Also see: Warner Beverly Hills - interior views
Seating: 1,500
Architect: B. Marcus Priteca designed "The Pride of Beverly Hills." The contractor was McDonald & Driver. Mike Hume found this item in the May 17, 1931 issue of the L.A. Times: "Warner Brothers Beverly Hills
Theater, completed by McDonald & Driver, contractors, is scheduled
to be opened with appropriate ceremonies Tuesday evening."
Decoration was by the Robert E. Power Studio. In initial press reports the decor was described as being Spanish in style. An article titled "Modern Ceiling Designs" in the August 29, 1931 issue of Motion Picture Herald lists Power as the decorator and calls the interior "a modern interpretation of Mexican motifs."
This was the last of the three suburban houses in the L.A. area that Warners built. Ahead by a few months were the other two Priteca-designed houses: the Warner Huntington Park (opening November 19, 1930) and the Warner San Pedro (opening January 20, 1931). In addition to many theatres elsewhere, Priteca was also the architect of the downtown Pantages (1920, later renamed the Warner Downtown), the
Hollywood Pantages (1930) and the Fine Arts (1937).
Also in the Warner pipeline in the L.A. area was the Wiltern (opened October 7, 1931), a design by G. Albert Lansburgh. But they didn't build that one, they were just a tenant. They also had the Warner Hollywood, another Lansburgh design (built by Warners in 1928), the Warner Downtown (which they bought in 1929) and the Forum (opened 1924) which was initially an independent that they took over.
Priteca's rendering for the Warner from the collection of the Beverly Hills Historical Society. Thanks to Kimberly Vinokur for posting it on the Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation Facebook page.
The project was announced in the February 12, 1930 issue of the L.A.Times with this nice comment that was located by Mike Hume: "This will be the third new theater in the greater Los Angeles district to be put into construction by the Warners immediately. Last week it was announced that work will start on theaters in Huntington Park and San Pedro."
The theatre was discussed in the April 5, 1930 Motion Picture News article "Ultra Modern Is How Warners Describe Plans For West Coast." The article featured drawings for the Huntington Park and San Pedro theatres and noted that the Beverly Hills house would be up next in the lineup. Warners promised that the new houses "will represent the most advanced types of architecture and construction....The plans include air conditioning and refrigerating plants, remote control pre-set switchboards and other modern features..." It was also noted that the theatres would be designed to accommodate the new "large screens." Regarding Beverly Hills they noted:
"Warners' Beverly Hills theatre will be the next addition to the rapidly expanding chain on the West Coast. Warner Brothers Pacific Coast Theatres has acquired from the owner, Harley J. Hoyt, the property at the southwest corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Reeves Drive, opposite the Beverly Hills Branch of the Bank of California, and will at once start construction on a 2,000-seat deluxe theatre that will cover the entire site...The Beverly Hills theatre will house all Warner and First National pictures. The theatre, while not quite as commodious as the Warner Hollywood, will nevertheless be comparable in design, treatment, equipment, and comfort to that structure. It will be entirely modern in architectural treatment..."
"Designs For Various Cities Shown - To the upper left is depicted the Warner Brothers Theater at Wilshire Boulevard and Reeves Drive in Beverly Hills, to be started this month. To its right is shown the Fox Pantages Theater at Hollywood Boulevard and Argyle, the opening date for which has been set for the 29th inst. To the lower left is the Fox Theater soon to be built on Greenleaf avenue, Whittier, while Warners' San Pedro project is pictured at the lower right. In the center is the Fox Wilshire Theater now being erected at Wilshire Boulevard and Hamilton, Beverly Hills. Completion is scheduled for September."
The illustration appeared in the May 4, 1930 issue of the L.A. Times. This article appeared on the same page:
The new Fox theatres mentioned for Wilshire Blvd. at Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills and in Huntington Park never happened. Fox broke their lease on the theatre in Whittier and it opened as an independent called the Wardman, named after its owner.
