Saturday, September 24, 2011

Civic Auditorium, 1855 Main St., Santa Monica, CA

Just a few blocks from the Pacific Ocean.


Designed in the international style by Welton Becket, the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium opened in 1958. Its’ unique hydraulic floor enables the Civic quickly to convert from a 3,000 seat performance space to a 27,000 square feet exhibit space.

In April 1961 The Oscars moved to the Civic Auditorium. Alfred Hitchcock sat up front but not a single Psycho nominee won an Oscar. The Oscars remained here until 1967.[1]

In November 1964, James Brown performed at the TAMI show in the Santa Monica Civic High School Auditorium. The performance was filmed off TV cameras or kinescoped, as they called it. The Rolling Stones were to appear after Brown, but after lead singer Mick Jagger saw Brown's spell-binding act, particularly his unbelievable rendition of "Please Please Please" - he changed the band's order of appearance. It seemed nobody wanted to follow James Brown!


On 11/20/70 Derek And The Dominoes performed.

Eye-catching aesthetics and implementation of a bevy of green building practices have brought a new oxymoron into consideration in the form of the Santa Monica Civic Center parking structure. This building is on its way to becoming the first LEED certified parking garage in the United States, shifting the sustainability merits of LEED debate into impassioned overdrive with plenty of fuel fodder for both sides of the argument.
Parking structure building by Moore, Ruble, Yudell, Architects
Stage:   Floor 39' x 115' (4,485 sq. ft.)



Jerry performed here in
1/20/67 Grateful Dead
3/7/70 Grateful Dead
7/22/79 Reconstruction






1.)^Shuster, Fred (November 4, 2001). "COMING HOME; A NEW VENUE FOR THE OSCARS, GLITTERING KODAK THEATRE IS THE CROWN JEWEL IN HOLLYWOOD'S REBIRTH". Daily News (Los Angeles, Calif.): p. L.11.

1 comment:

  1. JGB 5/23/76. One reviewer says it was a packed house, another says there were 3,500 there, FYI.

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