Genre: Renderings / Collection: S. Charles Lee Papers, 1919-1962 - UCLA Library Digital Collections Search Results

Description:: This concept drawing, probably executed before World War II, uses simple curved forms of Streamline Moderne in the building. A huge sign with a spiral or helix-shaped tower dominates the façade
Date:: 1947-48
Resource Type:: still image
Photographer:: Hoffman-Luckhaus
Collection:: S. Charles Lee Papers, 1919-1962

Description:: Lee's concept rendering for a storefront theatre in the popular Egyptian theme betrays little attention on the façade to Egyptian-derived elements. The tall pylon sign, the illuminated marque extended out over the sidewalk, and the dramatically curved forms all serve to advertise the product to the audience on the street.
Date:: 1936
Resource Type:: still image
Collection:: S. Charles Lee Papers, 1919-1962

Description:: The drive-in theatre concept was first tried in the mid-1930s but only after World War II did the idea gain widespread acceptance. Lee designed several drive-in theaters, a type especially suited to the mild climate and car-dependent economy of Southern California. The drive-in allowed the whole family to go to the movies in the family car, with no need for a baby-sitter. It also proved especially popular with dating teen-agers, who found drive-ins the ideal refuge from watchful adult eyes. The drive-in was also cheap to build. A large piece of land, a structure to display the screen and smaller buildings for tickets, refreshments and the projector were all that was needed. The parking lot was usually graded to provide the parked cars with a good angle for viewing the screen, and each space was equipped with a speaker that could be hooked to the dashboard to bring the sound into the car.
Date:: 1948
Resource Type:: still image
Photographer:: Hoffman-Luckhaus
Collection:: S. Charles Lee Papers, 1919-1962

Description:: Note on reverse: This theatre is designed to be built in plastic; the unusual façade is, therefore, ... ...CHECK ORIGINAL.
Date:: [between 1919-1962]
Resource Type:: still image
Collection:: S. Charles Lee Papers, 1919-1962

Description:: Lee's sketch offers a prototype for a theatre that could be built cheaply and quickly. The simplest means of quickly constructing a theatre-sized space was to build a Quonset hut, a method devised in the late 1930s using small wood members to create an arched truss frame, which was then often clad in metal for warehouse purposes. A number of motion picture theatres were built in this way. They offered inexpensive rapid construction of theatre spaces in small towns such as Puente, an agricultural community east of Los Angeles.
Date:: 1947-48
Resource Type:: still image
Collection:: S. Charles Lee Papers, 1919-1962