#grauman

[weirdlandtv]

Marilyn Monroe (and Jane Russell) at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre to place her hands and feet in cement. June 1953.

[weirdlandtv]

Marilyn Monroe (and Jane Russell) at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre to place her hands and feet in cement, in June 1953.

Have you seen footage of this ceremony? I always have to laugh at Marilyn’s clumsiness—her nerves. First, during the presentation, she almost bumps into the host. Then she fights to keeps her balance, then she sticks her foot out too early. Nerves always overtook her, no matter how she prepared.

[archinform]

William Lee Woollett, Architect

by Roger Jones, August 10, 2023

William Lee Woollett (1873-1955) was an American architect who practiced mainly in California. He designed theaters in Los Angeles in the 1920s, including the largest movie theater ever built in the city, Grauman's Metropolitan Theater, which opened in 1923. Woollett was born in Albany, New York, on November 13, 1873 to William M. and Sarah Louise Woollett. Woollett senior was also an architect.

Around 1892, Woollett studied architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He apprenticed as a draftsman for Fehmer & Page, Architects, Boston, MA (1892-1896).

Woollett returned to Albany in 1896 to open his office. He was joined a few years later by his younger brother, John Woodward Woollett, also an architect. Together, they founded the firm, Woollett and Woollett Architects becoming the 3rd consecutive generation of Woolletts to practice architecture in Albany. After the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, Woollett and Woollett opened a branch office in San Francisco. William Woollett moved his family to Berkeley in 1908 and closed the Albany office. Woollett and Woollett was located in San Francisco until 1917 when William Lee Woollett relocated to Los Angeles. In 1921, the firm relocated permanently to Los Angeles. [Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Lee_Woollett]

There is little biographical information on Woollett; to date, I haven't even been able to locate an obituary. The fact that he was part of a dynasty of Woollett architects (grandfather William Lee, father William M., William Lee and his brother John W., a son William Lee, and a grandson Joseph L.) is interesting in itself; William Jr. or II, FAIA (1901-1988) provides a brief account of his own professional beginnings in his book California's Golden Age. [https://archive.org/details/californiasgolde00wool/page/n1/mode/2up; limited preview]

Woollett published articles (including Concrete in Creative Architecture, Scene Painting in Architecture, both linked below), illustrations, and competition designs in various journals.

William Lee Woollett, Competitive Design for Public Library in Davenport Iowa. The American Architect Feb. 1901

An outline of Woollett's working life is given in his PCAD entry:

From Pacific Coast Architecture Database (PCAD) entry William Lee Woollett (Architect):

Résumé Draftsman, Fehmer and Page, Architects, Boston, MA, c. 1892-1896. Partner, William Lee Woollett and John W. Woollett, Albany, NY, -1906. This firm operated solely in the Albany, NY, area until 1906. A note in the Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide of 04/18/1903 stated: "William L. Woollett, architect, of Albany, has completed plans for alterations to St. Peter's Hospital, Albany, to cost $10,000, and for an addition 65x45, to cost $50,000. The latter will be fireproof and contain all appliances that go to equip a modern hospital. No expense will be spared to furnish the best plumbing,, heating and ventilating apparatus. The contract for the carpentry has been let to Patrick McCann, and the masonry to Collins Bros."... Partner, Woollett and [J.W] Woollett, Architects, San Francisco, CA, and Albany, NY, 1907-1917. It appears that Woollett chose to leave Albany to start a new branch of the Woollett and Woollett architectural firm in San Francisco following the Great Earthquake and Fire of 04/18/1906.Woollett and Woollett had its office in the Monadnock Building in 1907-1908.... In 1915, the Woollett and Woollett office was located at 260 California Street in San Francisco.... On his World War I draft registration form, Woollett indicated that he lived in Los Angeles, but worked in Sacramento, CA. In 1921, his office was located at 405 South Hill Street, Room #216. (See Los Angeles, California, City Directory, 1921, p. 2688.) He moved to new quarters at523 West 6th Street, Room #1121, by 1924. (See Los Angeles, California, City Directory, 1924, p. 2393.) Professional Activities Woollett served on the Los Angeles Municipal Art Commission until 1936.

Some of Woollett's significant buildings are illustrated below. Perhaps a scholar with access to the Woollett papers at UC Santa Barbara will someday compile a catalogue raisonné of his work, along with a more complete biography.

