The
Hollywood Palladium is a theater located at 6215
Sunset BoulevardSunset Boulevard is a street in the western part of Los Angeles County, California, that stretches from Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Coast Highway at the Pacific Ocean in the Pacific Palisades...
in Hollywood, California. It was built in a
Streamline ModerneStreamline 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...
,
Art DecoArt deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
style and includes an 11,200 square foot (1040 m²) dance floor with room for up to 4,000 people.
History
The Los Angeles Times publisher
Norman ChandlerNorman Chandler was the publisher of the Los Angeles Times from 1945 to 1960, and largely responsible for the success of the newspaper.-Education:...
funded the construction of the
art decoArt deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
Hollywood Palladium at a cost of $1.6 million in 1940. It was built where the original
ParamountParamount 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...
lot once stood by film producer
Maurice CohenMaurice Cohen was a cryptographer for Mossad. His older brother was the celebrated Israeli spy Eli Cohen. He discovered his brother's identity through his decryption work....
and is located between Argyle and El Centro avenues. The style dance hall was designed by
Gordon KaufmannGordon Kaufmann was an English born American architect mostly known for his work on the Hoover Dam. He arrived in California in 1914 and during his early career he did much work in the Mediterranean Revival Style which had become popular at that time.He was also the initial architect for Scripps...
, architect of the
Greystone MansionGreystone Mansion, also known as the Doheny Mansion, is a Tudor-style mansion on a landscaped estate with distinctive formal English gardens, located in Beverly Hills, California, United States. The architect Gordon Kaufmann designed the residence and ancillary structures, with construction...
, the
Los Angeles TimesThe Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
building and the Santa Anita Racetrack in
ArcadiaArcadia is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the administrative region of Peloponnese. It is situated in the central and eastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. It takes its name from the mythological character Arcas. In Greek mythology, it was the home of the god Pan...
. He was also the architect for the
Hoover DamHoover Dam, once known as Boulder Dam, is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the US states of Arizona and Nevada. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on September 30, 1935, by President...
and early Caltech dorms.
The ballroom opened October 31, 1940 with a dance featuring
Tommy Dorsey and his OrchestraThomas Francis "Tommy" Dorsey, Jr. was an American jazz trombonist, trumpeter, composer, and bandleader of the Big Band era. He was known as "The Sentimental Gentleman of Swing", due to his smooth-toned trombone playing. He was the younger brother of bandleader Jimmy Dorsey...
and band vocalist
Frank SinatraFrancis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
. It had six bars serving liquor and two more serving soft drinks and a $1 cover charge and a $3 charge for dinner.
From 1955-1976, the scene of Latin Music Orchestras for dances sponsored by radio personality Chico Sesma titled Latin Holidays.
The Tito Puente Orchestra performed regularly between 1957-1977 to sold out houses of 5000.
The Joe Loco Orchestra and show performed on the March 1965 Latin Holiday with singer/dancer Josephine "Josie" Powell.
During WWII, the Palladium hosted radio broadcasts featuring
Betty GrableElizabeth Ruth "Betty" Grable was an American actress, dancer and singer.Her iconic bathing suit photo made her the number-one pin-up girl of the World War II era. It was later included in the LIFE magazine project "100 Photos that Changed the World"...
greeting servicemens' song requests. Big Band acts began losing popularity in the 1950s, causing the Palladium to hold charity balls, political events, auto shows, and rock concerts. In 1961, it became the home of the long-running
Lawrence Welk ShowThe Lawrence Welk Show is an American televised musical variety show hosted by big band leader Lawrence Welk. The series aired locally in Los Angeles for four years , then nationally for another 27 years via the ABC network and first-run syndication .In the years since first-run syndication...
.
Pop Expo '69, referred to as a "teenage fair," was a youth-oriented event held from 3/28/69 to 4/6/69 at the Palladium, and included performances by the Jimi Hendrix Experience and the MC5.
Beginning in the 1980s and 90s, punk rock, rap and
heavy metalHeavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
concerts started to be booked at the venue. Several white power disturbances resulted, eventually leading to the Palladium closing for eight weeks, starting in February 1993.
In 1964, it was announced that none of the jazz bands scheduled were to be paid and a riot ensued after the show was cancelled. In 1973 Stevie Wonder performed with
Taj MahalHenry Saint Clair Fredericks , who uses the stage name Taj Mahal, is an American Grammy Award winning blues musician. He incorporates elements of world music into his music...
in what was advertised as an "Afrocentric concert" to benefit African refugees.
Since 1985, the theater has been owned by Palladium Investors Ltd., a privately held group. Curfews were implemented in 1993 and a show by
Marky Mark and the Funky BunchMarky Mark and the Funky Bunch was a hip-hop group led by Mark Wahlberg. The Funky Bunch consisted of Wahlberg , Scott Ross , Hector Barros , Terry Yancey and Anthony Thomas...
was called off because of a brawl that occurred a few nights earlier, . It was also used for Hollywood celebrity parties.
