Hollywood Pacific Theatre - Built for Sound

Photo: Tony the Marine (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)

A stop on Hollywood Boulevard Walk, a free self-guided tour.

The Warner brothers built this theater to show off a new idea: movies with sound. Designed by G. Albert Lansburgh, it was the first Hollywood theater planned for talkies from the start. The studio hoped to open it in 1927 with The Jazz Singer, the hit that launched the sound era, but construction delays and the death of Sam Warner, the brother who had championed sound, pushed the opening to April 26, 1928.

Look up at the roof for the two tall radio masts. They belonged to KFWB, the Warner radio station that broadcast from a studio inside. In 1953 the theater became the Warner Cinerama, with a curved screen 76 feet wide, and later it hosted the West Coast premiere of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Earthquake and water damage closed it as a cinema in 1994, and after short spells as a technology lab and a church it has stood empty since 2013. It is not open to the public, so admire the grand facade from the sidewalk.

Getting here: Continue east on the north side of Hollywood Boulevard for about three blocks to the big theater at the corner of Wilcox Avenue.

Did you know?: Carol Burnett once worked here as an usherette, and her own Walk of Fame star now sits right outside.

Photo op: Cross to the south side of the boulevard to fit the facade and both rooftop radio masts into one shot.

More on Wikipedia: Hollywood Pacific Theatre · Sam Warner · KFWB · The Jazz Singer

Hollywood Pacific Theatre - Built for Sound

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