Ricardo Montalbán Theatre
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The Ricardo Montalbán Theatre (usually referred to as The Montalbán) is a
theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The performers may communi ...
in the
Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...
section of
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
.


History

The theatre is located near the intersection of Hollywood and Vine, on
Vine Street Vine Street is a street in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, that runs north–south between Franklin Avenue, Los Angeles, and Melrose Avenue. The intersection of Hollywood and Vine being symbolic of Hollywood itself. The intersection has be ...
between
Hollywood Boulevard Hollywood Boulevard is a major east–west street in Los Angeles, California. It runs through the Hollywood, East Hollywood, Little Armenia, Thai Town, and Los Feliz districts. Its western terminus is at Sunset Plaza Drive in the Hollyw ...
and
Sunset Boulevard Sunset Boulevard is a boulevard in the central and western part of Los Angeles, California, United States, that stretches from the Pacific Coast Highway (California), Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, Pacific Palisad ...
, at the site of the former Robert Northam / Jacob Stern estate. The Beaux-Arts building was designed by architects
Myron Hunt Myron Hubbard Hunt (February 27, 1868 – May 26, 1952) was an American architect whose numerous projects include many noted landmarks in Southern California and Evanston, Illinois. Hunt was elected a Fellow in the American Institute of Archi ...
and H.C. Chambers and constructed in 1926–27. Seating 1,200 at the time, it was the first
Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street ** Broadway Theatre (53rd Stre ...
-style
legitimate theater Legitimate theatre is live performance that relies almost entirely on diegetic elements, with actors performing through speech and natural movement.Joyce M. Hawkins and Robert Allen, eds. "Legitimate" entry. ''The Oxford Encyclopedic English Dicti ...
venue in Los Angeles. It opened January 19, 1927 under the name Wilkes' Vine Street Theatre. The first production was
Patrick Kearney Patrick Wayne Kearney (born September 24, 1939), also called the Trash Bag Killer and the Freeway Killer, is an American serial killer who sexually assaulted and murdered a minimum of twenty-eight young men and boys in southern California betwe ...
's adaption of
Dreiser Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (; August 27, 1871 – December 28, 1945) was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm moral ...
's ''
An American Tragedy ''An American Tragedy'' is a 1925 novel by American writer Theodore Dreiser. He began the manuscript in the summer of 1920, but a year later, abandoned most of that text. It was based on the notorious murder of Grace Brown in 1906, and the tria ...
'' which had opened on Broadway in 1926. Other productions mounted at the theatre included ''Philadelphia''. In March 1931, the theater was converted to a
movie theater A movie theater (American English) or cinema (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), also known as a movie house, cinema hall, picture house, picture theater, the movies, the pictures, or simply theater, is a business ...
, under the name Mirror Theatre, part of a chain run by
Howard Hughes Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American Aerospace engineering, aerospace engineer, business magnate, film producer, and investor. He was The World's Billionaires, one of the richest and most influential peo ...
and Harold B. Franklin. That company soon fell apart, and by the mid 1930s, the theatre was operating under the name Studio Theatre.
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
bought the theatre in 1936 and converted it to a live performance radio auditorium and radio studio for local affiliate KNX, under the name CBS Radio Playhouse. CBS's ''
Lux Radio Theatre ''Lux Radio Theatre'', sometimes spelled ''Lux Radio Theater'', a old-time radio, classic radio anthology series, was broadcast on the Blue Network, NBC Blue Network (1934–35) (owned by the National Broadcasting Company, later predecessor of A ...
'' moved there from New York that year (because of this, some sources give the theatre's name as Lux Radio Playhouse). This popular anthology show featured radio adaptations of stage plays and film scripts performed by well-known actors in front of a live audience;
Cecil B. DeMille Cecil Blount DeMille (; August 12, 1881January 21, 1959) was an American filmmaker and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of American cinema and the most co ...
was for many years its producer and host. The theatre was also the home of the
Al Jolson Al Jolson (born Asa Yoelson, ; May 26, 1886 – October 23, 1950) was a Lithuanian-born American singer, comedian, actor, and vaudevillian. Self-billed as "The World's Greatest Entertainer," Jolson was one of the United States' most famous and ...
