6230 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90028 | map |
More pages on the Earl Carroll: lobby areas | auditorium | stage | stage basement | sceneshop | ephemera |
News: The building is for sale, although a lease is still a possibility. It had been offered privately but there's now a listing on Loopnet from JLL. Brokers Nicole Mihalka, Andrew Harper and Will Poulson can be reached at 213-239-6076. There's a PDF of the listing flyer for details.
The owners, Essex Property Trust, had been looking for a new tenant after their deal with a group of proposed operators fell apart during the pandemic. Thanks to Escott O. Norton for sharing the news. He discusses the situation in an August 2023 Facebook post. The exterior restoration of the building by its current owners may get done in 2024. This includes reinstallation of the 1938 neon design and paint scheme.
Opened: December 26, 1938 for lavish Earl Carroll musical comedy revues. The first show was titled "Broadway to Hollywood."
The 1938 photo from the Federal Writers Project is in the Works Progress Administration collection of the Los Angeles Public Library. Mr. Carroll's backer for the project
was Ms. Jetta Schuyler. Carroll once described himself as the guy "for
whom the belles toil."
British Pathé
has a short clip of stars arriving for the opening. Thanks to Chris Nichols for spotting it on YouTube.
The exterior featured a 24-foot high neon silhouette of Beryl
Wallace designed by artist/architect Don Riha. Beryl was one of the Earl Carroll girls and Mr. Carroll's long-time
companion. This installation was the first major use of neon tubing with an inside coating of different phosphors, producing white for the vertical bands along the facade and "flesh-colored" light for Beryl's face. The aluminum
lettering around the top of the silhouette, back-lit with blue neon, said: "Thru these portals pass the
most beautiful girls in the world."
The neon installation as well the historic look of the facade were investigated by Dydia DeLyser and Paul Greenstein as part of the restoration project funded by Essex Properties. They note that the exterior was several
tones of green, an appropriate color to honor Beryl, a name Beatrice
Wallace adopted that refers to a green colored stone.
The pillars at the porte cochère
were faced with blue Vitrolite. Dydia and Paul are the authors of "
Neon: A Light History."
The entrance was decorated with an amazing 50' long swirl of 25mm warm-white neon tubing held aloft by the Goddess of Neon at the top of the stairs. Glass columns at the bar areas were lit
with various colors of neon inside. For house lights there were 1,200 three-foot-long pieces of warm-white neon tubing
suspended from the ceiling that were arranged in undulating waves across the
auditorium. The neon, using the trade
name "Zeon" for the new phosphor coated tubing, was an installation by
the Electrical Products Corporation, a Claude Neon licensee, in association with General Electric. They used 6,200 feet of tubing powered by 90 transformers.
A detail of the face and its blue halo from
a 1950s postcard that appeared on eBay. To the left is one of the vertical bands of white tubing that ran the height of the facade. Also see an image from Brian Michael McCray's collection of
a fanciful re-creation of this installation that was done by Glendale's Museum of Neon Art for display at the Universal City Walk.
Architect: Gordon B. Kaufmann, with interior and exterior design work by
Count Alexis de Sakhnovsky, Frank Don Riha and Kaufmann. Kaufmann also did the
Palladium across the street. The cost of the building was
estimated at $500,000. Ford J. Twaits was the contractor. The construction time was 90 days.
The house left wall of the asymmetrical auditorium was covered with a
faux wood grain wallpaper, house right draped with green satin. The
shiny black ceiling was referred to as being of "patent leather."
A rendering from the Herald Examiner collection at the Los Angeles Public Library. It was published October 28, 1938. The caption:
"With interiors being designed by Count Alexis de Sakhnoffsky and Gordon B. Kaufman, creator of the building, the Earl Carroll Theatre, located at Sunset Blvd. just off Vine Street will be ready Xmas nite. The theater-restaurant will seat 1000 people, and the patrons will be treated to a lavish Carroll musical comedy show plus other restaurant features. The cost of the building is estimated at $500,000."
Seating: 1,000, originally in a dinner-show arrangement with
tables and chairs on six terraces. Later as the Moulin Rouge the
capacity was up to 1,250. During the Hullabaloo area there was some
seating at the rear and a dance floor near the stage. During the
one-year Kaleidoscope era the seating was removed to make room for
larger dance floor areas. The floor was redone in 1968 for installation
of conventional theatre seating when the theatre was the Aquarius. Also at that time a wall was installed, creating a separate lobby out of the bar area at the back of the house.
A detail from a 40s Sanborn fire insurance map showing the asymmetrical layout of the auditorium and lobby spaces. The kitchen was in the basement. A scene shop was later added on the back.
A main floor plan from the 2023 sale flyer for the building from JLL, the brokers for the listing. They note that there's 21,863 s.f. shown on the plan at this level plus 3,270 s.f. in the sceneshop building to the south. See a
PDF of the flyer via Loopnet. That's the porte cochère in the upper left. The wall between the lobby area and the auditorium was added in the 1960s. The doors at the bottom lead into the sceneshop building behind the theatre.
