Earl Carroll Theatre
- Architect
- Gordon Kaufmann
- Year
- 2006
- Style
- Streamline Moderne
- City
- Los Angeles, CA
The Earl Carroll Theatre opened on December 26, 1938, at 6230 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, built for showman Earl Carroll and designed by Gordon Kaufmann in Streamline Moderne style. The opening-night revue, "Broadway to Hollywood," sent sixty showgirls up 100 treads of stairs to a height of 135 feet, drawing celebrities including Marlene Dietrich, Claudette Colbert, and Edgar Bergen. The building later cycled through identities — Moulin Rouge, the Aquarius Theater, and Nickelodeon on Sunset — before closing in 2017.
the building
The showgirl staircase. The theatre's opening revue, Broadway to Hollywood, featured sixty showgirls climbing 100 treads of stairs to a height of 135 feet — a signature stunt built into the venue from its first night, December 26, 1938.
the style
Kaufmann designed the theatre in Streamline Moderne, giving Earl Carroll's Sunset Boulevard venue the sleek, curved profile associated with late-1930s Hollywood nightlife architecture.
More on Streamline Modernesignificance
The theatre is a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument. It passed through several identities — Moulin Rouge from 1953 to 1964, the Aquarius Theater into the early 1980s, and Nickelodeon on Sunset from 1997 to 2017, when it closed. In 2019, new operators signed a 10-year lease to restore and reopen it as part of an entertainment complex.
nearby
- Guaranty Building
- Hollywood Plaza Hotel
- Hallmark Building
- Leed's Building
- Avalon Hollywood
- Capitol Records Building