Hawaii Theatre
5941 Hollywood Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90028
5941 Hollywood Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90028
20 people
favorited this theater
Showing 51 - 59 of 59 comments
Architect Clarence Smale collaborated with theater designer Carl G. Moeller on the Hawaii. It was built for the Times-Mirror Company.
The original artists conception art….
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics49/00044369.jpg
Here is a photo of the interior. Note the right side of the stage is the volcano which was animated with red glowing crater and white smoke which rose towards the ceiling.
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater1/00014687.jpg
I saw the Mummy’s Tomb here in 1942.They fixed the inside to give
a scary effect for the movie. They had a person dressd like the Mummy
walk up the isle slow dragging is leg during the movie whem it was
dark. It worked alots of kids headed out to the lobby.Also saw hellzapoppin there in 1941
If they did let the mural represent the Garden of Eden, then I suppose Hollywood Boulevard itself could symbolize the Serpent.
I somehow doubt that the Salvation Army would have kept the mural above the marquee either, unless they tried to palm it off as Adam & Eve in the Garden of Eden.
I only ever saw the Hawaii a couple of times while it was still open, and regret never having had the chance to go a movie there. I had heard about it many years before I ever began to go to Hollywood, when I was only five or six years old. My older sister had been allowed to go to the Hawaii, with the family of one of her school friends. She described the waterfall and other atmospheric effects, and the general splendor of the theatre, unlike anything in our dull suburban neighborhood, and I was very envious. That she had gotten to see a Disney movie that I much desired to see became almost incidental, so lavish was the theatre I imagined from her description.
I wonder if the place has been much changed by the Salvation Army? I can’t really imagine them maintaining the waterfall and volcano effects, despite their respective potential to serve as metaphors for baptism and the fires of Hell. I don’t think that the Salvation Army is quite that theatrical an institution.
The Hawaii was one of the most spectacular atmospheric houses I have ever visited. On one side of the screen was a volcano, and on the other was a waterfall. When the movie started, the action stopped but resuemed at intermission. As a child growing up in Hollywood, I remember being fascinated by the animation on the walls.
The seating capacity of the Hawaii Theatre was given as 1,106, all on one level.
In the late 1940’s/early 1950’s it was listed under the name; Hawaii Music Hall.