The theater has recently presented large-scale Broadway musicals such as Disney's The Lion King, which ran at the theatre for over two years, and hosted the long-running Los Angeles production of the Broadway musical Wicked. Now operated by an arm of the Nederlander Organization, the Hollywood Pantages is one of Los Angeles' leading venues for live theater (the five highest-grossing weeks in L.A.'s theatrical history were all shows at the Hollywood Pantages). The Hollywood Pantages closed as a movie theater in January 1977, and re-opened the following month with Bubbling Brown Sugar, the first of the many stage productions that have since become its regular fare. From 1965, it was operated by Pacific Theatres. It continued to be a major venue for roadshow movies into the 1970s. From 1949 through 1959, the theater hosted the American motion picture industry's annual Academy Award Ceremonies. In 1949, Howard Hughes acquired the Hollywood Pantages for his RKO Theatre Circuit and moved his personal offices to the building's second floor. But like other theaters during the Great Depression, it was forced to economize and thereafter operated primarily as a movie theater, though live entertainment was presented occasionally.Īlexander Pantages sold the Hollywood landmark in 1932 to Fox West Coast Theaters. The Pantages Theatre Circuit was part of vaudeville, and the new Hollywood theater programmed first-run movies alternating through the day with vaudeville acts for its first two years.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |