More Info on the History of the Huntridge Theater

I was reading the paperwork for the nomination of the Huntridge Theater to be designated a place on the National Registry of Historic Places.  It makes for interesting reading.  The nomination is dated Feb. 22nd, 1993.  You can read in its entirety here.

Reading, I was reminded of the circular driveway that used to be there in front of the theater.  I had long forgotten about it but the minute I read about it, I saw it clearly in mind as if it were yesterday.  I remember standing in lines that used to snake down to Charleston Blvd and then turn east for the blockbuster movies. 

I vividly remember the old Post Office, the Huntridge Station, that was next door (in what used to be Cima Mattress) but have no recollection of a bank.  The Restaurant Supply Store on the east side of the property used to be Oran Gragson Furniture.  I remember my mom shopping for furniture there when Oran Gragson was also the mayor.

As you approached, the ticket booth was to the right of the entrance, though I also vaguely recall it having its own ticket booth when I was quite young. But my memory may be playing tricks on me there.  Once in the lobby, the concession stand was to the right and the big doors leading into the auditorium were to the left.  The projection booth (and separate  cry room) were accessible by stairs via a door on the other side of the concession area.  The auditorium seated 1000 people (but since this report was filed, the interior has all been gutted). 

Also according to the nomination, the neon signage used to be in script.   The theater interior  had been halved sometime in the early 1980s but by the time that the Friends of the Huntridge had entered the picture, they had taken down the dividing wall and turned the auditorium back into a large facility.

The Original murals were painted over long ago as were the ones in the adjoining Post Office.

Despite those changes to the building, the nomination made the case for the building, noting that much of the architectural features that were part of the original building were still there. 

Of all the movie theaters of my youth, the Huntridge is the last one standing.  The El Portal was long ago refurbished (and the signage and marquee altered) into a gift shop and all the others have been torn down.  

The double-bill that opened the Huntridge on October 10th, 1944 were "Hellzapoppin" and "Hi, Neighbor".  There was a contest to name the movie stars and the winner received 10 free guest passes and a $25 War Bond.  The Huntridge Neighborhood, located behind the theater, provided many of the patrons.  

Lloyd and Edythe Katz were granted a 27-year lease on the theater in 1951.  Katz was a well-known Southern California theater promoter and he brought with him his numerous studio and star connections.  His widow, Edythe told me in a 2005 interview that Lloyd was quite a showman and he knew how to promote.  The Huntridge was soon the most popular theater in town.  The Katz's were also more liberal than the owner of the El Portal, former mayor Ernie Cragin.  The El Portal had a strict segregation policy.  The Huntridge, however, was much more open-minded and did not follow a strict policy.  In addition to the Huntridge, the Katz's also ran the Fremont Theater (next to the Fremont Hotel) and the Guild Theater both located downtown.  The Katz's ran the Huntridge until 1978 when it was purchased by local contractor Frank Silvaggio.  The Silvaggio's are a long-time Las Vegas family.

In 1947, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello appeared live on the stage of the Huntridge to promote their movie "Buck Privates Come Home".   Judy Garland, Jerry Lewis, Marlene Dietrich and Frank Sinatra all appeared in support of their movies that premiered there.  While the "Las Vegas Story" premiered at the Fremont Theater downtown, the crowd was so large that the film also premiered at the Huntridge with Katz "bicycling" the prints between the two theaters.

The theater is a combination of Streamline Moderne and International styles of architecture and the prominent exterior features are still there.   The nomination also notes that it is one of the few remaining Las Vegas cultural buildings still standing from the 1940s.

Today, the building is in poor condition and one would never guess of its history and its meaning to the long-timers who whiled many a Saturday afternoon there as children, ushers and parents.

We believe that is vital for everyone who loves Las Vegas history and loves the Huntridge to speak up in support of saving this community treasure.  Please leave your comments below.  I will be sure that they get heard. 

We will be discussing this topic at the Friends of Classic Las Vegas monthly meeting on March 9th.  Stay tuned. 

Huntridge Tops the List of Immediately Endangered Buildings

Well, there's been lots of talk all day in back circles about the big news:

The venerable Huntridge Theater, one of the movie theaters of not only my youth but all of us of a certain age, is in very real danger.

