On October 26, 1929, “The Taming of the Shrew” starring Hollywood’s original power couple – Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks – opened at the United Artists Theatre, 929 S. Broadway in downtown LA. It was the first sound version of the play on film and only Pickford’s second talkie, which seems to me like an awfully ambitious project to take on when everyone was still trying to figure out how to make talking pictures. Maybe that’s why the running time was only around 65 minutes – they cut out half the play! But as we can see from this photo, the entrance to the theater looked pretty spectacular at night.

This is how that theater looked in July 2024. As we can see, it’s in excellent, beautifully refurbished condition.