Avalon Theatre

The Avalon theatre opened in 1929, at that time it seated 1100 people. The architects were the firm of Weber & Spaulding.

Exterior strictly modern? I don't think so. It is under the famous casino building which is very ornate and is a mix of deco and mediterranean revival

This theatre is owned by the Santa Catalina Island Company. Their movies are booked through Pacific Theaters. Every June they have a Silent Movie Festival.

I would nominate the Avalon as being definitely in my Top Ten of California historic movie theatres. I have visited it once, and was awestruck by the quality of design and craftsmanship everywhere. Lovers of art deco especially should make an effort to see it. The Avalon even stands next to the Oakland Paramount in its quality, though the two are vastly different. The ballroom above the Avalon's auditorium is likewise a work of high craftsmanship and architectural design.

Beautiful! Simply beautiful! Worth the sea trip and an overnight stay on Catalina, just to see a movie in this wonderful theater.

When touring this theater pay close attention to the fact that while the tour guide is standing center stage in front of the screen that every word can be heard perfectly clear thoughout the house without amplification. The accoustics of this theater were technically way before their time and indeed are not matched in theaters today. The majesty of the surroundings and grandness of the building take you back to when seeing a movie was social, elegant event and one to be remembered your entire life. This is absolutely beatiful.

The caption of the photo here speaks of showing the "grill" but nowhere is there a COOKING GRILL in evidence. What the writer meant was a GRILLE, speaking of the pierced ornament around the proscenium. It is not an idle misspelling, since using the wrong version of that word (as without the 'E' in this instance) can bring an entirely different meaning to someone's description of a theatre, few of which had actual cooking grills, thank goodness!

The address should be 1 Casino Way, Avalon, Catalina Island 90704.

Actually, if you look closely you can just make out what appears to be a small George Foreman Portable Propane Grill just to the left of the organ console. It's really small, but if you concentrate, you can just make it out. This lends credence to and vindicates the captioning of Mr. Ledwon's marvelous photo of the Avalon's striking deco-esque auditorium.

The Avalon Theater opened on 29th May 1929, with the attraction on screen; Douglas Fairbanks production "The Iron Mask".

The theater is located on the first floor of the Casino Building, which has the 2,000 dancers capacity, Casino Ballroom above.

The Casino Building was built at a cost of $2m by William Wrigley Jnr, multi-millionaire and founder of the Wrigley chewing gum company. It is still owned by the Wrigley family under a company known as the Santa Catalina Island Company and they embarked on a $1,535,000 renovation of the building commencing in 1988. The beautiful murals on the exterior of the building and in the Avalon Theater auditorium were by John Gabriel Beckman and these were fully restored in 1994.

The theater was equipped from its opening with a Page theater pipe organ, which is still in use today to entertain the movie-going audience at weekends. Manufactured by Page organs of Lima, Ohio, it has 4Manuals and 16Ranks and was the largest organ manufactured by Page.

Santa Catalina Island is located 22 miles off the California coast and can be reached by ferry boat from Long Beach. It is well worth the trip to view the island and the stunning Avalon Theater, Casino Ballroom & Building.

KenRoe: Interesting to read that this theatre is on Catalina Island! Found this theatre while reviewing your favorites and this one is the only one you list in the USA.

Patsy;
Well it's the only one in the USA on my favourites list>>>so far>>> lol

The Avalon Theater is a beautiful movie palace which has been lovingly restored to its original 1929 appearance. Plus, its a magic moment when you enter the auditorium to the strains of 'I Left My Heart in Avalon, Beside the Sea' being played on the mighty Page organ.

22 miles??? Umm, I always thought the lyrics to the song went ".....26 miles across the sea, Santa Catalina waiting for me........." or maybe the island is on the move, drifting towards California proper. I knew those offshore earthquakes, sooner or later, would do it.

sam_e: Funny post! When I read about the Avalon I, too, hear those lyrics and that song in my head! I recall it being "26 miles" also, but then again it seems that lyricists sometimes take special license to rhyme words or in this case....numbers to make them flow better in a song.

