Variety Arts Theatre

Opened in May of 1924 as the Friday Morning Club, this historical LA theater has been through many iterations—as The Playhouse (with speakers such as Eleanor Roosevelt and Dorothy Parker), the Times Theater and the Figueroa Playhouse. In 1977, William Larsen (co-founder of the Magic Castle) bought and renamed the building as the Variety Arts Theatre. It was home to vaudeville-type performers until shows trickled to a stop and the building was sold to a management company that now rents the space out for special events.