Julia Stoschek Foundation

In 1924, the club leased the space to the Figueroa Playhouse, a vaudeville theater where Laurel and Hardy, Clark Gable, Buster Keaton, and other luminaries performed regularly. Over the years, the theater transformed into a movie house, a vaudeville memorabilia museum (termed by its investor as “a Smithsonian of showbiz”), and an event space for everything from Mexican weddings to punk shows, before falling into neglect and decay in the last two decades. Though stripped of its former glory, its foundations still exude an air of old glamour, and its walls reverberate with cultural memory—soon to be revived for a six-week run, reframing its legacy of social engagement and slapstick performance through contemporary moving image practices.