Photographer: Hoffman-Luckhaus - UCLA Library Digital Collections Search Results

Description:: Note on reverse: This theatre is designed for a residential neighborhood of modern character. It will be built of glass and stone. See the similar Bay Theatre in Pacific Palisades (11301-11310).
Date:: [between 1955-1962]
Resource Type:: still image
Photographer:: Hoffman-Luckhaus
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:: Lee's renderings for the Edwards Drive-In in Arcadia (1948) show both a perspective plan (1) and a perspective from the road (2). The theater was planned in conjunction with Arcadia's Royal Oaks subdivision, hence the image of the oak and the reference to oaks in the original scheme.
Date:: 1948
Resource Type:: still image
Photographer:: Hoffman-Luckhaus
Collection:: S. Charles Lee Papers, 1919-1962

Description:: Lee's concept combines the flowing forms of Streamline Moderne, still considered the height of modernism, with the square modules and slim brick rectangular pylon borrowed from the International Style.
Date:: 1948-49
Resource Type:: still image
Photographer:: Hoffman-Luckhaus
Collection:: S. Charles Lee Papers, 1919-1962

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:: A later concept drawing shows a scaled-down design which is more conventional in massing. Streamline forms can still be seen in the sign area and in the porthole window on the right wall. However, the chief design elements have evolved from the smooth to the angular, with walls, marquee and canopies project out and up at angles.
Date:: 1947-48
Resource Type:: still image
Photographer:: Hoffman-Luckhaus
Collection:: S. Charles Lee Papers, 1919-1962

Description:: A perspective sketch in daylight of the Chino theatre in Chino, California.
Date:: 1947
Resource Type:: still image
Photographer:: Hoffman-Luckhaus
Collection:: S. Charles Lee Papers, 1919-1962

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