Lincoln Theater (Los Angeles, California)
Encyclopedia
The Lincoln Theater is a historic theater in South Los Angeles, California. The Moorish Revival building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
in 2009. Sometimes referred to as the "West Coast Apollo", the Lincoln Theater was one of the most significant establishments along the Central Avenue Corridor
that became the cultural and business hub of the African American community in Los Angeles from the 1920s to the 1950s. For more than 30 years, the Lincoln featured live theater, musical acts, talent shows, vaudeville, and motion pictures, including live performances by the leading African-American performers of the era, including Lionel Hampton
, Duke Ellington
, the Nat King Cole Trio, and Billie Holiday
. The theater was converted to use as a church in 1962 and continues to be used for religious services.
with a large stage, orchestra pit, and seating for 2,100 persons. The building was designed by architect John Paxton Perrine (1886–1972), who is known for his design of Southern California movie palaces in the 1920s, including the California Theater (1926, San Diego), the Roosevelt Theater (1926, Hawthorne
), the Fox Redondo Theater (1927, Redondo Beach
), and the California Theatre
(1928, San Bernardino).
The Lincoln Theater is considered an outstanding example of Exotic Revival and Moorish Revival architecture. The front facade is divided into three symmetrical bays with the theater's entrance at the bottom of the central bay. The facade is marked by decorative ceramic tile above arches in the side bays and columns that are capped by onion-shaped capitals and lance-shaped spires. The area in the central bay above the marquee is decorated with layers of arches and columns that were intended to create "the overall impression of a step-back tower in low relief".
in the Broadway Theater District. However, African Americans were either excluded from these theaters altogether or restricted to "colored only" seating areas. During the 1910s and 1920s, a number of cultural and business institutions catering to the African-American population of Los Angeles opened along a one-mile stretch of South Central Avenue. These included Dreamland Rink, the Murray Pocket Billiard Emporium and Cigar Stand, the 28th Street YMCA
, Second Baptist Church
, Sidney P. Dones Company (offering real estate, insurance and legal services), the California Eagle
newspaper, the Dunbar Hotel
, and the Lincoln Theater. The area, known as the Central Avenue Corridor
, became the cultural and economic hub of the African-American community in Los Angeles from the 1920s through the 1950s.
The Lincoln was the largest of several theaters along the Central Avenue Corridor offering entertainment to the African-American community. Three of the others (the Tivoli, Angelus and Hub Theaters) have since been demolished. A fourth, the Globe Theater, has been substantially altered.
's Dixieland Blue Blowers provided the entertainment at an invitation-only premiere on October 6, 1927. Though catering to the African-American community, the Lincoln became popular with the city's white audiences as well. In May 1928, Los Angeles Times
columnist Lee Shippey
wrote of the Lincoln:
The Lincoln Theater's house company, known as the Lafayette Players, attracted Hollywood celebrities, including Charlie Chaplin
, Irving Thalberg
, Janet Gaynor
, and Fanny Brice
, to performances at the Lincoln. Notable performers who appeared at the Lincoln in the late 1920s include Nina Mae McKinney
(known as "The Black Garbo"), Evelyn Preer
(known in the African-American community as "The First Lady of the Screen"), Clarence Muse
, Elsie Ferguson
, Laura Bowman, Abbie Mitchell
, Charles Sidney Gilpin
, and the house band, Mosby's Blue Syncopators
providing "'hot' music while a chorus of twenty-four dusky beauties ... strut to its tunes."
, Duke Ellington
, the Nat King Cole Trio, Billie Holiday
, Lena Horne
, Louis Jordan
, Pigmeat Markham
, Fats Domino
, and B.B. King. The Lincoln was sometimes called the "West Coast Apollo" because it featured many of the same acts as Harlem
's Apollo Theater
.
Concerts at the Lincoln in the post-World War II era attracted diverse audiences that included the likes of choreographer Alvin Ailey
, activist Eldridge Cleaver
, and songwriter eden ahbez
. It was outside the Lincoln in the late 1940s that a bearded ahbez wearing sandals handed the song "Nature Boy
" to Nat King Cole's road manger.
In 2009, the theater was deemed to satisfy the registration requirements set forth in a multiple property submission study, the African Americans in Los Angeles MPS. Other sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009 pursuant to the same African Americans in Los Angeles MPS include the Second Baptist Church
, 28th Street YMCA
, Prince Hall Masonic Temple
, Angelus Funeral Home
, 52nd Place Historic District
, 27th Street Historic District
, and two historic all-black segregated fire stations (Fire Station No. 14
and Fire Station No. 30
).
