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The Earl Carroll Theatre was the name of two major theatres, one on Broadway in New York City and the other on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood, owned by Broadway impresario and showman Earl Carroll.
Broadway
The first was the Broadway theatre venture at 753 Seventh Ave. & W. Fiftieth Street in New York City. Built in 1922 and highly successful for a number of years until it was demolished and rebuilt on a lavish scale. It reopened in August of 1931 with Carroll's billing that it was "the largest legitimate theater in the world." However, the facility's operating costs proved astronomical and it went into foreclosure in early 1932 after which it was acquired by producer Florenz Ziegfeld who renamed it the "Casino Theatre." However, Ziegfeld too went bankrupt only a short time later. The building was converted to retail space in 1940 and eventually became a Woolworth's Department Store. It was demolished in 1990.
Sunset Blvd.
Earl Carroll built his second famous theatre at 6230 Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood, California that opened on December 26, 1938. As he had done at the New York theatre, over the doors of the entrance Carroll had emblazoned the words "Through these portals pass the most beautiful girls in the world." An "entertainment palace," the glamorous supper club-theatre offered shows on a massive stage with a 60-foot wide double revolving turntable and staircase plus swings that could be lowered from the ceiling. The building's facade was adorned by what at the time was one of Hollywood's most famous landmarks: a 20-foot-high neon head portrait of entertainer Beryl Wallace, one of Earl Carroll's "most beautiful girls in the world." The sign had long vanished by the 1960s but a recreation made from photos is today on display at Universal CityWalk, at Universal City, as part of the collection of historic neon signs from the Museum of Neon Art. Another major feature at the theatre was its "Wall of Fame" where many of Hollywood's most glamorous stars inscribed a personal message.
Extremely successful, Jean Spangler, Mara Corday, Phyllis Coates, and Gloria Pall were some of the showgirls who performed here. The facility was a popular spot for many of Hollywood's most glamourous stars and powerful film industry moguls such as Darryl F. Zanuck and Walter Wanger sat on the Earl Carroll Theatre's board of governors.
The theatre was sold following Earl Carroll's untimely death in the crash of United Airlines Flight 624 at Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania while enroute from Los Angeles to New York City. It continuted to operate but in the 1950s fell on hard times. Beginning in 1953, for a while it operated as a nightclub under the name, the "Moulin Rouge." After changing hands it eventually became the "Hullabaloo" Rock and Roll club, capitalizing on the popularity of the television variety show Hullabaloo. It then became the "Aquarius Theatre" in the late 1960s and was used as a venue for the long running Rock musical "Hair" and made famous as the place where Jim Morrison and The Doors performed on July 21, 1969.
In 1983, the Pick-Vanoff Company purchased the property and converted it into a state-of-the art television theater that for nine years was the filming site of "Star Search." It later became the Nickelodeon Theater and was owned by Columbia Pictures. In 2004, it was sold to a private equity firm as part of a larger parcel of property.
References
- Lost Broadway Theatres by Nicholas van Hoogstraten, (1991) Princeton Architectural Press (ISBN 1878271067)
External links
Theatres in the United States | Theatres in New York | Theatres in California | Buildings and structures in New York City | Landmarks in Los Angeles | Hollywood history and culture
"Earl Carroll Theatre"