El Capitan Theatre
Encyclopedia
El Capitan Theatre is a fully restored movie palace
at 6838 Hollywood Boulevard
in Hollywood. It is owned by Pacific Theatres
and operated by the Walt Disney Company. It serves as the venue for many of Walt Disney Pictures
' movie premieres
. It is currently for sale at an asking price of 31 million dollars (US).
(the "Father of Hollywood") envisioned a thriving Hollywood theatre district. With Sid Grauman
, he opened the Egyptian
(1922), El Capitan ("The Captain") (1926), and Chinese
Theatre (1927).
El Capitan, dubbed "Hollywood's First Home of Spoken Drama," opened as a legitimate theatre on May 3, 1926 with Charlot's Revue starring Gertrude Lawrence
and Jack Buchanan
. The design featured a Spanish Colonial Revival style exterior designed by Stiles O. Clements
of the architectural firm of Morgan, Walls & Clements
, and a lavish East Indian
interior by G. Albert Lansburgh
.
For a decade it presented live plays, with over 120 productions including such legends as Clark Gable
and Joan Fontaine
. By the late 1930s, El Capitan felt the economic effects of the Depression
, showcasing fewer and fewer productions. This period saw a cycle of experimentation with entertainment. In an effort to boost attendance to the theatre, its management attempted to lure revues, road shows and benefits. Despite these efforts, business was faltering. When Orson Welles
was unable to locate a theatre owner willing to risk screening Citizen Kane
, he turned to El Capitan, and in 1941, Citizen Kane had its world premiere
there. The theater then closed for one year.
style, and reopened on March 18, 1942 as the Hollywood Paramount Theatre. Its inaugural film presentation was Cecil B. DeMille's
Technicolor
feature Reap the Wild Wind
, starring Ray Milland
, John Wayne
, Paulette Goddard
and Raymond Massey
.
The theater remained the west coast flagship for Paramount Pictures
until the studio was forced by the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the antitrust
case U.S. vs. Paramount Pictures, et al. to divest itself of its theater holdings. After this, the Hollywood Paramount was operated by United Paramount Theatres
for some years, then by a series of other companies, culminating with ownership by the Pacific Theatres Circuit in the 1980s.
. These theaters became the Disney company's flagship houses. They spent $14 million on a complete renovation of the Paramount, restoring much of the building's original decor as well as the theater's original name. El Capitan reopened in 1991 with the premiere of The Rocketeer
. In recent years, many of Disney
's feature film
s have premiered here as well as the debut of Walt Disney Animation Studios' first made-for-TV special Prep & Landing, and most movies are accompanied by live stage shows. Jimmy Kimmel Live!, which airs on Disney-owned ABC
, originates from a TV studio next door to the El Capitan.
The refurbished theater features a giant Wurlitzer
Theatre organ
originally installed in San Francisco's Fox Theatre
in 1929.Below the theater is a small exhibit space, often used to display props from the films, such as costumes or set pieces. Next door is the adjacent Disney's Soda Fountain and Studio Store, where patrons can purchase ice cream
themed to the film currently playing in the cinema next door. A wide variety of Disney and movie merchandise is available there.
" television address by the 1952 Republican (U.S.) Vice President nominee, Richard Nixon
, took place at the current location for the El Capitan Theatre. In fact, the address occurred at another Hollywood location, then likewise called "El Capitan Theatre," located nearby at 1735 Vine Street. That location is currently known as "Avalon Hollywood
." The address took place at the time the current El Capitan Theatre was known as the Hollywood Paramount.