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 2009. Sometimes referred to as the "West Coast Apollo", the Lincoln Theater was one of the most significant establishments along the Central Avenue Corridor
Central Avenue (Los Angeles)
Central Avenue is a major north-south thoroughfare in the central portion of the Los Angeles, California metropolitan area. Located just to the west of the Alameda Corridor, it runs from the eastern end of the Los Angeles Civic Center south, ending at Del Amo Boulevard in Carson...
that became the cultural and business hub of the African American community in Los Angeles from the 1920s to the 1950s. For more than 30 years, the Lincoln featured live theater, musical acts, talent shows, vaudeville, and motion pictures, including live performances by the leading African-American performers of the era, including Lionel Hampton
Lionel Hampton
Lionel Leo Hampton was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Like Red Norvo, he was one of the first jazz vibraphone players. Hampton ranks among the great names in jazz history, having worked with a who's who of jazz musicians, from Benny Goodman and Buddy...
, Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
, the Nat King Cole Trio, and Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing...
. The theater was converted to use as a church in 1962 and continues to be used for religious services.
Design and construction
The Lincoln Theater was built between 1926 and 1927 at a cost of $500,000. The theater was built in the style of a grand movie palaceMovie palace
A movie palace is a term used to refer to the large, elaborately decorated movie theaters built between the 1910s and the 1940s. The late 1920s saw the peak of the movie palace, with hundreds opened every year between 1925 and 1930.There are three building types in particular which can be subsumed...
with a large stage, orchestra pit, and seating for 2,100 persons. The building was designed by architect John Paxton Perrine (1886–1972), who is known for his design of Southern California movie palaces in the 1920s, including the California Theater (1926, San Diego), the Roosevelt Theater (1926, Hawthorne
Hawthorne, California
Hawthorne is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California. The city at the 2010 census had a population of 84,293, up from 84,112 at the 2000 census.-Geography:...
), the Fox Redondo Theater (1927, Redondo Beach
Redondo Beach, California
Redondo Beach is one of the three Beach Cities located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 66,748 at the 2010 census, up from 63,261 at the 2000 census. The city is located in the South Bay region of the greater Los Angeles area.Redondo Beach was originally part of...
), and the California Theatre
California Theatre (San Bernardino)
The California Theatre is a performing arts venue located in the historic Downtown area of San Bernardino, California. Originally a part of the Fox Theatre chain, it opened in 1928 and still houses its original Wurlitzer Style 216 pipe organ...
(1928, San Bernardino).
The Lincoln Theater is considered an outstanding example of Exotic Revival and Moorish Revival architecture. The front facade is divided into three symmetrical bays with the theater's entrance at the bottom of the central bay. The facade is marked by decorative ceramic tile above arches in the side bays and columns that are capped by onion-shaped capitals and lance-shaped spires. The area in the central bay above the marquee is decorated with layers of arches and columns that were intended to create "the overall impression of a step-back tower in low relief".
The Central Avenue Corridor
In the 1910s and 1920s, large movie theaters were opened in Downtown Los AngelesDowntown Los Angeles
Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, United States, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area...
in the Broadway Theater District. However, African Americans were either excluded from these theaters altogether or restricted to "colored only" seating areas. During the 1910s and 1920s, a number of cultural and business institutions catering to the African-American population of Los Angeles opened along a one-mile stretch of South Central Avenue. These included Dreamland Rink, the Murray Pocket Billiard Emporium and Cigar Stand, the 28th Street YMCA
28th Street YMCA
The 28th Street YMCA is a historic YMCA building in South Los Angeles, California. It was listed as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 2006 and on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009. The four-story structure was built in 1926 at a cost of $200,000. The building was...
, Second Baptist Church
Second Baptist Church (Los Angeles, California)
Second Baptist Church is a historically African-American Baptist church located in South Los Angeles, California. The current Lombardy Romanesque Revival building was built in 1926 and has been listed as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument and on the National Register of Historic Places...
, Sidney P. Dones Company (offering real estate, insurance and legal services), the California Eagle
California Eagle
The California Eagle was one of the oldest and longest-running African American newspapers in Los Angeles, California and the West. It started in 1879, founded by John J. Neimore, who had escaped slavery in Missouri...
newspaper, the Dunbar Hotel
Dunbar Hotel
The Dunbar Hotel, originally known as the Hotel Somerville, was the focal point of the Central Avenue African-American community in Los Angeles, California during the 1930s and 1940s. Built in 1928, it was known for its first year as the Hotel Somerville...
, and the Lincoln Theater. The area, known as the Central Avenue Corridor
Central Avenue (Los Angeles)
Central Avenue is a major north-south thoroughfare in the central portion of the Los Angeles, California metropolitan area. Located just to the west of the Alameda Corridor, it runs from the eastern end of the Los Angeles Civic Center south, ending at Del Amo Boulevard in Carson...
, became the cultural and economic hub of the African-American community in Los Angeles from the 1920s through the 1950s.
