| Catalina Casino | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Type | Ballroom and movie theater |
| Architectural style | Art Deco, Mediterranean Revival |
| Town or city | Avalon, Santa Catalina Island, California |
| Country | United States |
| Coordinates | 33°20′56″N118°19′34″W / 33.34887°N 118.32601°W |
| Construction started | February 1928 |
| Opened | May 29, 1929 |
| Cost | $2 million |
| Owner | Santa Catalina Island Company |
| Technical details | |
| Structural system | round, cantileveredreinforced concrete column |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Walter Webber and Sumner Spaulding |
- Art Deco Casino
- Art Deco Casino
- Art Deco Casino Night
- Art Deco Casino Catalina Island
- Art Deco Cazino Constanta
The Catalina Casino is a large gathering facility located in Avalon on Santa Catalina Island, off the coast of Los Angeles in California. It is the largest building on the island and the most visible landmark in Avalon Bay when approaching the island from the mainland.
The Casino was designed by Sumner A. Spaulding and Walter Webber, and it is an art deco masterpiece, but with Spanish Revival nuances, because, hey, this is California. And, yes, that is a charm of the Casino! My dad found it awhile back. I immediately added it to my California themed charm bracelet and have been just waiting to do a shot like. The fantastical Art Deco murals above the theater entrance and in the interior were designed by John Gabriel Beckman, already famous for his work at Sid Grauman's Chinese Theater. In later years he would become a set director, working on films like 'The Maltese Falcon' and 'Casablanca.' The Casino was opened to the public on May 29, 1929. Restored to its original condition, the Art Deco and Mediterranean Revival building is a stunning reminder of Catalina's glorious past. The height of the building is equivalent to 11 stories, with Avalon Theatre on the main floor, and a ballroom and promenade on the upper floor.
The large building contains a movie theater, ballroom, and formerly an island art and history museum.[1] The Catalina Casino gets its name from the Italian language term casino, meaning a 'gathering place'. Contrary to the current common usage of casino, this has never been a facility for gambling.[2]
History[edit]
The Catalina Casino was built on a site formerly known as Sugarloaf Point. The site was graded for the planned construction of the Hotel St. Catherine, which was instead eventually built in Descanso Canyon. When chewing gum magnate William Wrigley Jr. bought the controlling stake in Catalina Island in 1919, he used this cleared site to build a dance hall he named Sugarloaf Casino. It served as a ballroom and Avalon's first high school, until it became too small for Avalon's growing population. In 1928, the Sugarloaf was razed to make room for a newer casino building. Sugarloaf Rock was further blasted away to enhance the Casino's ocean view.[1][2]
On May 29, 1929, the new Catalina Casino was completed under the direction of Wrigley and David M. Renton, at a cost of $2 million.[3] Its design, by Sumner Spaulding and Walter Weber, is in the Art Deco and Mediterranean Revival styles. The casino's movie theater was the first to be designed specifically for films with sound ('talkies'). It received the Honor Award from the California Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, as 'one of the outstanding architectural accomplishments'.
With a height equal to a 12-story building, it was built to serve as a theater on the main floor and a ballroom and promenade on the upper level.[1][2]Movie studio moguls such as Cecil B. DeMille, Louis B. Mayer, and Samuel Goldwyn frequently came by yacht to the Casino to preview their newest cinema productions. It also serves as the island's civil defense shelter, large enough to accommodate Catalina's entire year-round population. Within its walls is stored enough food and water for all Avalon's residents for two weeks.[4]
The steel structure of the predecessor Sugarloaf Casino can still be found in Avalon's abandoned bird park. The bird park was conceived by Mrs. Wrigley in the 1930s, and at the time it was one of the largest aviaries in the world.
In 1993 the movie theater was photographed by Hiroshi Sugimoto for his art series 'Theatres'.[5]
In 1994, the theater underwent a $750,000 restoration that reupholstered all of its seats and cleaned its murals.[3]
In September 2008, the Catalina Casino had the first live full production of a musical on its stage, when the Santa Catalina Island Company presented Grease!.
In December 2019, The Catalina Island Company stopped screening first run showings of movies, essentially ceasing its function as a traditional film venue.[3] They cite the rise of streaming services and large use of satellite television in the small town of 4000 as contributing factors to the theater's low attendance.[3][6] However, the theater remain available for daily tours and special events such as the Catalina Film Festival and Silent Film Benefit.[7][3]
Structure[edit]
Surrounded by sea on three sides, the circular structure of the Catalina Casino is the equivalent of 12 stories tall. It has a movie theater on the first level and a ballroom on the top level. The building interiors were decorated in the Art Deco style, including with sterling silver and gold-leaf accents.
Movie theater[edit]
The Avalon Theatre is a movie theater on the first level, with a seating capacity of 1,154.[8] It has a single massive screen.[9] The theater has its original 4-manual, 16 rank pipe organ built by the Page Organ Company of Lima, Ohio.[8]
The theater is sound insulated so that patrons do not hear the band or up to 3,000 dancers in the ballroom above. The circular domed ceiling has notable acoustics and has been studied by acoustical designers, due to its repute. A speaker on the theater stage can speak in a normal voice without a microphone and be heard clearly by all in attendance.