Emails are flying back and forth between preservation groups and everyone is waiting to see what the Las Vegas Sun reports in the morning.

Word on the street is that the owner of the Huntridge, Eli Mizrachi is going to approach the State Cultural Affairs Commission in March.  Seems that Mizrachi wants to pay back the money he got from the State for restoration of the Huntridge years ago.  In return, he is hoping to get permission TO TEAR DOWN the Huntridge.

On Friday the Cultural Affairs Commission discussed allowing current Huntridge owner Eli Mizrachi repay the state $1.5 million in grant money that was designated to renovate and restore the Huntridge into a top-notch performing venue. Mizrachi wants to cut the strings attached to the money. Right now he can't demolish the building or even alter it without prior approval from the State Historic Preservation Officer. And, its use has to be as a performing arts space. 

But if he gets permission from the Cultural Affairs Commission and Ron James, the State Historic Preservation Officer, to repay the money, then the road will be clear for Mizrachi to approach the City of Las Vegas Planning Commission  about razing the building and building something new there.

This will be a lightning rod issue for all the preservation groups.  The historic theater designed by renowned theater architect S. Charles Lee and originally owned, in part,  by Loretta Young and Irene Dunne has been a part of the Las Vegas landscape since the 1940s.

Frank Sinatra premiered his movie "Suddenly" there selling tickets from the box office to the adoring crowds.  It was the home of Disney animated features when I was younger.  It has been a theater, a night club and a performing arts venue.  There are people in town who very much want to see it returned to its former glory as a performing arts venue that provides not only for the community at large but for the near-by historic neighborhoods as well.

This one will likely create a firestorm of opinions.

So stay tuned.  We will update this story in the morning as soon as we have more information.

In the meantime, here's two previous articles on the history of the Huntridge:

http://classiclasvegas.squarespace.com/classic-las-vegas-blog/2008/2/14/las-vegas-theaters-and-movies-i-remember.html

http://classiclasvegas.squarespace.com/historic-site-of-the-week/2007/9/12/endangered-site-of-the-week.html 

 

 

 

Special Thanks to RoadsidePictures for allowing us to use this image. 

Also blogging about this issue is the crew from VeryVintageVegas.com 

Water, the Scotch 80s and the First Mayor of Las Vegas

 

Pete Buol watches water flow like black gold out of an artesian well. 

Las Vegas mayors seem to have always been a colorful group.  Then as now, they were frequently outspoken and seemed to attract controversy. Though Las Vegas was founded in 1905 with the famed land auction it would be six years before the citizens of that small dusty community felt the need for a mayor.  The city of Las Vegas was incorporated in 1911 and with that brought the need for a mayor.

The first mayor was also one of the biggest civic boosters.  Along with "Big Jim" Cashman, Sr and Maxwell Kelch, Las Vegas city boosters tend to have larger than life personalities.  Pete Buol was no exception.  He was the optimistic sort who looked at that dusty railroad town and could see a brighter future ahead.  Not everyone has that knack and Buol appears to have possessed it in spades.   According to his campaign literature "ability doesn't count, knowledge is useless, experience has no worth without the driving force of optimism."   He had grown up in Chicago, the son of a Swiss master chef.  He had an eighth grade education but more importantly, he had ambition.

 

Pete Buol the first mayor of Las Vegas 

He won a lottery at 19 and found himself worth over $100,000.  Unfortunately for Buol, he didn't have the acumen for finances and quickly ran through the money.  He made another small fortune with a food concession at the Chicago's Exposition.  He served over 5,000 people a day, charging $.25 cents a meal.

He came west and spent some time in Hollywood before heading to Nevada.  He had hoped to invest in a mine in Goldfield but, as he later told a reporter, his bankroll was too small in Goldfield to have much of an impact.  He decided to go to Las Vegas.  He arrived by stagecoach just ahead of the railroad and the land auction.

The town was barely a town.  There was the old Kiel Ranch, the Stewart Ranch and a couple of wildcat businessmen, Jim Ladd and John Miller, had some tent hotels.  The only physician in town, Halle Hewetson, operated out of a tent.   Buol decided that real estate might be worth investing in. 

In 1905, at the land auction, Buol had two subdivisions for sale.  Buol's Addition, which was just west of the railyard, shops and Ice Plant and Buol's Sub-division was "just far enough away to be out of the noise and smoke of the shops and engines."

