Tales from a Scenic Artist and Scholar. Part 907 – Root’s Strand Theatre in Pasadena, 1915

Copyright © 2019 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett

In 1915, Thomas G. Moses wrote, “June 1st, Mama and I started for our first California trip that had no business attached to it, but I found a little when I reached Pasadena, a little misfit at Root’s Strand Theatre.  Fixed it up and settled in full.  This trip I have written up in detail elsewhere.” Moses recorded all of these trips in his travelogues, their whereabouts remain unknown.

The “little misfit” was at J. M. Root’s Strand Theatre, located at 340 E. Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, Strand’s was across the street from the newly built Maryland Hotel. Root managed a circuit of large vaudeville theaters in Iowa and was a member of the Western Vaudeville Managers’ association in Chicago. He was also a major stockholder in two film agencies. Root’s 900-seat movie house was built by Frank Dale for $100,000 and opened on November 25, 1914. Sosman & Landis delivered the scenery for the theater. After the grand opening, the “Los Angeles Times” reported, “Most auspicious was the opening Wednesday night of the beautiful Strand Theater on East Colorado street, near Euclid avenue. The management gave to the public, which was there in a multitude, ‘The Nightingale,’ by Ethel Barrymore, one of the greatest of modern actresses. A feature of the programme was the music by the Strand Symphony Orchestra. The theater itself is a thing of beauty, finished in the handsomest of marble and onyx. A fireproof structure, it is built of brick, concrete and steel. It has a seating capacity of 900” (page 17). The cinema’s picture booth was also noted as the largest in California, equipped with four separate machines, including a Martin rotary converter that changed alternating current into direct current without the use of mercury tubes. The Strand Theater’s boasted a large woman’s retiring room near the inside entrance. It’s lobby, ornamented with Mexican onyx and solid mahogany. Other décor included large Corinthian columns inside lobby and friezes of musical cupids on wall panels.

The 1918 Pasadena City Directory listed the Strand Theatre as “Where You See It First and See it Best,” For All the Family, Best Pictures, Best Music, 340 E. Colorado near Euclid av Phone Fair Oaks 833” (page 423).

Of Moses’ trip, the Oakpark, Illinois, newsletter mentioned his trip. On Saturday, July 24, 1915, the “Oak Leaves” reported, “T. G. Moses Sketching in West Mr. and Mrs. Thomas G. Moses of 233 South Euclid, who are on a seven weeks’ tour of the west, are enjoying the rare scenery of mountains and valleys. Meanwhile Mr. Moses is making sketches of the Grand canyon, Yosemite valley, Mt. Hood, Ranier, Pike’s Peak and scenes in New Mexico, for painting which he contemplates placing on exhibition at Grable’s Art and Gift shop, 112 North Oak Park avenue, upon his return in the early fall” (page 28).

At the end of 1915, Moses commented, “This year’s trip will always be remembered by Mama and I as one of our finest vacations.  I didn’t do quite as much in the way of painting as I should have, but I made a number of pencil sketches and color notes, and I can rely on my very vivid imagination for general scheme of color.”

I am always wanting more time to paint when away, capturing the moment with my brush instead of a camera. There is always the plan to paint the scenes once I home, but life and work point me in a different direction, redirecting my focus.

To be continued…