Million Dollar Theatre
Sid Grauman opened the first grand cinema palace in Los Angeles, the Million Dollar Theatre, at the corner of 3rd and Broadway in 1918. The structure consists of a twelve-story office building with the theater, occupying the lower two floors of the office building, extending back along Third Street. The elaborate Churrigueresque style decoration features eight Muses of the Arts along with symbols of Western Americana expertly sculpted by Joseph Mora. In the 1940s, the theatre hosted jazz and big bands. In the 1950s, it became the first theatre on Broadway to feature Spanish-language variety shows (variedades). A church leased it in the late 1990s. It has been used intermittently as an event space since, but has been closed since 2019. It is a Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Los Angeles, Los Angeles County
Photographer: Andrew Schmidt