Buol quickly realized that one of the most important elements of selling real estate in this climate was water.  The Railroad had secured the water rights to Big Springs, the large artesian springs,  which fed the creek that ran down to the Stewart Ranch (where the Sawyer Government Building is today).  But Buol noticed that there were other artesian springs bubbling up around the valley.  Less than six months after the land auction, Buol was the manager of the Vegas Artesian Water Syndicate and he was ready to start drilling for water.

Buol was not the only one drilling for water.  Others were drilling for irrigation and crops.  Buol was drilling to enhance housing development.  In 1910, he brought in a large well near 6th and Fremont (near where the El Cortez is today), adjacent to his Buck's Addition. 

The railroad had long resisted supplying water to those outside the original township.  But with Buol's water supply, the area east on Fremont and north (to where the freeway is today) was able to develop into a very residential area. 

Buol and a friend ran for mayor because no one, according to Buol, was interested in the job.  He won by 10 votes.  His salary was $15 a month.  One of his first orders of business was rules for business licenses.    He served for two years, being succeeded by the man who had run against him, his friend Bill Hawkins.  He was then elected to the assembly.

He and his wife built a home at Seventh and Ogden.  According to writer A.D. Hopkins, their house had "walls eight inches thick, adobe inside and brick without, porches on all four sides, and a peaked roof, it was said to be the coolest in summer and warmest in winter of any in town. Its eight rooms were heated with wood fireplaces. "  When Mrs. Buol entertained her lady friends, Buol would serve them gourmet dishes harking back to his gourmet days with his father.

Through his connections, Buol met a Scotsman, Sir John Murray.  Murray had traveled extensively around the United States.  The two men corresponded and Buol traveled overseas to pitch an idea for a new development to the wealthy Scot.  Murray agreed to invest $100,000 in the new development ot be located on the far west side of the train tracks.  Buol returned home a hero to the townsfolk who were worried about the continued growth of the town.

Unfortunately, World War I interfered with Buol's plans.  Once Britian entered the Great War there was a ban on all exported assets.  Buol had to abandon his idea of an agricultural oasis just outside of the little town he loved.  However, the name stayed attached to the development and later become one of the most sought-out addresses for those who could afford it, the Scotch 80s.

Buol continued speculating.  Some of his efforts are now long-forgotten such as the little town of Johnnie or Plantina (near where Sandy Valley is today).  However, he invested in a lime deposit that helped establish the town of Sloan.   He had a borax claim that was said to have netted him $250,000 when he sold it to Francis "Borax" Smith.

In 1925, Buol and his family left the little town that he had done so much to develop and moved to the California Coast.  He continued to pursue his mining claims and was badly injured in a mine cave-in in 1929.  He died ten years later following a stroke.

Though he made a great deal of money during his lifetime, he died relatively poor.  But Pete Buol's legacy lives on in the town that he believed in so fervently, the Scotch 80s are still one of the most sought off addresses in VeryVintageVegas. 

Special thanks to the Las Vegas Review Journal for letting us use these images.

If you are interested in a home in the Scotch 80s, we encourage you to contact the crew at VeryVintageVegas.com 

Moulin Rouge may be coming back to life!

 

In all the hubbub of last week, we forgot to shine the spotlight on this very important news.

According to an article in the Las Vegas Review Journal , out-of-town investors have partnered with the local Moulin Rouge Development Corp. to revitalize the once-proud hotel/casino on Bonanza Road.

The Moulin Rouge, of course, was the first segregated hotel in Las Vegas and opened on the Westside in 1955.  It quickly became the 'in' spot with its dance troupe from the famed Cotton Club in New York and a nightly list of entertainment that kept the joint jumping until the early hours of the morning.  

Despite its seeming success, the hotel closed abruptly months later.  Despite many different efforts to re-open the fabled casino and showroom, for too many years the property sat empty and forlorn.  In 2003, work began on restoring the casino and the showroom.  Unfortunately, in 2004, an arson fire gutted all but the front wall and Betty Willis' iconic sign.

That serious money is being invested with a look towards rebuilding and restoring the Moulin Rouge is great news.  We hope this time it comes to pass.

To read the article, click here.