"Jesus Saves" Moves to Glendale

By Alexis Shaw

|  Wednesday, Sep 14, 2011  |  Updated 5:51 PM PDT

Flickr/bradley_newman

The neon sign towers over the former United Artists theater in downtown Los Angeles.

Rest assured, fans of the glowing red "Jesus Saves" signs that until recently graced downtown’s skyline.

The neon signs, a familiar presence in the downtown Los Angeles area for decades, will continue to glow-- in Glendale.

The signs, which soared above the former United Artists Theater, were removed this past Saturday evening.  

The billboards were originally installed atop the Church of the Open Door at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles’s campus at 6^th Street and Hope, and remained until 1985, when the building was demolished.

It is unclear what happened to the signs between 1985 and 1989.

In 1989, Dr. Gene Scott bought them from a junkyard and  moved them to the former United Artists Theatre building, which he transformed into the Los Angeles University Cathedral.

The signs remained above the former theater until Saturday.

Broadway-gaudy in style, reassuring in message, the signs served as a beacon to congregants across the deacdes.

One member of the Church of the Open Door remembered the signs fondly.

"It is sad to see them go," Yvonne Crespo Black commented on the NBC LA Facebook page. "Too bad we can't have them for our new building in Glendora."

Church of the Open Door's Executive Administrator, Judy Cocoris, also expressed similar sentiments.

"I would like to see them [the signs] go to Biola or the Church of the Open Door, but it doesn't really seem like that's possible."

The Los Angeles University Church has moved and set up camp full-time in Glendale at the Faith Center Church, now led by Scott's widow, Pastor Melissa Scott.

The signs are moving with them, reports LA Times’ Larry Harnisch.

According to Curbed LA, the former United Artists theatre has been for sale since 2009, with an asking price of reportedly $15 million, and still has not sold.

One of Downtown's Jesus Saves Signs Taken Away in Dead of Night

Large photo via blogdowntown; inset via Marc Evans
Blogdowntown is reporting that one of Broadway's neon Jesus Saves signs had been taken down and was getting packed onto a truck at 9:30 pm on Saturday night, which is kind of a weird time to be doing work like that. The first of the Jesus Saves signs originally went up on the Bible Institute of Los Angeles at Sixth and Hope in 1935, but they were both moved to the old United Artists Theatre on Broadway in 1989, when the building was taken over by the University Cathedral. The blog says that on Saturday "a crew from Chief Sign Company was busy strapping one of the two signs onto a truck for transport as glass tubes lay shattered around the Hill Street parking lot. Those working would not give any information about where the historic neon might be headed." The UA building went up for sale in 2009 asking $15 million, but it still hasn't sold--although maybe this is a sign it's close?
· "Jesus Saves" Neon No More at United Artists? [blogdowntown]
· Downtown's "Jesus Saves" Building for Sale [Curbed LA]

Interesting photos of the Historic United Artists theatre of Downtown Los Angeles inside and out

drag your cursor across the photo in the middle to see the different photos....

united artists Theater 929 South Broadway Los Angeles

"Jesus Saves" Neon No More at United Artists?

By Eric Richardson
Published: Saturday, September 10, 2011, at 09:58PM

A crew from Chief Sign Company removes one of the neon "Jesus Saves" signs from atop Broadway's United Artists Theatre.

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — The twin pair of neon "Jesus Saves" that have been a familiar part of the skyline since 1935 may have shed their last light over Downtown.
As of 9:30pm on Saturday, a crew from Chief Sign Company was busy strapping one of the two signs onto a truck for transport as glass tubes lay shattered around the Hill Street parking lot. Those working would not give any information about where the historic neon might be headed.
As blogdowntown documented last year, the first sign went up on February 17, 1935, atop the north dormitory of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles' campus at 6th and Hope. The second was added later atop the south dormitory.
The signs were placed atop the former United Artists theatre building in 1989 by Dr. Gene Scott.
The 1927 theatre, owned by Scott's University Cathedral, has been on the market since 2009. The church has been run by Scott's widow since his 2005 passing.

The Journey of the "Jesus Saves" Neon

By Eric Richardson  
Blogdowntown.com
Published: Thursday, September 16, 2010, at 02:47PM

Eric Richardson [Flickr] This pair of "Jesus Saves" neon signs have stood atop the United Artists theatre since 1989, but the first went up Downtown in 1935.

