Hollywood Pantages Theatre, the last theater built in the Pantages Theatre Circuit and also the last movie palace built in Hollywood, was built by Alexander Pantages in 1929 and opened on June 4, 1930. The theater was designed to seat 3,212, but it opened with extra legroom and wider seats, reducing seating capacity to 2,812.[4]
The Pantages opened with MGM's The Floradora Girl starring Marion Davies on screen and Franchon & Marco's The Rose Garden Idea on the stage.[4] However, while the theater originally programmed first-run movies and vaudeville acts, it was forced to economize due to effects of the Great Depression. Therefore, starting in 1932, the theater operated primarily as a movie theater, though live entertainment was presented occasionally.[5]
Alexander sold the Pantages to Fox West Coast Theaters in 1932, and in 1949, Howard Hughes acquired the theater for his RKO Theatre Circuit; he also moved his personal offices to the building's second floor. From 1949 to 1959, the theater hosted the Academy Awards, in 1965 it was purchased by Pacific Theatres, and it continued to be a major venue for roadshow movies into the 1970s,[1][4][5] with notable screenings during this period including the west coast premieres of Spartacus and Cleopatra, which ran for 61 and 72 weeks, respectively.[6] In 1974, the Emmy Awards were held at The Pantages.[7]
In 2000, the theater underwent a $10-million[5][8] restoration and upgrade, for which it received a Conservancy Preservation Award in 2001.[1][4] In December 2007, plans were revealed to complete the building's original design, which consisted of two stories dedicated to theater and ten additional floors of office space, but it was never realized.[10]
Now operated by a subsidiary of the Nederlander Organization, the Pantages is one of Los Angeles's highest-grossing venues for live stage and Broadway-style productions.[4] The five highest-grossing weeks in LA theater history were all at this theater,[5][11] and the theater has presented large-scale Broadway musicals such as Wicked, Hamilton, The Book of Mormon, and more.[1]Disney'sThe Lion King played at the theater for 27 months straight, from October 2000 to January 2003.[9]
Designed by B. Marcus Priteca and opened in 1930,[3] the Pantages was originally meant to be a twelve-story building, with two stories of theater space and ten stories of office space above, however, the office space was never built. The cost of construction for the two-story theater was $1.25 million.[4]
The theater is a two-story concrete construction designed in the art deco style with an ersatz stone exterior. The building features first story windows outlined with metal zigzag frames, Egyptianlotus patterns that highlight the second story, and a sculptured goddesses that highlights the roofline.[3] The theater's forecourt features a lavish ceiling with gold, silver, and bronze-colored starbursts that radiate in multiple geometric patterns.[1]
Inside, the lobby is a 110-feet wide by 60-feet deep poly-chromaticfan vault, decorated in a zigzag geometric design with gold and henna shades. The entire area is illuminated by three huge Moderne frosted glass chandeliers hanging from three star-shaped domes. At each end of the lobby is a 20-foot wide carpeted stairway, lined with vaguely Egyptian and Assyro-Babylonian styled statues, one of which depicts in an Art Deco style, a camera crew filming.[4] Also in the lobby, bronzesunbursts are featured above the elevator doors.[3]
The interior of the theater
The theater's proscenium is 54 feet wide, and above the proscenium are three painted panels, one depicting Apollo leading his snorting steeds, another depicting California oil riches, and the third depicting Native Californians. On each side of the proscenium were originally two small side-stages flanked on the side-walls by large organ chambers. The orchestra pit was on an elevator, and the stage, measuring 180 feet wide and 70 feet deep, is the second largest west of Chicago, after the Shrine Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles.[6]
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