Los Angeles Theatre, movie palace in the Jewelry District, Downtown Los Angeles, United States
The Los Angeles Theatre is a cinema in the Broadway Theater District featuring French Baroque architecture and opulent interiors. The hall includes a grand central staircase, crystal fountain, and ornate decorations throughout its roughly 2,000-seat capacity.
Commissioned by Chicago exhibitor H.L. Gumbiner and designed by S. Charles Lee with Samuel Tilden Norton, the theatre was built in under six months: in August 1930 only an excavated hole existed, and it opened in January 1931. Charlie Chaplin helped fund its completion so it could premiere his film City Lights. It was the last movie palace built on Broadway.
The interior design draws inspiration from the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, with crystal chandeliers and gold brocade drapes that visitors see throughout the space. This lavish decor was meant to make patrons feel like they were entering a royal palace rather than a commercial venue.
The venue is located on South Broadway and accessible by public transit, with a metro station nearby. Visitors should know that the space is primarily used for events and film productions, so access times may vary depending on scheduled activities.
S. Charles Lee had the plaster ornamentation fabricated off-site and assembled inside the building like a jigsaw puzzle, unlike most theatres of the day where artisans moulded and finished plaster in place on scaffolding. This let the theatre open in January 1931, less than six months after only an excavated hole stood on the site in August 1930.
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