Marquis / Academy Award Theatre

9038 Melrose Ave. West Hollywood, CA 90048 | map | 

Opened: It opened November 11, 1925 as the Marquis Theatre with the film "The Beautiful Cheat." At the time, this part of town was known as Sherman. The location was just east of Doheny Dr.

In this 20s photo the bottom line of the marquee is unreadable except "Watch For..." Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating this lovely shot on the site Worthpoint and sharing it on the private Facebook group Photos of Los Angeles.

The Marquis was operated by Hansen Theatres, Inc. The principals were Mark Hansen and film star Alice Calhoun. Joseph G. Curl was also part of the firm. Mark and Alice were involved in operating other theatres including three houses in Oxnard, the La Mirada Theatre on Vine St. (later called the Filmarte), the Larchmont Theatre and the Marcal Theatre on Hollywood Blvd. After 1963 the Marcal was known as the World. 

Architect: Frank Rasche

Seating: 950

 

 Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating this June 1926 ad for the Marquis.

 

 

An October 1927 ad from the Hollywood Daily Citizen. Thanks to mystery writer J.H. Graham for including it in "6021-6025 Hollywood Boulevard: The Marcal Theatre." That house was another one operated by Hansen Theatres.  

The Arcadia publishing book "Theatres in Los Angeles" notes that in 1929 it got an installation of the Colorart Synchrontone sound system. The theatre was operated for decades by Fox West Coast.

AMPAS arranged to buy the building in December 1945. They would soon take down the deco marquee and  rename it the Academy Award Theatre. It was their offices, the site of screenings, and the venue for the 1948 Academy Awards ceremony, held in March 1949. The story was that the Academy was feeling a financial pinch that year due to lack of support from the studios and didn't want to splurge on renting a big theatre.

The Academy moved to their new Beverly Hills building in December 1975. See the page about the Goldwyn Theatre in that building. The Writers Guild evidently had been sharing the building with the Academy. After the Academy moved out the building became known as the Writers Guild Theatre.

The Writers stayed in the building until 1978 according to a comment on page 112 of the book "Crossroads of the Stars" by Dennis Sarniske and Stanley J. Sarniske. They were operating on a conditional use permit that was contingent on providing additional parking by a certain date. The parking wasn't taken care of and the county declined to renew, forcing a move.

Thanks to Noirish Los Angeles contributor Tovangar2 for the research on the Writers Guild era. See Noirish post #41951.

Status: The property was sold and the theatre was demolished. It's now the site of an office building and parking.

 

Interior views:

The Academy Awards ceremony in 1949. It's a photo taken for Life.

 

The booth and the press viewing the Academy Award proceedings in March 1949. Photo: Life

 

More exterior views:

1936 - A look at the crowd for a show at the Marquis. The photo appears on page 86 of the Arcadia Publishing book "Theatres in Los Angeles" by Suzanne Tarbell Cooper, Amy Ronnebeck Hall and Marc Wanamaker. The rare photos in the book are from Mr. Wanamaker's Bison Archives. There's a preview to browse on Google Books.

The photo also appears on the page for the private Facebook group Photos of Los Angeles (plus a re-post). It can also be seen in the AMPAS Tom B'hend and Preston Kaufmann Collection where they note it was taken taken by Charles Rhodes.

 

 

 

1945 - This photo from the collection of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences appeared on a now-vanished page on their Oscars.org site titled "Academy Story - 1940-1949." The photo itself is still on the site. Thanks to Noirish Los Angeles contributor BifRayRock for locating it. It's on his Noirish post #37331 which also discusses several other theatres named Academy. 

 

 

1945 - A photo that appears on page 111 of Marc Wanamaker's fine Arcadia Publishing book "Hollywood 1940-2008." The page with the photo is on the Google Books preview. Note the same double bill as the photo from the AMPAS website. Henry Hathaway's "The House on 92nd St." with William Eythe and Lloyd Nolan was a September 1945 release. "This Love of Ours" was out in November 1945.

1949 - A Life magazine look at the facade. The crowd was waiting for the stars to arrive for the 1948 Academy Awards, held in March 1949. Thanks to Noirish Los Angeles contributor Sopas EJ for finding this shot and the two other 1949 Life photos below. They were once featured on his Noirish post #6301 but have now gone missing.

1949 - Another Oscar night view. It's a photo appearing with Marina Chetner's 2012 blog post "Oscars Over the Decades."

1951 - A look at the theatre that Noirish Los Angeles contributor Ethereal Reality found on eBay. It's on his Noirish post #21494. Here we can see the bit of neon across the entrance identifying it as the "Academy Award Theater."
 

1951 - Thanks to the superb McAvoy/Bruce Torrence Historic Hollywood Photographs collection for this photo of the premiere of William Castle's "Hollywood Story" at the theatre. The film, starring Richard Conte, Julie Adams and Richard Egan, was a June release. Thanks to Noirish Los Angeles contributor Tovangar2 for spotting this one in the collection.

c.1963 - A photo by Dennis Hopper taken at Santa Monica Blvd., Doheny Dr. and Melrose Ave. He called it "Double Standard." On the left that's Santa Monica Blvd. heading east. Melrose and the Marquis Theatre are over on the right.

The photo has been everywhere. The Getty has it on their Pacific Standard Time blog. It also appeared with a 2010 L.A. Times article for a Hopper exhibition at MOCA's Geffen Contemporary. 

Mark Rozzo discusses the image in his 2022 New Yorker article "The Dennis Hopper Photograph that Caught Los Angeles." Rozzo notes that the photo has been traditionally dated as 1961, a year just tossed out by Hopper. But the "Smart Women" billboard campaign dates to around 1963 and the Corvair's interior reveals it to be a 1964 model. Thanks to Alison Martino for spotting the article.

1972 - A great view of the Marquis as the Academy Award Theatre that was taken for Life by Bill Eppinger (1938 - 2013). Price Waterhouse was delivering the ballots to the theatre. The ceremony itself was at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion that year.

Thanks to Ken McIntyre for spotting the shot in the Life collection -- he shared it as a post for the private Facebook group Photos of Los Angeles. The photo can be seen on the Time website as part of the Life story "Behind the Scenes at the 1972 Oscars." 
 
More information: See the Cinema Treasures page on the Marquis. Joe Vogel has all the data.

Martin Pal has some great views of the intersection of Melrose, Doheny and Santa Monica on his Noirish Los Angeles post #21575. And he has a faux-postcard version of the 1951 photo of the Marquis Theatre (and other Academy Award locations) on his Noirish Los Angeles post #33915.

Curbed L.A. had a 2016 story "How the Oscars spent 73 years looking for a home."

| back to top | Westside theatres | Hollywood | Westwood and Brentwood | Along the Coast | Westside theatres: alphabetical list | Westside theatres: by street address | Downtown theatres | [more] Los Angeles movie palaces | Los Angeles theatres - the main alphabetical list | theatre history resources | film and theatre tech resources | contact info | welcome and site navigation guide |