Wiltern Theatre

I spent a good deal of my childhood at the Wiltern, going regularly from the mid-50s until the late 60s – see my post above for details about its decline. One of my all-time favorite movie theaters.

The theater was not a little down – it was still very nice at that point. Three or four years from then it would start to look a little dowdy, both inside and out.

Here is a panoramic photo from 1948:
http://tinyurl.com/nz36j

What can I say about the Wiltern? My father owned a wonderful steak house a block from there, on Serrano and 8th, called the Kiru. As a kid, I would go with him and hang out, then have the chef make me a turkey sandwich, and I’d walk over to the Wiltern and stay there all day. I loved that theater more than any other. The first film I have a conscious memory of seeing there was Lisbon with Ray Milland. I saw the opening day of Tammy and the Bachelor there, with Miss Debbie Reynolds appearing in person and giving away signed 45s of the title song (which I still have), I saw Li'l Abner there, I saw Hercules there, and Jack the Ripper, and Pay or Die, and, best of all, North by Northwest, which I saw every day for a week, and on and on and on. I can’t remember the last time I was there, but I think it was the late 60s and it hadn’t been kept up very well. The Wiltern figures prominently in my first three novels, a trilogy about my childhood growing up in LA.

Here is a 1951 photo from the LA Library. Do they still make Old Grand-Dad?

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics19/00009281.jpg

Renovation photos and information:
http://www.levinarch.com/urban/wiltern.html

In 1929, Henry de Roulet decided to build an office building and theatre at the corner of Wilshire and Western. Begun at the start of the Great Depression, the Pellissier Building/Wiltern Theatre was constructed as an act of faith in the future of the city. De Roulet hired Stiles O. Clements, a partner in Morgan, Wall & Clements, to design the office building. Clements was an architect of great talent and versatility who was adept at many styles. Among his hundreds of designs are the black and gold Richfield Building (1928-30; razed 1968), the Assyrian Revival-style Samson Tire Company (1929) and the Churrigueresque Chapman Park Studio and market (1928-29). With designs for the Pellissier Building progressing, de Roulet engageed the services of Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts-traines architect G. Albert Lansburgh, a premier American theatre designer, to develop the plan for the interior of the theatre. What resulted from the creative energies of Clements and Lansburgh is one of the nation’s finest Art Deco buildings. Clements designed a 12-story steel-reinforced concrete office tower sited dramatically on a diagonal to the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue. The theatre marquee and entrance face the courner, and the tower entrace is located on Wilshire Boulvard. Flanking the central tower and theatre are two, two-story wings designed to house retail shops. The exterior is clad in blue-green terra-cotta tile, created by the Gladding Mc Bean company. Gladding Mc Bean developed the unusual color at de Roulet’s request and it became known as Pellissier green. Warner Brothers leased the theatre, which was known as the Western Theatre. The tower, which rose to the city-imposed height limit of the day, seened taller than it was because of the bands of small vertical windows that pierced the facade and swept the eye upward. During that time you only could build a building as high as the Los Angeles city hall. The theatre entrace was marked by a sheet metal and neon marquee, richly decorated on the underside with a plaster relief sunburst. The movie-goer approached the ticket booth on colorful terrazzo paving and entered the lobby foyer through carved, mahogany doors. inside the theatre, Lansburgh developed a complex design using sweeping curves and large open spaces. As acounterpoint to the large flowing space, he used intricate, richly textured decorative surfaces to catch the eye and fire the imagination. Adorning the interior were metallic leaf designs, decorative plaster and tile work and colorful murals. The murals were designed by Anthony B. Heinsbergen and were executed under his supervision by Heinsbergens Decorating Company staff. Inaddition to the extravagant interior design and movie screen, the theatre housed a working stage and the largest theatre pipe organ ever built by the Kimball Company. (Moved over from their Forum Theatre nearby). On October 7th, 1931 the Western Theatre opened for the premiere of “Alexander Hamilton”. Because the city would not close Wilshire Boulvard for the opening Warner Bros. built a bridge across Wilshire Blvd. and called it the “Bridge of Stars” for the night. Although the office tower flourished, the theatre closed within a year of opening. The theatre’s initial failure may have been caused by a neighborhood population that was thought to be insufficient to suport its 2,344 seats. The theatre reopened in the mid 1930’s and was operated by 20th Century Fox and independent exhibitors as the Wil-Tern Theatre This new name was a congregate of the street names that crossed at the intersection in front of the theatre. In time Wil-Tern became Wiltern. In 1956, the Pellissier-de Roulet family sold the building and theatre to the Franklin Life Insurance Company of Springfield, Illinois. Under the new ownership the building remained virually intact. However, the original “Pellissier Building” sign was replace with the words “Franklin Life Building”, and and the nearly original sheet metal and neon marquee was replaced. During the late 30’s Warner Bros. would return as management of the theatre till the mid 60’s when Pacific Theatres would pickup most of Warner’s Southern California Theatres. Pacific Theatres would operate it until late 1979, when the theatre closed.

I just added this one to my favorites as it’s another grand art deco lady!

Wasn’t there a recording studio of the same name on the location or at least nearby?

As per union contracts with projectionist local 150 in Los Angeles. During that time till the 60’s. Theatres had to employ two projectionists per shift if your theatre seated over 1000 seats. That worked well for the large theatre that made money. But some of those smaller theatres in neighborhoods around Los Angeles that seated over 1000 seats, it was a hardship. So theatre companies would pull seats out of theatres to be within the contract terms. So they would save in payroll on projectionist staffs.

This web site has some nice pics of the exterior. http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=116487

Talk with you later. Charles says, “hello.” He cancelled a date because he has a tummy-ache. See-ya!