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Address | 307 S. Broadway |
---|---|
Location | Los Angeles, California |
Coordinates | 34°3′2.98″N118°14′53.29″W / 34.0508278°N 118.2481361°W |
Public transit | Civic Center/Grand Park station |
Owner | Langdon Street Capital |
Type | Movie palace |
Capacity | 2,041 |
Construction | |
Built | 1917 |
Architect | Albert C. Martin Sr. |
Designated | July 2, 2019 [1] |
Reference no. | 1184 |
Designated | May 9, 1979 [2] |
Part of | Broadway Theater and Commercial District |
Reference no. | 79000484 |
Designated | July 20, 1978 [3] |
Reference no. | 78000687 |
The Million Dollar Theatre at 307 S. Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles is one of the first movie palaces built in the United States. It opened in 1917 with the premiere of William S. Hart's The Silent Man . [4] It's the northernmost of the collection of historical movie palaces in the Broadway Theater District and stands directly across from the landmark Bradbury Building. The theater is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. [5]
The Million Dollar was the first movie house built by entrepreneur Sid Grauman in 1918 as the first grand cinema palace in L.A. [6] Grauman was later responsible for Grauman's Egyptian Theatre and Grauman's Chinese Theatre, both on Hollywood Boulevard, and was partly responsible for the entertainment district shifting from downtown Los Angeles to Hollywood in the mid-1920s.
The theater was built on the site of the Muskegon Block, [7] (built c. 1895), [8] named after Muskegon, Michigan where its developer Thomas Douglas Stimson had made his fortune in lumber. From 1905–1917, the Ville de Paris department store was located next door at the Homer Laughlin Building, and the Muskegon Block housed retail tenants such as millinery, men's furnishings, jewelry, piano and music stores, [9] as well as offices.
Sculptor Joseph Mora did the elaborate and surprising exterior Spanish Colonial Revival ornament, including bursts of lavish Churrigueresque decoration, statues, longhorn skulls, and other odd features. The auditorium architect was William L. Woollett, and the designer of the 12-story tower was Los Angeles architect Albert C. Martin Sr.
For many years, the office building housed the headquarters of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. [10]
In the '40s, the theater was the second-run house of the Orpheum Circuit. Acts such as the Nat King Cole Trio, and Joe Liggins and The Honey Drippers performed on its stage. In 1949, the Million Dollar was taken over by Frank Fouce, a local Spanish-language theater owner and film distributor. The Million Dollar Theater became the mecca of Spanish-language entertainment in the United States. Dolores del Río, Cantinflas, María Félix, Agustín Lara, José Alfredo Jiménez, José Feliciano, Juan Gabriel, Vicente Fernández, and Celia Cruz are but a few of the artists that worked for Empresa Fouce. It was also the first venue where the late Mexican film star Antonio Aguilar worked with his rodeo horses on stage. This is where it is said he conceived the idea for his large arena rodeo productions.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Fouce went on to found Spanish International Communications Corp., named after his Spanish International Theater Company (which included the Million Dollar and the Mayan Theater, also located in Downtown Los Angeles). This company comprised the first group of Spanish-language and UHF television stations in the U.S.; KMEX Channel 34 in Los Angeles (and, indirectly, the Univision television network) can trace its roots to the Million Dollar Theatre. The Million Dollar and the Fouce family were pioneers in the then-unheard-of Spanish entertainment industry.
For their efforts, Fouce was awarded El Aguila Azteca (Order of the Aztec Eagle), Mexico's highest civilian award, by President Miguel Alemán Valdés. The theater and Fouce were also honored by the Mexican actors' union ANDA for their contributions to the Mexican film, recording, and entertainment industries. In addition to its successful stage productions, the theater was also the most prominent Spanish-language cinema in the United States. Every major Mexican motion picture premiered at the Million Dollar.
The Million Dollar featured mariachi music at its best: Mariachi Vargas, Mariachi Chapala de Leopoldo Sosa y Esteban Hernandez, Mariachi Los Gallos de Crescencio Hernandez, Mariachi Los Galleros de Pedro Rey (Hernandez), Mariachi los Camperos (led by Nati Cano), Mariachi Mexico de Pepe Villa.
Gonzalo L. Checa, president of the Spanish division of the Metropolitan Theater Corporation, was responsible for the upsurge of attendance at the Million Dollar in the 1970s and 1980s due to his great expertise and keen insight of the entertainment needs of the Hispanic community. During this period, the long lines of people waiting to attend the Million Dollar would wrap around the block and cause the Los Angeles Police Department to close down Broadway to traffic.
Checa became a low-profile power broker and behind-the-scenes player, who helped launch the U.S. invasion of stars like Vicente Fernández, José José, Nelson Ned, Juan Gabriel, Julio Alemán, Evita Muñoz ("Chachita"), María Elena Velasco ("La India Maria"), Enrique Cuenca Marquez and Eduardo Manzano ("Los Polivoces"), Raúl Ramírez, Jorge Rivero, Rodolfo de Anda, Eulalio Gonzalez ("El Piporo"), Joan Sebastian, Antonio Aguilar and his wife Flor Silvestre, Gaspar Henaine ("Capulina"), and the famous silver masked wrestler Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta ("El Santo").
Ira Yellin (then the owner of Grand Central Market) acquired the building in 1989. [11]
After serving as the home of a Spanish-language church for some years, as of 2006, the Million Dollar Theatre was empty, although the office building had been recently renovated and converted to residential space. In February 2008, the theater reopened, once again showing live Spanish theatre. It closed again in 2012. [12] In 2017, the building was sold to Langdon Street Capital, and the theater and retail space were briefly leased to fashion startup CoBird. [13]
The theatre is home to special movie screenings that feature historic theatres in the Broadway district of DTLA. The series features classic films in a historical setting.