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — They’re a familiar fixture in the Downtown skyline, but many who have seen the pair of neon “Jesus Saves” signs have little idea just why exactly they shine out over South Park every night.
Today the signs sit atop the United Artists Theatre, which since 1989 has served as home of the University Cathedral.
That spot wasn’t where the signs first became famous, however.
The first sign was dedicated on February 17, 1935 by Rev. Louis T. Talbot and the congregation of the Church of the Open Door, which met on the campus of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles at 6th and Hope. It stood atop the school’s north dormitory, which had been converted to hotel use at the time.
A second sign was later added to the school’s matching south dormitory. There they stood for a half century.
In 1959 the school moved its operations to 50 acres in La Mirada, where today it is better known as simply BIOLA.
The church stayed, though, even as attendance started to drop. Where the congregation once averaged over 3,000 in the mid-1950s, only 600 to 800 were attending when the church decided to look at relocation in 1983. It inked a deal to purchase land in Glendora, and in January of 1984 signed a contract to sell the church facility to a developer who planned to raze it and build an office tower for $14 million.
It was when that deal fell through that things began to get interesting.
In January of 1986, television preacher Gene Scott purchased the church building for $23 million after the original developer defaulted. “Over my dead body will a wrecking ball now ever hit the front of that church or tear down those signs,” Scott told the L.A. Times, referring to the iconic “Jesus Saves” signs.
So well-known were the signs that the paper often referred to the structure simply as the `Jesus Saves’ Church in headlines.
Scott was welcomed by Church of the Open Door when he showed up to purchase their building, but later non-payment and legal wranglings left the two parties less than friendly.
The earthquake-damaged Hope Street building was finally torn down in 1988. Scott would lease the theater the following year, telling his congregation on the Sunday of the purchase that he had plans for the top of the building that could be “seen from the Harbor and Santa Monica freeways.”
According to an account given during an episode of Huell Howser’s “Downtown” series, Scott ended up purchasing the signs from a scrapyard after the church refused to sell them to him.
While the preacher passed away in 2005 and the theater building is up for sale, his signs are still visible from just as far away.

The Historic Theatre Dream on Broadway

By Eric Richardson
Published: Monday, August 23, 2010, at 09:24AM

Theatre Foundation (LAHTF) have a dream for Broadway’s old movie palaces. Right now the group is trying to find a buyer to purchase the Spanish gothic-styled United Artists Theatre and lease it to the nonprofit. We asked Wright about the challenge for the August 12th issue of blogdowntown Weekly.
The UA has been on the open market for eight months now. Why hasn’t it sold?
In the best of real estate markets, a 12-story office building and 1600-seat movie palace combo is a highly specialized property. Pastor Scott places a high priority on finding a buyer who will respect the historical integrity and take care of the building and theatre and make a positive contribution to the revitalization of Broadway. Some adjustments from the original pricing have been made recently to better reflect the current Downtown market.
What’s the upside for a buyer to come in and lease to you? Could they still turn a profit?
There are many owner/developers with strong track records in profitably restoring and rehabbing historic office buildings. On the other hand, the list of accomplished, successful private owner/operators of for-profit historic theatres is very short. If a benefactor to purchase the entire United Artists parcel for the LAHTF (and/or another non-profit operator) does not materialize, we’d be very interested in working out a deal with a partner to buy the property and set up a lease-purchase deal for the theatre. The developer could potentially make money on the office building piece and recoup some of the purchase price by splitting the theatre from the parcel.
So, yes, it is feasible that a private investor could buy the building, lease or sell the theatre to the LAHTF, and make a profit.
How would a revived United Artists compete with a theater like the Orpheum? Are enough shows interested in coming to Broadway to keep multiple screens and stages busy?
A revived United Artists Theatre would serve more to complement the Orpheum than to compete with it.
The Orpheum has about 400 more seats than the UA, which will always be a solid advantage to a for-profit promoter. The Orpheum operates strictly as a rental house - it does not produce and present shows. It rents the theatre to promoters, producers and film locations, who bear the expense of producing/promoting the event and they collect the profits or suffer the losses from the event presented.
This model works for the Orpheum, but means that often the theatre is not booked for days/weeks at a time.
The goal of non-profit operation of the UA (and other Broadway theatres) would be to keep the theatre overhead very low and to activate the theatre by keeping it lit and busy as much as possible. A combination of rental users, shows we produce (i.e. film series, premieres and special events), and shows the LAHTF would present or co-present with promoters, sponsors and underwriters. This fare could include a popular priced Broadway subscription series, dance - fine arts series, major speakers and all manner of music and concerts. Profitable show would subsidize shows that lose money.
The key to keeping the UA overhead low is to raise money from public and private sources to fund the purchase, restoration and rehabilitation, so the theatre is brought up to modern production requirements and is bought and paid for. There’s a huge body of experience around the country that proves this concept. If freed of the debt service for purchase, restoration and re-hab, the theatre can operate on a breakeven or better basis. There are 10 more theatres to fully activate on the street.
When successful at the United Artists, the LAHTF could take on the management and operation of several other theatres on the street using this model and the economies of scale that central management and operation would afford. If all 12 theatres on the street are privately operated, who will ensure that all 12 are not dark at the same time for days or weeks?
Finally, Broadway producers and promotors will go wherever they think they can make money. Thanks to Steve Needleman and the Orpheum, it has been proved that there is money to be made on Broadway’s historic stages and screens.

link to article...

http://blogdowntown.com/2010/08/5605-the-historic-theatre-dream-on-broadway