A Hundred Years Under the Marquee, Hollywood’s El Capitan Keeps the Curtain Show Alive

At the El Capitan, the curtain still goes up before the movie does. The house on Hollywood Boulevard made its debut as the largest legitimate theatre in Hollywood on May 3, 1926, LAmag reported, and its hundredth year has played out as a long party. There is a photo exhibit in the lobby, a new curtain show on stage and, this month, two Halloween favorites on the screen.

From Spoken Drama to the Movies

The El Capitan was built for live performance. The Hollywood Historic Trust calls it the most lavish of four theaters on Hollywood Boulevard designed for the stage. The Beverly Press reported that it opened with 1,550 seats and that its first production was Charlot’s Revue.

In 1941 it reopened as a movie theater with the premiere of Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, and in 1942 it was renamed the Paramount, according to the trust. The decades that followed were less kind. LAmag reported that after the credits rolled on the Gene Hackman spy thriller The Package in September 1989, the lights went out at the cavernous old Paramount for the last time.

The Walt Disney Company brought it back. Laughing Place reported that the two-year remodel was led by theater designer Joseph J. Musil, and that the El Capitan reopened to the public on June 19, 1991, with the world premiere of The Rocketeer. The restored house sits across the boulevard from the TCL Chinese Theatre.

Theater manager James Wood told LAmag that the building came first in his memory.

“My first memory of the El Capitan is not the film, but I remember the building,” he said. “I remember the mighty Wurlitzer pipe organ, and I remember eating Mickey Mouse pretzels.”

The Centennial Year

The anniversary plans, as BroadwayWorld reported in May, included a new archival display with rarely seen models of the 1991 restoration made by Musil, and a brand new curtain show with a nod to the motifs and designs of the original curtains. LAmag reported that the exhibit of historic photos from a century of the El Capitan will stay in the lobby until the end of the year.

The city joined in on May 21, when Council District 13 member Hugo Soto Martinez was set to present a proclamation at the sold out opening night of The Mandalorian and Grogu. On June 1, The Rocketeer returned to the screen where it premiered, with director Joe Johnston and executive producer Larry Franco in conversation with Leonard Maltin, Laughing Place reported.

Halloween on the Boulevard

The theater’s showings page lists Hocus Pocus through Thursday, October 15, with a cauldron photo op in the lobby. The Nightmare Before Christmas in 4D takes over on Friday, October 16, and plays through Sunday, November 1, with the Silly Symphony short The Skeleton Dance before every show.

Opening night is a fan event. The theater lists an introduction by Don Hahn and a live drawing demo by George McClements before the film. Laughing Place reported that the fan event starts at 7:30 p.m. and costs $70, which covers a reserved seat, a Jack Skellington popcorn container with popcorn, a fountain drink and an event credential.

Later in the fall, LAmag reported that the Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation is hosting a tour of the building on Saturday, November 21.

Practical Details

The El Capitan Theatre is at 6838 Hollywood Boulevard. Laughing Place lists regular Nightmare Before Christmas screenings daily at 9:30 a.m., noon, 2:30 p.m., 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., plus a 10 p.m. show Friday through Sunday. Tickets are on the theater’s showings page.