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This theatre opened either 10/18/1926 or 10/20/1926, named for the vaudeville performer and film actor, Carter DeHaven (01/05/1886-07/20/1977). The building operated as a radio station studio in 1936, before becoming a live-theatre venue in the 1940s. It has shown films as well as hosted live performances since then. (Much of the information included here came from William Gabel's and B. Erickson's contribution to the outstanding Cinema Treasures web site:Accessed 01/12/2011.)

The Carter DeHaven Music Box Theatre was also known over time as the Guild Theatre (c. 1945), Fox Theatre (a different cinema than the Iris Theatre that became the Fox Theatre at Hollywood Boulevard and Wilcox Avenue), Pix Theatre (c. 1955), Henry Fonda Theatre (c. 1985) and the Music Box @ Fonda Theatre. The venue, decorated in the Spanish Colonial Revival style, seated 980 patrons when it opened in 1926; it seated a reduced number in 2002, 863. Tel: 323.464.0808 (2011).

In c. 1945, the Guild Theatre underwent a modernization by the Skouras Brothers, in which the lobby and auditorium were given a Streamlined Moderne decor. A facing was applied over the then-old-fashioned Spanish Colonial Revival facade. Beginning in 06/2002, the Music Box @ Fonda Theatre was undergoing a renovation that was removing some of elements of the 1940s remodeling. The theatre's name was changed back to the "Music Box Theatre" in 2010.

PCAD id: 7588