El Portal Theatre
310 Fremont Street,
Las Vegas,
NV
89101
310 Fremont Street,
Las Vegas,
NV
89101
No one has favorited this theater yet
Showing 1 - 25 of 34 comments found
fyi Constructed in 1928 by Salt Lake City Builders Ryburg and Sorenson. Owners Ernie Cragin and William Pike spent !50,000.00 to build it.
Saw “Gone with the Wind” with my folks here, I remember parking was difficult (There were no parking lots in those years) and during the intermission having a look around the theater for the 1st time. as I grew up it became a standard place to see many movies.
Modernization described in this 1961 trade article: Boxoffice
Okay, I’ve been in this theater a lot, but only as the Indian shop. I wish it was a theater again instead.
From the 1940s a postcard view of Fremont Street along with the El Portal Theatre in Las Vegas.
Trivia – The film “Meet Me in Las Vegas” with Dan Dailey and Cyd Charisse had it’s premiere at the El Portal on February 21, 1956. The stars appeared that same night on Milton Berle’s color tv show direct from the Copa Room of the Sands Hotel. This was the first color telecast from Las Vegas.
Here is another ad
http://tinyurl.com/y8hgz8y
This is a 1970 ad.
1982 Photo
Here is a night version of the 1973 street photo.
I think I liked Fremont Street better without the canopy. The light show is not too interesting after you see it a dozen times.
1973 photo of the El Portal Theatre.
View link
The theater can be seen in this 1950 photo from the LAPL:
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics47/00043387.jpg
To be fair, LawMann, it wasn’t a theater back then. All you would have seen was the blade sign and marquee. That’s all I saw, and I never guessed that it had been a theater.
I was passing through Downtown Vegas' Fremont St eight years ago after getting off a bus at the Greyhound depot on my way to the bus stop on the Vegas strip and I missed seeing this theatre.
Sad to see the blade sign as the only remaining part of the marquee.
Richard D. King was apparently not the architect of the El Portal. A Southwest Builder & Contractor article from May 13, 1924, said that he was designing a theater and office building for Las Vegas, but that was four years before the El Portal opened. It’s pretty much certain that the architect of the El Portal was Charles Alexander MacNelledge, as the plaque on the building (seen on this page) says. I don’t know if King’s 1924 project was carried out or not, but if it was it has to be some other theater.
An extensive remodeling of the El Portal in 1961, including enlarging the lobby, some alterations to the auditorium, the installation of a new marquee and vertical sign, and redecoration throughout, was handled by architect J. Maher Weller, according to an article in the August 21 issue of Boxoffice Magazine that year.
Here are some photos:
http://tinyurl.com/6dokep
http://tinyurl.com/5z75hz
I’m in front of the El Portal right now. The Fremont light show is going on.
Here’s an image of the El Portal’s single-floor auditorium. Note that the last four rows comprised a “loge” section, with larger and plusher seats than those in front of it. The loge tickets were almost certainly priced a bit higher than general admission, and may also have included the right to smoke during performances:
View link
I was in error regarding the Wurlitzer organ. It was an original installation, Opus #1854, shipped from the Wurlitzer factory on March 8, 1928.
Gambling didn’t become a major industry in Las Vegas until 1931, when it was “legalized.”
An appropriate movie to open in Vegas.
The El Portal opened on June 21 ,1928. The architect was Rishard D. King of Los Angeles and the contractor was Ryberg-Sorensen. When the El Potal opened, Cragin & Pike closed the Majestic theatre. It appears that the Wurlitzer organ was moved from the Majestic to the El Portal.
The opening film was “Ladies of the Mob” starring Clara Bow.
The 1943 Film Daily Year Book gives a seating capacity of 700 for the El Portal Theatre. Judging from the photo in Classic Images, it was a single floor auditorium, with no balcony.