Curfew Causes Palladium to Close Its Doors : Entertainment: General manager says the Hollywood club cannot operate under new rules and will be boarded up.

New curfew rules for the violence-plagued Hollywood Palladium will force the landmark ballroom to close next month after nearly 53 years of entertainment ranging from big bands to rap, its general manager said Saturday.

Thirty-three shows, including tonight’s Valentine concert by rapper Marky Mark, have been canceled, and the building will be boarded up March 6, general manager Mark Midgley said.

“It’s just a matter of finances. We can’t operate within these restrictions,” Midgley said in an impromptu news conference in front of the Palladium’s marquis, on which a curt farewell was spelled out in red letters: “Good Bye Hollywood. Refunds at Point of Purchase.”

Midgley said the Palladium’s 32 owners have been discussing the closure since Tuesday’s unanimous City Council approval of strict new curfews for the facility, including orders that it close by 11 p.m. on Sundays, by 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and by midnight every other day of the week.

Previously, there were no such restrictions at the Palladium, which opened in 1940 to a packed crowd of 10,000 and the mellow trombone of Tommy Dorsey.

Through the years, the dance hall presented entertainers as diverse as Lawrence Welk and the Rolling Stones.

But violence began to plague the Palladium about five years ago. More than a dozen serious incidents included a June, 1991, riot involving more than 500 youths outside a sold-out rock concert and a Christmas night shooting last year that left two people wounded and required more than 130 police to quell the resulting unrest.

City officials and the hall’s owners tried to negotiate crowd control and security plans without curfews, but the talks failed.

Councilman Michael Woo, who proposed the curfews, said the Palladium’s owners have no one to blame but themselves.

“They are the only show facility in Hollywood which has amassed such a miserable record of security in recent years,” Woo said. “I don’t want to see the Palladium go dark, but I believe a responsibly operated facility could function under these restrictions.”

The facility’s owners plan to seek an injunction against the curfews, Midgley said, but he said the facility will close within three months even if a stay is granted.

Youthful concert-goers are accustomed to late starting times, and the musicians who entertain them would seek different venues before changing their hours to meet the curfews, Midgley said.

Promoters for Marky Mark angrily denied that contention, however, saying the rap artist had offered to start today’s show by 8 p.m. so it could be concluded by 10:45, 15 minutes before the mandated closing hour.

Palladium officials rejected that offer, Midgley said, because there was not enough time to get the word out to the roughly 2,000 ticket-holders--who were told the show would start at 11 p.m.--and the hundreds more expected to try to buy tickets at the door.

“All the tickets and all the publicity material have him coming on at 11,” Midgley said. “You know people won’t be showing up until 10 or 10:30 p.m. . . . And we don’t want to be responsible for thousands of upset kids gathering on the streets of Hollywood.”

A spokesman for Marky Mark’s promoter said the cancellation is likely to result in legal action against the city and the Palladium.

“We didn’t even know about them closing the show until we heard it on the radio (Saturday) morning,” said Tim Stinson of WG Productions. “We’ve been damaged to the tune of $50,000, and we think that’s grounds for a lawsuit.”

Stinson said he believes that the City Council timed its action deliberately to block Marky Mark’s concert because he is a rap artist.

Stinson also blamed the planned closure on the area’s homeowners who complained about the Palladium’s crowds and noise.

But Jack Shea, president of the Ivar Hill Community Assn., which lobbied for the restrictions, said his group wants the landmark to remain open.

“(Closure) has been a threat that they have made repeatedly . . . and it certainly isn’t the most creative solution to the problems they’ve had here,” Shea said. “It’s not the result we sought, and we certainly hope that they will try to find new ways to work within the restrictions.”