Est. 1935 · S. Charles Lee Streamline Moderne theater · Hollywood Boulevard movie palace · Hollywood Walk of Fame neighborhood landmark
The Vogue Theatre opened on July 9, 1935 at 6675 Hollywood Boulevard. According to Wikipedia and Cinema Treasures, the theater was designed by S. Charles Lee, the prolific California theater architect responsible for many of the West Coast's most distinctive movie palaces, with a Streamline Moderne exterior and an American Colonial interior. The Vogue seated 897 patrons and was operated for much of its first-run life by Fox West Coast Theatres and, later, Mann Theatres.
The Vogue closed as a movie theater in 1995. According to the Los Angeles Theatres blog and Cinema Treasures, the interior fittings were stripped in December 2001. In 2010 the building reopened as a music club, restaurant, and performance space, which itself closed in 2015. Since 2023 the building has served as the home of Victory Outreach Ministries International and the Third Wave Hollywood Church. The exterior marquee remains a Hollywood Boulevard landmark, and the building is documented on the Historical Marker Database.
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vogue_Theatre_(California)
- https://cinematreasures.org/theaters/496
- https://losangelestheatres.blogspot.com/2017/02/vogue-theatre.html
- https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=255812
Pipe smoke odor in upstairs projection areaFootsteps without sourceCold spots inside the auditoriumLights and equipment behaving anomalously (per past tenants)
The Vogue Theatre is a regular stop on Hollywood ghost-tour itineraries. The most-frequently retold story, originating with the International Society for Paranormal Research's investigations and disseminated through Ghost City Tours and LA Tourist, involves a long-serving projectionist named Fritz, reported to have worked at the Vogue for roughly forty years and to have died in the projection booth in the 1980s. Staff and event attendees have reported the smell of pipe smoke and the sound of footsteps in the upstairs booth area.
Ghost-tour narratives also reference a story that the Vogue site was once occupied by a Prospect Elementary School that burned in 1901, killing students and a teacher named Miss Elizabeth. This part of the legend is a staple of Hollywood ghost-tour patter, but no record of such a school or fire at this location has been found — fact-checks of the lore have concluded there was no schoolhouse on the site. Visitors should treat it as invented ghost-tour folklore, not history.
Because the interior is currently used by a church congregation, paranormal investigations are no longer routinely accessible. Public engagement is best done at the exterior, as part of a Hollywood Boulevard walking tour.
Notable Entities
Fritz, long-tenured projectionist (folklore)Miss Elizabeth, traditional schoolteacher figure (folklore, unverified)
Media Appearances
- Featured in multiple Hollywood ghost-tour itineraries
- International Society for Paranormal Research investigations (1990s)
