HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
Silver Lake flamenco venue since 1963 in a building tied to D.W. Griffith's film production — where display-case dolls reportedly move on their own
4212 W Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90029
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Cover charge for flamenco shows; dinner menu available
Access
Wheelchair OK
Ground-floor venue; check with restaurant for specific accessibility
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1963 · Silver Lake flamenco venue since 1963 · Claimed association with D.W. Griffith film production era · Former Jail Café location on Sunset Blvd
The building at 4212 W Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lake has housed entertainment and dining continuously since at least the early 1960s. Prior iterations included a venue called the Jail Café, with a prison-themed interior that was eventually replaced by the current flamenco format when El Cid opened in 1963.
The connection to D.W. Griffith, the early Hollywood director, is a persistent element of local accounts of the building — specifically that the property was associated with film production or set construction during Griffith's active period in Los Angeles (roughly 1908 to the late 1920s). How well this is documented in primary film-history sources versus accumulated neighborhood lore is an open question; it appears in paranormal and local-history coverage rather than in verified film-production records.
El Cid's venue website confirms the current operation as an active flamenco dinner venue. Local coverage from Silver Lake heritage and paranormal writers describes it as one of the neighborhood's long-running cultural institutions, with the combination of age, theatrical purpose, and claimed production-era history feeding into the paranormal reputation.
Sources
The most concrete and repeated paranormal report at El Cid involves the flamenco dolls kept in display cases throughout the venue. Patrons have reported finding the dolls in different positions from where they were previously observed, and some have described the dolls appearing to breathe or to track them with their eyes as they move through the room. Whether these are separate incidents or elaborations of a single type of account is not clear from the available sources.
Beyond the dolls, local coverage from the Voices From the Grave blog — which documents Silver Lake and Echo Park paranormal sites — attributes presences at El Cid to D.W. Griffith and to Italian craftsmen said to have died during construction or set-building work connected to the property. The Griffith attribution is the kind that accumulates around Silver Lake properties with any film-era association; its factual grounding is not verifiable from the sources available, and it is presented here as attributed rather than established.
El Cid's decades of continuous operation as a flamenco venue — with its theatrical atmosphere, dim lighting, and collection of period costumes and decorative objects — create conditions that visitors with paranormal interests find generative. The doll accounts are specific enough to be notable.
Notable Entities
El Cid has operated as a flamenco dinner venue since 1963. Shows run several nights a week in the main room, which previously served as a film-related performance space. The display cases with flamenco dolls that have generated reports of anomalous movement are visible from the dining area.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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