Vogue Theatre
6675 Hollywood Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90028
6675 Hollywood Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90028
29 people
favorited this theater
Showing 126 - 150 of 165 comments
The sad part is that they’d rather just sit on these buildings than give them over to someone who’d do the right thing. That’s just what we need in Hollywood – another movie theater turned into a sickening trendy (for fifteen minutes) nightclub. SHAME!
And most of the theaters in Reseda and Van Nuys and Burbank and NoHo are sadly long gone. The Reseda is, of course, still there, but I have no idea who owns it. And the Fox, as mentioned above. There are a handful of others, too.
Richard, the owners are not interested in returning this theatre back to a movie theatre, but into a night club in the near future. As they also own the Fox Theatre at Wilcox and Hollywood Blvd. too.
I am currently looking for any Old Theatres in which to lease or possibly buy in Reseda, Van Nuys, Hollywood or North Hollywood. It has been my Long life Dream to renevate and own my own Theatre/ Venue. Please e-mail me at or call me at 310-597-9398 if youo live here!! Thanks.Rick
P.S. If you also live in the areas in which I am looking and want to help please contact me as well!!
Here are some photos from a website that concerns 70 mm theaters:
http://tinyurl.com/l28n9
Here are a few more things about the opening of the Vogue.
(June 30, 1935)
Construction and preparation of the Vogue Theater Building, 6669-77 Hollywood Boulevard, represents another important structural project in the Hollywood program. The structure, constructed by the Vogue Theater Company of which Howard Sheehan is president, represents an investment of about $50,000, and inclusive of equipment, a total expenditure of about $95,000, it was stated.
(July 02, 1935)
Hollywood’s newest first-run motion picture theater, the Vogue Theater, 6669 Hollywood Boulevard, is being rushed to completion for an opening set for Tuesday evening, July 9. The modernistic theater, first of its kind to be built in Souther California, is being erected at a cost of $60,000. With the smartly sophisticated styled furnishings and latest equipment, a total expenditure of over $95,000 will be realized when the doors open. Under the direction of Howard Sheehan, the new Vogue Theater will establish a policy of first-run pictures of the highest type, it is announced.
(July 03, 1935)
Vogue Theater, slated to open next Tuesday night, at 6669-77 Hollywood Boulevard, will present “Ladies Crave Excitement” as one-half of a double bill.
(July 08, 1935)
VOGUE THEATER’S OPENING WILL BE THEATRICAL EVENT
Amusement seekers will attend the gala premiere of Hollywood’s newest first-run picture palace, Vogue Theater, tomorrow. Stars of the stage and screen will be on hand to pay their respects to Howard Sheehan and his new theatrical venture. Two pictures will make up the initial program. One is “The Phantom Fiend,” a mystery drama made from the novel, “The Lodger,” by Mrs. Belloc Lowndes.
Here’s an article that states the original businesses that occupied the Vogue Theater Building.
(May 5, 1935) Los Angeles Times
FIVE LEASES FOR STORE AREAS IN NEW STRUCTURE
Announcement of the leasing of all the store areas in the Vogue Theater Building now nearing completion at 6669-77 Hollywood Boulevard has been made by Coldwell, Cornawall & Banker. The rentals total $57,000, it was stated. Musso and Frank Grill Company have leased, for a long period, a portion of the building in the rear of the easterly stores for an addition to their present dining-room at a total rental of $15,000 and are expending $11,000 for interior decoration, the report says. Sam Kessler has leased the store at 6669 Hollywood Boulevard for a period of five years at a rental of $15,000, it was announced. Armin Richter has leased the storeroom at 6671 Hollywood Boulevard for a period of five years at a total rental of $9000, according to the report. The storeroom at 6673 Hollywood Boulevard has been leased to Angeline Jahnke for a period of five years at a rental of $9000, and Sally’s Candy Company has leased the storeroom at 6677 Hollywood Boulevard for a period of five years at a rental of $9000, the report states.
Read my comments about the Pacific – one of my favorite theaters. I was just there two weeks ago.
There was plans to turn it into some kind of night club at last word. I enjoyed my short time in the Vogue. My favorite was the Hollywood Pacific.
I had a friend who worked for Mann Theaters for years, so I know most of the history.
I was at a screening of a short film at the Vogue about four years ago. I was shocked at the state the theater was in – it was, quite frankly, disgusting – smelled bad, and was filthy. A shame, really. Is it for sale? m
The Vogue Theatre lasted till the middle of 1992 as a move-over house for the Mann’s Chinese Tri-plex. At that time mann Theatre had removed the 70MM projection equipment and replaced it with a Simplex XL and and drive-in platter and a Dolby CP-50 for it’s stereo sound. A sad ending for one of the best Scope screens on the Blvd. The three single houses that Mann ran were the Hollywood which closed in 1991 and the Fox which closed also in 1991 and became a warehouse for the company and finally the Vogue. Back in Oct. of 2000 the theatre was used as an extra screen for the AFI series which took place at the El Capitian and the Egyptian Theatres of that year. I ran many films during that week in that theatre as the projectionist.
Can someone tell me exactly when the Vogue ceased being a regular-run movie theater? I thought it was the early 90s, but that appears not to be the case if I’m reading the above posts correctly. So, when was the last time the Vogue played a movie in regular release? I have many happy memories of the Vogue – saw The Parent Trap there many times, saw Robert Youngson’s Days of Thrills and Laughter (which got me interested in silent movies), saw What’s New, Pussycat there, and the bastardized version of Once Upon A Time In America. One of my fondest memories is when the Vogue had a sneak preview of a film I wrote and directed in the mid-70s. THAT was fun!