KenRoe: There are many wonderful theatres in the USA, but then again perhaps you only post the ones you have actually visited? Many of mine are those I have never seen, in person, and the rest I have visited (most recently the Fabulous Fox/Atlanta) or hope to in the coming years.

Patsy;
I know there are so many wonderful theaters in the USA, I have visited many of them over the years. I just haven't had time to sit here and contemplate which are my real favourites, I spend far too much time on here updating and adding comments! LOL I will share my USA favourites with you all one day soon, I promise.

Now I am off to CA for four weeks (doing some theater research) so you wont be seeing me online for a while, but I Will Be Back!

Have a safe trip and when you return please let us know what you saw on your CA theater research trip!

Everyone should know that when it comes to the Avalon Theater "HALF THE FUN IS GETTING THERE"

From downtown Avalon it's a short walk down Casino Way along Avalon Bay. The incredible Casino Building that houses the theater, ballroom and a great museum sits on a point at the entrance of the bay. The salt air, private yachts resting on bouys, the surge of the ocean on the rocks and the view of the Casino all combine to make a visit to the Avalon Theater very special. At night it's majic.
The whole place is fantastic and the Avalon Theater is a true Cinema Treasure.

and no, I don't work for the local Chamber of Commerce, but maybe I should. LOL

and maybe I should learn to spell "magic"

The "Grill" mentioned in the caption of the photo refers to the grill-work in the cieling directly above the pipe organ console, there is another grill on the other side of the auditorium. The pipe chambers for the organ are located behind and speak thru these grills. When the lighting is correct one can look up thru these grills and see the swell shutters for the organ opening and closing while the Page pipe organ is being played. There are also colored lights that can be turned on so there is a soft red or blue glow behind the grills.

Here is a photo of the Auditorium of the Avalon Theatre.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y147/Chuck1231/California%20Theatres/AvalonTheatreCatalinaIslandCa.jpg

In reference to the 22 miles vs. 26 miles argument: The closest point to Catalina island, 22 miles, is the South-western corner of San Pedro. However, the place most boats leave from, in Long Beach, is probably closer to 26 miles away. So the song is kind of accurate in a way. Anyway, the theatre is beautiful and, as mentioned, has insane acoustics. The whole building is gorgeous and is one of the highlights of a trip to catalina.

My father was the manager ca. 1950. He met his wife while changing marquis.

Is this open year-round, or only seasonally?

Is there a Season in Southern CA? lol

The Avalon Theatre screens the latest movies. Programmes change every Friday. The film screens once nightly (no matinees) and twice nightly on a Friday and Saturday when the Page theatre organ is played prior to showtime.

The reason there are no Matinee performances is because the Avalon Theatre is part of the Casino Building tour which can be taken during the daytime.

Ken, do you have a link to a page with showtimes for the Avalon?

I found this page with a calendar listing including shows at the theatre: http://www.ecatalina.com/calendar.cfm

Brilliant, Jake! I do appreciate it.

Here are some photos of the Avalon Theater. Click each photo to expand it.

This theater does indeed sound very beautiful going by all your descriptions of it. And I found out about it today because I got one of those Cinema Treasures e-mails sent to me today saying "Somebody just replied to your comment" (or something to that effect.) Needless to say, I never posted any comment at this page, but that technical glitch happens once in a while.

Anyway, now that I've learned of this beautiful theater -- located 22 (or 26!) miles out on California's scenic Catalina Island no less! -- while I'm greatly enamored of the surface things being said of it, at the deeper level I'm wondering, is this yet another one of those sunny entertainment venues for the pleasure of shady people? For there seems to be an awful lot of that these days. Since it's assumed we're all movie buffs here, we all remember that movie "The Dirty Dozen," right? Particularly that scene where the Nazi officers and their associates, wives, mistresses, etc., are in attendence at that gala ball that the dirty dozen are assigned to target? If you recall, without their awareness, everyone inside the bunker (or wherever the ball is being held) is sealed in and then a series of explosions is set off once they're fully trapped. What follows next could be described as a scene of great horror. But we hardly view it that way, given how it's Nazis plus those who religiously support the Nazi cause being killed. In brief, it's a sunny place for shady people that suddenly becomes a not very sunny place for anyone to be trapped inside of.

