Shrine Auditorium

The Shrine Auditorium is a landmark large-event venue in Los Angeles, California. It is also the headquarters of the Al Malaikah Temple, a division of the Shriners. It was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument (No. 139) in 1975.

Shrine Auditorium
The Shrine Auditorium
Shrine Auditorium
Location within the Los Angeles metropolitan area
Shrine Auditorium
Shrine Auditorium (California)
Shrine Auditorium
Shrine Auditorium (the United States)
Location665 W. Jefferson Blvd
Los Angeles, California
Public transit   Jefferson/USC
OwnerAl Malaikah Auditorium Company
TypeIndoor theater
Capacity6,301
Construction
Built1925
Opened1926
Renovated2002
Construction cost$2.7 million
Website
shrineauditorium.com
Al Malaikah Temple
Coordinates34°01′23.55″N 118°16′53.55″W
ArchitectJohn C. Austin
Architectural styleMoorish Revival
NRHP reference No.87000577
LAHCM No.139
Significant dates
Added to NRHPApril 2, 1987
Designated LAHCMMarch 5, 1975

History

Opened in 1926, the current Shrine Auditorium replaced an earlier 1906 Al Malaikah Temple which had been destroyed by a fire on January 11, 1920.[1] The fire gutted the structure in just 30 minutes, and nearly killed six firefighters in the process.[2]

In the late 1960s, the Shrine was referred to as "The Pinnacle" by the audiences of rock concerts.

In 2002, the auditorium underwent a $15 million renovation that upgraded the stage with state-of-the-art lighting and rigging systems, and included new roofing and air conditioning for both the Auditorium and Expo Center, modernized concession stands, additional restrooms, repainting of the Expo Center, and a new performance plaza and parking garage. The entire complex follows a Moroccan architectural motif.

Building

The new auditorium was designed in the Moorish Revival style by San Francisco-based theater architect G. Albert Lansburgh, with local architects John C. Austin and A. M. Edelman associated. When built, the auditorium could hold 1,200 people on stage and seat an audience of 6,442. An engineer who consulted on the project said that the steel truss supporting the balcony was the largest ever constructed.[3]

The Shrine Auditorium seats approximately 6,300 people (reduced during the 2002 renovation from the original 6,700 capacity) and has a stage 194 feet (59 m) wide and 69 feet (21 m) deep.

The Auditorium features two boxes above the orchestra level holding 40 people each and seven loges on the balcony holding between 36 and 47 seats each (total capacity of the loges: 274). Of the remaining seats, 2,964 are on the orchestra level and 2,982 on the balcony level. [4]

Adjacent to the Shrine Auditorium is the Shrine Exposition Hall.

Notable events

The Shrine Auditorium has hosted a number of events, mainly for entertainment:

Awards ceremony events
Event Date
Academy Awards 1947–48, 1988–1989, 1991, 1995, 1997–1998, 2000–2001
Academy of Country Music Awards 1978, 1981
American Music Awards 1982–2006
BET Awards 2006–2012
Grammy Awards 1978–1980, 1982–1987, 1989–1990, 1993, 1995–1996, 1999
iHeartRadio Music Awards 2014–2015, 2021
Miss Universe beauty pageant 2006
MTV Movie & TV Awards 2001–2003, 2005, 2017
My VH1 Music Awards 2000–2001
NAACP Image Awards 2006–2013
People's Choice Awards 2001–2003, 2006–2009
Primetime Emmy Awards 1998–2007
Screen Actors Guild Awards 1998–present
Soul Train Music Awards 1989–2001
Teen Choice Awards 2014
Other media events
Date Description
4 December 1953 Annual Los Angeles Examiner Christmas Show.
1 July 1995 Paris By Night 32 : 20 Years At A Glance - Timeless Memories (Vietnamese music show)
Sports events
Date Event
For 33 years Home court for the USC's Trojans basketball team
Briefly Some playoff games of the Los Angeles Lakers
Movie shootings and premieres
Date Movie Description
1933 King Kong Scenes where Kong was displayed manacled on stage.
1953 A Star Is Born Some scenes.
9 December 2017 Star Wars: The Last Jedi World premiere.
2018 A Star Is Born The final scene was filmed at the Shrine as an homage to the earlier 1954 film.
Other shootings
Date Film Description
27 January 1984 Pepsi commercial Michael Jackson's hair was accidentally set on fire by the pyrotechnics. He suffered second-degree burns on his scalp as a result.[5]
Music events and recordings
Date Artist or event Description
May 1949 Art Tatum Solo piano performance was released by Columbia Records in 1952 as Gene Norman Presents an Art Tatum Concert[6][7]
1955 The Great Shrine Auditorium Concert Considered a major event in the histories of both American gospel and secular music.[8] The event featured Dorothy Love Coates & The Original Gospel Harmonettes, Brother Joe May, The Caravans, James Cleveland, a young Sam Cooke performing with The Soul Stirrers.[9]
8 June 1956 Elvis Presley Elvis Presley's first concert at the Shrine.
3 August 1958 The Fourteenth Cavalcade of Jazz Produced by Leon Hefflin, Sr.,[10] featuring Ray Charles with The Cookies, Ann Fisher, Sam Cooke, William Everett Preston, Little Willie John, Bo Rhambo, and The Clark Kids. Sammy Davis Jr. crowned the Queen, Miss Jackie Joyce Simpson.[11] Charles Trammel, Huggy Boy, Jim Randolph, and Hunter Hancock were the MCs for the starred event.[12]
1964 Ray Charles Recorded Live in Concert at the Shrine.
24 August 1968 The Grateful Dead Recorded the live album Two from the Vault at the Shrine.
24 January 1975 Genesis Live performance of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway released in 1998.
1976 The Tubes 3-night concert
8/9 November 1995 Fugazi Concert
16 December 2000
19 December 2001
6 December 2005
KIIS-FM Jingle Ball
1998
Since 2013
KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas concert [13]
20 December 2019 My Chemical Romance Reunion concert after a seven-year hiatus[14]
Video games
Date Game Description
Midnight Club: Los Angeles Part of the South Central Map Expansion.[15]

See also

References

  1. "The Shrine Auditorium Fire". Los Angeles Fire Department Historical Archive. L.A. Fire. 1999. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
  2. LAFD Blog: 88 Years Ago: The Shrine Auditorium Fire
  3. Moore, William D. (August 15, 2006). Masonic temples: Freemasonry, Ritual Architecture, and Masculine Archetypes. University of Tennessee Press. p. 107. ISBN 978-1-57233-496-0.
  4. Auditorium, Shrine. "Venues | Shrine Auditorium". www.shrineauditorium.com. Retrieved 2021-01-31.
  5. Kaufman, Gil (2009-07-16). "Pepsi Questions Why Michael Jackson Accident Video Was Shared". MTV. Retrieved 2014-06-14.
  6. "Tatum and Goodman". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. May 29, 1952. p. 36.
  7. England, Jim (May 25, 1952). "Toscanini Sings on Wax". The Salt Lake Tribune. p. 128.
  8. Ed Gordon, Jack Marchbanks (July 22, 2005). "Marking a Great Gospel Concert's 50th Anniversary". News & Notes. NPR. Retrieved September 17, 2017.
  9. "Inductee Explorer". Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Retrieved September 17, 2017.
  10. “Fourteenth Year Jazz Cavalcade At Shrine Next” The California Eagle. July 3, 1958.
  11. Reed, Tom (1992). The Black Music History of Los Angeles - Its Roots: A Classical Pictorial History of Black Music in Los Angeles from 1920-1970 (1st, limited ed.). Los Angeles: Black Accent on L.A. Press. ISBN 978-0963290861. OCLC 28801394.
  12. Guralnick, Peter (2005). Dream boogie: the triumph of Sam Cooke (1st ed.). New York: Little, Brown. p. 250. ISBN 978-0316377942. Retrieved December 31, 2019. shrine auditorium.
  13. "KROQ's Almost Acoustic Christmas At Shrine". TheScenestar. Retrieved 2013-11-06.
  14. Elassar, Alaa (December 21, 2019). "My Chemical Romance play its first concert in seven years". CNN. Retrieved 2019-12-31.
  15. "Midnight Club: Los Angeles South Central". Rockstar Games. Retrieved 2009-05-30.
Preceded by
Impact Arena
Miss Universe Venue
2006
Succeeded by
National Auditorium
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