"Beverly Hills, Cal -- Low, roomy and Spanish in motif, the new Warner Theatre to be built at Wilshire Blvd. and Reeves Drive, in fashionable Beverly Hills. B. Marcus Priteca of Los Angeles prepared the plans." This monochrome version of Priteca's rendering appeared in the June 7, 1930 issue of Motion Picture News on a page titled "Some New Fashions in Theatre Concepts." It's on Internet Archive. The page also had illustrations of new Warner theatres in Erie, Pennsylvania and Youngstown, Ohio.
Thanks to Mike Hume for locating the Motion Picture News and Times items. Check out his wide-ranging explorations on the Historic Theatre Photography site.
Jack Warner, Jr. at the groundbreaking ceremony. The shot is from nine minutes of film from the Beverly Hills Historical Society on You Tube of the groundbreaking, the development of Beverly Hills, and the finished theatre. The film is narrated by Marc Wanamaker and includes footage that was screened at the opening shot by Warner Bros. of both the ceremony and the completed theatre.
Talking about the theatre, the opening night program noted that "It is not for us to tell you whether it is beautiful, but for you to tell yourselves." That message was also repeated in film on the screen, as seen here.
More of the filmed opening message. The 1st Anniversary film, also on You Tube, included footage of the festivities at the opening a year earlier.
The front cover of the opening night program. It's from the Mark Tipton collection. He found the program in Cincinnati in 1985. The front cover is actually silk screened on gold foil, which he comments does not photograph well.
The inside of the front cover of the opening night program. On the left you get a look at the gold foil of the front cover.
A ticket for the 1935 premiere of Max Reinhardt's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" with Mickey Rooney. It was a post on the Beverly Hills Heritage Facebook page.
Horizontal VistaVision
at the Warner: In 1954 the Warner was equipped with a
rare installation of the special Century
horizontal VistaVision projectors for the run of "White Christmas." The west coast premiere was October 27. See a photo of the premiere at the Warner. The
Paramount downtown joined the run the following day. In New York it had
opened at the Radio City Music Hall October 14, also running in the
horizontal format.
A 1954 ad for the opening of the first film in the VistaVision process, "White Christmas," at the Warner Beverly Hills and the Paramount (formerly the Metropolitan) downtown. Jack Theakston, in a comment on a post on the Motion Picture Technology Facebook page, says that "White Christmas" was projected horizontally at both theatres. They both appear in an ad for Peerless Hy-Candescent lamphouses that listed the first horizontal VistaVision installations.
Evidently "White Christmas," "Strategic Air Command" and "The Far Horizons" were the only films shown horizontally at the Warner. The equipment at the Warner was removed in the early 60s.
The third Los Angeles area theatre to get the machines was the El Capitan in Hollywood, then known as the Hollywood Paramount, for the runs of "The Seven Little Foys" (opening June 23, 1955) and "To Catch a Thief" (an eight week run opening August 3, 1955). Michael Coate in his article "...Remembering Hitchcock's 'To Catch a Thief'" on the site The Digital Bits notes that the Hollywood Paramount was one of six theatres nationally to get a horizontal print.
According to Theakson, the initial installations elsewhere were: Radio City Music Hall (for "White Christmas," sound on separate machines), Paramount New York (for "Strategic Air Command," "The Far Horizons," "The Seven Little Foys" and "To Catch a Thief"), Criterion New York (equipment delivered but never installed), Stanley Philadelphia (for "Strategic Air Command," "The Far Horizons" and "The Seven Little Foys"), Saenger New Orleans (for "Strategic Air Command," "The Far Horizons," "The Seven Little Foys" and "To Catch a Thief"), Capitol Washington (for "Strategic Air Command" and "To Catch a Thief"), State-Lake Chicago (for "Strategic Air Command," "The Far Horizons" and "The Seven Little Foys"), Loew's Penn Pittsburgh (for "Strategic Air Command," "The Far Horizons" and "The Seven Little Foys"), Imperial Toronto (for "Strategic Air Command," "The Seven Little Foys" and "To Catch a Thief," machines later sold to ILM), Paramount Opera in Paris (for "Strategic Air Command"), and the Plaza (aka Vue Picadilly) in London.
