Warnor's Theatre
1400 Fulton Street,
Fresno,
CA
93721
1400 Fulton Street,
Fresno,
CA
93721
9 people
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The same type of name change happened at the Warner’s Downtown Theatre in Los Angeles. The theatre opened as a Pantages Theatre and was soon picked up by Warner. It be came the Warner’s Downtown Theatre and later the Warners. When the Stanley Warner chain dropped the house, Metropolitan Theatres operated it till it closed as the Warrens Theatre.
The seating capacity has been variously reported as between 2,169 and 2,400. The auditorium is similar to Priteca’s Pantages/Orpheum in San Francisco. For many years, the theatre was known as the Warner or Warner’s. I suspect that it became the Warnor when the next management tried to save money by changing only one letter on the marquee. Which reminds of the Earle in Jackson Heights, Queens, NY, becoming the present Eagle.
I show the address for the Warnor Theatre as 1400 Fulton Street in my records, and that at one time it was also named the Alexandra, correct me if am incorrect. I know that it opened as the Pantages so I am assuming that between being the Pantages and the Warnor it was named the Alexandra. Don’t have a seating capacity.
The Warnors Theatre, nee Pantages also houses the last original installation Robert Morton pipe organ in California. The 4 manual 14 rank instrument is also the last such Pantages instrument still installed beneath the stage in the US. The organ’s pipes speak into the orchestra pit.
The Caglia Family is to be commended for their attention to both the theatre and the pipe organ.
Warnor’s was purchased by the Caglia family in the 70’s, for approximately $170,000, to save it from destruction. Originally it was know as the Pantages Theatre and was build at a cost of $650,000.
OPENED ON OCTOBER 28, 1928. ARCHITECT WAS B.MARCUS PRITECA. A GREAT EXAMPLE OF AN ITALIAN PALAZZO EXTERIOR WRAPPED AROUND A SPANISH BAROQUE THEATER. A GIANT STAR PATTERN DOMINATES THE AUDITORIUM CEILING.