Many theaters over the last 100 years (or more?) have been named the "Palace" to evoke grandeur and cultural sophistication.
Photo: 2023But there's another moniker that brings that idea of glamour to new heights: Palladium, which comes from the Greek goddess of the arts, Pallas Athena.
Photo: 2020London has got one at Oxford Circus. New York City had one in the East Village (which closed just a couple of months after my arrival in 1997 and was subsequently demolished); now it's got a different one in Times Square.
Photo: 2020And there's a Palladium in Hollywood, too—today mostly used for live concerts, although its history goes way deeper than that.
Photo: 2019
It actually wasn't converted into a live venue—it didn't originally open as a movie theater. No, it was built for music and dancing, and for bands that were big, like Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra, which opened the "Palladium Ballroom-Cafe" (with the then-unknown Frank Sinatra providing vocals) in 1940.
Photo: 2024
It was designed by architect Gordon B. Kaufmann, and its façade now looks very much the same as it did on opening night, though it did go through a decades-long phase of being "modernized" without the neon (sometime in the 1960s through the 2000s).
Photo: 2024
Its current iteration, however, is the result of a $20-million rehabilitation conducted by promoter Live Nation over the course of a year-long closure, with its grand reopening taking place in October 2008. The animation of the neon vertical sign was restored to match the original lighting sequence, according to the Los Angeles Times. And they brought back the readerboard marquee style instead of switching to LED.
Photo: 2019
They added some neon directional signage pointing to where there's parking, but it fits right in.
Photo: 2024
The programming, however, has had to evolve. Big bands eventually gave way to rock bands (like Led Zeppelin) and hip hop acts (like Jay-Z, who headlined the grand reopening in 2008). The Lawrence Welk Show got its television start there in 1955. There were four Grammy Awards ceremony telecasts from the Hollywood Palladium in the 1970s. (Pictured above is the Britpop band Pulp, who played sold-out shows there in 2024.)
Photo: 2023
I went one night in 2023 for a pop-up tribute to the long-gone Flipper's Roller Boogie Palace (formerly located in what's now a CVS in West Hollywood)...
Photo: 2023...which seemed like a fun and different way to experience the venue and admire its Streamline Moderne style.
Photo: 2023
That night, the 11,200-square-foot dance floor was converted into a nostalgic roller rink...
GIF: 2023...but that's not the first time people have skated through the Hollywood Palladium's ballroom.
The 1979 roller disco movie Skatetown U.S.A. was shot there, producing one of the greatest movie performances of all time, starring Patrick Swayze on roller skates (above).
Photo: 2023
It's fitting that some movie history be made here, as the Hollywood Palladium was built upon the former site of the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation studio lot (which became an early version of Paramount Pictures).
Photo: 2023Besides, its curvilinear forms—both inside and out—are just so darn photogenic.
GIF: 2023And that floor—big enough to fit 3000 dancing couples—was built for people to move on it, not just stand still facing forward to watch a band play.
Photo: 2023
Photo: 2023Back in the day, if you wanted to dine instead of dance, you could get a table on the sidelines or up on the balcony/mezzanine level and peer over the low walls to get a good view. The recessed lighting still makes every space feel special.
Photo: 2024
The Palladium bar areas—in the lobby and the ballroom—recently got a much-needed glow-up.
Photo: 2024
They look even more vintage-inspired than they did before.
Photo: 2024
Fortunately, the wood-domed rotunda in the lobby bar area seems to stand out even more than it ever did before.
Photo: 2024
Fortunately, and its historic ceiling medallion (depicting perhaps Athena? Or one of the Muses, like Terpsichore or Erato?) has also been preserved.
Photo: 2021
Beyond its architectural pedigree or its historical significance, the Palladium still provides a certain feeling of Hollywood as a place for gathering. In May 2021, when it wasn't safe to be inside together because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Palladium partnered up with the Museum of Neon Art to install illuminated artworks in its vacant storefront windows—creating a sidewalk gallery that could be enjoyed safely, and providing a beacon of hope in a really dark time.
And that helped make this venue just as relevant in the modern age as it ever was.
*Photos taken from 2019 to 2024 and marked in their captions accordingly
Related Posts:
No comments:
Post a Comment