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The Atlas Obscura Podcast

Theatricum Botanicum

The Atlas Obscura Podcast

SiriusXM Podcasts & Atlas Obscura

Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.61.6K Ratings

🗓️ 17 May 2023

⏱️ 12 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A once-blacklisted Hollywood star created a magical theater in Topanga Canyon, California, that still endures and inspires today. READ MORE IN THE ATLAS https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/theatricum-botanicum

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

We watched it all burn down and didn't know anything.

0:09.2

That singer-songwriter, Angel Olson, performing last year at the Atricoma Botanica, a theater

0:15.0

in the heart of a canyon shaded by trees and lit by the stars.

0:19.7

It's a beautiful, beautiful canyon filled with California live oaks, so it makes a very

0:27.1

special place.

0:28.1

It's in between the valley and the sea.

0:30.9

And when you leave the chaos of the city and you turn the corner and come up the winding

0:35.5

road, you come to a place that says, well, dear, the Atricoma Botanica.

0:45.6

Last year, Atlas Obsgira partnered with Angel Olson to put on that concert, and we did

0:51.0

it at the Atricoma Botanica.

0:53.5

Because that theater is everything that Atlas Obsgira loves, and it's this hidden, surprising

0:58.6

place with this hidden, surprising story.

1:01.7

It's not just some theater or a beautiful little hideout.

1:06.0

It's a piece of American history, it's a refuge for persecuted artists and was a home

1:11.6

for those that Hollywood kicked out.

1:19.3

I'm Dylan Thoris, and this is Atlas Obsgira, celebration of the world's strange, incredible,

1:24.8

and wondrous places.

1:26.4

Today we're visiting the Atricoma Botanica in Topanga Canyon, just outside of Los Angeles.

1:32.2

To place where art, nature, and history all meet beneath the wide California sky.

1:39.4

More.

1:40.4

After this.

1:49.3

It's just like being in a piece of heaven, it's so quiet.

...

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