. It was operated by the Downtown Independent and owned by Orange County, California's Cinema Properties Group. The venue is slightly less than 10000 sqft and had stadium seating for 222.

Film premieres at the theater include The Miracle Song, Goodbye Promise and Regular Show: The Movie.

History

Early years

The first theater on the site of the current Downtown Independent opened in 1924 as the Arrow Theater. The original owner, George Carpenter, had commissioned John E. Kunst to design a picture theater. The building included a pipe organ, two stores and auditorium seating for 500.

Under a new manager, Frank Fouce, the theater began to focus on Latin American films in the late 1930s. It was renamed on March 24, 1940 to the Azteca (later Aztec).

The Aztec hosted burlesque shows in 1941 and 1942.

The Linda Lea

The theater was renamed to the Linda Lea Theater in 1945. During this period, it focused on Japanese films and was especially popular in the 1960s.

By the early 1980s, the Linda Lea was declining, due to competition from nearby Japanese theaters and availability of Japanese programming on television and tapes. The theater closed and the building was bought by the Metropolitan News-Enterprise for use as an archive, but it fell into disuse and began to decay.

Renovation and reopening

Cinema Properties Group purchased the theatre in 2005, and following extensive renovations which incorporated some walls from the original theatre, it opened as the ImaginAsian Center in 2007 and was rebranded as the Downtown Independent in 2008. It closed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gallery

File:Old Linda Lea Theater.jpg|Linda Lea Theater (2006) File:Downtown Independent interior.jpg|Interior (2013)

References

Harl, Thomas. (September 9, 2016). "21 Movie Theaters in L.A. You Need to Experience Before You Die".
"Downtown Independent Theater". Downtown LA.
. (October 17, 1924). "[untitled]".
Counter, Bill. "Linda Lea / Downtown Independent".
"Linda Lea Theatre in Los Angeles, CA - Cinema Treasures".
Pierson, David. (March 3, 2007). "Curtain rises again in Little Tokyo". Los Angeles Times.
Hill, Leonard. (March 22, 2013). "Dorfman Does Downtown".
"Downtown Independent in Los Angeles, CA - Cinema Treasures".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

2007-establishments-in-california 2020-disestablishments-in-california former-cinemas-and-movie-theaters-in-los-angeles little-tokyo,-los-angeles

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