A second floor plan. Offices are in the upper left, restrooms and lounges in the upper right. In the lower right it's wardrobe storage in the triangular area and two chorus dressing rooms at the bottom of the plan. On this level there's 3,767 s.f. of space. Image: JLL - 2023
A third floor plan. That's the spot booth out on the peninsula at the top. It's a floor of dressing rooms seen in the lower right. There's 3,202 s.f. of space at this level. Image: JLL - 2023
A plan of the basement under the Sunset Blvd. end of the building. Much of this area used to be the kitchen. Space here totals 5,690 s.f. There's also a basement under the stage. Image: JLL - 2023
The great stage: It featured a 70' revolve
with separately operated inner and outer sections. There was also a
water curtain, a two-section orchestra pit lift, a small circular lift downstage for a soloist (called a "girl lift" in 1938) and a revolving three-level tower stage right. The tower, with four ladies each at a piano, showed up in a demonstration of the
stage's wondrous features in the 1940 film "A Night at Earl Carroll's." See the stage and stage basement pages for lots of details.
Carroll planning a show. Photo:
Los Angeles Public Library. They have over a hundred photos in their collection including exterior
views as well as rehearsal shots and photos of various performances.
A view of Earl Carroll showgirls from a program page posted by Tam Tim O'Connor Fraser on the Vintage Los Angeles
Facebook page. Tam's mother, La Gay Guistina, is in the upper right.
She was with the theatre for a year or so around 1945. Also from Mr.
Fraser on Vintage Los Angeles see program photos of Earl Carroll and Harry Revel and a promo photo of two Earl Carroll beauties.
Many, many pages of various programs beginning with the Earl Carroll
presentations and running into the 1980s ("Hair," "Purlie") are included
in the 2016 Cultural Heritage Commission Final Report.
It's a 498 page pdf from the L.A. Department of City Planning. You'll
probably want to skip the beginning. There are some vintage postcards
beginning on page 125 and the program collection starts on page 129.
An ad for a New Year's Eve celebration added to the Vintage Los Angeles Facebook page by show business historian Kliph Nesteroff.
Thanks to Eric Lynxwiler on Flickr for this image of an Earl Carroll matchbook. Head to our Earl Carroll Ephemera page for images of many more items.
A flyer promoting the second show "World of Pleasure," which opened in June 1939. The third revue, "The World's Fairest," opened in December 1939. Thanks to Joshua Weisel for adding a photo of the flyer as a comment to a post on the SoCal Historic Architecture private Facebook group.
"It's Not Expensive." Four ads for the theatre appearing together in September 1943.
Earl Carroll and Beryl Wallace died in a plane crash in June 1948. The theatre continued to operate but wasn't a viable venture without the leadership of Carroll and his star. It closed in October 1949.
A Times announcement of the 1949 sale to Warwick Industries. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for finding it for a post on the Facebook page Photos of Los Angeles.
Later operators: The theatre had a difficult time finding an operator in the early 50s. CBS was using it in 1951. On Christmas Day 1953 it was re-opened by Frank Sennes as the Moulin Rouge nightclub.
"Showplace of the World." A December 1953 ad announcing the reopening as the Moulin Rouge. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating this for a post on
Photos of Los Angeles.
A 1955 ad announcing the September 28 opening of the third show under Frank Sennes' management, the Donn Arden extravaganza "Paris Toujours." Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating this one for another Photos of Los Angeles post.
The theatre was also used for periods as a
TV studio in the 50s and early 60s including for the "Queen for a Day" program. That program had earlier done radio broadcasts from the theatre in the late 40s.
An image of a 1959 program cover from the GS Jansen collection.
The cover for the 1960 show "Oriental Fantasy." It appeared on eBay.
Louis Prima and Keely Smith on a Sunset Blvd. billboard for the Moulin Rouge. It's a March 1960 Gary Leonard photo from Corbis. Thanks to Torbjörn Eriksson for locating this shot.
From
December 1965 until 1967 it was Dave Hull's Hullabaloo. Thanks to J.J. Englander for adding this December 11, 1965 ad from The Beat as a comment to a post about the theatre by Pam Petronio on the Lost Angeles Facebook group. It's from the Ad Sausage archives. Also see a flyer from later in December 1965.
In mid-1967 it became
the
Kaleidoscope, a project of Gary Essert along with Skip Taylor and the William Morris agent John Hartmann. Essert had intended to open at the
Filmarte Theatre but the landlord, National General, put a stop to that. After a quick detour for a show at the Ambassador, the venture settled in at the Earl Carroll. Marc Wanamaker has commented about scraping paint off the glass columns in the lobby get ready for the theatre's reopening.
An ad for movies at the Kaleidoscope. Thanks to J.J. Englander for locating it in the Ad Sausage archives. Lori Landrin comments: "Felt like 100 bellbottomed kids showed up to paint the entire building purple. Canned Heat was one of the house bands. Around 2am, they’d show movies, & street kids came in & slept on the terraced floors. I think hot dogs were .25, & drinks .10.... Rumors abounded about the ghosts of Earl Carrol’s beautiful dancers being in the building. It was an amazing time!"
In late 1968 it was renamed the Aquarius Theatre for almost a two year run of
"Hair." The floor was re-terraced and conventional theatre seating installed. Evidently the rear of the house got partitioned off at this point to
make it a separate lobby. Mike Hume found a November 1968 building
permit for 110' of non-load bearing wall.
A 1972 ad for a "Film Feast" at the Aquarius. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for finding it for the Photos of Los Angeles Facebook page. Later shows at the Aquarius included "Lenny" and "Purlie." In 1977 it was briefly known as the Longhorn
Theatre. In 1979 the theatre saw runs of "Oliver!" and "Ain't Misbehavin.'" Center Theatre Group was using it in the early 80s for "Zoot Suit" and other shows. In 1981 CTG was issued a building permit for construction of a $25,000 "sound wall." Filmex used the theatre for their 1981 festival.
