Catalina Casino - Avalon, Catalina Island, CA
Posted by: 
Metro2
N 33° 20.932 W 118° 19.565
11S E 376608 N 3690748
This casino is not a gambling facility but a museum, ballroom and theater...and it is a bookcrossing zone.
Waymark Code: WMR9W8
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 05/28/2016
Views: 5
Wikipedia (
visit link) informs us:
"The Catalina Casino is located in Avalon on Santa Catalina Island, off the coast of Los Angeles in California. It is the most visible landmark in Avalon Bay, and when approaching it from the mainland.
The large building contains a movie theatre, ballroom, and island art and history museum. The Catalina Casino gets its name from the Italian language term casino, meaning a "gathering place." There is no gambling at the facility.
History
The Catalina Casino was built on a site formerly known as Sugarloaf Point. The site was graded for the planned construction of the Hotel St. Catherine. However, it was eventually built in Descanso Canyon instead. When chewing gum magnate William Wrigley Jr. bought the controlling stake in Catalina Island in 1919, he used this cleared site to build a dance hall he named Sugarloaf Casino. It served as a ballroom and Avalon's first high school, until it became too small for Avalon's growing population. In 1928, the Sugarloaf was razed to make room for a newer casino building. Sugarloaf Rock was further blasted away to enhance the Casino's ocean view.
On May 29, 1929, the new Catalina Casino was completed under the direction of Wrigley and David M. Renton, at a cost of 2 million dollars. Its design, by Sumner Spaulding and Walter Weber, is in the Art Deco and Mediterranean Revival styles. It was the first movie theatre to be designed specifically for films with sound ("talkies"). It received the Honor Award from the California Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, as "one of the outstanding architectural accomplishments."
With a height equal to a 12-story building, it was built to serve as a theatre on the main floor and a ballroom and promenade on the upper level. Movie studio tycoons such as Cecil B. DeMille, Louis B. Mayer, and Samuel Goldwyn frequently came by yacht to the Casino to preview their newest cinema productions. It also serves as the island's civil defense shelter, large enough to accommodate Catalina's entire year-round population. Within its walls is stored enough food and water for all Avalon's residents for two weeks.
The steel structure of the predecessor Sugarloaf Casino can still be found in Avalon's abandoned bird park. The bird park was conceived by Mrs. Wrigley in the 1930s, and at the time it was one of the largest aviaries in the world.
In 1993 the movie theater was photographed by Hiroshi Sugimoto, for his art series "Theatres."
In September 2008, the Catalina Casino had the first live full production of a musical on its stage, when the Santa Catalina Island Company presented Grease!."