The theater's interior walls retain the original Art Deco murals by John Gabriel Beckman. The theater's facade had a painted mural of an Art Deco-style underwater world scene, which was later replaced with replications of Beckman's design created in Catalina Pottery-style tiles. The lobby has walnut wood paneling.
Ballroom[edit]
The upper-level houses the 20,000-square-foot Catalina Casino Ballroom. It is the world's largest circular ballroom, with a 180-foot (55 m) diameter dance floor that can accommodate 3,000 dancers.[1] French doors encircle the room connecting the dance floor with the Romance Promenade, an open balcony that runs around the building.
The large building contains a movie theater, ballroom, and formerly an island art and history museum.[1] The Catalina Casino gets its name from the Italian language term casino, meaning a 'gathering place'. Contrary to the current common usage of casino, this has never been a facility for gambling.[2]
History[edit]
The Catalina Casino was built on a site formerly known as Sugarloaf Point. The site was graded for the planned construction of the Hotel St. Catherine, which was instead eventually built in Descanso Canyon. When chewing gum magnate William Wrigley Jr. bought the controlling stake in Catalina Island in 1919, he used this cleared site to build a dance hall he named Sugarloaf Casino. It served as a ballroom and Avalon's first high school, until it became too small for Avalon's growing population. In 1928, the Sugarloaf was razed to make room for a newer casino building. Sugarloaf Rock was further blasted away to enhance the Casino's ocean view.[1][2]
On May 29, 1929, the new Catalina Casino was completed under the direction of Wrigley and David M. Renton, at a cost of $2 million.[3] Its design, by Sumner Spaulding and Walter Weber, is in the Art Deco and Mediterranean Revival styles. The casino's movie theater was the first to be designed specifically for films with sound ('talkies'). It received the Honor Award from the California Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, as 'one of the outstanding architectural accomplishments'.
With a height equal to a 12-story building, it was built to serve as a theater on the main floor and a ballroom and promenade on the upper level.[1][2]Movie studio moguls such as Cecil B. DeMille, Louis B. Mayer, and Samuel Goldwyn frequently came by yacht to the Casino to preview their newest cinema productions. It also serves as the island's civil defense shelter, large enough to accommodate Catalina's entire year-round population. Within its walls is stored enough food and water for all Avalon's residents for two weeks.[4]
The steel structure of the predecessor Sugarloaf Casino can still be found in Avalon's abandoned bird park. The bird park was conceived by Mrs. Wrigley in the 1930s, and at the time it was one of the largest aviaries in the world.
In 1993 the movie theater was photographed by Hiroshi Sugimoto for his art series 'Theatres'.[5]
In 1994, the theater underwent a $750,000 restoration that reupholstered all of its seats and cleaned its murals.[3]
In September 2008, the Catalina Casino had the first live full production of a musical on its stage, when the Santa Catalina Island Company presented Grease!.
In December 2019, The Catalina Island Company stopped screening first run showings of movies, essentially ceasing its function as a traditional film venue.[3] They cite the rise of streaming services and large use of satellite television in the small town of 4000 as contributing factors to the theater's low attendance.[3][6] However, the theater remain available for daily tours and special events such as the Catalina Film Festival and Silent Film Benefit.[7][3]
Structure[edit]
Surrounded by sea on three sides, the circular structure of the Catalina Casino is the equivalent of 12 stories tall. It has a movie theater on the first level and a ballroom on the top level. The building interiors were decorated in the Art Deco style, including with sterling silver and gold-leaf accents.
Movie theater[edit]
The Avalon Theatre is a movie theater on the first level, with a seating capacity of 1,154.[8] It has a single massive screen.[9] The theater has its original 4-manual, 16 rank pipe organ built by the Page Organ Company of Lima, Ohio.[8]
The theater is sound insulated so that patrons do not hear the band or up to 3,000 dancers in the ballroom above. The circular domed ceiling has notable acoustics and has been studied by acoustical designers, due to its repute. A speaker on the theater stage can speak in a normal voice without a microphone and be heard clearly by all in attendance.
The theater's interior walls retain the original Art Deco murals by John Gabriel Beckman. The theater's facade had a painted mural of an Art Deco-style underwater world scene, which was later replaced with replications of Beckman's design created in Catalina Pottery-style tiles. The lobby has walnut wood paneling.
Ballroom[edit]
The upper-level houses the 20,000-square-foot Catalina Casino Ballroom. It is the world's largest circular ballroom, with a 180-foot (55 m) diameter dance floor that can accommodate 3,000 dancers.[1] French doors encircle the room connecting the dance floor with the Romance Promenade, an open balcony that runs around the building.
To reach the ballroom on the top level, the Casino building has two ramped walkways, both in enclosed towers that extend out from the circular building. Wrigley took the idea to use ramps instead of stairs from Wrigley Field, his Chicago Cubs stadium. The ramps allowed the large numbers of people using the ballroom to quickly move to and from their destinations. They each have a small lobby area just below the dance floor level.