Now I'm not saying that a dirty dozen be newly formed to do in the many sunny places for shady people that are in such vast abundance throughout the United States today. But I am greatly troublied that in today's America there are scant few (indeed if any) sunny places for good people, while at the very least I would like to think that the Avalon Theatre on Catalina Island is such.

Catalina Island is uniquely beautiful, and certainly there's no practical way to bring every single spot throughout the U.S. to being just as beautiful. However, there's no intelligent or morally right excuse for not having theaters every bit as beautiful as the Avalon easily accessible by good people all throughout the U.S.

As some of you reading this might know, I myself reside in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where over a year now I've been campaigning heavily to bring at least one or two of our historic cinemas back to life as full scale movie theaters once more, but have been slammed hard in my efforts at every single turn, even by those allegedly trying to bring the Boyd Theatre -- Philadelphia's last standing movie palace -- back to life. For around here the thought of having anything uplifting for good people -- as opposed to those who are shady -- is treated as if "unthinkable," and to many privileged folks in these parts, even as "offensive." Such is the new America, or this part of it, at least.

Anyway, over a year into my campaign, maybe it's desparation, I don't know. But I do have to wonder, is it more than mere coincidence that by some technical glitch my attention was brought to the Avalon Theatre on Catalina Island?

I have been going to Catalina Island for over 40 years and for myself and my family, the Avalon Theater is always a treat to see in a sunny spot, and I like to think we are good people.

Oh there's no doubt the folks of Catalina Island are good people. It's just that so much of the rest of the U.S. has forgotten that it's supposed to be great, too. Right now it's all turned inside out from what it's supposed to be. But then again, what do I mean by "right now"? For it's been that way since the 1970s. Too much emphasis on people while everyone's forgotten that the land's supposed to be the ultimate star. Next, the buildings and other infrastructure built in homage to that land. And then maybe, maybe, some of the people if they're truly worthy. But right now we've got so much land across the U.S. that once was beautiful but is no more, nonstop urban sprawl in place of once great architecture and other wise planning, and people seated atop that hideous, man-created crown in me! me! me! fashion who we're praising when we should be cursing, people now heading towards their cushy retirements as if they actually deserve them. It's what I call the "You blew it" generation in need of a serious makeover of becoming the "give it all back" generation. If nature had her ultimate say I wonder what kind of retirement she would give them? The finale of the 1950s movie "War of the Worlds" comes to mind...

The Avalon Theater on Catalina Island:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k79/hollywood90038/HwdAvalonTheater00.jpg
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k79/hollywood90038/hwdAvalonTheater01-1.jpg
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k79/hollywood90038/hwdAvalonTheater02.jpg

This is my absolute, all time favorite theater. I went to movies here in the 60s as a child whenever I was lucky enough to get to Catalina, and on visits over the years I have endured whatever movie is playing, just to sit in this gorgeous theater! I highly recommend checking it out if you ever get the chance. For me it is completely magical.

And I consider it wonderful that the U.S. still has a theater as well run as this within its boundaries. For in the age America has entered into now it is a true rarity. So by all means, cherish it for all it's worth, and don't take it for granted.

This is an interior view. Date given is 1929.

Avalon Theater on Catalina Island:
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff204/hollywood90038/lacatAvalonTheater00.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff204/hollywood90038/lacatAvalonTheater01.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff204/hollywood90038/lacatAvalonTheater02.jpg

I like Catalina, but I haven't been there since I got married. My wife gets seasick. There used to be some interesting hotel remains a bit north of the theater.

Amazing to see a huge auditorium like that still intact in 2008. Everywhere I've worked, that would have been carved up into 4 or 6 screens by now. Truly a gem.

Fortunately, there would be no market for that many screens on this tiny island.

I agree. If you're spending the fifty bucks to go to the island, you probably aren't going to spend the afternoon inside watching Spiderman 8.

