New York Dramatic Mirror, November 9, 1910:
"Clune's new picture house, Los Angeles, Cal., seating 900 people and costing over $50,000, was opened to the public at 10, 15 and 20 cent prices Oct. 10.
"Mr. Clune runs two shows in the afternoons and two in the evenings; five films and four singers, together with a ten-piece orchestra, furnish the balance of the programme.
"Around the walls of this spacious theatre are electric chimes and bells, and the decorations are dainty and tastefully carried out. The immense electric sign on the roof outside cost $3,500 and is conceded to be the largest and most beautiful west of New York.
"The completion of the house gives the Clune Amusement Company two large houses in this city, one in San Diego, and a house seating 1,400 people being erected in Pasadena and which will be thrown open about the middle of November. Negotiations are being entered into for houses for this company in both Phoenix, Ariz., and Salt Lake City,U."
Two other early trade publications offer conflicting opening dates:
The New York Clipper, November 5, 1910:
"The opening of Clune's Broadway Theatre, last week, added a most attractive moving picture show house to the many now established in Los Angeles, CA. It has a seating capacity of nine hundred and is strictly up-to-date. Manager Wm. H. Clune is now operating three first class places in this city."
Moving Picture World, November 12, 1910:
"The latest and most beautiful moving picture theater has been completed and will open in a day or two. The situation of this new enterprise is on South Broadway, just north of Mercantile place and will be known as the Clune Theater."
Deadlines and publication dates may have contributed to this confusion.
When Clune's closed as the Cameo, in 1991, it was the longest continually operating movie theatre in California.
Cameo Theatre
Clune's
Postcard: Theatre Talks collection, please ask permission to use and/or copy
Photograph copyright Betty Sword, 2002, all rights reserved.
Cezar Del Valle is the author of the Brooklyn Theatre Index, chosen 2010 Best Book of the Year by the Theatre Historical Society
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