Renovation and reopening
In 2007, the owners agreed to a long-term lease to operate, manage and exclusively book the Hollywood Palladium with
Live NationLive Nation is a live-events company based in Beverly Hills, California, focused on concert promotions. Live Nation formed in 2005 as a spin-off from Clear Channel Communications, which then merged with Ticketmaster in 2010 to become Live Nation Entertainment....
, a
Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
-based company.
The Palladium reopened with a Jay-Z concert on October 15, 2008 after a year long, multi-million dollar renovation by Live Nation. The renovation included an overhaul of the venue's interior and exterior, a new dance floor, expanded concessions, upgraded restrooms and improvements to the stage infrastructure. Jay-Z performed for nearly an hour-and-half, backed by an eight-piece band and DJ AM, who played his first show after surviving a plane crash in South Carolina. The Hollywood Palladium was also used as the memorial service site for DJ AM on September 3, 2009.
For the 2008-2009 season, a yearlong table for four cost $30,000.
Popular culture
The Hollywood Palladium has been featured in many movies and tv shows over the years. Some of these are:
- The Day of the Locust
The Day of the Locust is a 1939 novel by American author Nathanael West, set in Hollywood, California during the Great Depression, its overarching themes deal with the alienation and desperation of a broad group of odd individuals who exist at the fringes of the Hollywood movie industry.In 1998,...
(1975).
- Skatetown, U.S.A.
Skatetown, U.S.A. is a 1979 American comedic feature film produced to capitalize on the short-lived fad of roller disco.The film features many TV stars from the 1960s and 1970s, among them Scott Baio, Flip Wilson, Maureen McCormick, Ron Palillo and Ruth Buzzi. Patrick Swayze's leading role as the...
(1979).
- 1941
1941 is a 1979 period comedy film directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, and featuring an ensemble cast including John Belushi, Ned Beatty, John Candy, Toshiro Mifune, Christopher Lee and Dan Aykroyd...
(1979).
- The final concert scene in The Blues Brothers
The Blues Brothers is a 1980 musical comedy film directed by John Landis and starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd as "Joliet" Jake and Elwood Blues, characters developed from a musical sketch on the NBC variety series Saturday Night Live. It features musical numbers by R&B and soul singers James...
depicted as "Palace Hotel Ballroom". (The exterior was actually the South Shore Country ClubThe South Shore Cultural Center, in Chicago, Illinois, is a cultural facility located at 71st Street and South Shore Drive, in the city's South Shore neighborhood. It encompasses the grounds of the former South Shore Country Club....
in ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, ILIllinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
.) (1980).
- Richard Pryor performed two dates in December 1981 and was filmed for the theatrical release Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip
Live on the Sunset Strip is a comedy album by Richard Pryor. Recorded in 1982, the film was the most financially lucrative of the comedian's concert films...
in March 1982.
- The scene in Almost Famous
Almost Famous is a 2000 musical comedy-drama film written and directed by Cameron Crowe and telling the fictional story of a teenage journalist writing for Rolling Stone magazine while covering the fictitious rock band Stillwater , and his efforts to get his first cover story published...
where Penny Lane dances to the Cat StevensYusuf Islam , commonly known by his former stage name Cat Stevens, is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, educator, philanthropist, and prominent convert to Islam....
song "The Wind".
- Keith Richards
Keith Richards is an English musician, songwriter, and founding member of the Rolling Stones. Rolling Stone magazine said Richards had created "rock's greatest single body of riffs", and placed him as the "10th greatest guitarist of all time." Fourteen songs written by Richards and songwriting...
released a CD and DVD of his solo concert Live at the Hollywood Palladium, December 15, 1988Live at the Hollywood Palladium, December 15, 1988 is a live album by Keith Richards and was released on 10 December 1991, in the United States and 24 February 1992, in the United Kingdom...
.
- The Palladium served as the location for the Sci-fi convention in Galaxy Quest
Galaxy Quest is a 1999 science-fiction comedy parody about a troupe of human actors who defend a group of aliens against an alien warlord. It was directed by Dean Parisot and written by David Howard and Robert Gordon. Mark Johnson and Charles Newirth produced the film for DreamWorks, and David...
(1999).
- The Palladium played the exterior of the fictional Studio 60 on the Aaron Sorkin
Aaron Benjamin Sorkin is an Academy and Emmy award winning American screenwriter, producer, and playwright, whose works include A Few Good Men, The American President, The West Wing, Sports Night, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, The Social Network, and Moneyball.After graduating from Syracuse...
television series Studio 60 on the Sunset StripStudio 60 on the Sunset Strip was an American dramedy television series created and written by Aaron Sorkin. It ran for 22 episodes.The series takes place behind the scenes of a live sketch comedy show on the fictional television network NBS , whose format is similar to that of NBC's...
.
