The
Warner Grand Theatre is an historic
movie palace which was opened on January 20,
1931.
It
is located in San Pedro,
California, at 478 West 6th Street in the United States of
America
.
The design of the Warner Grand Theatre was a collaboration by
architect
B. Marcus Priteca and interior designer
Anthony Heinsbergen. It was one
of three similarly lavish Los Angeles area
art-deco movie palaces on which Priteca and
Heinsbergen collaborated for the
Warner
Bros. company in the early 1930s.
The others were
located in Beverly Hills
, and Huntington Park
. Priteca later designed Hollywood's famous
Pantages
Theatre
.
The Warner Beverly Hills Theatre has been demolished, and the
Huntington Park Warner, closed for many years, has been extensively
altered, leaving the Grand as the last of the three original
theaters remaining intact. By the mid 1990's it had suffered a
lengthy period of neglect, despite having been declared a
historical and cultural monument of the city in 1982.

Adjusting the sign on the Warner Grand
marquis
The theater was facing possible demolition or re-development when,
in 1995, a local group of activists formed the
Grand Vision Foundation to work for
the preservation of the historic building. Their efforts were
successful when the theater was purchased by the
Cultural Affairs
Department (later renamed the Department of Cultural affairs)
of the City of Los Angeles in 1996. Efforts to both restore and
program the theater have been ongoing since the acquisition. That
same year, the Grand Vision Foundation incorporated as a
501 charitable corporation, to preserve and
promote the Warner Grand Theatre. In 1999, the Warner was added to
the
National
Register of Historic Places as building #98001633.
Warner Grand Theatre currently hosts foreign films, art films and
family films presented by Cinema Grand, Grand Vision Foundation and
Los Angeles Harbor International Film Festival. Three organizations
have also claimed residence at the Warner Grand, Golden State Pops
Orchestra, The Relevant Stage Theatre Company, and Midnight
Insanity.
The Warner Grand Theatre is a facility of City of Los Angeles. For
rental/booking information please call the business office at (310)
548-2493.
Jack Warner called it "The Castle of
Your Dreams." The Warner Grand Theatre has also been used as a
location in some movies, including "
Pearl Harbor" in 2001.
See also
References
External links