Hollywood Pantages Theatre

The Pantages Theatre opened in 1930 as an Art Deco masterpiece and Hollywood's last glorious movie palace. For a decade, it hosted the Academy Awards ceremony. In 1949, Howard Hughes took over RKO Studios including this flagship theater, setting up plush offices on the second floor. He loved the Pantages and watched rehearsals from the balcony. The 1,700-seat venue continues to host major Broadway productions.

The Hollywood Pantages Theatre, completed in 1930, was the last and most magnificent of theater magnate Alexander Pantages' vaudeville palaces. Designed by B. Marcus Priteca at the height of the Art Deco era, this ornate Hollywood landmark hosted two Academy Award ceremonies in the early 1950s. Its grandeur attracted the attention of eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes, who purchased the theater in 1949 as part of RKO Studios and established lavish offices on the second floor.

Hughes, the reclusive aviator and studio owner, became obsessed with the Pantages. He had a door built that opened directly into the balcony, where he would sit alone in the darkness, contemplating business deals or watching marathon screenings of the same films all day. Though Hughes retired from public life and sold RKO, his spirit apparently never left.

Today, staff members know Hughes is approaching when a room suddenly fills with the smell of cigarette smoke—ironic, since Hughes despised smoking in life. Then his apparition appears: tall, lanky, dressed in a plain suit, striding around a corner before walking through a wall that was once the original doorway to his office. Footsteps echo throughout the building when no one is there.

Former executive assistant Karla Rubin experienced the haunting firsthand in the conference room that served as Hughes' office. "There's something about the temperature of the room—a coldness. I would feel a wind go past me when there was no air on," she reported. After vandals damaged the upper balcony area in 1990, the ghostly activity intensified dramatically—bumping, banging, and clicking sounds from the brass desk drawer handles filled empty rooms.

Alexander Pantages himself is said to haunt the theater he built, though his story is tragic. In 1929, he was accused of raping a 17-year-old dancer and though eventually acquitted on appeal, the scandal ruined him financially, forcing him to sell his theater empire at a fraction of its worth. He died in 1936.

A female patron who died in the mezzanine during a 1932 show has been heard singing when the auditorium is dark and quiet. One wardrobe lady, last to leave the darkened theater, became disoriented when emergency lights failed. In complete darkness, someone took her elbow, helped her up, and guided her firmly to the exit door. When she turned to thank her rescuer in the light from the opened door, no one was there.