El Capitan Theatre
- Year
- 1926
- Style
- Spanish Colonial Revival
- City
- Los Angeles, CA
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El Capitan Theatre is a movie palace at 6838 Hollywood Boulevard, built in 1926 by developer Charles E. Toberman — known as the "Father of Hollywood" — as the second of three themed theaters he opened with Sid Grauman, following the Egyptian (1922) and preceding the Chinese (1927). Dubbed "Hollywood's First Home of Spoken Drama," it opened on May 3, 1926 with Charlot's Revue starring Gertrude Lawrence and Jack Buchanan, and went on to present over 120 live productions across a decade. It is now owned by the Walt Disney Company and serves as a premiere venue for Disney films.
the building
A decade of live theater. Before it became a movie house, El Capitan spent ten years as a legitimate stage theater, staging more than 120 productions.
Toberman's theater district. Toberman envisioned a Hollywood theater district and built El Capitan alongside two sibling houses with Sid Grauman — the Egyptian in 1922 and the Chinese in 1927 — while also developing the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel and the Max Factor Building nearby.
the style
El Capitan was built in the Spanish Colonial Revival and Mediterranean Revival styles popular for 1920s Hollywood movie palaces, giving the theater its ornamented, tile-and-stucco facade.
More on Spanish Colonial Revivalsignificance
The theater is designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument.
nearby
- Hollywood Masonic Temple
- Lee Drug
- Bank of America Building
- Max Factor Make-Up Salon
- Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel
- Grauman's Egyptian Theatre