Movie palace
A movie palace is a term used to refer to the large, elaborately decorated movie theaters built between the 1910s and the 1940s. The late 1920s saw the peak of the movie palace, with hundreds opened every year between 1925 and 1930.There are three building types in particular which can be subsumed...
at 6838 Hollywood Boulevard
Hollywood Boulevard
-Revitalization:In recent years successful efforts have been made at cleaning up Hollywood Blvd., as the street had gained a reputation for crime and seediness. Central to these efforts was the construction of the Hollywood and Highland shopping center and adjacent Kodak Theatre in 2001...
in Hollywood. It is owned by Pacific Theatres
Pacific Theatres
Pacific Theatres is a chain of movie theaters in the Los Angeles area of California. Pacific Theatres is owned by Decurion Corporation which also owns ArcLight Cinema Company .- Developments : The company has some 300 movie screens in California...
and operated by the Walt Disney Company. It serves as the venue for many of Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...
' movie premieres
Premiere
A premiere is generally "a first performance". This can refer to plays, films, television programs, operas, symphonies, ballets and so on. Premieres for theatrical, musical and other cultural presentations can become extravagant affairs, attracting large numbers of socialites and much media...
. It is currently for sale at an asking price of 31 million dollars (US).
1926 opening and early years
In the early 1920s, real estate developer Charles E. TobermanCharles E. Toberman
Charles E. Toberman was a real estate developer who was known as "Mr. Hollywood" and the "Father of Hollywood" for his role in developing Hollywood and many of its landmarks, including the Hollywood Bowl, Grauman's Chinese Theater, El Capitan Theatre, the Roosevelt Hotel, the Grauman's Egyptian...
(the "Father of Hollywood") envisioned a thriving Hollywood theatre district. With Sid Grauman
Sid Grauman
Sidney Patrick Grauman was an American showman who created one of Southern California's most recognizable and visited landmarks, Grauman's Chinese Theater. He was the son of David Grauman who died in 1921 in Los Angeles, California and Rosa Goldsmith...
, he opened the Egyptian
Egyptian Theatre
Egyptian-style theaters are based on the traditional and historic design elements of Ancient Egypt.The first Egyptian Theatre to be constructed in the US - which inspired many of the identically-named theaters that followed it - was Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, California. For several...
(1922), El Capitan ("The Captain") (1926), and Chinese
Grauman's Chinese Theatre
Grauman's Chinese Theatre is a movie theater at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. It is on the historic Hollywood Walk of Fame.The Chinese Theatre was commissioned following the success of the nearby Grauman's Egyptian Theatre which opened in 1922...
Theatre (1927).
El Capitan, dubbed "Hollywood's First Home of Spoken Drama," opened as a legitimate theatre on May 3, 1926 with Charlot's Revue starring Gertrude Lawrence
Gertrude Lawrence
Gertrude Lawrence was an English actress, singer and musical comedy performer known for her stage appearances in the West End theatre district of London and on Broadway.-Early life:...
and Jack Buchanan
Jack Buchanan
Walter John "Jack" Buchanan was a British theatre and film actor, singer, producer and director. He was known for three decades as the embodiment of the debonair man-about-town in the tradition of George Grossmith Jr., and was described by The Times as "the last of the knuts." He is best known in...
. The design featured a Spanish Colonial Revival style exterior designed by Stiles O. Clements
Stiles O. Clements
Stiles Oliver Clements was a Los Angeles architect trained at the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, and a key figure in the art deco movement of 1920s Los Angeles...
of the architectural firm of Morgan, Walls & Clements
Morgan, Walls & Clements
Morgan, Walls & Clements was an architectural firm based in Los Angeles, California and responsible for many of the city's landmarks. Originally Morgan and Walls, with principals Octavius Morgan and John A. Walls, the firm worked in the area from before the turn of the century.Around 1910 Morgan's...
, and a lavish East Indian
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
interior by G. Albert Lansburgh
G. Albert Lansburgh
Gustave Albert Lansburgh was an American architect, largely known for his work on luxury cinemas and theatres. He was the principal architect of theaters on the West Coast from 1900 - 1930.-Life and career:...
.
For a decade it presented live plays, with over 120 productions including such legends as Clark Gable
Clark Gable
William Clark Gable , known as Clark Gable, was an American film actor most famous for his role as Rhett Butler in the 1939 Civil War epic film Gone with the Wind, in which he starred with Vivien Leigh...
and Joan Fontaine
Joan Fontaine
Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland , known professionally as Joan Fontaine, is a British American actress. She and her elder sister Olivia de Havilland are two of the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s....