Other theatres not on Theakson's list that got the equipment included the theatre at Colonial Williamsburg (running 6 channel mag for "Story of a Patriot," machines later went to ILM), the Orpheum in Omaha (for "Strategic Air Command" and "To Catch a Thief"), Normandie in Paris (for "Oeil pour Oeil"), London's Odeon Leicester Square (Kallee equipment for "The Battle of the River Plate" and, possibly, "To Catch a Thief") and the Reposi in Turin (for "The Montecarlo Story"). See the In70mm.com article "VistaVision presented in Horizontal Projections" for a nice list of installations and films.
The "Lazy-8" projector with a Peerless Hy-Candescent lamphouse. Photo:
Mark Gulbrandsen collection. This was the production unit with the
soundhead below the projector head.
Inasmuch as the film started on the bottom magazine, the sound was read
before the picture. It was a single optical track using the Perspecta
Sound process to simulate stereo. With 8 perforations per frame, the
film speed was twice
normal 35mm -- 180 feet per minute.
A fine view with the doors open.
While Paramount photographed many films (perhaps 80!) in the process, only "White Christmas" (1954), "Strategic Air Command" (1955), "The Seven Little Foys (1955), "To Catch A Thief" (1955), "The Montecarlo Story" (1956) and "The Battle of The River Plate" (1956) were exhibited using horizontal projection -- and these with only a few prints struck. All the others were printed down to conventional 35mm "flat" prints designed to be shown at aspect ratios between 1.66 to 1 and 2.0 to 1. Special framing marks appeared at the beginning of each reel. At least one film also had prints done in 'scope format.
A 1955 ad for the invitational premiere of "Strategic Air Command" at the Stanley Warner Beverly Hills. Thanks to Martin Hart for the ad in his American Widescreen Museum VistaVision section. The copy mentions their horizontal projectors and big new screen. In the full horizontal projection format, VistaVision was ideally as wide as a theatre's Cinemascope picture but twice as tall -- a screen size that could be as big as was being used for TODD-AO or Cinerama.
An ad touting the virtues of VistaVision from a now-vanished Robert Harris article "Motion Picture High Fidelity" that was once on the site The Digital Bits.
The dimensions of the 8 perf VistaVision frame, from the Wikipedia article "VistaVision." Paramount wasn't big on true stereo sound at this point so the system employed Fairchild's Perspecta Sound, a system using inaudible low frequency control tones on the single optical track so it could be directed to any of the three stage speakers or the surrounds.
Frames from the VistaVision film "Vertigo." Thanks again to Martin Hart -- the image is from his Widescreen Museum's VistaVision section page 5. No, it didn't play the Warner Beverly Hills (or perhaps anywhere else) in the horizontal format.
The VistaVision process was later used for special effects work in many films, such as "Star Wars," due to its use of a large image area on standard film stock. And it morphed into a wider aspect ratio version, Technirama. See the Los Angeles Theatres Film and Movie Technology Resources for more about VistaVision and other projection processes.
70mm
at the Warner: In 1960 or 1961 the theatre was equipped with Norelco AAII 35/70
projectors and 6 channel Ampex sound for 70mm presentations. It was a
four machine booth -- the other two were Simplex XLs. 70mm roadshow
engagements included:
"Lawrence of Arabia"- 1962
"Becket" - 1964
"Lord Jim" - 1965
"Flight of the Phoenix" - 1966 - possibly 35mm, not reserved seats
"Taming of the Shrew" - 1967 - possibly 35mm
"Doctor Zhivago" - 1968 - moveover, not reserved seats
"2001" - 1969 - moveover from the Warner Hollywood, reserved seats
"Julius Ceasar" - 1970 - possibly 35mm
"Ryan's Daughter" - 1970
"Doctor Zhivago" - 1970 - moveover from the Paramount/El Capitan, not reserved seats
"Patton" - 1970 - moveover, reserved seats
"Mary, Queen of Scots" - 1971
"Sound of Music" - 1973 - return engagement, not reserved seats
"Gone with the Wind" - 1974 - 70mm blowup, not reserved seats
Operators
in the 50s and 60s: After the consent decrees of the 50s, the Warner
Beverly Hills was operated by the RKO-Stanley Warner Corporation as the
Stanley Warner Beverly Hills and, starting in the late 60s, by Pacific
Theatres as Pacific's Warner.