In 1982 producer Martin Tahse had it with big plans for two restaurants and a separate theatre space at the back of the stage. He pulled out the theatre seating and went back to tables on the original terraces. One production of his was "I'm Getting My Act Together and Taking It on the Road." Frank Sennes had continued to own the building until 1983 when it then became a TV production facility under the management of Sunset Gower Studios.
It went through periods of being called the Sunset Blvd. Theatre, the Star Search
Theatre and (in 1993) the Chevy Chase Theatre. Other uses have included
being a venue for Jerry Lewis Telethons and Filmex. It was used from 1997 until 2016 by Nickelodeon as their west coast production hub and known as the Nickelodeon
on Sunset.
New plans for the site: The Palo
Alto-based equity fund Essex Property Trust has owned the property since
2004. Essex had meetings about their designs over a period of two years
with a coalition consisting of
Hollywood Heritage, the
Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation, the
L.A. Conservancy, the
Art Deco Society of Los Angeles
and councilman Mitch O'Farrell. The initial proposal from Essex
had contained no assurances that the theatre would again be an
entertainment-related venue or that any of the remaining historic
features (such as the deco lobby) would be preserved. They later became a
willing partner in the discussions that followed resulting in both a City of Los Angeles landmark designation and assurances of protection of
historic interior elements.
A rendering looking west on Sunset across the facade of the theatre toward the new building Essex was proposing for the parking lot beyond. It appeared with a 2014 Curbed L.A.
article by Bianca Barragan on the project titled "Here's the Latest Look for the Sunset-Vine Mixed User." Richard Adkins of Hollywood Heritage
noted at the time:
"There are some good things to their plans for the new
adjacent building. It has a facade on Hawthorne as well as Sunset in
order to upgrade that street. They are borrowing rhythms and massing
from the Carroll and they are restoring or returning elements of the
vintage signage."
An updated rendering that was released by Essex in 2016. The theatre was declared a City of Los Angeles Cultural-Historic
Landmark in 2016. Julia Wick had a December 8 photo spread on LAist with many vintage views along with the story "
Hollywood's Earl Carroll Theatre Gets Landmark Designation." Although it hadn't been a public performance venue for
years, she rather optimistically noted:
"Now, the protection and restoration of the legendary building is finally fait accompli... Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell approved a Historic-Cultural Monument designation for the Earl Carroll Theatre. The designation, along with an agreement O’Farrell orchestrated between property owner Essex Property Trust, Hollywood Heritage, and the Los Angeles Conservancy, will ensure that one of the last remaining examples of modern entertainment venues constructed during the height of the Golden Age will remain for decades to come."
The landmarking was a big step as earlier
the developers had
expressed an interest in applying -- but only after their work was
completed. While much of the building has been altered, enough historic
features remain to make the Earl Carroll also eligible for inclusion on
the National Register. Essex has also talked about granting a facade
easement to the L.A. Conservancy to obtain certain tax credits. Although they had no tenant for the building at the time, the company agreed to maintain the art
deco lobby, retain the revolving stage, and work on restoration of the
exterior. The auditorium has been
extensively
remodeled over the years. All the neon is gone, the ceiling has been
removed, and the floor was leveled for TV studio use.
Bob Linder represented Essex at an October 2017 open house and
groundbreaking. KTLA's Gayle Anderson paid the theatre a visit on October 16. The "
Restoration of the Earl Carroll Theatre" article about her visit includes links to several video clips on the
history of the building and the restoration plans. Pauline O'Connor
followed up on October 23 with "
Take a peek inside...." a Curbed L.A. story using many photos from LAHTF's Wendell Benedetti and Mike Hume.
Initially there seemed little chance
it
would ever again be a public venue as the developers didn't want to
meet the
necessary parking requirements. But in 2019 with Essex giving assurances of some dedicated parking and a
new group interested in being the tenant, it looked like it had a chance of once again being open to the public. Word of the project had been swirling around and it finally hit the media with "Earl Carroll Theatre restoration slated to open in late 2020," Bianca Barragan's September 25
story for Curbed L.A. Obviously that proposed opening didn't happen. Also see "Hollywood's Historic Earl Carroll Theatre is Coming Back To Life," the September 2019 story Chris Nichols did for L.A. Magazine.
The Wallace on
Sunset, the new mixed-use building by Essex located to the west in the theatre's former
parking lot, opened in 2021. It contains 200 apartments and 4,700 sf of
commercial space. There's a "paseo" between the theatre and the new
building.
An aborted theatre restoration project: The theatre was scheduled for restoration and a rebirth as a music venue. Thaddeus Smith, once a partner in the
Music Box/Fonda and responsible for that theatre's 2002 reactivation, teamed up with
real estate
guy Brian Levian to lease the building. The interior work was to have been done by Smith and his partners. For a variety of reasons, including financial and Covid issues, the project was declared dead in 2022.
Status: The building is for sale, although a lease is still a possibility. It
had been offered privately but in July 2023 a listing appeared on Loopnet
from JLL. Brokers Nicole Mihalka, Andrew Harper and Will Poulson can be
reached at 213-239-6076. Thanks to Escott O. Norton for sharing the
news. He discusses
the situation in an August 2023 Facebook post. There's a PDF of the listing flyer for details. JLL notes that the property comes with 70 parking spaces. The 1969 "Aquarius" facade mural that Quentin Tarantino had repainted for his film "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood" is still on the building.
