Carthay Circle Theatre 

-Los Angeles -

6316 San Vicente Blvd.  

Los Angeles, CA  90035   

| map | 

Opened: May 18, 1926 by West Coast Theatres with the premiere of C.B. DeMille's "Volga Boatman."  West Coast soon merged with Fox to form Fox West Coast Theatres.

Architect: Dwight Gibbs

Seating: 1518

The Carthay Circle rivaled the Chinese in terms of the number and importance of the premieres it held. Like the Chinese (and the Egyptian), the large open courtyard entrance provided a space conducive to handling premiere crowds and making elegant entrances.

Disney favored the house and held many premieres here including "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" in 1937 and "Fantasia" (in Fantasound stereo) in 1940.

David O. Selznick selected the Carthay Circle for the west coast premiere of "Gone With the Wind" in 1939.

In the mid-50's, the Carthay Circle had a run as a legit house with plays produced by Henry Duffy, who had run a major west coast string of legit theatres in the 1920's and 30's.  The stage event of 1955 was the death onstage of 47 year old Isabel Bonner  during a hospital bed scene in "The Shrike."

Status: Demolished in the early 70's by NGC for an office building.  The last film to play was "Shoes of the Fisherman" with the run ending in 1969.

70mm in the 1930's:  The Carthay Circle was one of the few Los Angeles theatres to be equipped for the 70mm Fox Grandeur process (the Chinese and the Criterion also had the gear). Among features screened in 70mm was the 1930 production "Happy Days."

70mm in the 1950's: This was the third Los Angeles theatre equipped for TODD-AO with "Around the World in 80 Days" opening December 22, 1956. Many other 70mm roadshow runs followed including "Porgy and Bess" (1959), "Can-Can" (1960), "The Alamo" (1960), "El Cid" (1961), "The Agony and the Ecstasy" (1965) and "Shoes of the Fisherman" (1968-69).

The Carthay Circle also got the 70mm moveover run of "The Sound of Music" (from the Fox Wilshire) in 1966 and a 70mm run of "Gone With the Wind" in 1967.

The Carthay Circle in the Movies:

The Carthay Circle's fame as a Hollywood movie palace for premieres is shown in "Hollywood Hotel" (1937) with Dick Powell.  The theatre also appears in the 1940 Our Gang comedy "The Big Premiere."

In 1976's "Caprice" Doris Day gets into a fight with Irene Tsu and Michael J. Pollard in the balcony. Doris falls over the edge and lands on a main floor patron below as seen in this screen shot by Vokoban linked on Cinema Treasures:

 full size view

More information: 

Check out the Cinema Treasures page for many fond recollections.

Our information about 70mm runs at the Carthay Circle comes from a posting by Michael Coate on the Cinema Treasures website. For a great compilation of information about 70mm runs in Los Angeles theaters, see the 70mm in Los Angeles page on the website www.fromscripttodvd.com

For early widescreen information, including 70mm Fox Grandeur process features and shorts screened at the Carthay Circle in 1930 and 1931 see the 70mm & Wide Gauge: The Early Years page on the website www.fromscripttodvd.com.  

Also see the Early Widescreen section on our Movie Links page.