The El Portal Turns 100, and Toluca Lake Has Kept It Open for Three Decades

The fire curtain on the El Portal's main stage was hand-painted in 1926, and it is a twin of the one at the Pasadena Playhouse. The bas-relief murals in the lobby were made by WPA artists in the 1930s. The lobby sofa is a prop from The Unsinkable Molly Brown. The carpet was salvaged from the Shubert Theatre before it was demolished in 2004. The seats were donated by the Writers Guild of America in 2010.

The building stands at 5269 Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood, and it turns 100 this month. According to Toluca Lake Magazine, its owners and its longtime executive director live in Toluca Lake. The comedian hosting its centennial gala is Toluca Lake's longtime honorary mayor. For three decades, the people keeping this 1926 theater open have come from the neighborhood next door.

A 99-year lease and a disputed birthday

In late December 1925, developer Guy Weddington arranged a 99-year lease for the site, Toluca Lake Magazine historian Mary Mallory writes in "A Doorway to the World of Entertainment." Architect Lewis A. Smith designed a $250,000 Spanish Renaissance Revival house for both film and vaudeville. On opening night, a 20-piece orchestra played before the screening of Blarney, starring Ralph Graves.

Sources disagree on the exact opening day. Mallory puts the grand opening on October 18, 1926. A June 2026 feature from NoHo Arts District gives October 5, 1926. By the time this post publishes, both dates have passed, so the 100th birthday has already arrived on either reading.

The theater served the neighborhood as an ordinary movie house, and that is how it gathered its famous names. Toluca Lake Magazine reports that Marilyn Monroe, a sixth grader at nearby Lankershim Elementary School, and Debbie Reynolds, who grew up in Burbank, were among the thousands of local moviegoers it drew. Cher sold concessions there in the 1960s. Accepting a lifetime achievement award on the El Portal stage in 1999, Donald O'Connor recalled performing there as a toddler in his family's vaudeville act. The City of Los Angeles lists the building as Historic-Cultural Monument No. 573, adopted February 9, 1993.

The families who bought it from the Weddington estate

Toluca Lake's role starts in the early 1990s. That is when Bernard and Judy Kaufman and Gary and Shari Goodgame bought the building from the Guy Weddington estate, Toluca Lake Magazine reports. In 1992, the Actors Alley theater company took a master lease. Two years later, the Northridge earthquake hit.

The January 17, 1994 quake brought down the main auditorium's ceiling. FEMA grants helped fund a seismic retrofit and renovation, reported at $6 million, by R.F. McCann & Co. Architects. The rebuild took five years. In 1998, Actors Alley managing director Bob Caine hired Pegge Forrest to handle public relations and marketing for the reopening. She organized a grand opening in January 2000 with O'Connor, Carol Channing and other celebrities. The first production after that was Over the River and Through the Woods, starring Carol Lawrence and Joe Campanella.

Actors Alley folded about a year later, and the lease went back to the owners. The Kaufmans and Goodgames then hired Forrest to stay on as the theater's manager. She brought in Jay Irwin, a former house manager, to run the place with her. From then on, the people deciding what went on the stage were also the theater's landlords, and they lived nearby.

A Toluca Lake address book on Lankershim

The Kaufmans, the Goodgames and Forrest all live in Toluca Lake. Gary Goodgame told Toluca Lake Magazine that his family moved there from Hidden Hills 25 years ago. He described Toluca Lake as "the best community I have lived in."

The gala's emcee is Fritz Coleman, the comedian, former NBC weathercaster and longtime honorary mayor of Toluca Lake. For the past four years he has performed his one-man show, Unassisted Residency, once a month in the Monroe Forum. He told Toluca Lake Magazine why he keeps coming back:

"I just love this theater, because of the history. Everybody that performs here just loves the architecture, the sound, the structure of the theater, the stage — it's just the best."

In the same feature, Goodgame calls the building "a civic center for North Hollywood, Toluca Lake and the San Fernando Valley." He also lists what it has come through: "We survived the '94 earthquake, 9/11 and COVID." His stated goal is to keep it going "for the next 100 years."

The stage names show the same local pull. The building now has three performance spaces:

• Debbie Reynolds MainStage, 360 seats, dedicated to the Burbank-raised actress in 2017
• Monroe Forum, 96 seats, named in 2012 for the Lankershim Elementary sixth grader who watched movies there
• Stuart Rogers Theatre, 42 seats, home to Theatre Tribe

A handoff timed to the centennial

The theater is also changing leaders this year. Irwin retired in late 2025. Ann Potenza became managing director in January 2026. She first produced a play at the El Portal with her husband in 2000 and kept coming back in other roles for the next two decades. Forrest is 95, only five years younger than the building she has served for 26 years. She plans to retire at the end of 2026. Toluca Lake Magazine photographed her symbolically handing the theater's keys to Potenza.

Potenza describes the anniversary year as a chance to bring back each era the building has hosted. "We had vaudeville, we had film, we had live shows — every type of theater, so we've been trying to bring a lot of that back," she told Toluca Lake Magazine. Film screenings returned on Valentine's Day with Moulin Rouge!, according to a February 2026 BroadwayWorld announcement. The season also included Legally Blonde, Carmen, Shrek and Elf. A small room near the old projection booth is set to be named for Guy Wood, the theater's first projectionist. The city is getting involved as well. A May 2026 motion from Councilmember Adrin Nazarian asks for permanent ceremonial signage at the theater's address.

Late October through November, with the neighborhood's own dates

From late October through November, the theater's centennial calendar overlaps with Toluca Lake's own fall events on Riverside Drive. The schedule below combines both, using each organizer's published dates and prices. Schedules can change, so check with the organizer before you go.

There are Halloween performances of Sweeney Todd at 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, October 31, with a Sunday matinee on November 1. Pacific Opera Project last staged its production 14 years ago. The theater's listing bills this one as "just in time for Halloween." The Community Howl on October 29 includes a pet costume contest, two days before Halloween. Proceeds from the Turkey Trot go to East Valley PALS and LAFD Station 86. The day includes a 5K run/walk and a 1K kids' run.

The gala on November 28 is directed by Jason Graae, with Michael Orland as musical director. Listed performers include Frank Ferrante, Beth Malone and Faith Prince. Ed Begley Jr., Ruta Lee, Jo Anne Worley and Coleman are among those scheduled to appear. Toluca Lake Magazine reports the program will tell the story of each decade of the theater's history, with Coleman as emcee. If you want a single night of the centennial, this is the one built for it. It falls the Saturday after the Turkey Trot, and the 1926 fire curtain will be hanging behind the stage.

The El Portal has had the same owners since the early 1990s, through the 1994 quake, a five-year rebuild and the theater's return in 2000. At Walters | Plaxen Estates, we pay close attention to landmarks like this and to the neighbors who keep them running, because they shape a neighborhood as much as any street. If the El Portal's century has you thinking about Toluca Lake's own landmarks, we'd be glad to walk the neighborhood with you. Step Into a New Standard.