Main Street Gym |

I dug out the old photos of the Main Street Gym and fired up the scanner at the Daily Mirror HQ.

main_street_gym_1976_0210_marilyn-k-yee

Photograph by Marilynn K. Yee / Los Angeles Times

Then I took a closer look at this picture from 1976.

Hm. What’s this?

main_street_gym_1976_0210_detail2_marilyn-k-yee

main_street_gym_1976_0210_detail_marilyn-k-yee

And what’s this?

Why that looks like an old theater.

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Hm. Look at this architectural detail.

The Main Street Gym was at 318 1/2 S. Main St. What theater would have been next door at 320 S. Main St.?

Aha, it’s our old pal the Hippodrome!

But the Hippodrome was supposedly torn down in 1952 for a parking lot. I started wondering if the facade was saved for offices.

Then I noticed this about the interior of the Main Street Gym in another 1976 photo:

main_street_gym_1976_0210_pic02_marilynn-k-yee

Photograph by Marilynn K. Yee / Los Angeles Times

What’s in the background? It looks like a small proscenium.

main_street_gym_1976_0210_marilynn-k-yee_detail

Here’s a detail.
Look at the light sockets in the archway.

I wonder if the Main Street Gym was in some upstairs dance hall at what used to be the Hippodrome. If anyone can shed light on this little mystery, let me know…

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6 Responses to Main Street Gym

Ken McIntyre says:

April 13, 2008 at 11:34 pm

The auditorium of the theater was torn down in the early 50s. The facade and upstairs space was preserved. The upstairs was the gym, obviously. Parking was in the lot behind the facade. The whole thing was torn down in 1984.

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Anthony little says:

April 19, 2011 at 7:17 pm

Can anyone shed ligh on who the two guys are that are sparring, am I correct to believe one of them is Monroe Brooks who fought Roberto Duran and Bruce curry?

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Herman "Kid" Montes says:

December 3, 2012 at 11:17 am

I know the trainer standing on the right side boxing ring top corner his name is Pat Mc~Guire I sparred over a thousand round’s ther @ the Main Street Gym ” with champ’s like Danny “Lil Red ” Lopez , Sean Ogrady , Esteban De Jesus, Vilamar Fernandez, Bobby ” School Boy ” Chacon, Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini, also many contender’s, it was the gym to go and find the best fighter’s in the world .

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PATRICK L QUAID says:

April 3, 2022 at 4:31 pm

Not sure if you will get this but, my grandfather ran the main st. gym in the 50’s , I have a lot of old pic of him and my uncle in the gym. and the Fighters he work with.

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- Delores Mondragon says:
  
  March 28, 2025 at 1:29 pm
  
  Looking for pictures of my dad Roger (Rogelio) Mondragon Ortega who boxed here from ~1960-1968
  
  would you happen to have pictures of boxers? He was acquainted with Mando Ramos
  
  Rijido arce
  
  Indio red lopez
  
  my email is lolasisle@hotmail.com
  
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Steve Dorrell says:

January 25, 2024 at 6:15 pm

Just saw “Touched by an Angel” Season 1 Episode 4 Return of the Masked Man. Lots of scenes insde and out.

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