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Overview

The extravagantly ornate, Baroque/Deco/Moderne Loyola Theatre opened on 10/03/1946 a little over a year after the conclusion of World War II. It functioned as a movie theatre until 1982. It later became converted to a medical office building, although only portions of the spectacular. original facade were retained.

Building History

Fox West Coast Theatres, Incorporated, which had a long and complex ownership history beginning in 1921, aggressively built, bought and sold West Coast movie theatres during the balance of the 1920s. Investors in the exhibition company changed periodically, as the business was both profitable and volatile. Rapid expansion required the company to take on significant debt, which could be serviced when exhibition revenues remained high. By the late 1920s, the West Coast exhibition circuit was aligning itself with that of William Fox (né Wilhelm Fried Fuchs, 1879-1952), and by late 1928 Fox gained control from Harold Franklin, president of West Coast Theatres. Fox's new firm, Fox West Coast Theatres, operated officially under this name by 02/1929, but for only for a very short time. Fox experienced serious financial problems by 1930, for several reasons. He had a serious automobile accident in 07/1929, rivals in the movies industry encouraged a US Justice Department anti-trust investigation, and the Stock Market's collapse of 10/1929, all combined to drain Fox's wealth and influence and caused him to lose control of his exhibition empire by 1930. The National Theatre Corporation, led by Charles Skouras (1889-1954), obtained the bankrupt Fox West Coast chain on 11/20/1933 for $17,000,000.

The Loyola Theatre opened on Thursday, 10/03/1946, with a premiere of the film "3 Little Girls in Blue," starring June Haver, George Montgomery, Vivian Blaine, Celeste Holm, Vera Ellen and Frank Latimore. (See Loyola Theatre ad, Los Angeles Times, 09/30/1946, p. A3.)

The exterior of the Loyola had a remarkably dramatic design, its motifs drawn primarily from the Art Deco and Streamline Moderne periods, but amplified emphatically. Architectural writer Aaron Betsky described the Loyola's startling facade in a Los Angeles Times article of 1992: "Designed by Clarence J. Smale, the Loyola is essentially one image pasted on the front of a bow-trussed, rectangular volume. That image starts from the middle of the marquee and moves out to all the edges of the front in a series of fluid motions. The roof curves back and out, the sides recede in layers, and the roof rises into a slightly curved tower. The marquee itself, as well as tow side pavilions, either hold this curving force back or are being swept away by its force. Horizontal ledges emphasize the movement, and floriated decorations repeat it on a smaller scale. Even the pavement in front gets into the act with stylized white and red flowers dancing across waves of blue and yellow. If you look beyond the movement of these lines, you might see some mixed metaphors. There is something about water imagery, something about a jungle of orchids and birds of paradise, something even off Egypt in the form of the parapet and tower, which together resemble Nefertiti's hat. This is obviously the place for showing Esther Williams extravaganzas, or perhaps for seeing Cleopatra. Such flowing imagery was popular during the 1940s, when movie sets and theaters dissolved the rigid forms of reality into a more pliable, streamlined vision of a sensuous deformation of the world we experienced every day. What holds the diverse references and almost drunken lines together is the sheer force of the composition. The architect gives you the sense that the immense energy inside the building will engulf and drown you in fantasy." (See Aaron Betsky, "A Lasting Reminder of the Glory Days of the Cinema in Westchester," Los Angeles Times, 12/03/1992, p. WSJ2.)

The exterior reflected the curvilinear predilections of the Greek-born, Skouras Brothers, movie executives Spyros (1893-1971) and George (1896-1964), who became heads of major film production companies--20th Century Fox and United Artists, respectively--and eldest Charles, who led the Fox West Coast Theatres and National Theatres exhibition chains. Spyros Skouros led Twentieth Century Fox when the Loyola Theatre was completed. Some Skouras theatres featured prominent decoration, much of it having floral and wavellike forms, a vocabulary derived from Classical, Art Deco and Streamlline Moderne styles. A number of movie palaces, built in the 1920s had their appearances "Skourasized" in the 1940s, meaning that they were remodeled with these curvlinear and flowing forms on wall surfaces and floors. This type of design was an amplification of set designs (i.e., The Wizard of Oz) by Cedric Gibbons and others produced during the 1930s.

