"Every Day's a Holiday"

We visit the Follies Theatre, 337 S. Main St., in A. Edward Sutherland's "Every Day's a Holiday" (Paramount, 1937). But we're not there yet. This lobby shot was something done on the Paramount lot.

A look down from the top of the balcony at the Follies. The theatre is standing in for the Herald Square Theatre in New York where Peaches O'Day (Mae West) is appearing in a show as Mlle Fifi. She's using a disguise as she's been told told to leave town after swindling too many people.

The film, beginning on New Year's Eve 1899, also stars Edmund Lowe as Jim McCarey, a Police Captain who's been told to bring her in but has a fondness for her. Lloyd Nolan plays crooked mayoral candidate and Police Commissioner John Quade. Also along for the ride are Charles Winninger as Van Reighle Van Pelter Van Doon and Charles Butterworth as Larmadou Graves, his servant. Louis Armstrong also shows up.

A much better look at the proscenium is seen in this promotional still from the film. It once appeared on the Facebook page of the L.A. Conservancy but seems to have vanished from there. They had credited it to the Tom B'hend and Preston Kaufmann Collection via Terry Helgesen.  That collection is part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Margaret Herrick Library Digital. The photo has also been seen on the Facebook page Photos of Los Angeles.

Charles Butterworth and Charles Winninger in a house left box at the Follies.

A box view house right with a shot of one of those unique column capitals in the background. On the right it's Lloyd Nolan.

Looking across to the house right boxes with Edmund Loew taking his seat in the foreground. 

 A closer view of the house right boxes. 

Another view of the performance with an act heading offstage.  

West onstage as Mlle Fifi. This big number she's in, unlike the earlier shots in the auditorium, doesn't appear to have been done at the Follies. It has the look of something done at the studio with some of the Follies' drapes matted in to make it look consistent. 

The theatre had opened in 1904 as the Belasco and was a fixture on Main St. until its 1974 demolition. See the Follies Theatre page on the Los Angeles Theatres site for a history of the building and more interior photos.

On IMDb:  "Every Day's a Holiday"