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The Mayan Theater in Los Angeles, California, is a landmark former movie palace and current nightclub and music venue.
Leon Hefflin Sr. rented out the Mayan Theater downtown Los Angeles to produce the Sweet N' Hot, "Greatest Negro All Star Musical to Hit Coast." His business partner was Curtis Mosby, and the featured performer was Dorothy Dandridge. The show had a run of eleven weeks and was reported as going to New York."Sweet 'N Hot Revue Is Heading for New York Stage" Headliner The California Eagle April 6, 1944. It closed to rave reviews and was covered by 20 different newspapers all over the country.
From 1971 to 1989, the theater was owned by pornographic filmmaker Carlos Tobalina. (2025). 9781978801257, Rutgers University Press. ISBN 9781978801257 In the 1980s, the theater showed pornographic films.Los Angeles Times movie advertisements in the Los Angeles Times
The theater has been a location in many films, including Sally of the Scandals, The Bodyguard, Save the Tiger, Unlawful Entry, Rock 'n' Roll High School, and A Night at the Roxbury. The Mayan was the filming location of the music video for The Pointer Sisters hit Neutron Dance. It was also featured in the eighth episode of the first season of GLOW.
In 1990, the Mayan Theater, with most of its lavish ornament intact, became a nightclub and music venue. It is designated as a Historic Cultural Monument.
In 2022, Daft Punk also streamed a video recording of a show at the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles from their 1997 Daftendirektour.
On July 14, 2025, it was announced that the theatre will permanently close by the end of September of 2025 after serving 35 years as a nightclub.
The Mayan Theater is a prototypical example of the many ornate exotic revival-style theaters of the late 1920s, Mayan Revival in this case. The well-preserved lobby is called "The Hall of Feathered Serpents," the auditorium includes a chandelier based on the Aztec calendar stone, and the original fire curtain included images of Mayan jungles and temples.
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