Vintage Entertainment Venues to Experience on Route 66 in California
After exploring Route 66 during the day, check out these classic entertainment venues at night!
Skyline Drive-in Theater (2025) by Kelli ShapiroCalifornia Historic Route 66 Association
Entertainment venues to experience on Route 66 in California
After a day of driving, consider catching a show at one of these venues along the Route! Attend a concert in an adaptively-reused building; see a play in a restored picture palace; or watch a film in a classic moviehouse or a drive-in. Note: this tour goes from east to west.
San Bernardino County
The Barn by Beth MurrayCalifornia Historic Route 66 Association
The Barn (Newberry Springs, CA)
The Barn, open since 1952, is a roadhouse offering food, a bar, pool tables, and a stage with frequent band performances. In 2025, the National Trust for Historic Preservation awarded The Barn a $50,000 Backing Historic Small Restaurants grant.
Skyline Drive-in Theater (2025) by Kelli ShapiroCalifornia Historic Route 66 Association
Skyline Drive-in Theater (Barstow, CA)
The Skyline's 1966 opening offered a double feature, free candy for kids, and free Cokes for all. After sitting closed 1988-1996, it finally reopened. Later adding a second screen, the cash-only venue just off Route 66 shows first-run films five days a week (except in winter).
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California Theatre (San Bernardino, CA)
Now the California Theatre of the Performing Arts, this ornate, 1,750-seat picture palace still uses its original pipe organ! In its early years, the 1928 venue held studios' test screenings (including of The Wizard of Oz and King Kong); premieres; and celebrity performances.
Los Angeles County
Regency Academy Cinemas (Pasadena, CA): Today's six-screen multiplex hides a historic picture palace. It opened in 1925 as the 1,709-seat Bard’s Egyptian Theatre, with Egyptian Revival design by L.A. Smith. It later became Bard’s Colorado, then the Fox Colorado. In 1942, Fox West Coast gave it a Streamline Moderne remodel, renaming it the Academy Theatre. The Academy frequently held studios' test screenings (including of The Music Man); films’ stars often attended. It got multiplexed in 1986.
A Noise Within (Pasadena, CA): A regional theatre troupe called A Noise Within operates its playhouse within a mixed-use, transit-oriented development from the 2000s. Called the Stuart, the complex rises up behind the preserved, New Formalist facade of renowned architect Edward Durrell Stone's 1958 Stuart Pharmaceuticals office building. This is the second historic venue that A Noise Within has utilized; the theatre company began in 1991 inside a 1929, former Masonic Temple in adjacent Glendale.
Vidiots at the Eagle Theatre (Los Angeles - Eagle Rock)
In L.A.'s Eagle Rock neighborhood sits the 1929 Yosemite Theatre, later renamed the Eagle Theatre. Following a church reuse, the nonprofit Vidiots Foundation gave it a $2 million renovation. Reopening in 2023, the venue hosts regular repertory film screenings and other programs.
United Theater on Broadway (Los Angeles): The United Artists movie studio became a theatre operator in December 1927, opening United Artists Theatres in Chicago, Detroit, and L.A. All were meant to play only U.A. films. After this massive L.A. picture palace closed in 1989, a church used the space from 1990 to 2010. The venue reopened in 2014, its elaborate Spanish Gothic architecture restored inside and out. Renamed, it holds concerts, comedy shows, performances, classic film screenings, etc.
Part of the Orpheum chain of vaudeville venues, this 1926 theatre hosted legendary performers into at least the 1950s. It showcased comics like Jack Benny; burlesque acts such as Sally Rand; jazz artists like Lena Horne; and rockers such as Little Richard. Films also played there from the 1920s until 2001. That year, the Beaux Arts style Orpheum (with its 1941 Art Deco marquee) got a $3 million renovation. A popular filming location, it has since held award shows, touring bands, comedians, etc.
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Globe Theatre (Los Angeles)
The Morosco Theatre, a Beaux Arts style playhouse, opened in 1913 in the Garland Building. Later called the President, the Newsreel, and the Globe, it showed films until 1986. After hosting a nightclub, the ornate, renovated showplace has become a multi-use performance space.
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The Lodge Room (Los Angeles - Highland Park)
In L.A.'s Highland Park-Garvanza historic district, a Masonic Lodge operated from 1923 until 1982 in this Renaissance Revival style building. Its second-floor lodge area then served as a cultural center; since 2017, it has been a concert club, appropriately named the Lodge Room.
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The Echo & Echoplex (Los Angeles - Echo Park)
The 1951 El Nayarit Restaurant was a beloved gathering space for the Latino community. Since 2001, concert venues The Echo and the smaller Echoplex have attracted a new clientele. Still, El Nayarit's neon signage lives on, reminding the Echo Park neighborhood of its heritage.
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Film Screenings at Hollywood Forever Cemetery (Hollywood)
The beautiful Hollywood Forever Cemetery, which opened in 1899, hosts famous names ranging from Judy Garland and Rudolph Valentino to Cecil B. DeMille. Its outdoor film series each summer makes the cemetery a popular spot to watch a classic movie under (and next to) the stars!
Troubador (2025) by Kelli ShapiroCalifornia Historic Route 66 Association
Troubador (West Hollywood)
One of the U.S.'s most historically significant music venues is this 1957 concert club. Artists playing here early in their careers include singer-songwriters like Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell; rockers like Metallica and Pearl Jam; and comedians like Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor.
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Wallis Annenberg Center (Beverly Hills)
The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, AKA The Wallis, reuses the former Beverly Hills Post Office as part of its multi-building performance complex. The 1933 New Deal project's Italianate architecture and interior features, including WPA murals, have been restored.
Nuart Theatre (West Los Angeles)
The Nuart Theatre, which opened in 1930, has shown arthouse and independent films since the 1970s. It is beloved for its weekend, midnight screenings of cult classics - especially The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It features a vibrant neon marquee and a terrazzo sunburst entryway.
Royal Theatre at night (2025) by Kelli ShapiroCalifornia Historic Route 66 Association
Royal Theatre (West Los Angeles)
This 1924 neighborhood moviehouse was originally called the Tivoli Theatre. It got renamed the Royal in 1968, when it became part of the Laemmle chain. (The Laemmle family has operated local theaters since 1938.) Now a triplex, it plays independent, foreign, and arthouse films.
Entertainment venues to experience on Route 66 in California
Here near the end of America's Mother Road, the fun doesn't stop with the sunset! Finish your Route 66 journey by seeing a show in a classic venue.
Kelli Shapiro, CHR66A board member
You are all set!
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