Facade restoration: There's an agreement between the city and Essex to restore the building's exterior to its 1938 look,
including the vertical neon stripes on the Sunset Blvd. facade and the neon sculpture with the lettering "Thru these
portals pass the most beautiful girls in the world." No cement
signature blocks, however, as they came later.
The work by Essex was scheduled to be completed by the end of 2023. But the Cultural Heritage Commission didn't approve the work plan until January 2024. Research on both the paint colors and neon details was undertaken by Dydia DeLyser and Paul Greenstein, authors of "
Neon: A Light History." Paul Stoakes of the firm
Signmakers was involved in producing drawings as well as constructing prototypes of certain components. As of early 2024 the project was winding its way through the city's permitting process.
More exterior views:
1938 - A Herman Schultheis shot of the installation work on
the famous neon on the exterior. The piece, a 20' high likeness of Mr.
Carroll's companion Beryl Wallace, is ringed with the words "Thru
These Portals Pass the Most Beautiful Girls in the World" in aluminum letters. The photo is in the
Los Angeles Public Library collection.
1939 - A photo taken in August by Maynard Parker. It's from the
Huntington Library collection. The link to the Huntington will also get you thumbnail views of 21 additional photos of the theatre by Mr. Parker.
1939 - Thanks to Rick Watts for finding this one for a post on the private Facebook group
Photos of Los Angeles.
1939 - A nice angle on the facade neon. It's an ad that appeared in a 1939 issue of the theatre program magazine Playgoer. Thanks to Eric Lynxwiler for sharing this from his collection on
Flickr. And kudos to Ken McIntyre for spotting it for a post on the
Photos of Los Angeles private Facebook group.
c.1939 - Thanks to Bob Sly for sharing this photo, one taken by his uncle Harry Croome.
1939 - A lovely postcard view east on Sunset. On the left it's the NBC and CBS buildings but no Palladium yet. It didn't arrive until 1940. It's a card included in the 2016
Cultural Heritage Commission Final Report, a 498 page pdf from the L.A. Department of City Planning. There are some postcards
beginning on page 125 and the document's program collection starts on page 129.
c.1939 - A card from the site Card Cow. The number in the lower corner isn't the date -- it's earlier than that.
c.1939 - A view of the tire shop along the east side of the theatre. Thanks to Michael Hayashi for the photo, a post on Photos of Los Angeles. Parking at the time was 15 cents.
c.1940 - Thanks to Cezar Del Valle for this early postcard of the theatre from his
Theatre Talks collection. There's also a version of this one on
Card Cow. Card Cow also has
another night postcard of the theatre from across the street.
1940 - Earl Carroll and some of the showgirls with autographed blocks that
would be installed on the theatre's facade. It's a photo by Gene Lester in the Herald Examiner collection at the Los Angeles Public Library.
c.1940
- The letters that said "THEATRE" on the west and east walls, as well as those above the marquee, were sequenced in about a four second display so that they first said "EAT," then "AT," then "THE" and, finally,
"THEATRE." The signs were not in sync. You can see the west wall signage in action near the end of a 4 minute clip of Christmas footage
on
YouTube from Periscope films. Thanks to Glen Norman for locating it.
1940-41 - An Ansel Adams shot of Beryl in neon on the facade. The photo is in the collection of the
Los Angeles Public Library. Note the poster for Jimmy Durante. He appeared in the revue "Pan-Americana" that opened in December 1940.
1940-41 - A detail from the Ansel Adams photo showing some of the tube supports and connections. The aluminum letters of the "halo" were backlit with blue neon. Beryl's face was done in the new Zeon peach color, referred to in promotional literature as "flesh-colored neon." The vertical bands farther left on the facade were in white.
1942 - The
Wikipedia article on the Earl Carroll Theatre has this photo taken by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. It's in the
Library of Congress collection. Note the fire escape from the upstairs offices, added in 1941.
1940s - Note the green color of the facade in this card -- evidently accurate, according to research by Paul Greenstein and Dydia DeLyser. Thanks to Mark for including this card with his post about the theatre on the blog
Having A Nice Time. It also appears in the Hollywood section of the site
Penny Postcards of California.
The back of the card reads: "The Earl Carroll Theatre - Restaurant in
the heart of Hollywood on Sunset Boulevard near Vine, is a favorite Nite
Spot in the Film Capital of the World. Seating arrangements are
terraced so all guests may enjoy an unobstructed view of the lavish
stage production with 'Sixty of the Most Beautiful Girls in the
World.'"
1943 - A photo from the collection of Paul Greenstein. Thanks to Martin Turnbull for sharing it on a
Hollywood's Garden of Allah Facebook post.
c.1943 - An interesting Bob Plunkett card with no copy on the marquee except several quotation marks. Thanks to Eric Lynxwiler for sharing this one from his vast collection. It's on
Flickr.
1945 - Thanks to Richard Wojcik for sharing this great shot of servicemen visiting the theatre. Richard shared this one as a post on the Vintage Los Angeles Facebook page.
1940s - A snapshot from the Sean Ault collection. Thanks, Sean!
c.1945 - "$1.65 Includes Lavish Revue and Dancing." But no dinner included in the package at that price. Thanks to Eric Lynxwiler for sharing this photo from his collection on Flickr.
c.1946 - Neon historian Paul Greenstein notes that this shot with the signage turned on shows how vibrant the neon was even in the daylight. Thanks to Paul for sharing this image from his collection. Versions of it can also be seen on the sites Media Storehouse and Alamy.
