King Kong was captive on this stage in 1933; ten Academy Awards ceremonies followed him. The Shrine Auditorium at 665 West Jefferson Boulevard opened on 23 January 1926, a Moorish Revival colossus by John C. Austin with interiors by theatre master G. Albert Lansburgh, replacing the 1906 Al Malaikah Temple that fire had gutted in thirty minutes in 1920. The scale was the point: 6,700 seats originally - still around 6,300 after the 2002 renovation - under a dome-topped shell resembling a vast mosque, with a 194-foot-wide stage and the largest proscenium opening and freestanding balcony in North America. The awards-show resume is unmatched by any building in the country: the Oscars ten times between 1947 and 2001, plus the Grammys, Emmys, SAG Awards, American Music Awards, People's Choice and BET Awards - the reason a generation of viewers knows the interior without knowing its name. The concert ledger runs from Sinatra and Hendrix to Springsteen and Jack White, USC basketball played decades on the stage floor, and the building's film credits stretch from the 1933 King Kong to countless premieres and tapings. Still owned by the Al Malaikah Shriners and operated by Goldenvoice, the auditorium is a National Register landmark and Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument that keeps a working calendar of tours, galas and ceremonies. The University Park location across from USC gives it the E Line's Jefferson/USC station and a student audience at the door - a 1926 landmark still functioning exactly as designed a century on. The 2002 renovation modernised rigging, seating and systems while preserving the four-ton chandelier and Lansburgh's painted ceilings, and the stage - 194 feet wide, 69 feet deep, allegedly able to hold a thousand performers - remains the only room in Los Angeles that can stage an arena-scale production in a theatre setting.

Type: Theater / Concert Hall

Address: 665 West Jefferson Blvd., Los Angeles, CA, United States, 90007

Website: https://www.shrineauditorium.com

Cover Charge: 1

Capacity: 6300

Opening Date: 23/01/1926

Accessible