Hispanic Era Influenced The Broadway District

Since it’s inception as a city, one of the largest populations in Los Angeles is the Hispanic population. Many Hispanic markets and restaurants line up the Broadway District in downtown LA offering their services to not only to the Hispanic community, but also anyone craving traditional Mexican food or a Quincenera dress.

These small shops have been integrated into what has been known as the Broadway District where many of the first theaters in LA were built as early as the 1920s. The theaters such as the Million Dollar Theatre, the Los Angeles Theatre and the Tower Theatre – to name a few - would play films from the studios directly, such as FOX and United Artists.

Ironically, some of the small Hispanic shops have been pushed out, Escott Norton, executive director of the Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation, said. The theaters are being converted into trendy shops such as the Urban Outfitters at the Rialto Theatre.

Through Councilman Jose Huizar's current initiative "Bring Back Broadway," the street has undergone many changes. The changes include new shops and restaurants, such as Umami Burger, Alma, Two Boots Pizza and more new restaurants coming soon.

“You still see some stores that cater to Latino immigrants, but there’s a mixture of things and I think that’s good for everyone. It’s good to have diversity like we do, where we walk together, eat together, shop together," Huizar said.

The Ace Hotel opened in early 2014 operating in the United Artists Theatre. Ace purchased the building and renovated the space, while the theatre remains under construction, according to its website.

The Tower Theatre, which was formerly called the Newsreel Theatre, became a mainstream theatre for Spanish-speaking films starting as early at the 1950s.

“Broadway was a majority Latino immigrants, this is where a lot of us would come to do our shopping [and] be entertained at the theatres. Million Dollar Theatre, that’s where you saw Mexican artists; Antonio Aguilar [and] Flor Silvestre. They would all come to perform there, and this was our area to come and visit,” Huizar said.

A former child actor, Frank Fouce operated the Tower Theatre in the ‘50s. Fouce later became a Spanish film distributor showing Spanish films at the theatre, according to an LA Times article. After Fouce died in 1962, his son, Frank Fouce, took over the business and continued to show Spanish films.

When ticket sales for the theaters began to decline during the ’40s and ‘50s, Spanish-speaking films helped save the theaters from collapsing, Norton said.

“I think we should give credit to the Hispanic community for saving these theaters, for preserving them just by coming and using them,” Norton said.

Major performers, in addition to Aguilar and Silvestre, from the Hispanic culture were statures of the theaters like Celia Cruz and Tito Puente. “All the other theaters, even if they weren’t live, they were showing Hispanic dub movies or just Hispanic movies that kept the theaters occupied and alive. But, if they were empty they would have probably been torn down,” he said.

The Hispanic demographic still remains the highest population for the Broadway district, according to Census reports. (View the chart below)

Although the commercialized stores and restaurants recently opened will be high in demand, Councilman Huizar suggested that the demographic of the community will change and says what needs the most work is to continue to provide advice and assistance to the existing small businesses.

“I think we’ll have a Quincenera shop next to an Urban Outfitters and it’s going to be a mix of things on Broadway. But, from the city level, we’re going to have to see how those businesses are doing and see if they need any technical assistance to support them,” Huizar said.

For more on the gentrification of the Broadway District, you may read "The rise and fall of the Los Angeles' Theatre District" by Janelle Cabuco.