PCAD - Bankoku-za Theatre, Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, CA

AKA: Bankoku-za Theater, Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, CA; International Theatre, Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, CA

228 East First Street
Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, CA 90012-3801

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The Bankoku-za Theatre (International Theatre), the earliest Japanese-owned theatre space in Los Angeles, CA, exhibited both Japanese and American silent films to primarily Japanese-American audiences; when the partners Tani Bungaro and Tadayoshi Isoyama opened the Bankoku-za in 1907, there were approximately 6000 Japanese-American citizens of Los Angeles; this theatre had closed by 1918.

The theatre was sold in November 1916 to Takamori Chuzo, who remodeled and repaired the facility; Takamori had previously worked at the Shuttle Theatre;

PCAD id: 1448

Publications

Ogihara Junko, "The Exhibition of Film for Japanese-Americans in Los Angeles during the Silent Film Era", Film History, 4: 2, 81-87, 1990.

Bankoku-za Theatre, Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, CA (1907)

Publications