Catalina Island Museum[edit]
In 1953, Philip K. Wrigley established the Catalina Island Museum on the first level, to preserve the history of the island from the pre-Columbian indigenous Tongva (Gabrielino) peoples through the pre-war 20th-century development by his father. The museum featured a large and comprehensive collection of original Catalina Pottery ceramics, produced by Catalina Clay Products between 1927 and 1937.[1]
On June 18, 2016, the museum relocated to a new building, located approximately one half mile from its original location in the Catalina Casino. The Ada Blanche Wrigley Schreiner Building is located at 217 Metropole Avenue.[1]
Art Deco Casino
The museum continues documenting Catalina Island history, adding from World War II to the present day, and a research institute. It is the repository for all archeological digs on the island, and has one of the largest collections of Tongva artifacts in the world. There are now more than 10,000 photographs and negatives documenting island life from the early 1880s until the present day in the museum's photography collection.[1]
In popular culture[edit]
Art Deco Casino
- A portion of the 1974 film Chinatown was filmed on Catalina Island,[10] featuring cinematic shots of the Casino.[11]
- In 1984, Catalina Island and the Casino were filming locations for the Airwolf episode 'Sins of the Past'.[12] A replica of the Casino was set ablaze in the episode.[13]
- After players complete the 2020 action-adventure video game The Last of Us Part II, the main menu screen changes to a beachfront with a rowboat in the foreground and the Casino in the background, implying that Abby has finally reached the Casino to reunite with her former group.[14]
References[edit]
- ^ abcdefgCatalina Island Museum
- ^ abcVisitcatalinaisland.com: Catalina Casino
- ^ abcdeArellano, Gustavo (2019-12-01). 'This theater has attracted movie stars and Catalina Island residents for 90 years. Now, it may call it a night'. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2019-12-01.
- ^Baker, Gayle (2002). Catalina Island, HarborTown Histories, Santa Barbara, CA, p. 62, ISBN0-9710984-0-9 (print) ISBN978-0987903808 (on-line)
- ^'Hiroshi Sugimoto | Avalon Theatre, Catalina Island'. www.metmuseum.org. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 20 October 2018.
- ^Rubin, Rebecca (2019-11-12). 'Avalon Theatre Owner Blames Streaming Services for 'Upside-Down' Attendance'. Variety. Retrieved 2019-12-02.
- ^'Silent Film Benefit'. catalina-museum. Retrieved 2019-12-02.
- ^ abVisitcatalinaisland.com: Avalon Theater
- ^Visitcatalinaisland.com: Avalon Theater walking tour
- ^Chinatown (1974) - IMDb, retrieved 2020-07-07
- ^Kudler, Adrian Glick (2014-06-19). 'The ultimate 'Chinatown' filming location map of Los Angeles'. Curbed LA. Retrieved 2020-07-07.
- ^Sins of the Past, retrieved 2020-07-07
- ^'YouTube'. www.youtube.com. Retrieved 2020-07-07.
- ^'The Last Of Us 2: Here's What The New Game Plus Menu Screen Means'. GameSpot. Retrieved 2020-07-07.
External links[edit]
| Wikimedia Commons has media related to Catalina Casino. |
- Catalina Island Museum – formerly located in the Catalina Casino.
- Cinematreasures.org: Avalon Theatre – article by movie theatre preservation organization.
Art Deco Casino Night
PIC BY ROMAN ROBROEK/ CATERS NEWS - (PICTURED: The exterior of the abandoned casino) - These are the haunting images that reveal how luck ran out for an abandoned Romanian casino. Self-confessed urban-obsessed photographer Roman Robroek, from south of the Netherlands, captured the eerie shots at Casino Constanta in Romania. The art deco style structure was commissioned by King Carol I and built in 1900, before flinging open its door to gamblers in 1910. But maintaining the impressive building proved to be too much for the local authorities and it was shut down in 1990. SEE CATERS COPY.Source:Caters News Agency
Art Deco Casino Catalina Island
These are the haunting images that reveal how luck ran out for an abandoned Romanian casino.
Art Deco Cazino Constanta
Self-confessed urban-obsessed photographer Roman Robroek, from south of the Netherlands, captured the eerie shots at Casino Constanta in Romania. The art deco style structure was commissioned by King Carol I and built in 1900, before flinging open its door to gamblers in 1910. But maintaining the impressive building, perched on the edge of the Black Sea, proved to be too much for the local authorities and it was shut down in 1990. In 2012 the Romanian Government announced plans to restore the once iconic building but it still stands untouched. Roman, 29, said: 'At first I was really amazed by the beautiful and impressive exterior but once inside I was shocked to see the amount of cat and pigeon faeces and the state of decay. 'When I'm off exploring an abandoned building I have a certain expectation of what I'm about to run into. 'The casino in Constanta certainly exceeded my expectations.' Roman shot the casino using a Canon EOS 650D ensuring he used a wide-angle lens to capture as much of the room as he could. He said: 'Visiting it was a great experience and a big privilege since entering is only possible with allowance from the local municipality. 'All the people I met were really friendly and helpful but it's a shame that such an important building with a fascinating history is in such a state of decay — it's going to be a hard job to ever make it right.' Abandoned casino