- The television show Adam-12
Adam-12 was a television police drama which followed two police officers of the Los Angeles Police Department, Pete Malloy and Jim Reed, as they patrolled the streets of Los Angeles in their patrol unit, 1-Adam-12. Created by Jack Webb who is known for creating Dragnet, the series captured a...
, episode "Something Worth Dying For (Part 2)" (1975).
- The Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...
have released several CDs that featured music recorded at the Hollywood Palladium on August 6, 1971: Dick's Picks Vol. 35; Fallout From The Phil Zone; Road Trips Vol. 1 No. 3 (Bonus Material).
- The punk
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
band Bad ReligionBad Religion is a punk rock band that formed in Los Angeles in 1979. Their current line-up consists of Greg Graffin , Brett Gurewitz , Jay Bentley , Greg Hetson , Brian Baker and Brooks Wackerman . Gurewitz is also the founder of the label Epitaph Records, which has released almost all of the...
recorded Live at the Palladium in 2006, a collection from their two days of performances.
- Skrewdriver
Skrewdriver was an English punk rock band formed by Ian Stuart Donaldson in Poulton-le-Fylde in 1976. They later evolved into one of the first neo-Nazi rock bands, playing a leading role in the Rock Against Communism movement and becoming known as the most prominent white power skinhead...
filmed the video for the song "White Power" in the parking lot.
- The Palladium was the location where C.J. Mack (played by Isaac Hayes
Isaac Lee Hayes, Jr. was an American songwriter, musician, singer and actor. Hayes was one of the creative influences behind the southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served both as an in-house songwriter and as a record producer, teaming with his partner David Porter during the...
) performed on an episode of The A-TeamThe A-Team is an American action adventure television series about a fictional group of ex-United States Army Special Forces personnel who work as soldiers of fortune, while on the run from the Army after being branded as war criminals for a "crime they didn't commit". The A-Team was created by...
called "The Heart of Rock N' Roll" (Season 4, Episode 6) (1985).
- Thrash Metal
Thrash metal is a subgenre of heavy metal that is characterized usually by its fast tempo and aggression. Songs of the genre typically use fast percussive and low-register guitar riffs, overlaid with shredding-style lead work...
band MegadethMegadeth is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California which was formed in 1983 by guitarist/vocalist Dave Mustaine, bassist Dave Ellefson and guitarist Greg Handevidt, following Mustaine's expulsion from Metallica. The band has since released 13 studio albums, three live albums, two...
filmed a live DVD based on the 20th anniversary of their album Rust In PeaceRust in Peace is the fourth studio album by American heavy metal band Megadeth. Released on September 24, 1990, it was the third Megadeth album distributed through Capitol Records. The album was the band's only collaboration with record producer Mike Clink who was the first producer to...
at The Palladium.
- Luna Sea
Luna Sea is a rock band from Kanagawa, Japan, formed in 1989. The band was initially founded by bassist J and rhythm guitarist Inoran, when they were in high school. They soon recruited lead guitarist and violinist Sugizo, drummer Shinya and vocalist Ryuichi, a lineup that has remained the same...
performed their first American concert at the Palladium on December 4, 2010. It was recorded in 3D and released as both a live album and concert filmA concert movie, or concert film, is a type of documentary film, the subject of which is an extended live performance or concert by a musician ....
, Luna Sea 3D in Los AngelesLuna Sea 3D in Los Angeles is a live album and 3D concert film by Luna Sea. It was recorded at the Hollywood Palladium in the United States on December 4, 2010, as part of their 20th Anniversary World Tour Reboot -to the New Moon-. The album was released on June 1, 2011, while the video began...
.
- Los Tigres del Norte
Los Tigres del Norte is a norteño-band ensemble based out of San Jose, California, hailing from Rosa Morada, Sinaloa, Mexico.- History :...
, popular music Mexican band, recorded an MTV UnpluggedMTV Unplugged: Los Tigres del Norte and Friends is a live album by Mexican recording artists Los Tigres del Norte. Released by Fonovisa Records on May 24, 2011, it was recorded before a live audience at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles, California, on February 8, 2011...
album on February 8, 2011.
- The Palladium can be seen in the video game L.A. Noire
L.A. Noire is a 2011 crime video game developed by Team Bondi and published by Rockstar Games. It was released for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows. It was released as a 3-disc game for the Xbox 360 console, which prompts the player to switch to another disc at certain points in the...
.
In politics
On November 18, 1961, President
John F. KennedyJohn Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
took the occasion of a
Democratic PartyThe Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
dinner at the Hollywood Palladium to speak out against ultra-conservative organizations.
In February 1965,
Martin Luther King, Jr.Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
was honored at the Palladium by city officials recognizing his
Nobel Peace PrizeThe Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
. A bomb threat was called in for the event, frightening the attendees. Earlier in the day, LA Police had found 1400 pounds of explosives in a Los Angeles apartment.
External links