City Council Opens Checkbook for Historic Hall

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The developer and owner of the historic Hollywood Palladium won over the Los Angeles City Council last week in a unanimous vote to provide the Newport Beach-based company $2.5 million to complete its exterior renovations.

Newport Capital Advisers’ Principal David Zak said that the cost of the interior and exterior renovation project has risen from an original estimate of $4 million and now tops $7 million. The $2.5 million is being granted as a loan that can be written off on an annual basis as long as Newport operates the venue according to its city agreement.

The $2.5 million will help return the exterior of the Palladium to its original splendor, including installing custom fabricated storefront aluminum and glass window walls, a newly fabricated marquee and facade lighting. It first opened as a dance hall in 1940.

Just a month ago, the dilapidated iconic structure of Hollywood’s past was in tatters as work had slowed pending the funding. It had a giant hole in its roof, a gutted interior and a sandblasted bare exterior.

The International Alliance Theatrical Stage Employees picketed the Palladium when the union caught wind of the fact that the city’s redevelopment agency was about to waive regulations capping loan/grants to $500,000 so that the Palladium’s owner and developer could receive an unprecedented $2.5 million.

Union executives were protesting global concert promoter Beverly Hills-based Live Nation Inc., which has a long-term lease with Newport Capital for the venue. Live Nation has refused to negotiate with the union, which represents stage hands.

The hall is on track to open Oct. 15, with a performance by hip-hop artist Jay-Z, followed by the Oct. 17 performance of Philadelphia hip-hoppers The Roots and the Oct. 25 performance by the Los Angeles-based American-Irish Celtic punk band Flogging Molly.

Toe Tagged

It’s official. The video tape business is dead.

Just last week, national discount retailer Dollar Tree purchased the last load of pre-recorded video cassettes from home video wholesaler DV & A; Inc.

Most of Hollywood’s major studios stopped putting their films and TV shows on VHS tapes early last year, unloading all their overstock to companies such as Burbank-based DV & A.;

DV & A; has long been the go-to source for studios and independent producers when a film title has begun to lose stream as a rental or retail product at stores such as Blockbuster Video, Wal-Mart or Best Buy.

The last bundle of 800,000 tapes went for less than $1 each, sporting titles such as Warner Bros.’ “Lord of the Rings” and Nickelodeon’s “Rugrats,” among many others, said DV & A; President Ryan J. Kugler.

“Nobody is buying VHS tapes,” Kugler said. “You can’t get rid of them for anything, they just don’t move off the shelf anymore.”

Kugler added that HD-DVD once the rival of high-definition Blu-ray DVD will soon join VHS in the trash heap of bygone home entertainment formats.

HD-DVD was spearheaded by Toshiba Corp. but eventually lost out to Sony’s Blu-ray when hardware manufacturers such as Panasonic and all the major Hollywood studios threw their weight behind Blu-ray, boasting vastly superior storage capacity.

“I’d give HD-DVD a year, tops,” he said. “By then, it will be history too.”


Disneyana Auction

Those who covet all things Disney will be in seventh heaven come Oct 3 and 4, when more than 1,000 old Disney items are slated to go up for bid both online and at a warehouse near downtown’s Union Station.

Remarketing Associates, a Los Angeles-based business that has been auctioning off Hollywood prop department goods since 1995, is leading the weekend’s auction, with thousands of Disney and other studios’ old props.

On the block will be everything from old photographs of Walt Disney and movie set furniture to old masks crafted by the late Jim Henson, who created the famous Muppets, starring Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy.

Remarketing Associates Chief Executive Jeff Tanenbaum said that it’s hard to predict how much items will bring in but that the Henson masks are sure to be a hot item.

“The good thing about these prop sales is that you can get some really good stuff relatively cheap, especially the furniture,” he said. “Everything has to go by Saturday.”


Short Takes

Beverly Hills-based concert promoter Live Nation has promoted Jason Garner, former chief executive, North American Music for the company, to the newly created position of chief executive, Global Music.

Garner will continue to report directly to Live Nation Chief Executive Michael Rapino Studio City-based Crown Media Holdings, Inc., owner and operator of the Hallmark Channel, recently renewed its distribution agreement with national cable operator Charter Communications Inc. Charter reaches an estimated 85 million homes nationwide; several million of those households are located throughout Los Angeles and Orange counties.




Staff reporter Brett Sporich can be reached at [email protected] or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 226.

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