Warnor's Theatre

Here is another recent shot:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cakeight/3714781977

Fresno’s Cinerama history posted here.

Here is a vintage photo, probably circa 1950s:
http://tinyurl.com/cz2azq

This is an August 2008 photo.

Here is another recent photo.

How funny that they only changed one letter to save money. In LA, the downtown Warners theater became Warren’s for a while, but that would have meant replacing no letters, just reversing the last syllable.

A 2007 view of the Warnor’s Theater at night can be seen here.

Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978

Pantages, Alexander, Theater (added 1978 – Building – #78000663)
Also known as Warnors Theatre
1400 Fulton St., Fresno
Historic Significance: Person, Event, Architecture/Engineering
Architect, builder, or engineer: Priteca,B. Marcus
Architectural Style: Other
Historic Person: Pantages,Alexander
Significant Year: 1929, 1967, 1928
Area of Significance: Architecture, Performing Arts
Period of Significance: 1900-1924, 1925-1949, 1950-1974, 1975-2000
Owner: Private
Historic Function: Recreation And Culture
Historic Sub-function: Theater
Current Function: Commerce/Trade, Education, Recreation And Culture, Social
Current Sub-function: Civic, Organizational, Theater

Here is an extensive essay on the Pantages/Warnor’s, at the Historic Fresno web site. The theatre is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Warnors theatre was highlighted this evening on California’s Gold with Huell Howser on a Los Angeles PBS station. I’m sure it can be ordered, or information when it is broadcast again can be found at
http://www.calgold.com/

Calfornia’s Gold – show 8008

Warnors Theatre

Another long ago memory of the Warners Theatre. In the mid 1950s, I was still a young boy living in Fresno. My parents bought tickets for us to see Betty Hutton, live, on stage, at the Warners Theatre. She was trying out what would be her Las Vegas stage show in several small towns, Fresno included. It was a very rainy Sunday afternoon when we went to Betty’s show at the Warners Theatre. Only a handful of people had bought tickets to see the famous motion picture star of “Annie Get Your Gun” and “The Greatest Show On Earth”. My parents, both born and raised in New York City, were embarrassed that Fresnans did not support this star in her live performance. But, back then, Fresno was a small agricultural town of about 50,000 people. Today the population is nearly 500,000. As I remember, Miss Hutton’s live show was a high-energy musical-comedy treat. But the audience was scant. It’s unlikely that anyone else who visits this site will remember Betty Hutton, live at Warner’s Theatre, because there were so few of us there.

I remember well that Cinerama came to Fresno, California, at the Warner Cinerama Theatre. As a child, I saw “Gidget” there; “Auntie Mame,” “The Pajama Game,” and scores of other motion pictures. I remember the theatre manager, Bill Korenbrott (sp?) He once claimed that I spent almost as much time at the theatre as he. As a very young adult, I was working in advertising and publicity at Cinerama Releasing Corp., at 292 La Cienega, Beverly Hills. One day, Korenbrott walked into my office. Delighted and surprised to see one another, we chatted about the “old days” at the Warner Theatre. It didn’t become Warnor till sometime after I ankled Fresno in 1969.

In Cinerama, I remember “How The West Was Won,” “The Wonderful World of The Brothers Grimm,” “Cinerama Holiday,” and others in the 3-strip process, at the theatre.