Curtain Comes Back Up on Historic Japanese Theater
Little Tokyo had nearly three decades to forget about the Linda Lea, but new plans to turn it into a cutting edge APA entertainment center resurrects its memory.
Before its closure in the 1980s, the Linda Lea Theater was a portal to feudal Japan where samurai deftly wielded their swords across the silver screen. But unlike the timeless film heroes it brought to the Japanese American community, the Downtown Los Angeles theater suffered its own mortal fate. For nearly 30 years, it has been a shuttered time capsule — its pastel marquee of a kimono-clad woman and fluttering butterflies is the only reminder of its grand past.
Aki Asakura, a Nisei who was born and raised in Little Tokyo, used to go to the Linda Lea with his parents to see the benshi films.
“They would read scripts and make sound effects with drums and a lady would play the shamisen,” he said. “My dad used to take the family to go see Japanese movies on Friday nights.” At that time, chanbara (samurai) films were all the rage.
These days, cars just drive past the dilapidated building at 251 S. Main St. without a second look. But for many former patrons the Linda Lea was more than a movie house, it was a cultural gathering place and with the new redevelopment efforts the theater may come back to life again.
New York based ImaginAsian Entertainment, Inc. in partnership with Cinema Properties Group in Costa Mesa, Calif. announced last month that it was going to turn the historic theater into a modern Asian American theater and cultural center. The $2 million 8,000-square-foot project, which is scheduled to be completed this summer, will include a 300-stadium seat theater, a pan-Asian food cafe and karaoke rooms that double as meeting rooms.
The ImaginAsian Center, as it will be called, will be the city’s only theater dedicated to screening Asian Pacific American films. The news came as a welcome surprise to many community members who have grown used to the negative effects of gentrification in their already disappearing ethnic enclaves. For a change, an APA organization is coming back to the community.
“ImaginAsian formed with the community in mind,” said Michael Huh, the media company’s vice president of marketing and strategic development. “It was the creation of five Asian Americans who decided to get together and start this because when they were younger they would watch TV and have nothing to relate to. Now their children watch TV and nothing much has changed.”
Since the 2003 launch of iaTV, touted as the first 24-hour AA network, the company has expanded to other forms of media including radio, Internet as well as home video and film distribution. The ImaginAsian Theater in midtown New York is also a key destination for APA film festivals and other live events. For the recent Oscar night, the New York theater was packed with community members who came to see APAs like Ang Lee vie for a golden statuette.
Los Angeles’ ImaginAsian Center promises to be more.
“Everything about it is bigger and better,” said Huh emphasizing the center’s capability to host live events. “The live stage will allow us to have more Q&As with talent, more community orientated gatherings, more band performances and talent searches. It runs the gamut.
“We’re about expanding Asian American presence,” Huh added.
“I would agree that ImaginAsian’s presence will help preserve the historic cultural neighborhood of Little Tokyo, and it’s impact could possibly extend out to Chinatown,” said Ron Fong of the Little Tokyo Service Center, a community development group which had been involved in fundraising efforts to renovate the theater.
“I also think it’s important to remember how diverse Little Tokyo has been through the decades, and I think ImaginAsian’s programming reflects that pan-Asian diversity,” Fong added.
Sue Ann Kirst of Cinema Properties said they chanced upon the Linda Lea while scouting for other real estate. They purchased the theater at the “crossroads of Chinatown and Little Tokyo” in 2004 with plans to bring an independent film venue back to downtown.
The downtown building has always had a relationship with the film industry. During the early part of the 20th century, it was a Spanish language and Filipino theater before it was christened the Linda Lea in the 1960s, said Kirst. For two decades it was one of only three Japanese language movie houses in Los Angeles. The theater may have also functioned as a burlesque house, but its full history is still shrouded in sensationalism and mystery.
“For me it was like an umbilical cord to Japan,” said Jim Matsuoka, about the Linda Lea. As a young adult, Matsuoka would frequent the theater to take in a Japanese samurai drama or a yakuza film. His Issei parents, like many others, spent most of their days working hard to support the family, so the theater became a window into Matsuoka’s cultural history. Saturdays at the Linda Lea were usually an energetic social scene, so Matsuoka would go on Sundays and get lost in a different cinematic world.
“Of course it was a romanticized version of a Japan that didn’t exist anymore … but it was enjoyable watching the variety of films that we couldn’t see anywhere else,” said Matsuoka, a Nisei.
“We are bringing [the theater] up to speed … placing it in a contemporary idiom,” said Craig Hodgetts of the architectural firm Hodgetts and Fung. “The key to the vision is to make it a social place for discussion of film; spending time as opposed to turning your back on it in the street.”
Upon completion, ImaginAsian officials say they will premiere first-run and classic APA films as well as satellite-fed broadcasts like sporting events in the theater and on a rooftop screen, which would allow for boisterous participation. Wireless Internet connection and foreign language DVDs will also be available for purchase at the center’s shops.
“This reaches way beyond just showing films. It’s way ahead of the curve and I think theaters are trending towards this kind of place,” said Hodgetts.
“We wanted a place where people can go to hang out as well as have a public meeting place for meetings and forums,” said Kirst, who added that they want to work with the community in order to find out what events to bring to the center.
For now, Linda Lea’s original form stands between modern condominiums and newly erected businesses like a relic of the neighborhood’s rich history.
Change is inevitable, but former patron Matsuoka said he would have to reserve any opinion of the new center until he sees it for himself.
For now, the Linda Lea will be as it is in his memories.
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