The Los Angeles Historic Theater Foundation offered a tour of the Hollywood Pantages Theater and I went.
The Pantages Theater in Hollywood opened on June 5, 1930. Rodney and Lloyd Pantages, brothers and the sons of Alexander Pantages, greeted the opening night guests. The master of ceremonies for the event was Eddie Cantor and the first motion picture shown on the Pantages’ screen was The Floradora Girl starring Marion Davies. A Walt Disney-Mickey Mouse cartoon called the Cactus Kid was also shown. Fanchon and Marco provided a stage show revue titled the “Rose Garden Idea.” The “Rose Garden Idea” finale involved not only dancing but a trapeze number too.
The Hollywood Pantages was slated to be the 67th theater in the Pantages Theater chain. The building was constructed by the Bartlett Syndicate Building Corporation.
From Who’s Who in Los Angeles County 1932-33.
This is the exterior lobby which opens onto Hollywood Boulevard. Ground was broken for the theater on March 20, 1929. The projected cost of the building, at groundbreaking, was $1 million dollars.
The theater has a frontage on Hollywood Boulevard of 210 feet and 310 feet on Argyle Avenue.
Fox West Coast Theaters took over the operation of the theater after Alexander Pantages encountered legal problems before the theater opened. This theater eventually became a part of the RKO Theater chain.
Alexander Pantages from Wikimedia Commons.
Above the exterior lobby is this huge sunburst of lights. Four days before the theater’s opening a reporter from the Times called the theater “the Roxy of the West.”
I wanted to move those boxes, but I didn’t. This part of the lobby looks toward the auditorium entrance.
Another part of the lobby leading to the balcony.
The statues that flank the staircases depict the progress of the motion-picture industry.
There is a great deal of silver and gold.
Edwin Schallert of the Times described the theater this way, “There is an inviting bigness to the new theater that is reflected in the spacious foyer, with its stairways on either side, its glamour of gold, its groupings of statuary and its permeating and soft light.”
The theater docent pointed out to my tour group that The University of Southern California is represented in the Pantages’ lobby. If the central figure above were a clock — look where the number 4 would be on a clock and you can see the initials USC in this bas relief sculpture. Pantages’ son, Lloyd, went to USC.
The ladies’ restroom. It was so pretty.
This chair was on the balcony’s landing.
One of the drinking fountains.
The balcony’s entrance.
The west side of the auditorium. B. Marcus Priteca was the architect of the Pantages. A. H. Heisbergen was the decorator. (That’s what he was called in the newspaper.)
A view from the balcony. The theater originally had 3,000 seats.
It’s really cool up close.
This is looking toward the proscenium. The left panel depicts oil fields. The right panel depicts the indigenous people of California. I forget what the docent said the middle panel depicts.
I sat under the chandelier and took this photo.
According to the Times, “the stage is 70 feet deep, 140 feet wide and 70 feet from floor to gridirons. The fire curtain is 60 feet wide, cost $6,000 and depicts the evolution of man and architecture.” I wish I could have seen the fire curtain, but it was up in the fly system.
The projection booth no longer has any projectors. Now, it has spotlights for live theater.
These Playbills are plastered on a wall in the projectionist’s booth.
The theater docent mentioned that the toilet in the projectionist’s booth originally had no walls around it. It just sat there — out in the middle of the room. Eventually, they built a room around the toilet.
This Young Frankenstein poster hangs on a wall in the bathroom. That’s a great poster!
Eunice Pringle from Wikimedia Commons.*
Alexander Pantages listened to the Pantages’ opening night events from his bed in the hospital wing at the Los Angeles County Jail. He was in jail after having been convicted on October 27, 1929, of the rape of 17-year-old dancer Eunice Pringle. Pantages claimed he was framed by Pringle and an accomplice named Nicholas Dunaev. Because of a procedural error, Pantages was granted a new trial where he was acquitted of all charges on November 27, 1931. Jury members spoke to the press after the second trial and said there was “reasonable doubt” about his guilt and that’s why he was found not guilty. Pantages’ lead attorney in the second trial was Jerry Giesler who was from Iowa and would come to Lana Turner’s aid in 1958.
From Who’s Who in Los Angeles County Olympic Edition.
Sources
Alexander Pantages image. Wikimedia Commons.
Another link for showhouse chain. (1929, March 21). Los Angeles Times, A9.
*Eunice Pringle. Wikimedia Commons. This image is from the front page of the Santa Ana Register dated October 28, 1929. I cropped the image to retain only the Eunice Pringle portion. The newspaper is part of the Orange County Archives. A link to the image can be found here:
Fox to run Pantages playhouse. (1930, March 30). Los Angeles Times, A7.
Great theater center visioned. (1929, March 10). Los Angeles Times, E4.
New playhouse wholly modern. (1930, June 1). Los Angeles Times, B9.
New theater opens in May. (1930, April 18). Los Angeles Times, A10.
Pantages found guilty: faces fifty-year term. (1929, October 28). Los Angeles Times, 1.
Schallert, E. (1930, June 6). Pantages theater opens. Los Angeles Times, A9.
Theater man found not guilty of attack charges: jury acquits. (1931, November 28). Los Angeles Times, A1.
Who’s who in Los Angeles County 1932-1933. (1933). Los Angeles: Chas. J. Lang.
Who’s who in Los Angeles County Olympic edition. (1931). Los Angeles: Chas. J. Lang.
My book from the History Press, Architects Who Built Southern California, was released on March 11, 2019. It’s 10 chapters with each chapter devoted to a different architect (or architectural firm) including: Harrison Albright, John Austin, Claud Beelman, Elmer Grey, Hudson & Munsell, A. C. Martin, Meyer & Holler, Julia Morgan, Morgan Walls & Clements and Alfred F. Rosenheim.
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