The Mayfair Music Hall was an English music hall-styled

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

theater devised and created by entrepreneur

Milt Larsen Milt Larsen (born April 9, 1931) is an American actor, writer, performer, lyricist, magician, entrepreneur, speaker, and the creator of The Magic Castle, a private club for magicians and enthusiasts. Early life Larsen and his brother, Bil ...

, located in

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing t ...

. The theater was originally designed by architect Henry C. Hollwedel, and built in 1910 as the Santa Monica Opera House. On December 12, 1911, it opened under the new name Majestic Theater. When live shows proved unpopular, it featured

silent movies A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, whe ...

and vaudeville acts.

transformed the venue into a Victorian music hall in 1972 and produced British variety shows there. In 1974, the theater was used to film the famous " Puttin' on the Ritz" sequence in ''

Young Frankenstein ''Young Frankenstein'' is a 1974 American comedy horror film directed by Mel Brooks. The screenplay was co-written by Brooks and Gene Wilder. Wilder also starred in the lead role as the title character, a descendant of the infamous Dr. Victor ...

''. In 1974, it was used to film a scene for the pilot movie of

The Rockford Files ''The Rockford Files'' is an American detective drama television series starring James Garner that aired on the NBC network from September 13, 1974 to January 10, 1980, and remains in syndication. Garner portrays Los Angeles private investiga ...

, which featured an acrobat and a dog act. In 1989, it housed the Los Angeles wing of

The Second City The Second City is an improvisational comedy enterprise and is the oldest ongoing improvisational theater troupe to be continually based in Chicago, with training programs and live theatres in Toronto and Los Angeles. The Second City Theatre o ...

comedy troupe. The theatre was damaged in the

1994 Northridge earthquake The 1994 Northridge earthquake was a moment 6.7 (), blind thrust earthquake that occurred on January 17, 1994, at 4:30:55 a.m. PST in the San Fernando Valley region of the City of Los Angeles. The quake had a duration of approximately 1 ...

, and the owner gutted the building and removed all the ornate decor. As of 2019, the theater housed a

Shoe Palace JD Sports Fashion plc, more commonly known as JD Sports or JD, is a British sports-fashion retail company based in Bury, Greater Manchester, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. Pentlan ...

store.

External links

Mayfair Theatre in Santa Monica, CA - Cinema Treasures

Mayfair Theatre - Movie Palaces along Wilshire Boulevard

References

{{Santa Monica, California Concert halls in California Former music venues in California Landmarks in Santa Monica, California Buildings and structures completed in 1911 Buildings and structures demolished in 2010