Palladium gets a new dance card

"I wouldn't be surprised one bit," Mueller said, "if he does a Sinatra song." The promoter said that Tuesday while wearing a hard hat and shouting over the sounds of hammers and sanders. He was standing on the rim of the Palladium's dance floor, which he doubts will be refinished until after opening night. Above Mueller's head was a chandelier wrapped in plastic. "The rest of them are out back, we have a company restoring them, recasting the missing crystals. Everything has to be just right."

Cove lighting has been installed to highlight the Moderne details and the original marquee-and-pylon sign tower has been restored at the entrance and its large neon letters revived. (How careful is the revival? Architect Christopher Coe used old newsreel footage to match the lighting sequence to the original pattern.)

The renovation has not been entirely smooth. There was a union dispute that put a picket line out front, and there was consternation about the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency loan needed by Live Nation's landlord, Newport Capital Advisors, to pay for the exterior remodeling. But Mueller said that after the dust has settled, the Palladium will once again be a signature spot in the entertainment life of Hollywood.

"There was talk of demolishing the whole place, just knocking it down," the Live Nation executive said. "But if you know the history of the Palladium, that's an awful thing to even consider."

The history of the building is like the district around it -- long seasons of klieg-light glamour followed by years of a battered, low-rent life. "When the Big Band Era receded, Hollywood receded with it," said Dale Olson, a Hollywood publicist who worked with Spencer Tracy and Gene Kelly and used to dance at the Palladium. "Hollywood got seedy, and the Palladium did too. The last time I was there was at a TV show taping in 1996. Bob Hope and Dolores Hope were there, and Les Brown played. I couldn't believe how run-down the place was. If you had seen it before, it was sad."

A versatile room

The PALLADIUM means different things to different generations. That happens when you have one building that houses concerts by Glenn Miller and Led Zeppelin, Barbra Streisand and the Who, Ray Charles and the Ramones; it was also the site of "The Lawrence Welk Show" during its hugely popular run in the 1960s. It was from the Palladium that Betty Grable purred to homesick GIs during her weekly wartime radio show and that Lucille Ball and Sinatra handed out Emmy Awards in the 1960s.