The California Theatre is a performing arts venue located in the historic Downtown area of San Bernardino, California. Originally a part of the Fox Theatre chain, it opened in 1928 and still houses its original Wurlitzer Style 216 pipe organ. It was also the last performance venue of Will Rogers prior to his death in a 1935 plane crash.
In the early years of Hollywood, filmmakers would test-screen their movies at the California Theatre. Classic films such as "King Kong" and "The Wizard of Oz" were first seen by audiences at the theatre in the 1930s.
The theatre is managed by Theatrical Arts International, the largest theatre company in the Inland Empire, which presents Broadway tours from the national touring circuit, and has hosted the San Bernardino Symphony since 1929. The theatre has recently hosted the tapings of Showtime's "The Latin Divas of Comedy", and "The Payaso Comedy Slam".
Famous quotes containing the words california and/or theatre:
“The California fever is not likely to take us off.... There is neither romance nor glory in digging for gold after the manner of the pictures in the geography of diamond washing in Brazil.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“Glorious bouquets and storms of applause ... are the trimmings which every artist naturally enjoys. But to move an audience in such a role, to hear in the applause that unmistakable note which breaks through good theatre manners and comes from the heart, is to feel that you have won through to life itself. Such pleasure does not vanish with the fall of the curtain, but becomes part of one’s own life.”
—Dame Alice Markova (b. 1910)