On a recent trip to LA I discovered the Wilshire Ebell Theatre on Wilshire (naturally!) Boulevard. In continuous operation since 1927, the Wilshire Ebell Theatre (originally called the Windsor Square Playhouse) opened with the west coast premiere of Sigmund Romberg’s successful Broadway operetta “The Desert Song.”
At some point I'd love to go back and explore the inside, as I’m sure the interior is even more interesting than the outside!
...and I HAVE to get a nighttime shot of the signage!
At the Judy Garland News website I discovered that Judy Garland and her sisters, Mary Jane and Virginia, appeared here on December 8, 1934.
According to legend, this is the appearance that MGM director George Sidney saw Judy and got her a screen test at MGM.
W.E. Oliver of the “Los Angeles Evening Express” raved about Judy’s performance:
12 Year Old Girl Is Sensation At Frolics
“Little Frances…sang in a way that produced in the audience sensations that haven’t been equaled in years. Not your smart, adult-aping prodigy is this girl, but a youngster who had the divine instinct to be herself on stage, along with a talent for singing, a trick of rocking the spectators with rhythms, and a capacity for putting emotion into her performance that suggests what Bernhardt must have been at her age. It isn’t the cloying, heavy sentiment her elders so often strive for, but simple, sincere feeling that reaches the heart. The three girls together are an act anyone would want to see. Frances alone is a sensation, and last Saturday’s audience realized it by the way they encored. Much of her individual style of singing was culled by the little girl from her parent’s old act, although she must have the divine spark to be able to sing as she did…she would make any show.”
See more Wilshire Boulevard photos at my main website.
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