Warnors Center for the Performing Arts
1400 Fulton Street,
Fresno,
CA
93721
1400 Fulton Street,
Fresno,
CA
93721
11 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 26 comments
Updated website - https://warnorscenter.org/
Just added pictures, ads, and articles of the Warnor theatre to my Cinerama web site - https://incinerama.com/warnercinerama.htm . Please do not copy them to this site.
Reopened as Warner’s Fresno on August 31st. 1929
Warner theatre opening Sat, Aug 31, 1929 – 17 · The Fresno Morning Republican (Fresno, California) · Newspapers.com
Reopened as Warner’s Fresno on August 31st. 1929
Grand opening ad posted.
my mom nursing school graduation took place here. everything was original including the urinals and toilets which were from 1911!
Here are more photos taken in and around the Warnor’s in recent years: https://www.flickr.com/photos/cakeight/6000278995 https://www.flickr.com/photos/cakeight/6000782966 https://www.flickr.com/photos/cakeight/6000275229 https://www.flickr.com/photos/cakeight/6000822760 https://www.flickr.com/photos/cakeight/6000816488 https://www.flickr.com/photos/cakeight/6000252133
A wonderful tour of a very nice Robert Morton Theater Organ at the Warnor Theater http://ow.ly/odldh
Here is another recent shot:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cakeight/3714781977
Fresno’s Cinerama history posted here.
Here is a 1981 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/d36ec3
Here is a vintage photo, probably circa 1950s:
http://tinyurl.com/cz2azq
This next Sunday, April 13, veteran theatre organist Bob Mitchell is going to play the Robert Morton theatre organ in concert starting at 3pm. Bob is one of the two oldest/longest surviving theatre organists from the silent era.
October 19 is to be the 85th anniversary of KMJ radio. The event is to be held at Warnors featuring the recreated “Rat Pack” that appears regularly in Vegas. They are great! The organ will be used as a pre-show. Wish I could go, but I’ll be on my way to NYC that night. Tickets are available on the Warnors and KMJ 580 websites.
How funny that they only changed one letter to save money. In LA, the downtown Warners theater became Warren’s for a while, but that would have meant replacing no letters, just reversing the last syllable.
recent photos of gorgeous ceiling of auditorium:
View link
View link
View link
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ritamatem/358810755/
Set of exterior 2007 photos including close up of Ticket Booth:
View link
Close-up of exterior neon:
View link
Close-up of marquee:
View link
Marquee lit up at night:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tspauld/402851299/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tspauld/446673046/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tspauld/446680561/
View link
View link
View link
Exterior ornamentation:
View link
View link
Here is an extensive essay on the Pantages/Warnor’s, at the Historic Fresno web site. The theatre is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Warnors theatre was highlighted this evening on California’s Gold with Huell Howser on a Los Angeles PBS station. I’m sure it can be ordered, or information when it is broadcast again can be found at
http://www.calgold.com/
Calfornia’s Gold – show 8008
Warnors Theatre
When first opened as the Pantages Theatre on 20th October 1928, the seating capacity given was 2,169. It had a Robert Morton 4 Manual/14 Rank theatre organ (Opus 2416) with the organ chamber beneath the stage.
Another long ago memory of the Warners Theatre. In the mid 1950s, I was still a young boy living in Fresno. My parents bought tickets for us to see Betty Hutton, live, on stage, at the Warners Theatre. She was trying out what would be her Las Vegas stage show in several small towns, Fresno included. It was a very rainy Sunday afternoon when we went to Betty’s show at the Warners Theatre. Only a handful of people had bought tickets to see the famous motion picture star of “Annie Get Your Gun” and “The Greatest Show On Earth”. My parents, both born and raised in New York City, were embarrassed that Fresnans did not support this star in her live performance. But, back then, Fresno was a small agricultural town of about 50,000 people. Today the population is nearly 500,000. As I remember, Miss Hutton’s live show was a high-energy musical-comedy treat. But the audience was scant. It’s unlikely that anyone else who visits this site will remember Betty Hutton, live at Warner’s Theatre, because there were so few of us there.
I remember well that Cinerama came to Fresno, California, at the Warner Cinerama Theatre. As a child, I saw “Gidget” there; “Auntie Mame,” “The Pajama Game,” and scores of other motion pictures. I remember the theatre manager, Bill Korenbrott (sp?) He once claimed that I spent almost as much time at the theatre as he. As a very young adult, I was working in advertising and publicity at Cinerama Releasing Corp., at 292 La Cienega, Beverly Hills. One day, Korenbrott walked into my office. Delighted and surprised to see one another, we chatted about the “old days” at the Warner Theatre. It didn’t become Warnor till sometime after I ankled Fresno in 1969.
In Cinerama, I remember “How The West Was Won,” “The Wonderful World of The Brothers Grimm,” “Cinerama Holiday,” and others in the 3-strip process, at the theatre.
I remember well that Cinerama came to Fresno, California, at the Warner Cinerama Theatre. As a child, I saw “Gidget” there; “Auntie Mame,” “The Pajama Game,” and scores of other motion pictures. I remember the theatre manager, Bill Korenbrott (sp?) He once claimed that I spent almost as much time at the theatre as he. As a very young adult, I was working in advertising and publicity at Cinerama Releasing Corp., at 292 La Cienega, Beverly Hills. One day, Korenbrott walked into my office. Delighted and surprised to see one another, we chatted about the “old days” at the Warner Theatre. It didn’t become Warnor till sometime after I ankled Fresno in 1969.
In Cinerama, I remember “How The West Was Won,” “The Wonderful World of The Brothers Grimm,” “Cinerama Holiday,” and others in the 3-strip process, at the theatre.
The same type of name change happened at the Warner’s Downtown Theatre in Los Angeles. The theatre opened as a Pantages Theatre and was soon picked up by Warner. It be came the Warner’s Downtown Theatre and later the Warners. When the Stanley Warner chain dropped the house, Metropolitan Theatres operated it till it closed as the Warrens Theatre.
The Warnors Theatre, nee Pantages also houses the last original installation Robert Morton pipe organ in California. The 4 manual 14 rank instrument is also the last such Pantages instrument still installed beneath the stage in the US. The organ’s pipes speak into the orchestra pit.
The Caglia Family is to be commended for their attention to both the theatre and the pipe organ.
Warnor’s was purchased by the Caglia family in the 70’s, for approximately $170,000, to save it from destruction. Originally it was know as the Pantages Theatre and was build at a cost of $650,000.