Tower Theatre

114 E. Colorado Blvd. Pasadena, CA 91105 | map |

Opened: December 28, 1929 with John Barrymore in "General Crack." The image is a detail from a larger 1930 photo by Harold A. Parker from the Huntington Library that appears on the Pasadena Digital History Collaboration website. The full image appears lower on the page. Thanks to David Sorenson for locating this for a post on the You know You Are From Old School Pasadena when... Facebook page. And thanks to Claudia Mullins for spotting the post. The Tower was running "Paris," a November 1929 release starring Irène Bordoni and Jack Buchanan based on a stage musical by Cole Porter.  

Cinema Treasures contributor Dallas Movie Theaters did the research to determine the opening date. The Tower was operated by Fox West Coast and was also known as the Fox Tower. The location was on the south side of the street between Raymond Ave. and the Arroyo Parkway, just east of the tracks.

Architect: B.G. Horton. Joe Vogel found a reference to an August 11, 1929 L.A. Times article that the Los Angeles Public Library indexed under "Horton" that announced plans for a theatre to be built at 114 E. Colorado. He adds: 

"A 1917 issue of Western Architect and Engineer said that he had been granted a certificate to practice architecture in California. His office was located at 750 E. Colorado Street in Pasadena."

Seating: 754 was a later number appearing in a Film Daily yearbook. The original capacity isn't known.

A 1931 ad for the Tower . Thanks to Ken McIntyre for locating it.

Closing:  The last show was evidently March 10, 1951 according to research by Dallas Movie Theaters. They note that the program was "Adam’s Rib" and "Black Angel." They note that beginning on October 4, 1952 it had a short run as a church.

Matt Hormann reports that the theatre is still listed in the 1953 Polk city directory but the 1954 edition lists the address as "vacant."  

Status: It's been demolished. There's a parking lot on the site.

 

A lobby view:

A 1945 lobby display at the Tower for the Roy Rogers film "Bells of Rosarita." Thanks to Joe Vogel for finding the photo. It's from the collection of the Pasadena Museum of History and appears on Flickr as a post from the Pasadena Digital History Collaboration. In a post on Cinema Treasures, Joe speculates that the Tower must have been the city's home of Westerns.


More exterior views:

1930 - A fine view east toward Raymond Ave. The theatre is down there on the right. Thanks to David Sorenson for locating the Harold A. Parker / Huntington Library image on the Pasadena Digital History Collaboration website. He shared it as a post on the You know You Are From Old School Pasadena when... Facebook page. And thanks to Claudia Mullins for spotting the post. The image at the top of the page is a detail from this photo.

1930s - A fine view west on Colorado with the Tower over on the left. Thanks to Cinema Treasures contributor Elmorovivo for finding the photo for the site's page about the theatre.

 

1937 - In this Herman Schultheis photo from the Los Angeles Public Library collection the theatre was running "Slave Ship," a June release with Wallace Beery, along with "Married Before Breakfast." We're looking toward the south side of the street. By the time of this photo the vertical sign had been repainted in a lighter color.

1938 - Looking east on Colorado from Raymond St. in a photo from the Harold A. Parker studio. It's from the Huntington Library collection and appears on the website of the Pasadena Digital History Collaboration. The Tower is over on the right.

1938 - A detail from the Huntington Library photo. It appears that the main feature was "Four's a Crowd" with Errol Flynn.

c.1953 - Thanks to the now-vanished American Classic Images website for this great shot looking east. The Tower's vertical sign can be seen on the far right. 

 

c.1954 - A look at the Tower's marquee after the theatre had closed. The Nash store was across the street. The photo is in the Los Angeles Public Library collection.

 

c.1955 - A lovely shot of the El Capitan approaching the side of the theatre building. It's taken from three minutes of Pasadena footage posted by Railfan Depot on Facebook Watch. Thanks to Claudia Mullins for spotting it as a post on the Old School Pasadena Facebook page. The footage is from the Pentrex show "Historic Hot Spots Combo: Railfanning California in the 1950s and Santa Fe’s Pasadena Subdivision." 

 

A detail of the signage. Thanks, Claudia!

1958 - The theatre is gone. All we can see with the train in the way is a new sign for Nash's parking lot. Thanks to Allen Greer for posting the photo on the Vintage Los Angeles Facebook page. He comments: "The train is just pulling away from the Pasadena depot which was the favorite place for Hollywood types to board and detrain in order to avoid the crush at Union Station." The photo is by Gordon Glattenberg and appears in Elrond Lawrence's book "Route 66 Railway."

1958 - A version of the previous photo with different cropping. This one appeared as a post by Richard Wojcik on the Vintage Los Angeles page.

2019 - The parking lot in the center is the site of the Tower, with the railroad right of way to the right. The Gold Line uses this route but the tracks for this portion of the route are underground. Arroyo Parkway is the next street off to the left. Photo: Google Maps

More Information: The Cinema Treasures page on the Tower has some nice comments and research.

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