The Lincoln was the largest of several theaters along the Central Avenue Corridor offering entertainment to the African-American community. Three of the others (the Tivoli, Angelus and Hub Theaters) have since been demolished. A fourth, the Globe Theater, has been substantially altered.
Early years
The Lincoln Theater opened in October 1927. The "Chocolate Scandals" and Curtis MosbyCurtis Mosby
Curtis J. Mosby was an American jazz drummer, bandleader, and businessman....
's Dixieland Blue Blowers provided the entertainment at an invitation-only premiere on October 6, 1927. Though catering to the African-American community, the Lincoln became popular with the city's white audiences as well. In May 1928, Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
columnist Lee Shippey
Lee Shippey
Henry Lee Shippey , who wrote under the name Lee Shippey, was an author and journalist whose romance with a French woman during World War I caused a sensation in the United States as a "famous war triangle." Shippey later wrote a popular column in the Los Angeles Times for 22 years.-Early...
wrote of the Lincoln:
It is a big, well-appointed theater in which all of the actors and almost all of the auditors are negroes. But many white people crowd in, too, because the chance to see negro actors of real ability appearing for their own people rather than appearing as negroes from the white man's point of view is one that doesn't come to one in every city.
The Lincoln Theater's house company, known as the Lafayette Players, attracted Hollywood celebrities, including Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
, Irving Thalberg
Irving Thalberg
Irving Grant Thalberg was an American film producer during the early years of motion pictures. He was called "The Boy Wonder" for his youth and his extraordinary ability to select the right scripts, choose the right actors, gather the best production staff and make very profitable films.-Life and...
, Janet Gaynor
Janet Gaynor
Janet Gaynor was an American actress and painter.One of the most popular actresses of the silent film era, in 1928 Gaynor became the first winner of the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performances in three films: Seventh Heaven , Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans and Street Angel...
, and Fanny Brice
Fanny Brice
Fanny Brice was a popular and influential American illustrated song "model," comedienne, singer, theatre and film actress, who made many stage, radio and film appearances and is known as the creator and star of the top-rated radio comedy series, The Baby Snooks Show...
, to performances at the Lincoln. Notable performers who appeared at the Lincoln in the late 1920s include Nina Mae McKinney
Nina Mae McKinney
Nina Mae McKinney was an American actress who worked internationally in theatre, film and television after getting her start on Broadway and in Hollywood...
(known as "The Black Garbo"), Evelyn Preer
Evelyn Preer
Evelyn Preer, born Evelyn Jarvis , was a pioneering African-American stage and screen actress and blues singer of the 1910s through the early 1930s. Evelyn was known within the black community as "The First Lady of the Screen."She was the first black actress to earn celebrity and popularity...
(known in the African-American community as "The First Lady of the Screen"), Clarence Muse
Clarence Muse
Clarence Muse was an actor, screenwriter, director, composer, and lawyer. He was inducted in the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1973. Muse was the first African American to "star" in a film. He acted for more than sixty years, and appeared in more than 150 movies.-Life and career:Born in...
, Elsie Ferguson
Elsie Ferguson
Elsie Louise Ferguson was an American stage and film actress.-Early life:Born in New York City, Elsie Ferguson was the only child of Mr. and Mrs. Hiram Benson Ferguson, a successful attorney...
, Laura Bowman, Abbie Mitchell
Abbie Mitchell
Abriea "Abbie" Mitchell , also billed as Abbey Mitchell, was an American soprano opera singer who sang the role of "Clara" in the premier production of George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess in 1935....
, Charles Sidney Gilpin
Charles Sidney Gilpin
Charles Sidney Gilpin became one of the most highly regarded actors of the 1920s. He played in critical debuts in New York: in the 1919 premier of John Drinkwater’s Abraham Lincoln and played the lead role of Brutus Jones in the 1920 premier of Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones, also touring...
, and the house band, Mosby's Blue Syncopators
Curtis Mosby
Curtis J. Mosby was an American jazz drummer, bandleader, and businessman....
providing "'hot' music while a chorus of twenty-four dusky beauties ... strut to its tunes."
The "West Coast Apollo"
From the 1930s to the 1950s, the Lincoln featured live theater, concerts, talent shows, vaudeville, and film. One historical account noted that the Lincoln "offered stunning stage shows and packed in black audiences on Saturday and Sunday nights." The Lincoln was the site of performances by many of the leading African-American performers of the era, including Lionel HamptonLionel Hampton
Lionel Leo Hampton was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Like Red Norvo, he was one of the first jazz vibraphone players. Hampton ranks among the great names in jazz history, having worked with a who's who of jazz musicians, from Benny Goodman and Buddy...
, Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
, the Nat King Cole Trio, Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing...
