Today's Article - The Capitol Records Building

This article is for quizzes on Monday June 20th..

The Capitol Records Building, also known as the Capitol Records Tower, is a Hollywood Boulevard Commercial and Entertainment District building that is located in Hollywood, Los Angeles. The building is a thirteen-story tower that was designed by Welton Becket and is one of the city's landmarks. Construction occurred soon after British company EMI acquired Capitol Records in 1955, and was completed in April 1956. Located just north of the Hollywood and Vine intersection, the Capitol Records Tower houses the consolidation of Capitol Records' West Coast operations and is also home to the recording studios and echo chambers of Capitol Studios. The building is a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument.

The blinking light atop the tower spells out the word "Hollywood" in Morse code, and has done so since the building's opening in 1956. This was an idea of Capitol's then-president, Alan Livingston, who wanted to subtly advertise Capitol's status as the first record label with a base on the west coast. The switch was initially activated by Leila Morse, the granddaughter of Samuel Morse. In 1992 the light was changed to read "Capitol 50," in honor of the label's fiftieth anniversary—it has since returned to spelling "Hollywood". A black-and-white graphic image of the building appeared on the albums of many Capitol recording artists, with the phrase, "From the Sound Capitol of the World".


In April 2013, Capitol Records and artist Richard Wyatt Jr. collaborated to restore his iconic Hollywood Jazz Mural on the south wall of the Capitol Records building. Restored in hand-glazed ceramic tile, the mural spans 26 by 88 feet (7.9 by 26.8 m) Entitled "Hollywood Jazz: 1945-1972", this masterpiece presents “larger than life” images of a number of notable jazz musicians.