. By the late 1930s, El Capitan felt the economic effects of the Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, showcasing fewer and fewer productions. This period saw a cycle of experimentation with entertainment. In an effort to boost attendance to the theatre, its management attempted to lure revues, road shows and benefits. Despite these efforts, business was faltering. When Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
was unable to locate a theatre owner willing to risk screening Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane
Citizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film, directed by and starring Orson Welles. Many critics consider it the greatest American film of all time, especially for its innovative cinematography, music and narrative structure. Citizen Kane was Welles' first feature film...
, he turned to El Capitan, and in 1941, Citizen Kane had its world premiere
Premiere
A premiere is generally "a first performance". This can refer to plays, films, television programs, operas, symphonies, ballets and so on. Premieres for theatrical, musical and other cultural presentations can become extravagant affairs, attracting large numbers of socialites and much media...
there. The theater then closed for one year.
1942 renovation and renaming the Hollywood Paramount
The building was remodeled in the moderneStreamline Moderne
Streamline Moderne, sometimes referred to by either name alone or as Art Moderne, was a late type of the Art Deco design style which emerged during the 1930s...
style, and reopened on March 18, 1942 as the Hollywood Paramount Theatre. Its inaugural film presentation was Cecil B. DeMille's
Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil Blount DeMille was an American film director and Academy Award-winning film producer in both silent and sound films. He was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies...
Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
feature Reap the Wild Wind
Reap the Wild Wind
Reap the Wild Wind is a serialized story written by Thelma Strabel in 1940 for The Saturday Evening Post, which was the basis for the 1942 film starring Ray Milland, John Wayne, Paulette Goddard, Robert Preston, and Susan Hayward, and directed by Cecil B. DeMille, his second picture to be filmed in...
, starring Ray Milland
Ray Milland
Ray Milland was a Welsh actor and director. His screen career ran from 1929 to 1985, and he is best remembered for his Academy Award–winning portrayal of an alcoholic writer in The Lost Weekend , a sophisticated leading man opposite a corrupt John Wayne in Reap the Wild Wind , the murder-plotting...
, John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
, Paulette Goddard
Paulette Goddard
Paulette Goddard was an American film and theatre actress. A former child fashion model and in several Broadway productions as Ziegfeld Girl, she was a major star of the Paramount Studio in the 1940s. She was married to several notable men, including Charlie Chaplin, Burgess Meredith, and Erich...
and Raymond Massey
Raymond Massey
Raymond Hart Massey was a Canadian/American actor.-Early life:Massey was born in Toronto, Ontario, the son of Anna , who was born in Illinois, and Chester Daniel Massey, the wealthy owner of the Massey-Ferguson Tractor Company. Massey's family could trace their ancestry back to the American...
.
The theater remained the west coast flagship for Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
until the studio was forced by the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the antitrust
Antitrust
The United States antitrust law is a body of laws that prohibits anti-competitive behavior and unfair business practices. Antitrust laws are intended to encourage competition in the marketplace. These competition laws make illegal certain practices deemed to hurt businesses or consumers or both,...
case U.S. vs. Paramount Pictures, et al. to divest itself of its theater holdings. After this, the Hollywood Paramount was operated by United Paramount Theatres
United Paramount Theatres
Plitt Theatres was one of the largest chain of cinemas in the United States.The theater chain was divested from Paramount Pictures as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the case United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. ....
for some years, then by a series of other companies, culminating with ownership by the Pacific Theatres Circuit in the 1980s.
1991 reopening with name El Capitan
By the late 1980s, movie studios were once again being allowed to own theaters and in 1989 the Walt Disney Company entered into a lease agreement with the Pacific Circuit for the Paramount and the smaller Crest Theatre in WestwoodWestwood, Los Angeles, California
Westwood is a neighborhood on the Westside of Los Angeles, California, United States. It is the home of the University of California, Los Angeles .-History:...