1946 - Big plans for a new film theatre were announced but never realized. The Los Angeles Public Library photo appeared on the Vintage Los Angeles Facebook page, where Brian Michael McCray offered details on the never-built theatre:
"Seating 7,000, $15 Million, structure to be larger than Radio City Music Hall, Sunset Boulevard, a half a block east of current structure. Proscenium 130 ft., THREE revolving stages 75x100, and ice rink AND a water tank, so that Esther Williams and Sonja Hennie could BOTH perform simultaneously while 110 dizzy dames twirled. Movie Theatre, TV studios, nightclub and a high rise office tower topped with a heliport. (And we got The Cinerama Dome instead.)" Thanks, Brian!
c.1947 - Thanks to Lewis Lustman for sharing this shot of his mother in front of the entrance. He added it as a comment to a 2023 post about the theatre by Pam Petronio on the Lost Angeles Facebook group.
c.1947 - A fine look west from El Centro. Chris Nichols notes that the Mark C. Bloome building we see snuggled up
to the east wall of the theatre was by Arthur Froehlich and built in
1946. The 3 minute car wash was 45 cents. The photo has popped up on several Facebook pages including
Classic Hollywood/Los Angeles/SFV and
Lost Angeles.
1948 - Looking west from El Centro St. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for finding the photo for a post for the private Facebook group Photos of Los Angeles. David Sorenson notes that it appears somewhere on a Water & Power Associates Museum page. Jim O'Neill commented that there's a banner on the left at the Kaiser-Fraser dealer advertising the 1948 Frazer. Post-war inflation: the car wash was up to 49 cents.
Earl Carroll and Beryl Wallace died in a plane crash in June 1948.
1948 - Thanks to Eric Lynxwiler for sharing this September photo from his collection. It's on Flickr.
c.1948 - Thanks to Tom Anderson for locating this fine view west for a post on the private Facebook group Mid Century Modern.
c.1949
- A postcard view of the celebrity autograph plaque wall from Brian
Michael McCray's amazing Hollywood Postcards collection. Thanks, Brian!
Another version of this star wall postcard from the John Marshall
collection appears as a post on the Photos of Los Angeles private Facebook group.
1949 - A shot from a family vacation in California. Thanks to Eric Lynxwiler for sharing this from his collection. Start with
this shot on Flickr and you can page in both directions to see other L.A. locations this family took photos of including Grauman's Chinese, the Palladium, the NBC building, CBS Square and various nightclubs.
1949 - Another shot from the family vacation album that ended up in Eric Lynxwiler's collection on Flickr.
1949 - A view of the autograph blocks from the family vacation album. Thanks to Eric Lynxwiler for sharing these on Flickr. In addition to the three shots seen here, the family album had four additional Earl Carroll views that can be seen on Flickr.
c.1951 - Thanks to Sean Ault for this fine night view taken when CBS was using the theatre. It's also on Vintage Los Angeles as a post from Richard Wojcik.
c.1953 - The theatre became the Moulin Rouge in 1953. Thanks to Laura De Marco for this shot. It was once posted on the Facebook page Vintage Los Angeles but then vanished.
c.1954 - An "All New Show" shot from the Los Angeles Public Library collection. Also see a daytime "All New Show" photo in the Library's collection.
c.1954 - A great 3 minute compilation of Hollywood
footage. Luke Sacher's "Hollywood 50s Neon" on YouTube features the Moulin Rouge, Grauman's Chinese, the Egyptian and lots more.
c.1954 - "New Acts" -- including Miss Malta. Thanks to the Classic Hollywood/Los Angeles/SFV Facebook page for locating the photo. It's one by Bob Willoughby that appears on the Getty Images site. They give it a January 1, 1950 date which shouldn't be trusted.
c.1954
- Among the acts appearing were the Borrah Minevitch and his Harmonica
Rascals, Chiquita & Johnson and the DeCastro Sisters. Minevitch died in 1955. The revue was
directed by Donn Arden. The Mike Roberts Kodachrome photo is on a card
that appeared on eBay. On the back: "Frank Senne's [sic] Moulin Rouge -
Hollywood California - World's largest theatre restaurant. The showplace
of the world, featuring lavish productions on stage and famous food."
c.1954 - "Revue of 80." This card that was on eBay dates from about the same time as the previous one.
c.1955 - It's a photo from the Hulton Archive appearing on the Getty Images
site. Don't believe the 1945 date they give it. Tom Anderson included
this one in his post of 18 photos for part four of his "Los Angeles
After Dark" series for the Facebook group Lost Angeles.
c.1955 - A great Moulin Rouge postcard
that appeared on eBay. T
he show "Paris Toujours" opened September 28, 1955. A version is also on the site
Card Cow.
1959 - Picketing in style. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating the photo for a post on Photos of Los Angeles. Bruce Kimmel notes: "They're not picketing the Fred Astaire Show, which shot at NBC in Burbank. They're picketing the upcoming Emmy Awards show that took place at the Moulin Rouge. They were dark for a week during that period, until Sammy opened on the 9th of May."