Given how the average movie length is 90 minutes, if a vacation is planned out right, what does it take to squeeze that 90 minutes into the course of a day? That is, if the resort that one goes to vacation at is planned out right. Isn't the ideal vacation one where you get to spend quality time getting back with nature each day but it's also such that you get to take in a great movie in a great theater each day? That just seems like such a great combination to me, provided the movies in question are excellent to great, and the theater in question is along the same lines as the Avalon Theater on Catalina Island, California.

Here's an article about the opening of this theater from the LA Times:

(Feb. 24, 1929)
DANCE HALL NEARS COMPLETION
Grand Opening of Amusement Center Set for June 1
AVALON (Catalina Island) Feb. 23.-The $1,000,000 theater and dance palace under construction by William Wrigley, Jr., scheduled to open June 1, has so increased in cost that it now has passed the $2,000,000 mark. Steam shovels this week are making the immense building visible from the sea by leveling a cliff which now hides it. The granite composing the cliff is being hauled out to a submerged reef several hundred yards distant.
The Catalina theater building is of circular typed of enormous size. A total of 10,000 sacks of cement was required for the concrete work; 1500 tons of structural steel for 28,222 separate pieces for braces; 422 tons of reinforcing steel and 25,000 yards of sand and rock for the foundations. The roof requires 105,000 Catalina red curved tile.
The theater auditorium, on the main floor, is 115 feet in diameter. The full dome ceiling is forty-five feet high and the theater will seat 2500 persons.
The ballroom on the floor above is said to be the largest in America. It is 18,000 square feet in area and large enough to accommodate 5000 persons. The floor is laid on floating cork and felt. There are o supporting pillars on either the dance floor or theater auditorium, for the building is braced horizontally and vertically, involving new engineering principles. An indirect lighting system will be used.
Gabriel Beckman, mural artist, is in charge of decorating nine panels depicting a sequence of submarine scenes.
Webber & Spaulding, Los Angeles architects, designed the building. Tom White, lessee, will operate the theater. He has charge of the opening, June. 1.

Address should be 1 Casino Way Avalon CA 90704.

Isn't that the address listed?

Yup

It shouldn't say Catalina Island. Atlantic City is on Absecon Island. Shouldn't all theaters in Atlantic City be listed as Atlanic City, Absecon Island, NJ, by your rationale? Avalon is the city, CA is the state. Catalina Island is not part of the address.

You might be right. Google gives the address as 1 Casino Way, Avalon, CA. That address doesn't map correctly either.

According to this site there are 1184 seats.

I sat in the seats last weekend and they are very comfortable and new feeling. I'm sure they replaced the original seats with these at some point and put fewer than original to accommodate the continuously expanding exteriors of the American public. They did a really nice job because the sides of the seats look original, at least on the aisle.

This is a photo of the Page Theater Organ.

Here is a 1929 interior photo from the LAPL:
http://jpg1.lapl.org/00081/00081783.jpg

From Aug. 1, 2009:
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff204/hollywood90038/Catalina013.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff204/hollywood90038/Catalina020.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff204/hollywood90038/Catalina021.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff204/hollywood90038/Catalina018.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff204/hollywood90038/Catalina016.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff204/hollywood90038/Catalina030.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff204/hollywood90038/Catalina037.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff204/hollywood90038/Catalina033.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff204/hollywood90038/Catalina038.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff204/hollywood90038/Catalina039.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff204/hollywood90038/Catalina041.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff204/hollywood90038/Catalina042.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff204/hollywood90038/Catalina049.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff204/hollywood90038/Catalina048.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff204/hollywood90038/Catalina052.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff204/hollywood90038/Catalina053.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff204/hollywood90038/Catalina061.jpg
http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff204/hollywood90038/Catalina062.jpg

A couple links:

Casino Ballroom: avalonball.com


Avalon Theater: http://www.visitcatalinaisland.com/avalon/acti_casinoTheater.php

A unique and beautiful interior and exterior. I am glad the Avalon theatre is so well maintained.

Hey, does anyone have any further info on the "Silent Movie Festival" mentioned above??

Have only been there once...but loved it. Especially since during the tour, we were privileged with a screening of a Buster Keaton short....definitely the true genius of the Silent Film era.