Pantages Theatre 95th Anniversary FREE Open House: HOLLYWOOD

2-Part event
Optional Brunch at the fabulous Lemon Grove Rooftop at the Aster Hotel following the Open House. Short walk. Please see separate post.

🛑IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER🛑
I have already registered for the Pantages Open House for 16 guests for the 12:00 - 1:00PM entrance. No need to do anything but please SHOW UP or cancel with a minimum 24-hour notice so the ticket is not wasted.

95th Anniversary Public Open House Event
If you have never been to the Pantages Theatre this is the PERFECT OPPORTUNITY to visit and explore the interior of the theatre for FREE!!
Experience the grandeur of the theatre, learn about the history, take photos and visit with theatre staff. NO TOUR.

At Friendship & Fabulous Places we always provide the “backstory/historical background” about the “fabulous” places we visit to enhance your Meetup experience.

https://www.historictheatrephotos.com/Theatre/Pantages-Los-Angeles.aspx

THE PANTAGES THEATRE- opened June 1930
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DKfoZQLhx4N/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

The Hollywood Pantages has a history as grand and diverse as the stage and screen fare which audiences have flocked to enjoy there for half a century. It was primarily a movie house for several decades. In 1949 came Howard Hughes, acquiring the theatre through RKO, changing its name to the RKO Pantages and setting up offices there. (His upstairs apartment and screening room are today theatre offices, and Hughes’ ghost is among several rumored to frequent the building once the audience leaves.)

Starting in 1953, television cameras brought the Oscars – and Hollywood Pantages Theatre – to America’s living rooms. Its hosts included such notables as Fred Astaire, Danny Kaye, Bob Hope and Jerry Lewis. Frank Sinatra was honored as Best Supporting Actor in 1954, receiving one of eight Oscars awarded that year to “From Here to Eternity”. Grace Kelly took home her award as Best Actress for “The Country Girl” in 1955, just a year before she left Hollywood to become Her Serene Highness, Princess Grace of Monaco.

Pacific Theatres bought the Hollywood Pantages from RKO in December 1967, leading to a refurbishment and reopening of the theatre sections closed down during the Hughes reign. The much-anticipated Music Center raised nearly $400,000 there in 1963 at a $250 per seat premiere of “Cleopatra”.

In 1977, the Nederlander Organization came in as Pacific’s partner and gave the Hollywood Pantages another overhaul before re-opening it as a legitimate theatre with “Bubbling Brown Sugar” in February 1977. When The Nederlander Organization heard that the Walt Disney Company was seeking a home for its Los Angeles production of “The Lion King”, Chairman James M. Nederlander locked up a Pantages booking by agreeing to a substantial renovation. It was time, thought Nederlander, to get the theatre looking more like it did in 1930.

While the use of the Hollywood Pantages Theatre may have changed over the years, the theatre does not appear all that different today. After several touch-ups over the years, the Hollywood Boulevard showplace was renovated at the turn of the 21st century to recapture its 1930 look and luxury. When the theatre reopened in September 2000, some 300 people had repainted nearly every inch of the theatre, restored its outer lobby and missing chandeliers, refurbished its walls and prepared it for the new century.

PARKING NEAR THE PANTAGES THEATRE
https://www.los-angeles-theatre.com/venues/pantages-theater/parking