Mikul, Thanks I check back later to see.
Hey Will,
it’s cool that someone is interested in seeing those pics. First I have to locate them, then scan them, and I’ll do that and post, soon as i get some time. They’re not pro shots, though, just mostly goofing around shots I believe….. it’s been awhile since I’ve seen ‘em…
Mikul, I would be intrested in seeing your pictures. Could you post them or email them to me.
I worked as asst. manager at the vogue for a for little while , around 1982-‘84. Have a lot of great memories, and some pictures of the interior and a couple of the outside. The manager at the time, George Michaelides often had us put up cheasy displays, and I took pics of 'em. And he took pics of us with them. We had plenty of celebrities coming in. Jeff Conaway and John Larroquette were regulars. I walked Andy Kaufman to his car after a screening of Mad Max, talking about the film. He thought it was too violent. Also when Dodger announcer Vin Scully got his Star on the Blvd., I escorted him and his family and entourage from the rear entrance to the the waiting press. Also got to know Nicolas Cage from seeing him sloop by the theatre with Crispin Glover and I’d let them come in. This is before they were household names. Ok, I could go on for awhile, all the experiences there. I won’t. But I will mention some of the celebrities I saw there: William Shatner, Vincent Price, Wolfman Jack, Jack LaLane, Gary Owens, Mayor Tom Bradley, David Lander (Squiggy, of Lenny & Squiggy), the Spinal Tap keyboardist, Joseph Cotton, The Skipper from Gilligan’s Island, Aldo Ray…. Okay, that’s not so many, and that’s all I can think of now.
I’ll be sad to see it go….if it does…
The stories about the Vogue being haunted sprang up when a “Psychic” Tour group was using it as a base of operation. I was the Assistant Manager there in the early seventies and never heard of (or experienced) a haunting of ANY sort. They were also spreading some BS about a schoolhouse burning down and the site being haunted by dead kids. While there WAS a school a couple of blocks away, The Misses Janes school didn’t burn down. The house is now a Tourist Information office. The only other school in the area was on Selma Avenue.
Someone else mentioned an odd storage room next to Musso Frank’s. That was a former speakeasy that, for years, was bricked up except for an entrance inside Musso’s.
This is an artist’s sketch of the remodeled Fox West Coast Vogue Theater in 1959:
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics49/00044346.jpg
From the Bruce Torrence Hollywood Photograph Collection:
View link
The exterior looks like the Grand Theatre [大光明]of Shanghai.
Sorry it’s been so long since I responded about the theater. I just never thought anyone was reading these.
Turns out I was wrong!
As far as tearing out the seats, don’t get mad at me. The theater was going through the club renovation by The White Lotus, which should have been no secret as they posted their liquor license request publicly last summer. If it wasn’t going to be us tearing them out, it was someone else. Also, the seats that were there were not the original seats. They were put there sometime in the 70’s I believe and they were in horrible shape and not very collectible. I’m no expert, but they didn’t appear to be anything really special. Most of them were tossed. (I believe some of them were stored in this really weird space adjacent to Musso and Franks, which looked to be part of the restaurant a very long time ago – it had this really beautiful artwork that lined the top of the walls.)
As a matter of fact, the theater interior was not really much to write home about. The walls were a drab and rundown red. The ceiling had this large set back oval shape, but was painted in a single color – there was no contrast nor any kind of artwork. (Maybe something underneath that you could have restored, but there were no photos to confirm that.) The lobby had this horribly ugly carpeting and the snack counter was updated sometime in the 80’s. The only place that had some real coolness in it was the projection booth, which I noted in my post last year.
I am actually very happy to have been able to spend some time in there. It was a lot of fun and I was glad that the theater got some use. Currently, you can still see our MDN promo ads on the marquee, which makes me laugh. I really wish it would get reworked and finished soon. Anyone who lives in Hollywood knows the frustration of old buildings just sitting there collecting dust.
It looks like the Vogue’s days are numbered. All the stores that share the building with the Vogue are now closed and it looks like they are going to raze the whole thing. No offical word on what they are going to do with the property. Just saw this today.
After it closed up, it was rented out by a local scenster for some screenings of old horror movies on several occasions (he merely projected DVDs on a standard video projector probably costing less than $2000, and honestly it really didn’t look too bad…a little dim but no splices or film print damage, obviously). This was around 2000 or 2001. As confirmed by others here, I had heard the rumor that the place was morphing into a nightclub. Fine and dandy, but DO IT ALREADY! I’d rather have the place functioning. You’ve already ripped out the seats aparently, you naughty boy. So let’s do something with it. I’d prefer another organziation in the style of the American Cinemateque; Hollywood Blvd. is the perfect place fortit.
The Vogue Theatre was a mid-sized theatre with 800 seats, compared to the larger palaces on Hollywood Blvd. The 500 seat number comes from around the year 2000 when the owner removed 300 seats from the front of the theatre. In the earlier years of the Projectionist Union in Los Angeles. If your theatre seated 1000 people and over, it had to employ two projectionists each shift.
J. Arthur Drielsma consulted with Roland Decker Pierson to design the Azusa Foothill Drive-In theatre.
/theaters/5855/
He also apparently designed the Whittier Drive-In AKA Fiesta Four
/theaters/3822/
The Vogue was remodelled in 1959 to it’s present “modern” appearance by architect “J. Arthur Drieloma, A.I.A.” and cost $250,000 (a substantial sum in those days). The grand re-opening took place on June 29, 1959.
The artists conception is located here…
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics49/00044346.jpg