1960 - The Moulin Rouge running "Oriental Fantasy" featuring, among other acts, the Oriental hillbillies Ming and Ling, dancer Tokuno Azuma and "40 Lovely and Lively Geisha Girls from Tokyo." Many thanks to Kathy Kikkert for putting this photo on the back cover of her 2023 Angel City Press book "
Hollywood Signs: The Golden Age of Glittering Graphics and Glowing Neon."
1960 - A colorful view east from Vine St. It's a sliver of a much larger image that was located on eBay by Martin Pal. He has it on Noirish Los Angeles post #56145.
1961 - A lovely Moulin Rouge view. The show was "C'est la Vie" with Louis Armstrong. Thanks to Alison Martino for the post on Vintage Los Angeles. The image also appears with her 2015 Los Angeles Magazine article "
Uncovering a Secret Gem..."
It's also on Photos of Los Angeles.
1960s - Thanks to G.S. Jansen for posting this nice "Queen For a Day" view by an unknown photographer on his Noirish Los Angeles post #1506.
1963 - A lovely view from Tikbalang Douglas who posted it on the Photos of Los Angeles private Facebook group.
1960s - A Moulin Rouge shot that Noirish Los Angeles contributor Ethereal Reality found on eBay for his Noirish post #23819. Also see several nice views of the theatre on his Noirish post #5759. Visit Noirish LA for a great ride around the "bright and guilty place" that is Los Angeles!
1965 - A look at the celebrity autograph slabs from the Richard Wojcik collection on the Vintage Los Angeles Facebook page. Note here we still have the Beryl Wallace neon on the building. Thanks, Richard!
1966 - A detail that was extracted from the previous shot by Dydia DeLyser and Paul Greenstein as part of their investigation of the facade and its neon installation for the exterior restoration funded by Essex Properties. They note that here we can see the tubing in the vertical niches. Paul adds that that the connections seen on the right are indicative of later, less professional work while the doubleback over on the left is properly done and most likely from the original 1938 installation. Dydia and Paul are the authors of the 2021 book "Neon: A Light History."
1966 - Thanks to Richard Wojcik for this photo taken in June of the Palladium and the Earl Carroll, here as the Hullabaloo. Hullabaloo had opened December 5, 1965. The photo was a post of his on the Vintage Los Angeles Facebook page. He notes that the dirt in the foreground is the site of the then recently demolished NBC complex at Sunset and Vine.
1966 - This cropped version of Richard's photo is from Alison Martino on Flickr. The image also appears with her 2015 Los Angeles Magazine article "
Uncovering a Secret Gem...."
Thanks, Alison!
1968 - An April shot of the building as the Kaleidoscope. Thanks to Joshua Weisel for the photo he found, added as a comment to a post on the SoCal Historic Architecture private Facebook group.
1968 - A look at the Kaleidoscope with lines for a Janis Joplin show. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for the photo on the private Facebook group Photos of Los Angeles.
c.1969 - "Hair" playing at the Aquarius. Thanks to Mary Bolter for locating this photo for a post on the Southern California Nostalgia private Facebook group. Also see the page on the Historic L.A. Theatres in Movies site showing many photos of the recreation of this paint job Quentin Tarantino had done for "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood." Sadly, it didn't make it into the finished film.
early 1971 - Thanks to Richard Wojcik for this photo taken after "Hair" had completed a nearly two year run at what was then called the Aquarius Theatre. It was a post on the Vintage Los Angeles Facebook page. Don't miss Alison Martino's post "
The Aquarius Theater" on her blog Martino's Time Machine.
c.1971 - A detail of the painting on the west wall. The photo is one that appears with Alison Martino's 2015 Los Angeles Magazine article "
Uncovering a Secret Gem...."
1978 - "Elvis Forever." It's a photo from the McAvoy/Bruce Torrence Historic Hollywood Photographs collection, their #T-004-2. The link will get you to another "Elvis" shot as well as 1979 views of the theatre during the engagements of "Oliver" and "Ain't Misbehavin."
1981 - Filmex at the Aquarius. Thanks to Philip Mershon's Felix in Hollywood Tours for the photo, a post on the Facebook page
Vintage Los Angeles. It's also on
Flickr from Gerald DeLuca. Thanks to Noirish Los Angeles contributor Ethereal Reality for spotting that appearance for his
Noirish post #50385.
1986 - The theatre as home for "Star Search." Thanks to Jeff Cashdollar for sharing this shot as a comment to a post by Jeff Vail about the theatre for the Facebook page
Lost Angeles.
2009 - A look east on Sunset Blvd from Argyle. That's the
Palladium on the left. Photo: Google Maps |
interactive version |
c.2009 - The Nickelodeon signage. Thanks to Mark for the photo with his post about the theatre on the blog
Having A Nice Time.
2010 - The Earl Carroll Theatre as a studio for Nickelodeon. Photo: Bill Counter
2017 - On the roof from the top of the dressing room stack stage right. We're looking to the south of the building over the stage area. The scene shop behind the stage is much lower and its roof can't be seen from here. Thanks to Mike Hume for this photo and others appearing on these pages. See the fine page about the theatre on his
Historic Theatre Photography site.
2017 - A view north across the side of the auditorium roof. Note the Hollywood sign hiding behind the construction crane in the distance. Photo: Mike Hume
2017 - Looking east on Sunset Blvd. Photo: Mike Hume
2017 - A closer view of the post-Nickelodeon facade. Photo: Mike Hume
October 2017 - Looking west along the facade. Photo: Mike Hume
October 2017 - The
scene shop at the rear of the building. We're looking east -- the loading doors are at the
other end. Photo: Mike Hume
November 2017 - The work on the new building in the parking lot begins. Thanks to Chuck Weiss for the photo on the
SoCal Historic Architecture private Facebook group.
