Los Angeles Theatre

The breathtaking Los Angeles Theatre, our city’s namesake venue and spectacular movie palace, is a hidden gem rarely open to the public. The theatre is opulent, with soaring ceilings, gold leaf angels, ornate details, and a cascading crystal fountain. Perhaps the most elaborate Baroque theatre in the country, the Los Angeles Theatre, which opened on January 30, 1931,  is considered to be of the highest extravagance of the movie palaces built on Broadway in downtown Los Angeles.

Designed by S. Charles Lee with French Baroque-inspired décor, it is the last great movie palace built downtown on Broadway. Independent theatre operator H. L. Gumbiner ensured the success of his new theatre by making it as lavish and innovative as possible, with architect S. Charles Lee delivering the latest innovations in theater design: a working fountain in the lobby, a children’s playroom, a full restaurant and ballroom, crying rooms where mothers could take their children, a radio broadcast studio, equipment for widescreen films, electric seat indicators for the ushers, even a periscope and prism system to relay the film image down into the basement lounges. It’s rumored that Charlie Chaplin contributed to financing the completion of the theater so that his new film, City Lights, could premiere on schedule—an event that brought on a once-in-a- lifetime photo opportuntiy in which the comic genius appeared side by side with Albert Einstein in the Los Angeles Theatre's grand lobby. That moment is eternally depicted for patrons in an oversized photo reproduction hung near the theatre’s front entrance.

Honoring the history of the horn in Hollywood, a Los Angeles Horn Club Concert will be recreated at this historic theatre. The IHS LA event is titled Then & Now: A Night Honoring the Horn in Hollywood takes place on Wednesday, August 5th. 

Address: Los Angeles Theatre, 615 S Broadway St, Los Angeles, CA 90014

www.losangelestheatre.com