Palace Theatre
630 S. Broadway,
Los Angeles,
CA
90014
630 S. Broadway,
Los Angeles,
CA
90014
30 people
favorited this theater
Showing 101 - 121 of 121 comments
The Palace can be seen in Ed Wood’s “GLEN OR GLENDA” in an opening scene with a superimposed Bela Lugosi, that a features a very busy South Broadway on a chilly LA day with thousands of pedestrians, heavy traffic and a few streetcars. “PULL THE STRING!”
A recent photo, courtesy of you-are-here.com:
http://www.you-are-here.com/theatre/palace2.html
Circa 1995 close up of the marquee:
http://www.gmrnet.com/graphics/theatr1a.jpg
You can see alittle of the marquee and box office in the opening credits of the film “The Last Shot”.
The Palace Theatre opened on June 26th, 1911.
Here is an old postcard of Broadway in the 1930s showing Loew’s State on the left and the Palace on the right.
If the Forum Cafeteria was already there, and Desmond’s still there as well, then I must have misremembered the Forum being in Desmond’s old building. It was apparently next door.
The radio station with its tower on top of the Arcade Building was KRKD (a clever pun- K-arcade-e.)
In this photo, the right side of the street has, from front to back: a Nunn-Bush store, a jewelry store, the Palace theatre, the Forum(?) Cafeteria, Desmonds, something else that looks like a large department store but has no identifable sign, then the Broadway Arcade building (with a large radio antenna on top labelled KRKU or maybe KRRU), and then a hotel.
The left side has Leroys, some store beginning with Ch, Kress, the Los Angeles theatre, and Swelldom (and then lots of other buildings that don’t have identifying signs.)
Ron: The store was called “Swelldom,” and I believe it sold clothing. I never went inside, but it was there for ages. If I recall correctly, Leroy’s was a jewelery store. Desmond’s was also a clothing shop by the 1960s, but I think it began as a department store. I recently found that the five story 1920s era Spanish Colonial style building up Broadway from the Palace (and almost directly across the street from the Los Angeles) was originally Desmond’s Department Store. By the 1960s, that building housed a cafeteria, and Desmond’s had moved to a nearby building.
On page 38 of Kevin Lynch’s book The Image of the City is a photograph of Broadway in Los Angeles. The photo is undated, but the book has a 1960 copyright. The street is lined with tall vertical signs for both theatres and retail stores: in this photo you can see such signs for LEROYS, KRESS, the LOS ANGELES theatre, SWELUDOM (??), HOTEL, DESMONDS, and the PALACE theatre.
The Palace marquee advertises the movie BELL BOOK AND CANDLE, which came out in 1958. A second feature is also listed on the marquee. It looks like ANNA LUCASTA, which was released in 1959.
RENTAL OF THE PALACE THEATRE
We have obtained permission from the owners of the Palace Theatre to post a notice that the theatre is available for movie, television and music video location use, also live entertainment, parties, meetings and other functions. If you are interested, feel free to contact us and we will put you in touch with the owners.
Thank you!
Gina Zamparelli
Phone: (818) 541-9522
Fax: (818) 541-9523
In 1926, when the Orpheum Circuit moved to its new theatre further down Broadway, this Orpheum was given the name Broadway Palace, which was displayed on the marquee and used in advertisements for the theatre. The name didn’t become simply the Palace Theatre until sometime later. The inclusion of the street name in the theatre’s name may have been to distinguish it from an earlier Palace Theatre which had been located nearby on Seventh Street, and which had closed only a few years before.
Bad news: water damage to the projection room almost certainly precludes film screenings for the reasonably near future.
I notice that the Blade marquees at each end of this theater say “Newsreels” in the photograph above. An issue of Daily Variety from September of 1939 announced this change in policy with the headline “Palace, Broadway, becomes News Palace.” I have a vague memory of a place on Spring Street where a parking lot opened a view of the back of one of the other theaters on Broadway- either the Globe or the Orpheum, I think- and even in the 1960s you could still see there an old, faded sign advertising the News Palace theater.
By the time I began attending movies at the Palace in the early 1960s, the blade marquees simply carried the name “Palace” on them. I remember getting a good look at the interior one night about 1962, when Metropolitan used to run Keno games during intermission, and the house lights would be turned all the way up. Even then, the auditorium was showing its age,
but it was still a splendid sight with its ornate beaux-arts decor. I remember that the orchestra floor had columns to hold up the balcony. (I think that the Million Dollar was the first wide theater in Los Angeles to be built with a clear-span balcony that needed no supporting columns on the ground floor. The Palace was a few years older than the Million Dollar.)
I also recall the rather plain lounge and restrooms in the basement. They extended under the sidewalk of Broadway, and the ceiling was of glass brick. You could hear the pedestrians walking above. It was quite a difference from the plush lower level lounge in the Los Angeles Theatre across the street.
That “Bond” sign in the 1942 photograph above is still there.
This theater is seen in the opening minutes of Steven Spielberg’s “Duel”. It goes by fast, but after a lot of freeze-framing I got to see what was playing: a triple feature of “The Possession of Joel Delaney”, “Rosemary’s Baby” and “The Brotherhood of Satan”. And across the street at the Los Angeles Theater: “Buck and the Preacher”.
Apart from the Convervancy’s tours on weekends, this theatre is closed. It use to host loads of live actions and but Gilmore (the developer who owns the building) purportedly didn’t think it was making money quickly enough. It has ceiling murals similar to those of the Los Angeles, and a second (very steep) balcony with separate entrances / washrooms / concession stand for he “coloreds” (closed for a very long time, obviously). A huge, impressive cinema…
On the Los Angeles Conservancy’s recent Broadway Behind-The-Secenes Tour the Palace Theater was open for view and was periodically screening classic cartoons. The inside is in moderate disrepair. Remnants from its days as a Spanish language theater can be seen throughout with signs painted on the walls in Spanish. Interestingly the balcony has had closeable iron gates added to restrict access.
The Palace has reopened and presented a 36 hour sci-fi marathon over a recent weekend this November. Over a thousand attended.
The architect of this theatre was G. Albert Lansburgh.
The Palace opened as The Orpheum theatre in 1911. The new Orpheum opened in 1926 2 block away. The Palace has two balconies. The upper one has been closed off for many years. The Palace seated around 2000 people.