February 2018 - West on Sunset. Photo: Bill Counter
February 2018 - The fenced-off porte cochere with the site of the new building on the right. Photo: Bill Counter
February 2018 - A closer look at the entrance. Photo: Bill Counter
February 2018 - The southeast corner of the building. The big rollup gets you into the
scene shop. Through the smaller doors on the right you're backstage and
can take a left for the stage or dressing room stairs. Straight ahead
gets you to the Circle Room. Photo: Bill Counter
October 2018 - The facade getting painted as it was in 1969 for shooting a scene for
Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood." See the
Historic L.A. Theatres in Movies
post about the film's use of various theatres for many more photos of
the building's re-do in progress. Sadly, the building didn't end up in the finished film. Photo: Bill Counter
November 2018 - The theatre under a tent. Photo: Mike Hume. Thanks, Mike! Visit his
Historic Theatre Photography site for lots of tech information and hundreds of fine photos of the many theatres he's explored in Los Angeles and elsewhere.
May 2019 - The view down Argyle with the new project rising to the theatre's west. Photo: Bill Counter
April 2020 - A rare unobstructed view of the east side of the building. The structures that had been here have been demolished and a new project will be rising on this side of the building as well. Photo: Bill Counter
April 2020 - The theatre is a long way from reopening but it's nice to see some of the readerboard neon still works. Photo: Bill Counter
April 2020 - A detail of some of the surviving neon. Photo: Bill Counter
June 1, 2020 - A crowd marches east on Sunset protesting police brutality and racial inequality. Thanks to Brad
Stubbs for his photo, one of 71 in his "BLM Protest 6-1-20 Hollywood" album on Facebook.
July 2021 - The neighborhood was growing up, with new housing on both sides of the theatre. The building on the right, built by Essex Property Trust in the theatre's former parking lot, is called the Wallace on Sunset. Presumably that's an homage to Beryl Wallace, the star of the Earl Carroll shows. Photo: Bill Counter
Earl Carroll and his theatre in the Movies:
Earl Carroll was involved in film production with early credits as either producer or co-producer including the cult-classic
"
Murder at the Vanities" with Jack Oakie and Kitty Carlisle (Paramount, 1933), "
Stowaway" with Shirley Temple (20th Century Fox, 1936) and "
Love is News"
with Tyrone Power and Loretta Young (20th Century Fox, 1937). See a lengthy
IMDb list of his writing and producing credits dating back to 1912.
All the wonders of the great stage were demonstrated in "A Night at
Earl Carroll's" (Paramount, 1940). The plot is slim, but it doesn't
matter. A mobster engineers a
kidnapping of Mr. Carroll and the lead performers so there won't be a
show. But quite a show we get!
The house left side of the proscenium revolves open to reveal a stack of
four ladies playing four pianos in "A Night at Earl Carroll's." In
addition to Mr. Carroll, the film features Ken Murray, Rose Hobart, J.
Carrol Naish, Lela Moore and Forbes Murray -- and a cameo by Beryl
Wallace. See the
Historic L.A. Theatres in Movies post for twenty more shots from the film.
Later films revolving around Carroll's work included "
Earl Carroll Vanities" (aka "Moonstruck Melody," Republic, 1945) with Dennis O'Keefe, Constance Moore, Eve Arden and the Woody Herman band. Mr.
Carroll was played in that one by Otto Kruger. And there was "
Earl Carroll Sketchbook"
(aka "Stand Up and Sing" and "Hats Off to Rhythm," Republic, 1946) that starred Constance Moore
and William Marshall. "Sketchbook" was without Carroll or even an actor portraying him but we do get a
parade of various stagehands, agents, and even the Costello Twins. The
latter were reported to be intimate acquaintances of Mr. Carroll at one
time. The titles of these two films came from Broadway shows Carroll had co-written and produced titled "Earl Carroll's Vanities" (1923 to 1932) and "Earl Carroll's
Sketch Book" (1929, 1935).
The set Republic used for the interior of the theatre in both "Earl
Carroll Vanities" and "Earl Carroll Sketchbook." Interestingly, they did
a great job of contouring the front of the stage with the center stairs
and narrow protrusions on each side to match the real theatre. On this
set the band is in that recess we see in the house right wall. As far as
exterior shots, both films give us only a couple of quick glimpses of
the real theatre.
We get quite a tour of the theatre in its Moulin Rouge days
Douglas Sirk's "Imitation of Life" (Universal-International, 1959). The
film stars Lana Turner, John Gavin and Sandra Dee. Here we get a look at
the dropped ceiling added in the lobby area. Thanks to LAHTF member
Alenoush for remembering the theatre from the
film and to Escott O. Norton for the screenshot. See his post on the
LAHTF Facebook page for eight more Earl Carroll shots from the film.
We get some nice aerial shots in the Jerry Lewis film "The Errand Boy"
(Paramount, 1961). Here looking west on Sunset it's the Earl Carroll
(here renamed the Moulin Rouge) on the left and the
Palladium across the street. See the
Historic L.A. Theatres In Movies post for a Hollywood Blvd. aerial view and visits to the Fox Westwood Village and the Chinese.
