Skip to main content

Image / Earl Carroll Theatre on Sunset Boulevard

Have a question about this item?

Item information. View source record on contributor's website.

Title
Earl Carroll Theatre on Sunset Boulevard
Alternative Title
Los Angeles Photographers Photo Collection;
Creator
Schultheis, Herman
Contributor
Made accessible through a grant from the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation
Date Created and/or Issued
Circa 1939
Contributing Institution
Los Angeles Public Library
Collection
Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection
Rights Information
Images available for reproduction and use. Please see the Ordering & Use page at http://tessa.lapl.org/OrderingUse.html for additional information.
Description
Title supplied by cataloger.; Herman J. Schultheis was born in Aachen, Germany in 1900, and immigrated to the United States in the mid-1920s after obtaining a Ph.D. in mechanical and electrical engineering. He married Ethel Wisloh in 1936, and the pair moved to Los Angeles the following year. He worked in the film industry from the late 1930s to the mid-1940s, most notably on the animated features Fantasia and Pinocchio. His detailed notebook, documenting the special effects for Fantasia, is the subject of a 14-minute short-subject included on the film's DVD. In 1949, he started employment with Librascope as a patent engineer. Schultheis was an avid amateur photographer who traveled the world with his cameras. It was on one of these photographic exhibitions in 1955 that he disappeared in the jungles of Guatemala. His remains were discovered 18 months later. The digitized portion of this collection represents the images Schultheis took of Los Angeles and its surrounding communities after he relocated to the area in 1937.
The Earl Carroll Theatre, located at 6230 Sunset Blvd. just off Vine St., opened its doors on December 26, 1938. The glamorous 1,000-seat supper club-theater was designed by Gordon B. Kaufmann, the interior was designed by Count Alexis de Sakhnoffsky, and it was built at an estimated cost of $500,000. Earl Carroll's theater-restaurant was famed not only for having "the most beautiful girls in the world" pass through its portals, but also for its lavish musical comedy shows played out on a massive 60-foot-wide double revolving stage and staircase, as well as for swings that could be lowered from the ceiling. The theater was sold in 1948, following the untimely deaths of owner, impresario and showman Earl Carroll, and his constant companion, showgirl Beryl Wallace; both perished in the June 17, 1948 crash of United Airlines Flight 624 at Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania. The theater has continued to operate under different names such as: "Moulin Rouge" (1950s); "Hullabaloo" (early 1960s); "Aquarius Theatre" (late 1960s); and "Nickelodeon Theater" (1990s), etc. As of September 2007, the City of Los Angeles Historic Preservation Board has worked to asure that the theater, considered to be an important American institution, is protected.
A woman crosses Sunset Boulevard to get to the Earl Carroll Theatre.
Type
image
Format
1 photographic print :b&w ;11 x 15 cm.
Photographic prints
Identifier
00101432
Herman J Schultheis Collection; Los Angeles Photographers Collection;
N-010-885 8x10
CARL0005125339
http://173.196.26.125/cdm/ref/collection/photos/id/40213
Subject
Earl Carroll Theatre (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Women--California--Los Angeles
Music-halls (Variety-theaters, cabarets, etc.)--California--Hollywood (Los Angeles)
Restaurants--California--Hollywood (Los Angeles)
Dinner theater--California--Los Angeles
Signs and signboards--California--Hollywood (Los Angeles)
Neon signs--California--Hollywood (Los Angeles)
Lampposts--California--Los Angeles
Automobiles--California--Los Angeles
Streets--California--Hollywood (Los Angeles)
Sunset Boulevard (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Hollywood (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Schultheis Collection photographs
Kaufmann, Gordon B

About the collections in Calisphere

Learn more about the collections in Calisphere. View our statement on digital primary resources.

Copyright, permissions, and use

If you're wondering about permissions and what you can do with this item, a good starting point is the "rights information" on this page. See our terms of use for more tips.

Share your story

Has Calisphere helped you advance your research, complete a project, or find something meaningful? We'd love to hear about it; please send us a message.

Explore related content on Calisphere: