Hollywood Pantages Theatre
Art Deco theatre of 1930 at Hollywood and Vine, now Los Angeles's main touring Broadway house.
The Hollywood Pantages Theatre opened on 4 June 1930 as the last and largest of the vaudeville houses built for the impresario Alexander Pantages. The architect B. Marcus Priteca, who designed many of the Pantages circuit theatres, worked here in a bold Art Deco manner, and Anthony Heinsbergen's decorative scheme fills the entrance hall and auditorium with sunburst motifs, stylised figures and geometric plasterwork. The auditorium seats about 2,700 on two levels and stands on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street.
Howard Hughes bought the theatre in 1949 and it served as the venue for the Academy Awards ceremonies from 1950 to 1960, when it was known as the RKO Pantages. After decades as a cinema it was converted back for live performance in 1977 and has since become the principal touring Broadway house in Los Angeles, presenting long runs of musicals under the Broadway in Hollywood banner. A restoration in 2000 returned much of Heinsbergen's original colouring to the interior.
Highlights
- B. Marcus Priteca's Art Deco auditorium seating about 2,700
- Anthony Heinsbergen's sunburst plasterwork in the entrance hall
- Host of the Academy Awards ceremonies from 1950 to 1960
- Corner site at Hollywood and Vine, beside the Walk of Fame