Clarence J. Smale has been credited with the design of Loyola Theatre's exterior, while Carl G. Moeller has been cited as being responisible for its interior design. Theatre historian Joe Vogel has said of the Loyola: "Carl G. Moeller, who collaborated on the Inglewood Fox with architect S. Charles Lee, and who also worked on the Crest in Fresno, was almost certainly part of the design team for the Loyola, though Clarence Smale is the architect of record." (See Joe Vogel chat note, in Cinema Treasures.org, "Loyola Theatre," published 04/09/2010, accessed 11/18/2025.)

The Loyola showed movies from its opening in 1946 until about 1982. By about 1981, the church was used by the American followers of Prem Pal Singh Rawat (born 12/10/1957), aka the Maharaji, who presided over the Divine Light Mission (Divya Sandesh Parishad or DLM). Its use as a church was fairly brief before it was purchased in 1982 by businessman Ted Sparks, of the Westchester real estate firm of Sparks and Muller, who set a date of 05/15/1982 as the last date that his lessee, Mickey Cottrell, who exhibited Hollywood classic movies, could use the facility. (See Sam Hall Kaplan, "A Dream Theater Is Forced to Wake Up to Reality," Los Angeles Times, 05/07/2025, p. J1, J10.)

Building Notes

Prior to 11/12/2025, PCAD incorrectly listed the Loyola Theatre as being in Inglewood, CA, rather than the Westchester neighborhood of Los Angeles. (Inglewood, an independent city, is located immediately to the east of Westchester.) Thank you to Andy Schmidt of SoCal Landmarks.com for pointing out the mistake. (See email to the author from Andy Schmidt, 11/12/2025.) This mistaken information was obtained from David Naylor's book, American Picture Palaces The Architecture of Fantasy, (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1981), pp. 203-204. Naylor wrote: "The Loyola and the Academy, two of S. Charles Lee's late art deco theaters in the Inglewood district of Los Angeles, have been turned into churches. The Academy was built toward the end if the thirties in an art moderne style, similar to that of the Pan-Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles. The Loyola, with its mid-1930s neoexpressionist swan-shaped exterior, was taken over by an Eastern religious group." Additionally, S. Charles Lee was given credit as designer, which was also incorrect, until 11/18/2025.

Writing in the Los Angeles Times in 05/1982, writer Sam Hall Kaplan said of the theatre: "The Loyola is certainly one of the most distinguished building in the community. It was designed by Clarence J. Smale, a Los Angeles architect, for West Coast Fox Theaters, a subsidiary of 20th Century Fox in the 1940s. The company president was then Spyros Skouros, who 'demanded oversized and lavish decoration to match the size and luxuriousness of his empire,' according to [John] Miller [of the California Society of Theater Historians.]. The Loyola when opened in 1948 [sic] was one of 20th Century Fox's showcase theaters. Located within a half hour's drive of the Fox Studio, the theater was frequently used for previews and the garnering of audience reactions to films before they were completed." (See Sam Hall Kaplan, "A Dream Theater Is Forced to Wake Up to Reality," Los Angeles Times, 05/07/1982, p. J1, J10.)

Medical office space was advertised as being available in the Abdi-Loyola Medical Building between at least 04/2015 and 05/2024.

Alteration

A 60-foot tower that composed part of the front facade and the theatre's marquee were removed in the early 1980s. Ted Sparks, who bought the Loyola Theatre with a partner in 03/1982, was quoted in a Los Angeles Times article of 07/24/1983: "'To maintain the exterior of the building as an office building would be somewhat bizarre,' he said. 'We're going to maintain the basic lines of the theater; you'll be able to tell it was a theater, but is no longer a theater. In other words, we're not going to retain the marquee but we'll keep some of the flowing lines. We are going to take off the tower (too).'" (See Paul Feldman, "Ornate Theater Appears Doomed," Los Angeles Times, 07/24/1983, p. SB2 and SB7.) Sparks worked with the architectural firm of Benton / Park / Candreva on the conversion of the movie theatre into an office building. Betsky described the facade's flowing lines in 1992, so the conversion did not happen by that point. (See Aaron Betsky, "A Lasting Reminder of the Glory Days of the Cinema in Westchester," Los Angeles Times, 12/03/1992, p. WSJ2.)

PCAD id: 15131