Well, Officially R.I.P. Steve Allen Theater/Center for Inquiry
It seems so long ago that we had heard about the beloved Steve Allen Theater, where we spent many a late, late Saturday night at Tomorrow! with Ron Lynch or catching Cartoon Dump, a live show with comedians dressed as cartoons (as well as some cartoon classics), or catching Marc Maron work out an hour, or even, recently, watch the theater get propped up for Gene Cosineau’s acting class in Barry or performing in the parking lot of for Howard Kremer’s SquatMelt, getting sold off to be demolished and made into, probably, apartments with retail space on the ground floor (as is the trend these days in LA).
Actually, it has been so long since we heard about that sale that we wondered when (or if) the actual building was going to be torn down.
As you can kind of see above via a picture we took while going down Hollywood Blvd., we don’t have to wonder anymore. The Steve Allen Theater/Center For Inquiry (during the day, the theater was a center for skeptics organization) is now physically rubble, but a memory that big handful of folks get to share.
That being said, comedy in LA lives on, as you know from following us, quite vibrantly. Tomorrow! still happens every Saturday at midnight just a hop-skip-and-a-jump (sort of) away at the Lyric Hyperion.
Anyways, to any and all that enjoyed live performance at the Steve Allen, take a moment to cherish those times and then, cherish your present favorite theaters/clubs/etc. so they don’t come to the same fate.