Remember the time when people would go out for an evening of dinner and dancing? Yeah, neither do I, but I saw it an awful lot in the movies before television glued our collective butts to the sofa. This place started out life in 1925 as El Patio Ballroom, then became Rainbow Gardens, and then in 1936 it became the Palomar Ballroom, which claimed to be “the largest and most famous dance hall on the West Coast.” The place was an entire block long of Vermont Ave (between 2nd and 3rd Streets) so they were probably right. On August 21, 1935, Benny Goodman and his band began a three-week engagement there, thus ushering in the Swing Era. This photo was taken a year before the place burned to the ground on October 2, 1939.
Advertisement for Benny Goodman playing the Palomar Ballroom, Vermont Ave, Los Angeles.
This is a shot of the dance floor. Pretty spiffy, wasn’t it?
The 54,000-square-foot building at 3rd Street and Vermont Avenue featured a mezzanine, a balcony and an additional 7,500-square-foot patio. It could easily accommodate 4,000 couples. Admission was 30 cents for ladies; gentlemen, 40 cents. Cocktails cost 25 cents.
Disaster struck the Palomar on Oct. 2, 1939, when 2,000 patrons fled the ballroom in terror as flames broke out on stage shortly after Charlie Barnett’s orchestra had taken a break. The fire, accidentally started when the bass player dropped a resin-covered rag on a hot floodlight, reduced the building to ashes in what officials called “the most sensational fire of the decade.” No one was killed.
Since the poster shows that Benny Goodman making his West Coast premiere at the Palomar and since that was 1935 the name had to have been the Palomar before 1936.
Hi John,
I did notice that discrepancy in dates, so I checked several sources about when the Rainbow Gardens changed to the Palomar, and they all said it was in 1936. So I’m guessing that advertisement must have been for 1936 too…?
Benny Goodman’s August 1935 appearance at this spot is always referred to as being at The Palomar Ballroom. So, it must have been the Palomar in 1935.
Also, the ‘Let’s Dance’ radio program (as mentioned on the poster) finished in mid-1935 so I’m not sure that they would have still been referencing that program at least six months after the program no longer existed.
Also, that poster above reads: “West Coast Premier Tonite!”. The Benny Goodman Orchestra’s West Coast premier appearance was August 1935 so that implies that it must have been called the Palomar in summer 1935.
Unless they mean the premier opening show of the newly renamed Palomar?
Benny Goodman’s August 1935 appearance at this spot is always referred to as being at the Palomar Ballroom. So, it must have been called the Palomar in 1935.
Also, as the ‘Let’s Dance’ radio program (as mentioned on the poster) finished in mid-1935 that implies that the poster above was 1935 (not 1936).
Bandleader Charlie Barnet talks about his Palomar experience and the fire in his autobiography “Those Swinging Years” (Da Capo Press) pages 86 to 88: “We were taking an intermission, when a fire started on the stand. The curtains had sagged onto the powerful bulbs in the lighting trough and they were not fireproofed. They literally exploded into flames, which instantly became so hot that only our bass player … was able to rescue his instrument. …The fire department went first to the wrong address and by the time they reached the Palomar the fire had gone through the false ceiling and spread throughout the building. It was a huge place and for a while people stood around inside watching it burn … They were not in danger because the building had fire doors along all the walls … I got very drunk as I watched the fire.”
Remember the time when people would go out for an evening of dinner and dancing? Yeah, neither do I, but I saw it an awful lot in the movies before television glued our collective butts to the sofa. This place started out life in 1925 as El Patio Ballroom, then became Rainbow Gardens, and then in 1936 it became the Palomar Ballroom, which claimed to be “the largest and most famous dance hall on the West Coast.” The place was an entire block long of Vermont Ave (between 2nd and 3rd Streets) so they were probably right. On August 21, 1935, Benny Goodman and his band began a three-week engagement there, thus ushering in the Swing Era. This photo was taken a year before the place burned to the ground on October 2, 1939.
Per the LA Times: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-12-14-me-1617-story.html
The 54,000-square-foot building at 3rd Street and Vermont Avenue featured a mezzanine, a balcony and an additional 7,500-square-foot patio. It could easily accommodate 4,000 couples. Admission was 30 cents for ladies; gentlemen, 40 cents. Cocktails cost 25 cents.
Disaster struck the Palomar on Oct. 2, 1939, when 2,000 patrons fled the ballroom in terror as flames broke out on stage shortly after Charlie Barnett’s orchestra had taken a break. The fire, accidentally started when the bass player dropped a resin-covered rag on a hot floodlight, reduced the building to ashes in what officials called “the most sensational fire of the decade.” No one was killed.
Thanks for that, PDQ. I never knew the circumstances behind the Palomar’s unfortunate demise.
Since the poster shows that Benny Goodman making his West Coast premiere at the Palomar and since that was 1935 the name had to have been the Palomar before 1936.
Hi John,
I did notice that discrepancy in dates, so I checked several sources about when the Rainbow Gardens changed to the Palomar, and they all said it was in 1936. So I’m guessing that advertisement must have been for 1936 too…?
Benny Goodman’s August 1935 appearance at this spot is always referred to as being at The Palomar Ballroom. So, it must have been the Palomar in 1935.
Also, the ‘Let’s Dance’ radio program (as mentioned on the poster) finished in mid-1935 so I’m not sure that they would have still been referencing that program at least six months after the program no longer existed.
Also, that poster above reads: “West Coast Premier Tonite!”. The Benny Goodman Orchestra’s West Coast premier appearance was August 1935 so that implies that it must have been called the Palomar in summer 1935.
Unless they mean the premier opening show of the newly renamed Palomar?
Benny Goodman’s August 1935 appearance at this spot is always referred to as being at the Palomar Ballroom. So, it must have been called the Palomar in 1935.
Also, as the ‘Let’s Dance’ radio program (as mentioned on the poster) finished in mid-1935 that implies that the poster above was 1935 (not 1936).
Bandleader Charlie Barnet talks about his Palomar experience and the fire in his autobiography “Those Swinging Years” (Da Capo Press) pages 86 to 88: “We were taking an intermission, when a fire started on the stand. The curtains had sagged onto the powerful bulbs in the lighting trough and they were not fireproofed. They literally exploded into flames, which instantly became so hot that only our bass player … was able to rescue his instrument. …The fire department went first to the wrong address and by the time they reached the Palomar the fire had gone through the false ceiling and spread throughout the building. It was a huge place and for a while people stood around inside watching it burn … They were not in danger because the building had fire doors along all the walls … I got very drunk as I watched the fire.”