Academy Theatre (Inglewood, California)

Academy Theatre was designed by S. Charles Lee, an architect known for numerous theaters throughout southern California. This theater, owned by Fox West Coast Theaters, opened on November 7, 1939, sat 1,156, and cost $200,000 to construct. Academy Theatre was meant to house Academy Award ceremonies, although it never did. It did however become a popular location for Hollywood premieres and its opening night screening was the press preview of Another Thin Man with stars William Powell, Myrna Loy, studio executive Louis B. Mayer, and Fox West Coast Theaters president Charles Skouras hosting the event. 1,100 members of the press and film industry attended the opening, as did 4,000+ fans seated on bleachers outside the theater. The opening was also broadcast over the radio, an unheard of event at the time. By the 1960s, the theater had lost its luster, due mainly to changes to the neighborhood and competition from other theaters throughout the Los Angeles area. This theater closed in 1976, at which point the building was converted to a church. ==Architecture and design==

Academy Theatre, inspired by the front grille of Chrysler automobiles, and "a high point of the Streamline Moderne in the United States." The building features circular forms, glass block, and an exterior neon naming spire circled by a helical light, the spire itself the tallest in the country when it was built. The theater's ticket booth featured slick, rounded corners. Inside, the lobby was large, unbroken, curved, and featured a large Academy Award-themed mural sandblasted into glass. The theater itself featured curved lines of movement, making the space feel whimsical and lilting rather than forceful, and was meant to "have the feel that only the church had given before." ==References==