THE HISTORY OF THE RAMONA THEATRE

The vacant Ramona Theatre

FROM THE ECHO PARK HISTORICAL SOCIETY

The building at 2139-2141 Sunset Blvd. was built in 1914 to serve as a movie theater. On the original building permit, the architect is listed as the Alfred Grayson (sp? it's handwritten) Co. The builder was J. Louie Pancoast, who was located down the street at 2121 Sunset Blvd, while the developer lived on nearby Reservoir Street. 

The theater was known as the Ramona Theater for roughly half a century before going through a series of name and format changes.The theater was modernized and reopened in 1966 under the name Studio One and with the mission of showing German-language cinema (the debut was a screening of Die Fledermaus!). By the early 1980s, the name had been Latinized into Estudio 1, a venue for double features (one photo has it offering Mad Max and A Force of One on the same night!).

The theater was completely closed by the mid-1990s. Around 1998, a member of the Lotito family -- which has owned the building and much of the block for at least 75 years -- decided to rip out the theater seats, make the theater floor level as part of a renovation to seek new tenants. But the buiding has remained empty.

In its earliest years, the Ramona was one of two Echo Park theaters. The other stood at 1624 Sunset Blvd and now houses the Gualupana Market, across from the old Pioneer Market building. It started as the Globe Theater in 1912 and later became the Hollyway Theater. By the 1950s, the Hollyway had been converted into a branch of Citizen's  Bank. 

FROM LOS ANGELES MOVIE PALACES 2139 Sunset Blvd formerly:

Creation Theatre-1915 

Garden Theatre-1929, 

Ramona

Studio 1

Estudio 1