The final years: As the good bookings migrated to Westwood and more suburban locations, this
once glorious theatre found the pickings slim and it became a second run house. After Pacific left it was called The Beverly Hills Theatre. There was a brief fling as a legit house in the late 70s. Then it had a spell of sitting vacant.
It was back to movies in 1980. A September issue of Boxoffice had a three page
story on the Warner becoming Beverly Hills' first 99 cent theatre. Later it was resurrected as a concert venue named The Beverly (not to be confused with the other nearby Beverly Theatre). Evidently neither the residents nor the city fathers were happy with the noise or the late hours.
Closing: Sometime around 1987.
Status: It was demolished in 1988 -- a sad day for Beverly Hills. One of the stated reasons for the demolition was that the bank owning the building didn't want to do seismic retrofit work and offered a possibly bogus $12 million cost estimate as their justification. Bill Givens comments:
More exterior views:
1931 - The theatre nears completion. Thanks to Eric Lynxwiler for sharing this Keystone Photo Service shot from his collection. It's on Flickr. Check out the Angel City Press book Eric wrote with Tom Zimmerman: "Spectacular Illumination: Neon Los Angeles 1925-1965." Also see Eric's 2016 book "Signs of Life: Los Angeles is the City of Neon."
1931 - An opening week view down Canon Dr. toward the Warner. It's a Dick Whittington Studio photo in the USC Digital Library collection. "The Millionaire" was still on the marquee.
1931 - A closer "Born To Love" shot taken the same week. It's another from Marc Wanamaker and Beverly Hills Heritage.
1931 - A Mott Studios photo with "City Lights" on the marquee. It's one of seven photos of the Warner in the California State Library collection cataloged as set # 001387281. Duplicates of two of the seven are also listed as set # 001387287. They have no interior photos.
1931 - Another "City Lights" shot, this time looking a bit west. It was a second run engagement -- the film had opened the Los Angeles Theatre in January. Photo: Mott Studios - California State Library
1931 - A closer look at the marquee. It's a detail from the previous Mott Studios image.
1938 - A view with the theatre running "Valley of the Giants" and "Four Daughters." Photo: Los Angeles Public Library
1939 - Thanks to Eric Lynxwiler for this sharing this view from his collection of the August "world premiere preview" of "The Old Maid" with Miriam Hopkins and Bette Davis. It's on Flickr in the Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation photo pool.
c.1939 - A view looking east toward the Warner -- with a bit of the Beverly Theatre's onion dome on the left. It's a photo from Marc Wanamaker and Beverly Hills Heritage.
1939 - Rita Hayworth strolls Beverly Hills in a photo by Frank Worth. Behind her we get a view east on Wilshire toward the Warner Beverly Hills. Thanks to Stephen Russo for spotting this one on a now-vanished website. For more on Frank Worth good places to begin are a Wikipedia article, a 2010 story in the Los Angeles Times and the many photos on Google.
c.1940 - A great shot showing both the Beverly Theatre and, farther east, the Warner Beverly Hills. It's a photo in the Los Angeles Public Library collection.
1954 - The West Coast premiere of "White Christmas" on October 27. Thanks to Kimberly Vinokur for the photo, a post on the Beverly Hills Heritage Facebook page.
