El Capitan Theatre

One of the few theaters that rarely uses “film” – it is almost exclusively Digital (DLP) Projection.

I saw “The Lion King” here back in 1993 and was amazed at how ornate this theater is. The screen, itself, isn’t that large but what was different about this theater was the preshow live entertainment presentation. It would be fun to revisit the theater to see what other preshow bits are done for the other films booked at this theater.

Yes, I ran film (projectionist) there in 1978 when it was the Pacific’s Paramount and again in 1999 after leaving the Chinese across the street after Disney bought it outright from Pacific. By then, it had been renamed, “El Capitan.”

I was there in 2003. It’s a little pricey for a ticket, seems like it was $16, but it was worth the trip. Really beautiful inside. But the best part was the theatre organ concert before each show. Definitely worth a trip if you are ever in the LA area.

The El Capitan originally opened as a legitimate playhouse , the theatre was built by prominent Los Angeles developer Charles E. Toberman. Toberman was the first to see the potential of a mixed use retail and theatre district on Hollywood Boulevard that was largely residential and agricultural at the time. His obervation of the success of this mix in downtown Los Angeles led him to believe that a theatre district could be key to Hollywood’s evolution as highly successful commercial district of Los Angeles. Some of his early projects include the Egyptian Theatre, Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, The Roosevelt Hotel and the Mosonic Temple.
Toberman hired renowned theatre architect G. Albert Lansburgh to design the exotic East Indian interior of the theatre. Some of Lansburgh’s other buildings include the Orpheum Theatre, Wiltern Theatre, Warner Hollywood Theatre and the Shrine Auditorium. The Los Angeles based firm of Morgan, Walls & Clements created the Spanish Colonial exerior.
The theatre opened to live performances May 3, 1926 with “Charlot’s Revue”, a song and dance variety show starring Jack Buchanan, Gertrude Lawrence and Beatrice Lillie. Rave reviews called the El Capitan “Hollywood’s New Temple of Spoken Drama” and one of the most palatial structures in America. The theatre established a firm reputation by producing a series of shows that attracted widespread support in the entertianment community. Over 120 live productions including “No, No, Nanette”, “Abie’s Irish Rose” and “Of Mice and Men” starred such famous performers as Joan Fontaine, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Lon Chaney Jr., Joe E. Brown, Buster Keaton, Clark Gable, Henry Fonda, Jason Robards and Will Rogers.
About 80% of the restored ceiling is original. This giled and hand painted ceiling had more than 70 holes punched through the plaster to permit the suspension of a drop ceiling in an earlier remodeling. It was styled after the gilded ceilings of the Venetian Renaissance era that inspired the baroque gilded ceilings of Italy, France and Spain. The El Capitan’s original lighting fixtures were taken out in a 1942 renovation. these chandeliers were reproduced from photographs.
“Citizen Kane” had its world premiere at the El Capitan Theatre on May 9, 1941. The brother and sister producing team Fanchon Wolff Simon and Marco Wolff convinced Paramount Hollywood Theatre Corporation, who by this time had taken over the lease of the El Capitan, to assign 50% of its lease to them. Fanchon & Marco were noted for their circuit of touring road shows for movie houses and had established themselves at the downtown Paramount. They closed the theatre and did extensive renovations. The theatre reopened as the Paramount Theatre in March 1942 with Cecil B. DeMille’s “Reap The Wild Wind” It was obvious that a great deal of work had been done. The exterior face above the entrance contained a brightly lit marquee. The outer ticket lobby and main lobby were updated, resulting in a modern streamlined look that included much neon decoration. Lowered ceilings were put in place throughout. In the outer lobby terrazzo replaced stamped concrete on the floor. The walls were eventually covered with mirrors. one of the exotic features of the remodeled theatre was a coconut milk abr in the location of this current snackbar. It featured bamboo furnishings, fake palm trees and even a two-tone carpet patterned to simulate a shadow pattern under each tree.

The Hollywood Playhouse (1927 – 1945), located at 1735 North Vine Street, recently The Palace and now The Avalon Theatre (a Clear Channel operation), was formerly the El Capitan, and the Jerry Lewis Theatre

Hollywood Palace was on Vine Street a block north of Hollywood & Vine and across the street from the Capitol Records building.

The El Cap also now contains the famous 4 manual 36 rank Wurlitzer from the late, great San Francisco Fox Theatre (1929-1963. Cheers to the Disney Corporation for placing this magnificent instrument in the El Cap!

The El Capitan was remodeled in the early 40’s, and renamed The Paramount it had an Art Moderne / Art Deco look. That remodel would remain till the Disney remodel. As the Paramount theatre it had one of the BEST waterfall curtains in town. From the mid 60’s this theatre was run by Loew’s then Century Theatres, Statewide theatres, a short time with GCC, then SRO theatres, then Pacific theatres. Before Pacific theatres ran the Paramount, SRO had the theatre, They were thinking to do a restoration at one time. But found it would have cost a lot of money at the time, so they dropped the project.