Elvis takes the beat to Bagdad in Gene Nelson's "Harum Scarum" (MGM,
1965). Of course while in the Middle East to premiere his new
desert-themed movie Hollywood filmstar Johnny Tyronne (Elvis) gets
kidnapped, meets a princess, and falls in love. We wind up at the Earl Carroll for the final number, "Harem
Holiday." See the
Historic L.A. Theatres in Movies post for more shots from that scene.
"The Big T.N.T. Show" (American International, 1966) was filmed at the
theatre in November 1965. It features Bo Diddley, Petula Clark, Joan
Baez, The Byrds, David Crosby, Ray Charles, Donovan, Roger Miller and
many more.
A vintage exterior photo of the theatre as the Earl Carroll that's used at the beginning of "Zoot Suit" (Universal, 1981).
Another exterior image from the opening. The end credits of "Zoot Suit"
note that it was filmed at the Aquarius Theatre, as it was then called.
There are some shots of the audience in the auditorium during the film
-- but we really don't see anything except seats. There are, however,
some views of the lobby.
A lobby shot from "Zoot Suit" Thanks to Lanna Pian for the tip on this one. The
Historic L.A. Theatres In Movies post has several more lobby shots.
The Earl Carroll is one of a number of theatres brought back to a late
60s look by Quentin Tarantino for his epic "Once Upon a Time in
Hollywood" (Sony, 2019). Regrettably, the theatre doesn't appear in the
finished film. Thanks to Zzub
McEntire for this October 5, 2018 progress shot of the work. See the
Historic L.A. Theatres in Movies
pages about the filming for 40 shots of the Earl Carroll as well as
views of other theatres used including the Cinerama Dome, Vogue,
Ritz/Pussycat, Grauman's Chinese, Bruin and Fox Westwood Village.
The City of Los Angeles Department of City Planning has a 2016 Cultural Heritage Commission Final Report available as a 498 page pdf. See the Draft Environmental Impact Report from March 2015 and a pdf with the L.A. Conservancy's comments.
On Facebook see the Beryl Wallace Homepage. The site Earl Carrol Girls has an extensive collection of photos of the building, the performers and memorabilia.
Alison Martino's 2015 Los Angeles Magazine article "Uncovering a Secret Gem..." has some history of the venue. The Rock Prosopography 101 post about the theatre's Kaleidoscope era has a list of 1968 shows and images of poster art.
See the Bruce Torrence article on Frank Sennes and the theatre's years as the Moulin Rouge. Martin Turnbull has a fine article about the theatre on his website. You Tube has a nice 2 1/2 minute clip from Robbies Video Archives "The Hullabaloo Club, Hollywood, 1966" with a nice discussion of its transition from the Earl Carroll/Moulin Rouge.
The Wikipedia article on the Earl Carroll Theatre has an informative history on the Hollywood theatre and Earl Carroll Theatre in New York City. Also visit their listing for Earl Carroll. Earl Carroll also has a listing on Find A Grave.
The book: A new book on Earl Carroll by Randy Schmidt titled "Impresario: Earl Carroll and Beryl Wallace" is in the works from the University Press of Mississippi "Hollywood Legends" series. There's an
Indiegogo page up with information about the book and Mr. Carroll. A short video is included. Schmidt also has an
Impresario page and an
Earl Carroll Theatre page up on Facebook.
The Missing Plaques: The Earl Carrol had a whole wall of little
plaques that were signed by the stars. In a June, 2011 story, L.A.
Magazine's Chris Nichols answers a question about what happened to them:
"In 1968, a Dutch art collective known as the Fool replaced the
nameplates with a psychedelic mural of Greek muses and stored the
autographed pieces in the basement. They stayed there until 1979, when
Magic Castle founder Milt Larsen acquired them for his Variety Arts
Center downtown. Gene Autry lassoed them for his museum
later that year. Finally, Butterfield & Butterfield auctioned off
104 of the plaques in 1989 and 1990. Two bearing the names of Norma
Shearer and Amos ’n Andy had been left beneath the theater stage. They
were put on display until 2006, when the property was sold again...and the owner gave the pair to the
handyman." Thanks, Chris!
One story was as of 2015 some of the plaques were still in the possession of Milt Larsen. The February 2018 word is that about 80 of the plaques are in the possession of a San Diego theatre owner. Perhaps the same gentleman (Papa Alan) who commented back in 2011 on a post on the blog
Dear Old Hollywood saying he had 80 to 100 of the plaques in his possession.
The Earl Carroll Theatre pages: back to top -
history + exterior views |
lobby areas |
auditorium |
stage |
stage basement |
sceneshop |
ephemera |
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I have some original play bills I would like to donate. They were in my moms belongings 1946
ReplyDeleteGreat! You can send them to me at counterb@gmail.com
DeleteDo you have any idea of what happened to the Beryl Wallace neon, the "most beautiful girls" sign or the Earl Carroll lettering on the outside? Demolished and thrown away, or is it possible some of it could have been kept? I'd sure like to find some of the renovators and ask. Thanks for your detailed work here!
ReplyDeleteEvidently none of the original neon -- either outside or inside -- has survived. At least nobody has tracked any of it down if it did. There are plans to re-create much of it. Stay tuned.
DeleteDo you have another update? I bought a postcard of this location in a vintage shop and looked it up. I am rooting for this cool place..
ReplyDeleteAnother update? Nope -- there's nothing new. The building is still for sale. Want to buy it?
Delete