1957 - A wider view taken in January while they were still running "The Ten Commandments." Note the added neon on the tower. It's a Valley Times photo in the Los Angeles Public Library collection.
c.1960 - Thanks to Kimberly Vinokur for sharing this Christmas season photo in a Facebook post. Robert Switzer commented: "The old Beverly Hills Federal Savings (now Rolex) building was under construction in this photo, so it must be around 1960."
c.1962 - Thanks to Eric Lynxwiler for sharing this great view from his collection. It's on Flickr.
1962 - A dazzling look at the opening of "Lawrence of Arabia." The photo appears in Brad Smith's great Theatre Marquees set on Flickr consisting of 133 photos taken by his father George Mann. See Scott Collette's Forgotten Los Angeles Facebook post for some shots at the premiere. He also has it on Instagram.
1964 - Looking west on Wilshire from Beverly Dr. toward the tower of the Warner Beverly Hills. Thanks to Alison Martino for the photo from her collection once posted on the Facebook page Vintage Los Angeles.
1968 - Thanks to movie palace historian Kurt Wahlner for this shot of the west coast premiere of "The Subject Was Roses" with Patricia Neal and Jack Albertson. It was a find on eBay. For a treat visit Kurt's extensive site about Grauman's Chinese.
Check out the people on top of the marquee. And note the signage -- Pacific Theatres had taken over the theatre from RKO-Stanley Warner earlier in 1968.
1974 - The theatre as a second run house. Thanks to Charles Smith for sharing his photo on Cinema Treasures. He commented: "Google says the Foreman-Ali fight was October 30, so according to the marquee that's the date I snapped it."
c.1975 - A nice detail of the top of the tower -- after the Warner sign came down. Note the added neon. Photo: Javier Mendoza - Los Angeles Public Library
1978 - An entrance view taken during the theatre's brief time as a legit house. Photo: Ken Papaleo - Los Angeles Public Library
c.1978 - End of the short legit era -- the theatre was for lease again at the time of this shot. It's a photo by Anne Laskey in the Los Angeles Public Library collection. Also see a tower detail.
1988 - A look at the closed theatre. Note the signage in use during its days as a concert venue: "The Beverly." It's a photo by Chris Gulker in the Herald Examiner collection at the Los Angeles Public Library.
1989 - The auditorium mostly gone. Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating the photo for a post on the Photos of Los Angeles private Facebook group.
We get a shot of the September 18, 1951 "A Streetcar Named Desire"
premiere in the faux 50s Warner-Pathé
newsreel that opens Paul Schrader's detective romp "Witch Hunt" (Pacific Western/HBO,
1994). A Joseph McCarthy-like senator is hunting practitioners of magic who have too much influence in L.A. The film
stars Dennis Hopper, Penelope Ann Miller, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Eric
Bogosian, Julian Sands and John Epperson. The
cinematography was by Jean-Yves Escoffier. See the Historic L.A. Theatres in Movies post for more about the film including shots at the El Monte Drive-In and the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre.
There's some footage on Internet Archive featuring a wonderful drive down Wilshire in 1935. We see the east end of the Warner marquee at the beginning as well as a drive-by later. Playing at the time is the feature "Oil For The Lamps of China."
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Brings back memories. From my bedroom window in the 60's on Peck Drive,I could see the vertical sign at the top of the building at night alternately flashing Stanley..Warner, Stanley..Warner.
ReplyDeleteNice!
ReplyDeleteThe Warner Beverly Hills once employed a young Nick Adams, who went on to play Johnny Yuma in famed television show "The Rebel." He also appeared in major films like "Rebel Without a Cause," "No Time for Sergeants" and "Picnic" and was also Oscar nominated for "Twilight Of Honor." Nick was employed at the theater as a jack of all trades after hitchhiking his way across country from Jersey City, New Jersey. However, the manager fired Nick after he added his name to the marquee during a premiere of a new film. Nick died under mysterious circumstances in 1968 at the age of 36. He and the Warner Beverly Hills left an indelible mark on Hollywood and are forever missed.
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