The Mayan Theater in Los Angeles, California is a landmark former movie palace and current nightclub and music venue.
History
The Mayan Theater opened in August 1927 as a performance arts theater specializing in musical comedy.[1]
Leon Hefflin Sr. rented out the Mayan Theater downtown Los Angeles to produce the Sweet N' Hot, "Greatest Negro All Star Musical to Hit Coast." His business partner was Curtis Mosby, and the featured performer was Dorothy Dandridge.[2] The show had a run of eleven weeks and was reported as going to New York.[3] It closed to rave reviews and was covered by 20 different newspapers all over the country.
From 1971 to 1989, the theater was owned by pornographic filmmaker Carlos Tobalina.[4][5] In the 1980s, the theater showed pornographic films.[6]
The theater has been a location in many films, including Sally of the Scandals,[7] The Bodyguard, Save the Tiger, Unlawful Entry, Rock 'n' Roll High School, and A Night at the Roxbury. It also featured in the eighth episode of the first season of GLOW.
In 1990, the Mayan Theater, with most of its lavish ornament intact, became a nightclub and music venue. It is designated as a Historic Cultural Monument.[8]
In 2022, Daft Punk also streamed a video recording of a show at the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles from their 1997 Daftendirektour.
Architecture and design
Designed by Stiles O. Clements of Morgan, Walls & Clements, the façade of the Mayan Theater includes stylized pre-Columbian patterns and figures designed by sculptor Francisco Cornejo.[1] This was his major work.[9]
The Mayan Theater is a prototypical example of the many ornate exotic revival-style theaters of the late 1920s, Mayan Revival in this case. The well-preserved lobby is called "The Hall of Feathered Serpents," the auditorium includes a chandelier based on the Aztec calendar stone, and the original fire curtain included images of Mayan jungles and temples.[10]
Gallery
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Detail of façade, 2012 -
Theater poster, 1938 -
Theater poster, 1937 -
Mayan stage, 2011 -
Auditorium from Balcony Left, 2020 -
Mayan Theatre, Los Angeles (Historic Theatre Photography)
See also
- List of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments in Downtown Los Angeles
- Mayan Revival architecture-related topics
References
- ^ a b Los Angeles: Then and Now. San Diego: Thunder Bay Press. 2002. pp. 34–35. ISBN 1571457941.
- ^ Reed, Tom (1992). The Black music history of Los Angeles, its roots: 50 years in Black music: a classical pictorial history of Los Angeles Black music of the 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's and 60's: photographic essays that define the people, the artistry and their contributions to the wonderful world of entertainment (1st, limited ed.). Los Angeles: Black Accent on L.A. Press. ISBN 978-0963290861. OCLC 28801394.
- ^ "Sweet 'N Hot Revue Is Heading for New York Stage" Headliner The California Eagle April 6, 1944.
- ^ Berg, Nate (May 12, 2016). "Sex, Cash & Suicide: Carlos Tobalina - Carlos Tobalina and His Palisades 'House of Ill Fame'". Palisadian-Post. Retrieved January 15, 2020.
- ^ Horak, Jan-Christopher; Jarvinen, Lisa; Gunckel, Colin, eds. (2019). Cinema between Latin America and Los Angeles: Origins to 1960. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-1978801257.
- ^ Los Angeles Times movie advertisements in the Los Angeles Times
- ^ "Studio Briefs". Motion Picture News: 442. February 11, 1928.
- ^ "Mayan". Cinema Treasures. Cinema Treasures, LLC. Retrieved January 4, 2013.
- ^ Counter, B. "Los Angeles Theatres: Mayan Theatre: history". Los Angeles Theatres. Retrieved 2021-04-26.
- ^ "Old Mayan Theater May Retrieve Glory". Los Angeles Times. 1989-06-11. Retrieved 2021-04-26.
External links
Media related to Mayan Theater at Wikimedia Commons
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