Thursday, June 17, 2010

Traveling Thursdays: The Hollywood Palace & Judy Garland



Here’s a shot of Judy Garland, performing on The Hollywood Palace TV Variety Series at the Hollywood Palace Theater, October 15, 1965. The popular variety show aired from 1964 until 1970. For this episode, Judy performed a number of duets with Vic Damone and was in excellent vocal form. The Theater, which opened in 1927 as the Hollywood Playhouse, is located at 1735 N. Vine Street and has been renamed The Avalon.



Interestingly enough, this theater was also known as The El Capitan. The venue currently known as The El Capitan was called the Paramount. Very confusing. I know. Have a cup of coffee and process all of this. Here are some recent shots of The Avalon, formerly known as The Hollywood Palace:







A fascinating side note is that this theater is where Richard Nixon delivered his famous "Checkers" speech on September 23, 1952. Many of you are probably too young to remember, but it sure was a good one!

Just up the street on the opposite side is the famous Capitol Records building:



Around the corner is this Art Deco gem:



See more Hollywood Palace photos at my Hollywood web page.

4 comments:

TokyoMagic! said...

Wasn't the Hollywood Palace a popular place to go and dance in the '80's? I think someone told me they had removed all the seats from the ground floor for dancing, but they had left the seats up in the balcony. I wonder what it's like inside today?

Joan Crawford's star is right there in front of the Capitol Records building!

You didn't run into Paul or Ringo hanging around the Capitol Records building did you?

Connie Moreno said...

These pictures are GREAT! I love the history lesson, too.

Heidi Ann said...

Love those photos. I want to go there and see those fabulous buildings.
I only wish I could see Judy, too. :(

CoxPilot said...

My wife's Grandparent's back yard looked down on the Capital Records building, and when you turned around and looked UP the hill, you could see the Griffith Park Observatory. It was quite a view at night.