Grauman's Egyptian Theatre, also known as Egyptian Hollywood and the Egyptian, is a historic movie theater located on Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. Opened in 1922, it is an early example of a lavish movie palace and is noted as having been the site of the world's first film premiere.
Hollywood Boulevard is a major east–west street in Los Angeles, California. It runs through the Hollywood, East Hollywood, Little Armenia, Thai Town, and Los Feliz districts. Its western terminus is at Sunset Plaza Drive in the Hollywood Hills and its eastern terminus is at Sunset Boulevard in Los Feliz. Hollywood Boulevard is famous for running through the tourist areas in central Hollywood, including attractions such as the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Ovation Hollywood shopping and entertainment complex.
The TCL Chinese Theatre, commonly referred to as Grauman's Chinese Theatre, is a movie palace on the historic Hollywood Walk of Fame in the Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles.
A movie palace is a large, elaborately decorated movie theater built from the 1910s to the 1940s. The late 1920s saw the peak of the movie palace, with hundreds opening every year between 1925 and 1930. With the advent of television, movie attendance dropped, while the rising popularity of large multiplex chains in the 1980s and 1990s signaled the obsolescence of single-screen theaters. Many movie palaces were razed or converted into multiple-screen venues or performing arts centers, though some have undergone restoration and reopened to the public as historic buildings.
Sidney Patrick Grauman was an American entrepreneur and showman who established two of Hollywood's most recognizable and visited landmarks, the Chinese Theatre and the Egyptian Theatre.
El Capitan Theatre is a fully restored movie palace at 6838 Hollywood Boulevard in the Hollywood neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, United States. The theater and adjacent Hollywood Masonic Temple are owned by The Walt Disney Company and serve as the venue for a majority of the Walt Disney Studios' film premieres.
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The Historic Core is a district within Downtown Los Angeles that includes the world's largest concentration of movie palaces, former large department stores, and office towers, all built chiefly between 1907 and 1931. Within it lie the Broadway Theater District and the Spring Street historic financial district, and in its west it overlaps with the Jewelry District and in its east with Skid Row.
Broadway, until 1890 Fort Street, is a thoroughfare in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The portion of Broadway from 3rd to 9th streets, in the Historic Core of Downtown Los Angeles, was the city's main commercial street from the 1910s until World War II, and is the location of the Broadway Theater and Commercial District, the first and largest historic theater district listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). With twelve movie palaces located along a six-block stretch of Broadway, it is the only large concentration of movie palaces left in the United States.
Paramount Theatre, formerly Metropolitan Theater or Grauman's Metropolitan Theater, also known as Paramount Downtown, was a movie palace and office building located at 323 W. 6th Street and 536 S. Hill Street, across the street from Pershing Square, in the historic core of downtown Los Angeles. It was the largest movie theater in Los Angeles for many years.
The STILE Downtown Los Angeles by Kasa, originally built as the California Petroleum Corporation Building and later known as the Texaco Building, is a 243 ft (74 m), 13-story highrise hotel and theater building located at 937 South Broadway in downtown Los Angeles, California. It was the tallest building in the city for one year after its completion in 1927, and was the tallest privately owned structure in Los Angeles until 1956. Its style is Spanish Gothic, patterned after Segovia Cathedral in Segovia, Spain.
The Broadway Theater District in the Historic Core of Downtown Los Angeles is the first and largest historic theater district listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). With twelve movie palaces located along a six-block stretch of Broadway, it is the only large concentration of movie palaces left in the United States. The same six-block stretch of Broadway, and an adjacent section of Seventh Street, was also the city's retail hub for the first half of the twentieth century, lined with large and small department stores and specialty stores.
Main Street is a major north–south thoroughfare in Los Angeles, California. It serves as the east–west postal divider for the city and the county as well.
The Tower Theatre is a historic movie theater that opened in 1927 in the Broadway Theater District of Downtown Los Angeles.
Bringing Back Broadway is a public–private partnership begun in 2008 and led by Councilmember José Huizar, with Executive Director Jessica Wethington McLean, to revitalize the historic Broadway corridor of Los Angeles. Goals are to provide economic development and business assistance; encourage historic preservation; reactivate Broadway's historic theaters and long-underutilized commercial buildings; and increase transit and development options by bringing a streetcar back to downtown Los Angeles with Broadway as the spine for the route.
The State Theatre, formerly known as Loew's State Theatre, at 703 S. Broadway, is a historic movie theatre which opened in November 1921 in the Broadway Theatre District of Downtown Los Angeles.
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The Globe Theatre, originally the Morosco Theatre, and Garland Building, is an office building and theater at 744 S. Broadway in the Broadway Theater District of the Historic Core of Downtown Los Angeles. It opened in 1913, has 11 stories, and was designed in Beaux-Arts architectural style by the firm of Morgan, Walls & Morgan. Alfred F. Rosenheim designed its interiors. As of 2024 the venue is again closed, but has a capacity of 2,000.
Rialto Theater, formerly Quinn's Rialto Theater and Grauman’s Rialto, is a historic former movie theater located at 812 S. Broadway in the Broadway Theater District in the historic core of downtown Los Angeles.
Notes
Among the building permits issued by the Building Superintendent yesterday was one taken out by T. D. Stimson for a two-story building on the southwest corner of Broadway and Third street. The building is to be in size 120x120 feet. The estimated cost of the structure is $26,000.