Subject: motion picture theaters / Genre: Architectural photographs / Collection: S. Charles Lee Papers, 1919-1962 / Date: 1936 - UCLA Library Digital Collections Search Results

Description:: All design attention and expense were focussed on the elaborate Beaux Arts-style auditorium, which featured a proscenium flanked by protruding boxes.
Date:: [between 1930-1940]
Resource Type:: still image
Collection:: S. Charles Lee Papers, 1919-1962

Description:: The foyer was a small cramped space, used only for collecting tickets.
Date:: [between 1930-1940]
Resource Type:: still image
Collection:: S. Charles Lee Papers, 1919-1962

Description:: The Lee collection contains a number of photographs of theatres that Lee was charged with remodeling. This series of photos of a turn-of-the-century vaudeville theatre illustrates by contrast the innovations developed by architects for motion picture theatres. The entry to these older theatres was often off the street, through a long hallway. Advertising displays were merely cardboard signs.
Date:: [between 1930-1940]
Resource Type:: still image
Collection:: S. Charles Lee Papers, 1919-1962

Description:: Designed for a working class community in Los Angeles, the Tower Theater is a modest design which presents a stylish black and white Deco exterior (62701). The night view shows the effective use of neon and spotlighting to illuminate the fluted Moderne tower (62702). The box office is surrounded by circles of light bulbs on the lobby ceiling and a sunburst design on the lobbyýs terrazzo floor (62703). Poster cases are framed by scrolled pediments and simulated columns. The interior uses exaggerated columns, mirrors, white traditional-style furniture, and gilt to suggest a palatial elegance that is distant from the lives of the theatreýs clientele (62704-62705). Hanging lanterns and striped upholstery in the auditorium impart a subdued elegance (62706-62707).
Date:: 1935-36
Resource Type:: still image
Collection:: S. Charles Lee Papers, 1919-1962

Description:: Designed for a working class community in Los Angeles, the Tower Theater is a modest design which presents a stylish black and white Deco exterior (62701). The night view shows the effective use of neon and spotlighting to illuminate the fluted Moderne tower (62702). The box office is surrounded by circles of light bulbs on the lobby ceiling and a sunburst design on the lobbyýs terrazzo floor (62703). Poster cases are framed by scrolled pediments and simulated columns. The interior uses exaggerated columns, mirrors, white traditional-style furniture, and gilt to suggest a palatial elegance that is distant from the lives of the theatreýs clientele (62704-62705). Hanging lanterns and striped upholstery in the auditorium impart a subdued elegance (62706-62707).
Date:: 1935-36
Resource Type:: still image
Collection:: S. Charles Lee Papers, 1919-1962

Description:: The curves in the design of the terrazzo floor are repeated in the curves of the neon tubing on the ceiling. The neon would have been especially effective at night.
Date:: 1935-36
Resource Type:: still image
Collection:: S. Charles Lee Papers, 1919-1962

Description:: The etched glass panel depicts a hunter with bow and arrow, a wounded stag and a hunting dog. Lee used this motif in other theatres, such as the Miami Theatre, although the motif seems to bear no relationship to any particular wider theme. The depiction itself, however, suggests a moving picture, with several exposures or frames overlaid on each other.
Date:: 1935-36
Resource Type:: still image
Collection:: S. Charles Lee Papers, 1919-1962

Description:: Leeýs use of neon was especially effective in this tower with its starburst top, similar to the one at the Alex Theatre in Glendale (10301). Probably the starburst flashed on and off in different colors, creating a beacon for moviegoers.
Date:: 1935-36
Resource Type:: still image
Collection:: S. Charles Lee Papers, 1919-1962

Description:: Note on reverse: "Decorations in fluorescent paint, when illuminated by black light, concealed in fixtures, are visible with main lights turned off. Graded shades of blue; ceiling, blue; panels, silver field, fluorescent black ýlighted panels."
Date:: 1935-36
Resource Type:: still image
Collection:: S. Charles Lee Papers, 1919-1962

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