When asked about the story that Douglas Aircraft built the Aero Theatre to entertain employees of the plant during 24-hour wartime production, Donald debunks the myth he has heard before. "In 1939 we weren’t in the war yet, " he says assuredly. Douglas was building bombers for the British. A friend of mine worked there and I asked him if they were on 24 hour shifts then and he said he does not remember being on that schedule." Donald surmises that the theatre was simply built as a real estate investment. The employees of Douglas did not live in that neighborhood so it doesn’t make sense to have built the theatre just for them.
ontana Avenue had proximity to the street car system in those days via the Venice short line which could get you all the way to the coliseum for a game.
    One of the retail spaces in the Aero building was Aero Hobbies and other local businesses included a Van de Camps Bakery (at 14th and Montana), a Shell gas station on the northwest corner and a pharmacy frequented by Leo Carrillo. At 2nd and Wilshire was Harold Lloyd’s bowling alley, Loadamar.