, Lena Horne
Lena Horne
Lena Mary Calhoun Horne was an American singer, actress, civil rights activist and dancer.Horne joined the chorus of the Cotton Club at the age of sixteen and became a nightclub performer before moving to Hollywood, where she had small parts in numerous movies, and more substantial parts in the...
, Louis Jordan
Louis Jordan
Louis Thomas Jordan was a pioneering American jazz, blues and rhythm & blues musician, songwriter and bandleader who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "The King of the Jukebox", Jordan was highly popular with both black and white audiences in the...
, Pigmeat Markham
Pigmeat Markham
Dewey "Pigmeat" Markham was an African-American entertainer. Though best known as a comedian, Markham was also a singer, dancer, and actor...
, Fats Domino
Fats Domino
Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino, Jr. is an American R&B and rock and roll pianist and singer-songwriter. He was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Creole was his first language....
, and B.B. King. The Lincoln was sometimes called the "West Coast Apollo" because it featured many of the same acts as Harlem
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, which since the 1920s has been a major African-American residential, cultural and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands...
's Apollo Theater
Apollo Theater
The Apollo Theater in New York City is one of the most famous, and older, music halls in the United States, and the most famous club associated almost exclusively with Black performers...
.
Concerts at the Lincoln in the post-World War II era attracted diverse audiences that included the likes of choreographer Alvin Ailey
Alvin Ailey
Alvin Ailey, Jr. was an American choreographer and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York. Ailey is credited with popularizing modern dance and revolutionizing African-American participation in 20th century concert dance...
, activist Eldridge Cleaver
Eldridge Cleaver
Leroy Eldridge Cleaver better known as Eldridge Cleaver, was a leading member of the Black Panther Party and a writer...
, and songwriter eden ahbez
Eden Ahbez
eden ahbez was an American songwriter and recording artist of the 1940s-1960s, whose lifestyle in California was influential on the hippie movement...
. It was outside the Lincoln in the late 1940s that a bearded ahbez wearing sandals handed the song "Nature Boy
Nature Boy
Nature Boy is a song written by eden ahbez and later popularised by Nat King Cole. It may also refer to:In music:* "Nature Boy", a song by Primus from their album 'Pork Soda'...
" to Nat King Cole's road manger.
Conversion to church use
In 1962, the Lincoln Theater was sold to the First Jurisdiction of the Church of God in Christ and became known as "The Crouch Temple" operated by Bishop Samuel M. Crouch. The theater was later operated as the Iglesia de Cristo Ministeries Juda.In 2009, the theater was deemed to satisfy the registration requirements set forth in a multiple property submission study, the African Americans in Los Angeles MPS. Other sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009 pursuant to the same African Americans in Los Angeles MPS include the Second Baptist Church
Second Baptist Church (Los Angeles, California)
Second Baptist Church is a historically African-American Baptist church located in South Los Angeles, California. The current Lombardy Romanesque Revival building was built in 1926 and has been listed as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument and on the National Register of Historic Places...
, 28th Street YMCA
28th Street YMCA
The 28th Street YMCA is a historic YMCA building in South Los Angeles, California. It was listed as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 2006 and on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009. The four-story structure was built in 1926 at a cost of $200,000. The building was...
, Prince Hall Masonic Temple
Prince Hall Masonic Temple (Los Angeles, California)
The Prince Hall Masonic Temple in South Los Angeles area of Los Angeles, California is a historic club building associated with Prince Hall Freemasonry. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009...
, Angelus Funeral Home
Angelus Funeral Home
Angelus Funeral Home is a funeral home in South Los Angeles, California. It was listed as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 2006 and on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009. In 1925, Angelus Funeral Home was the first black-owned business to be incorporated in California. ...
, 52nd Place Historic District
52nd Place Historic District
The 52nd Place Historic District is a historic district consisting of American Craftsman style homes in the South Los Angeles area of Los Angeles, California. The district is located on 52nd Place between McKinley Avenue on the east and Avalon Boulevard on the west. The district includes 37...
, 27th Street Historic District
27th Street Historic District
The 27th Street Historic District is a historic district in the South Los Angeles area of Los Angeles, California. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009 as part of the multiple property submission for African Americans in Los Angeles.-Location and...
, and two historic all-black segregated fire stations (Fire Station No. 14
Fire Station No. 14 (Los Angeles, California)
Fire Station No. 14 is a historic fire station in the South Los Angeles area of Los Angeles, California. The three-story structure was designed by Earl T...
and Fire Station No. 30
Fire Station No. 30, Engine Company No. 30
Fire Station No. 30, Engine Company No. 30 is a historic fire station and engine company in the South Los Angeles area of Los Angeles, California...
).
See also
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Los Angeles, California
- List of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments in South Los Angeles