show from 1936 to 1939 . A&P heir and arts patron
Huntington Hartford George Huntington Hartford II (April 18, 1911 – May 19, 2008) was an American businessman, philanthropist, stage and film producer, and art collector. He was also heir to the A&P supermarket fortune. After his father's death in 1922, Hartfor ...
bought the theatre from CBS in 1953, modernized it with design by Helen Conway, and re-opened it with 970 seats as the first legitimate theatre venue in Los Angeles in many years, under the name Huntington Hartford Theatre. The premiere production of the Hartford was '' What Every Woman Knows'' starring
Helen Hayes Helen Hayes MacArthur (; October 10, 1900 – March 17, 1993) was an American actress. Often referred to as the "First Lady of American Theatre", she was the second person and first woman to win EGOT, the EGOT (an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and ...
. Hartford ran the theater successfully for ten years, with high-profile productions featuring the biggest stars of the era. After ten years, Hartford lost interest in patronizing the arts in Los Angeles, and in 1964, the theatre was sold to James Doolittle, operator of the
Greek Theatre A theatrical culture flourished in ancient Greece from 700 BC. At its centre was the city-state of Athens, which became a significant cultural, political, and religious place during this period, and the theatre was institutionalised there as par ...
(who outbid
Cary Grant Cary Grant (born Archibald Alec Leach; January 18, 1904November 29, 1986) was an English and American actor. Known for his blended British and American accent, debonair demeanor, lighthearted approach to acting, and sense of comic timing, he ...
), and renamed the Doolittle Theatre. Doolittle ran the theatre successfully for 20 years, after which it was acquired by
UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...
. In 1999, the Nosotros Foundation bought the theatre, which had been closed and fallen somewhat into disrepair. In May 2004, the venue re-opened as the
Ricardo Montalbán Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán y Merino, KSG ( ; ; November 25, 1920 – January 14, 2009) was a Mexican and American film and television actor. Montalbán's career spanned seven decades, during which he became widely known for performances ...
Theatre. One goal of the new theater was specifically to promote Latino stage productions. Although the foundation encountered some financial difficulties, and struggled to fully renovate the theatre to achieve and maintain profitability, the theatre has successfully remained open. Film festivals, art galleries, and other programs are hosted, and there are rooftop film screenings in the spring and summer. The theater does not stage its own productions, and instead serves as a rental venue for traveling productions. Productions staged at The Montalbán have included '' Zorro in Hell'' (2007), '' An Evening Without Monty Python'' (2009), and the
enra Japanese performing arts company enra (stylized in lowercase Latin letters.) combines video art with live performance, synchronizing human body motion with computer graphics. Established March 1, 2012, as of 2019 enra is a collective centered ar ...
show PROXIMA (2016). In 2009, the venue entered an agreement with
Nike, Inc. Nike, Inc. (stylized as ''NIKE'') is an American athletic footwear and apparel corporation headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon. It is the world's largest supplier of athletic shoes and apparel and a major manufacturer of sports equipment, ...
for various concessions: a mini Nike retail store in the back of the orchestra section, Nike logos at the mezzanine level and lobby, a retail display case in front of the theater's main entrance, and rental to Nike for promotional film screenings during which the theatre would operate under the name ''Nike Sportswear at the Montalbán''. This occasioned some criticism. An officer of the Nosotros theater company described the situation as "a mixed bag. Artists aren't happy about it but, at the same time, Nike is helping the theater to pay its bills".


In film

The exterior and adjacent parking lot featured as the "Burlesque Lounge" theatre in the 2010 film ''
Burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.
'' with
Cher Cher ( ; born Cheryl Sarkisian, May 20, 1946) is an American singer, actress and television personality. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Goddess of Pop", she is known for her Androgyny, androgynous contralto voice, Music an ...
and
Christina Aguilera Christina María Aguilera ( , ; born December 18, 1980) is an American singer-songwriter, actress and television personality. Recognized as Cultural impact of Christina Aguilera, an influential figure in music and having received Public imag ...
.


References

{{Authority control Theatres completed in 1927 Theatres in Hollywood, Los Angeles Theatres in Los Angeles Music venues in Los Angeles 1927 establishments in California