. These theaters became the Disney company's flagship houses. They spent $14 million on a complete renovation of the Paramount, restoring much of the building's original decor as well as the theater's original name. El Capitan reopened in 1991 with the premiere of The Rocketeer
The Rocketeer (film)
The Rocketeer is a 1991 period superhero adventure film produced by Walt Disney Pictures and based on the character of the same name created by comic book writer/artist Dave Stevens. Directed by Joe Johnston, the film stars Billy Campbell, Jennifer Connelly, Alan Arkin, Timothy Dalton, Paul Sorvino...
. In recent years, many of Disney
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
's feature film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
s have premiered here as well as the debut of Walt Disney Animation Studios' first made-for-TV special Prep & Landing, and most movies are accompanied by live stage shows. Jimmy Kimmel Live!, which airs on Disney-owned ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
, originates from a TV studio next door to the El Capitan.
The refurbished theater features a giant Wurlitzer
Wurlitzer
The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to simply as Wurlitzer, was an American company that produced stringed instruments, woodwinds, brass instruments, theatre organs, band organs, orchestrions, electronic organs, electric pianos and jukeboxes....
Theatre organ
Theatre organ
A theatre organ is a pipe organ originally designed specifically for imitation of an orchestra. New designs have tended to be around some of the sounds and blends unique to the instrument itself....
originally installed in San Francisco's Fox Theatre
Fox Theatre (San Francisco)
The Fox Theatre was a 4,651 seat movie palace located at 1350 Market Street in San Francisco, California. It was designed by the noted theater architect, Thomas W. Lamb...
in 1929.Below the theater is a small exhibit space, often used to display props from the films, such as costumes or set pieces. Next door is the adjacent Disney's Soda Fountain and Studio Store, where patrons can purchase ice cream
Ice cream
Ice cream is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, and often combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavours. Most varieties contain sugar, although some are made with other sweeteners...
themed to the film currently playing in the cinema next door. A wide variety of Disney and movie merchandise is available there.
Mistaken Venue for Nixon's "Checkers Speech"
A common misconception is that the iconic "Checkers SpeechCheckers speech
The Checkers speech or Fund speech was an address made by Richard Nixon, the Republican vice presidential candidate and junior United States Senator from California, on television and radio on September 23, 1952. Senator Nixon had been accused of improprieties relating to a fund established by his...
" television address by the 1952 Republican (U.S.) Vice President nominee, Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
, took place at the current location for the El Capitan Theatre. In fact, the address occurred at another Hollywood location, then likewise called "El Capitan Theatre," located nearby at 1735 Vine Street. That location is currently known as "Avalon Hollywood
Avalon Hollywood
Avalon is a historic night club and music venue in Hollywood, California, located near the intersection of Hollywood and Vine, at 1735 N. Vine Street...
." The address took place at the time the current El Capitan Theatre was known as the Hollywood Paramount.
See also
- Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments in Hollywood
- Hollywood Masonic TempleHollywood Masonic TempleHollywood Masonic Temple, now known as the El Capitan Entertainment Centre, is a building on Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California that was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. The building was designed by architect John C. Austin, also noted as the lead architect of...
- Grauman's Egyptian TheatreGrauman's Egyptian TheatreGrauman's Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California, is one of the world's most famous movie theatres. Opened in 1922, it was the venue for the first-ever Hollywood premiere.- History :...
- Grauman's Chinese TheatreGrauman's Chinese TheatreGrauman's Chinese Theatre is a movie theater at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. It is on the historic Hollywood Walk of Fame.The Chinese Theatre was commissioned following the success of the nearby Grauman's Egyptian Theatre which opened in 1922...
External links
- El Capitan Theater Official Website
- American Theater Organ Society Renaissance of El Capitan Theater - Hollywood, CA
- AMC Pleasure Island 24 Theaters Complex at Walt Disney World's Downtown Disney
- Disney on Broadway live productions in New YorkNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and on-tour