Tajo Building, Los Angeles, 1897, George Herbert Wyman and William Lee Woollett, architects

San Francisco Armory, 1914, Woollett and Woollett, architects

Arensberg House, Los Angeles, 1921

Eagle Rock City Hall, 1923. Security Pacific Photograph Collection, Los Angeles Public Library

Los Angeles Public Library, Malabar Branch, 1927

Proposed design for a Los Angeles Civic Center, 1936

Woollett was responsible for the designs of three movie theaters in Los Angeles: The Rialto (Quinn’s Rialto opened 1917, designed by A.R. Walker; remodeled by Woollett after Sid Grauman’s purchase in 1919); the Million Dollar Theater of 1918 (Albert C. Martin, architect of the office building and exterior; theater interior designed by Woollett); and Grauman’s Metropolitan of 1923 (Edwin Bergstrom, building architect, theater interior designed by Woollett; renamed the Paramount in 1929).

Quinn's Rialto, 1917, exterior. Security Pacific Photograph Collection, Los Angeles Public Library

Rialto Theater, as remodeled by Woollett, 1919

Grauman's Million Dollar Theatre and office building, Los Angeles, 1918

Grauman's Million Dollar Theatre, opening night, February 1, 1918

Grauman's Metropolitan Theater, Los Angeles

Grauman's Metropolitan opened with great fanfare on Friday January 26, 1923, showing "My American Wife" starring Gloria Swanson and Antonio Moreno. Gloria and several other stars of the picture attended, with the stage portion of the program headlined by Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians.

The L.A. Times had quoted Grauman as saying "The Metropolitan Theater is to be the very center of the motion-picture universe," noting that the rest of the opening night program would include "The Star Spangled Banner" with the orchestra plus Henry Murtagh at the organ. There would be a chorus of 500 and an unfurling of what was said to be the largest flag in the world. Following this patriotic display would be the overture and "Pilgrim’s Chorus" from "Tannhauser" then "Ave Maria" with forty violinists and "eight expert harpists." “Dancing acts in which a ballet of 200 artists will be employed." [Source: Los Angeles Times, January 21, 1923, cited in Metropolitan / Paramount Theatre: History at https://losangelestheatres.blogspot.com/2018/10/metropolitan-theatre.html]

Views of the theater and its interior have been extensively reproduced on the website misterdangerous as well as Los Angeles Theatres; links to the PDF versions of some of the publications cited are included in the Links section below. Some representative illustrations are shown here.

The office building's architect was George Edwin Bergstrom, and the theater interior was designed by Woollett. Bergstrom probably gained significant amounts of expertise in reinforced concrete construction in his work on industrial buildings; these skills would have been profitably used in the Metropolitan building.

With 3,600 seats, the Metropolitan was the largest movie house ever built in Los Angeles. Its construction was a marvel; its poured concrete had to be supported by huge wooden armature (about 400,000 board feet of lumber went into the "falsework" alone). Ten roof trusses spanned 126 feet, the largest truss supported the four balcony cantilevers, absorbing 100 tons of reinforcing steel and 570 cubic yards of concrete, poured in a continuous run of 47 hours. [Source: Theatre Historical Society Annual No. 23, 1996]

Graumans's Metropolitan, S. Hill and 6th Streets, Los Angeles. Address: 323 W. 6th St., 536 S. Hill St. and 553 S. Broadway  Los Angeles, CA 90014

Grauman's Metropolitan theater marquee

Originally intended to rise 13 stories (then the building height limit in Los Angeles), the final height was six stories.

The main theater entrance was on 6th Street, with a side entrance on Hill Street, facing Pershing Square. A short-lived third entrance on Broadway featured both a mammoth cast-concrete sculpture and an escalator leading to a bridge connecting to the theater building. This entrance was closed in 1926.

Screen actress Mae Murray admires the lobby of the Broadway entrance to the Metropolitan

After nearly 30 months of construction, upon the Metropolitan's opening the theater's design was greeted with both confusion and admiration. Idiosyncratic details such as the bizarre sculptures of a "snail deer" and a clawed figure of a garden slug with human face titled "Procrastination" must have both amused and repelled the public.

Opening night advertisement

Theater mezzanine, from Concrete in Architecture

Model of snail deer, "Aspiration" from a drawing by Mr. Woollett, The Architect and Engineer

"Procrastination" sculpture

Sketch for interior of a theater, crayon drawing by Wm. Lee Woollett, The Architect and Engineer, May 1923

Proscenium, Metropolitan Theater, with the Metropolitan's asbestos curtain. The organ console is in its upper position, above stage level. The mural in the top of the arch was titled "Not By Might, Not By Power." The painted fire curtain, according to Woollett, depicted a satire on Wells' History of the World. From the September 1923 issue of The Building Review.

