Subject: motion picture theaters - UCLA Library Digital Collections Search Results

Description:: One of Leeýs few realized "theme" theatres (as in "theme" restaurant), the Tumbleweed recreates for recent immigrants to Los Angeles the farmstead of the Great Plains. Built on a large site in the rural suburb of El Monte, the theatreýs auditorium takes the form of a Midwestern barn, with buttress-like dormers. To attract attention to the theatre, Lee used the form of the Plains windmill, a feature used at every farm to pump water from an underground well. Note on reverse: "Architectýs original conceptionýNote how closely the finished building matches the rendering."
Date:: 1939
Resource Type:: still image
Collection:: S. Charles Lee Papers, 1919-1962

Description:: Colorful murals set in fanciful round painted frames depict regional dances and garb of Old Mexico.
Date:: 1942
Resource Type:: still image
Photographer:: Hoffman-Luckhaus
Collection:: S. Charles Lee Papers, 1919-1962

Description:: Lee included a shorter drinking fountain, scaled for children. This was a new idea for the time.
Date:: 1946-47
Resource Type:: still image
Photographer:: Lee, S. Charles, 1899-1990
Collection:: S. Charles Lee Papers, 1919-1962

Description:: Lee uses curved walls and a curved staircase accentuated by the curved ceiling panels that conceal the indirect lighting.
Date:: 1935-36
Resource Type:: still image
Collection:: S. Charles Lee Papers, 1919-1962

Description:: The walls and ceiling are decorated with swirling Art Deco and Zig-Zag motifs, accented by a pair of leaping mythical gazelles above the proscenium. Above them a gilded sunburst spreads out over the ceiling, an ornament incorporating the air intake grille of the ventilation system. The fire curtain displays an abstracted version of the Arizona desert landscape. Gilded grilles echoing the design of the box office and topped by sunbursts flank the proscenium above the front exits. The theatre organ to accompany silent motion pictures is at the front of the auditorium.
Date:: 1930-31
Resource Type:: still image
Photographer:: Woodcock, W.P.
Collection:: S. Charles Lee Papers, 1919-1962

Description:: Mythical gazelle-like creatures romp in the abstract landscape decorating the auditorium walls. Sunbursts top the scalloped border of the scene at the top of the wall. Angular pilasters interrupt the wall surface; they probably house ventilation or sound ducts.
Date:: 1930-31
Resource Type:: still image
Photographer:: Woodcock, W.P.
Collection:: S. Charles Lee Papers, 1919-1962

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