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This theatre's history is a bit unclear; some have argued that it opened as a restaurant in late December 1917, the Maison Marcell, owned by Marcell Annechaini; a theater called the "Olympic" dated back to at least 1909 as a newspaper article in the Los Angeles Times named it as such; it is, however, doubtful that this was the same theater; Bard's Eighth Street Theatre seated 600 people when it opened as the last house in Louis Bard's chain, c. 1925; apparently, it was re-named the "Olympic" in 1932, corresponding to the staging of the Olympics in Los Angeles that year; the Metropolitan Theatre chain owned the Olympic (along with their other downtown venues, the Orpheum, the Palace, and the State) in the 1990s; they closed the Olympic c.1997.

The original Chinese styled interior was gutted at some point; exterior remodeling occurred in 1942, when architect Charles O. Matcham added a new ticket office and did other "minor changes" costing $1500; the work was done for Ben K. Tanner.

PCAD id: 2523