Sketch for the mural "Not by Might, Not by Power" in the upper proscenium.

Half elevation of proscenium arch, from American Architecture of the 20th Century

Auditorium interior with proscenium

Mural in the Metropolitan Theatre, William Lee Woollett at right. The mural, "Princess of the golden Kingdom," was painted by Paul K. Mays and Steffan Horbaczek. Security Pacific Photograph Collection, Los Angeles Public Library

Grauman was constructing the Egyptian Theater on Hollywood Blvd. at the same time as the Metropolitan; the Egyptian opened in 1922 just months before the Metropolitan, to be followed in 1927 by Grauman's Chinese. Grauman's name in lights above the Metropolitan's marquee remained for only three years; he passed stewardship of the theater to Paramount Pictures, which redubbed it the Paramount in 1929. Grauman had banked on the shifting entertainment district from Broadway in downtown L.A. to Hollywood.

The wall hanging on the house right stairs. "Mr. God" panel in Panne velvet designed by the architect, executed by E.J. MacKeever. Such bizarre details as "the sarcophagus of the unknown dead" must have both amused and perplexed moviegoers. Photo: Architect and Engineer - May 1923

Ushers, Metropolitan Theater

The Theatre Historical Society Annual No. 23, 1996, was devoted to the Metropolitan Theatre, and included selections from from The Architect & Engineer, May 2023.

Section and main floor plan, as reproduced in the Theatre Historical Society Annual, 1996

The theater building was demolished in 1961-62; due to its solid concrete construction, the first demolition contractor went bankrupt, before a second, more knowledgeable, contractor finished the job. The 16-story, 410,000 square feet, $51 million International Jewelry Trade Center, in faceted white granite, opened on the site in 1981, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.

Demolition, 1960s

William Lee Woollett's papers were given to the Architecture and Design Collection of the Art, Design and Architecture Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), in 1981 by his son, William Lee Woollett, FAIA (1901-1988).

Links to PDF Documents:

Concrete and Creative Architecture, The Architect & Engineer, May 1923

Grauman Theater a Work of Art, The Architect & Engineer, May 1923

The Million Dollar Theatre - Los Angeles, California

A New Play House - The International Studio Nov. 1919

Woollett, Scene Painting in Architecture - The Architectural Record Nov 1915

Reflections on the Grauman Metropolitan Theater, Los Angeles, by Bernard Maybeck, the Architect and Engineer

Notable Stage Elevator Installation in the Metropolitan, The Architect and Engineer

Websites:

Metropolitan Theater – Los Angeles - misterdangerous

Finding Aid for the William Lee Woollett papers, circa 1920-circa 1980 0000198

William Lee Woollett Buildings & Publications

A New Administration Center for Los Angeles

Inside the Legendary Art-Filled Home of Walter and Louise Arensberg

Metropolitan / Paramount Theater Los Angeles - images

Los Angeles Theatres; Metropolitan / Paramount Theatre: History

Woolletts in the USA

"Pioneers" and "Editorial," Grauman's Metropolitan Theater, The Building Review, 1923

[sunkentreasurecove]

[silverliningestatesaleslasvegas]

#Hollywood #Grauman’schinesetheatre (at Silver Lining Estate Services, Las Vegas) https://www.instagram.com/p/BtL5kB3HnLe/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1jobfuhhmaott

[rubenaranda]

📍Los Ángeles, California, United States. 🔹 🔹 🔹 #chinese#theatre#oscars#academy#awards#tcl#grauman#movies#los#angeles#peliculas#california#america#united#states#estados#unidos#viaje#travel#destino#turismo#tourist#turista#tourism#trotamundos#AColorStory (en Los Angeles, California)

[madamepigota]

One more week till my #Hollywood trip. Hopefully I can get some better, non-rainy shots of the #Chinesetheater this time. #minivacay #california #Grauman #walkoffame (at TCL Chinese Theatres)

[vittaquinn]

.@SidGrauman's #Egyptian #Theatre, Est. 1922, #HollywoodBlvd, #Hollywood ⭐️ #oldhollywood #vintage #grauman #meyerholler #architecture #historic #1920s #movie #palace #theater #cinema #design #neon #sign #americancinematheque #vintagevitta (at Egyptian Theatre)