Help make developer Essex bring Hollywood's most spectacular lost neon sign back to Sunset Boulevard

Jan 03, 2024

Gentle reader,

This is an urgent alert for lovers of neon signs, theater architecture, old Hollywood showmanship and fair play.

Update 1/16/2026: We take you beneath the original stage to see the girl-lift capsule, waiting patiently for show time once more.

Update 11/22/2025: How thrilling to see the chalk pounce pattern on the Earl Carroll Theatre, showing where the restored neon portrait of Beryl Wallace will go. When this iconic Hollywood sign is turned back on, we hope it’s the start of a new golden age of neon, heritage and cultural revival.

Update 10/25/2025: We visited the Earl Carroll to see the newly painted facade which replicates the original 1938 color scheme of different shades of green meant to evoke speed when viewed from a moving vehicle. Coming soon: the neon face of Beryl Wallace!

Update 10/10/2025: It’s working! The Earl Carroll Theatre is back on the market at $12,750,000, but this time the yet-to-be restored neon sign is listed as an investment highlight, part of “an additional $625K planned… restoration work.” The failure to mention the neon—completion of which is a legally binding condition of Essex’ new development next door—is why we sent out this newsletter in January 2024.

Earl Carroll Flyer

8.59MB ∙ PDF file

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Update 2/21/2025: We visit the site and lament the poor condition of the unrestored Earl Carroll and derelict Morgan Camera down the block, remind citizens that a restored neon sign is not optional.

Update 10/20/2024: The Earl Carroll Theatre, still styled as the psychedelic Aquarius for Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (2019) is now on the market, for sale or for lease. Exterior restoration, including the neon portrait of Beryl Wallace, that is a legally binding condition of Essex’ new development next door, has not happened. Essex must not be allowed to sell ECT in this unrestored condition. Finish the work!

ORIGINAL NEWSLETTER CONTINUES: Do you want to see the city ensure that developer Essex Property Trust finally completes the exterior restoration of the Earl Carroll Theatre at 6230 Sunset Boulevard—work that is a legally binding Community Benefit of their Planning Department Entitlements? Of course you do!

Then please email the Cultural Heritage Commission at chc@lacity.org by end of day Wednesday 1/3 or call in or attend their meeting on Thursday 1/4 at 10am and say something like the following (in your own words, of course):

"I appreciate all the good work of the Commission Subcommittee and want to see the Earl Carroll Theatre facade completed in 2024. Now that developer Essex' The Wallace on Sunset apartment building next door is nearly three years old, please work with the developer, their preservation architect and neon sign craftsman and historian Paul Greenstein to set deadlines to complete the long delayed facade restoration that features the giant face of the tragic showgirl Beryl Wallace in glowing neon tubes. Commissioners, please monitor the project to make sure the City approves and permits the restoration plan and the implementation of this official Community Benefit."

Because there is no timeline for Essex to complete this required Community Benefit, and the 2019 plans for the Earl Carroll to become an event venue have fallen through, your support and enthusiasm can make all the difference here in showing the commissioners that Angelenos care so that they use their power to make the city act.

The vacant Earl Carroll Theatre was repainted in 2019 for Quentin Tarantino’s *Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood* shoot and still looks this way today. The completed Wallace on Sunset is charging $2,064-$4,204 monthly rents.

If emailing the Cultural Heritage Commission, write to chc@lacity.org by end of day Wednesday 1/3.

If calling in or attending the meeting, that’s on Thursday 1/4 at 10am in City Hall or on Zoom or by phone (see links below).

The Earl Carroll Theatre task force report will be one of the first things ~~on the agenda~~ [update 10/25/2025: the city’s January 2024 link is rotted! agenda now found here], during item #1. Very soon after this, General Public Comment in item #3 is when you can share your words of support of about one minute long.

Want to know more? Click below to hear Paul Greenstein and Dydia DeLyser on a Society For Commercial Archeology webinar talking about their research discoveries into the Earl Carroll’s spectacular neon sculptures.

Here is the ~~case file~~ [update 10/25/2025: the city’s January 2024 link is rotted! public comments now found in the Day of Submissions folder, but not the prior comments, which can be found in the Day of Submissions folder from the meeting on 9/17/2020 (agenda); the restoration presentation from Rachael Stoddard, Essex Property Trust; Margarita Jerabek-Bray, ESA; Dick Gee, Spectra Company; Paul Greenstein, Signmakers from that meeting is embedded below ] ~~with passionate and informed public comments from the last time this matter came before the CHC, in 2020 (our comment is on page 31~~).

Earl Carroll Theatre Presentation To Chc Final

6.04MB ∙ PDF file

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The Los Angeles Theatres blog has an illustrated history page about the Earl Carroll, as does Before The 101.

To get involved, open t~~he CHC~~ ~~agenda, where you’ll find all the meeting, call in and Zoom info. The direct Zoom link is~~ ~~here~~. [update 10/25/2025: the city’s January 2024 link is rotted! agenda now found here] When signing in, use meeting ID: 813 4602 3769 and passcode 199352. To make verbal comment remotely, please sign in to Zoom, or call (213) 338-8477 or (669) 900-9128 and use Meeting ID No. 813 4602 3769 and then press #. Press # again when prompted for participant ID, with passcode 199352.

Essex Property Trust is making a lot of money in Los Angeles real estate development, without giving much back. They used Beryl Wallace’s name and likeness for their building, but have failed to make good on the restoration of her monument. Their enormous buildings operate without on-site management, creating chaos and harm for tenants and neighbors. At Skye at Bunker Hill, it was only community outcry that halted an illegal invitation to sign up all the rent controlled units for Essex-branded Airbnb listings, soon after new tenant Maleesa Mooney was found murdered in her refrigerator, a crime that remains unsolved.

The City Planning Department has the power to make Essex do what is required and return the beautiful neon face of Beryl Wallace to Sunset Boulevard, as a symbol of entrepreneurship, talent, grace and hospitality. We think we need her here more than ever. Make it so!

Yours for Los Angeles,

Kim & Richard

Esotouric

Psst… If you’d like to support our efforts to be the voice of places worth preserving, we have a tip jar and a subscriber edition of this newsletter, vintage Los Angeles webinars available to stream, in-person tours and a souvenir shop you can browse in. We’ve also got recommended reading bookshelves on Amazon and the Bookshop indie bookstore site. And did you know we offer private versions of our walking and bus tours for groups big or small? Or just share this link with other people who care.