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Beacon

The Beacon Theater is an historic [[New York City] [[theater] on upper [[Broadway (New York City)|Broadway] in [[Manhattan]. It is 2,800-seat, three-tiered live performance venue in a former [[movie palace].

History

Opened on December 25, 1929, it was designed by Chicago architect [[Walter W. Ahlschlager], architect of the [[Roxy Theater]. It was first operated as [[vaudeville] and movie theater by the [[Warner Brothers] theater circuit. It was not sucessful in this, due to the declining audiences of the depression era and the distance of the house from the Midtown theater district. Within a few years it had been taken over by the local Brandt Theater Circuit and operated as a double-bill neighborhood movie house until the 1960s.

In the early 1960's, the Beacon became one of the theaters participating in the "premier Showcase" program of the [[United Artists] company, whereby major first run movies were premiered in several theaters througout a city instead of one major downtown house as had been the norm in the industry until that time.

Removing stuff moved to George Washington Smith (architect)

Some buidlings by GW Smith:

[Lobero Theater]], Santa Barbara.[1]
[Jackling House]], Woodside.[2]
Brice house "Florestal", Hope Ranch, Santa Barbara, 1925.[3]
Clubhouse, Cypress Point, Pebble Beach.[4]
Casa del Herrero (house of the blacksmith), built in the mid 1920s for St. Louis industrialist George Steedman, is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The house is owned by the non-profit Casa del Herero foundation, and can be visited by appointment.

Influences of and by GW Smith:

In Europe, Smith had encountered the early work of [Le Corbusier]] and was much impressed by its simplicity and organization, though he found it a bit severe overall.

Various types of [Mediterranean Revival Style Architecture]] include the early [Mission Revival Style architecture|Mission Revival style]], the [Spanish Colonial Revival Style architecture|Spanish Colonial Revival style]] exemplified by [Bertram Goodhue]], and the work of the slightly earlier and more modernist [Irving Gill]]. In fact, one of Gill's best known works, the Walter L. Dodge House, was completed in 1916, the same year as Smiths first house, and was widely published in architecture and design magazines. Goodhue's [Churrigueresque]] inspired buildings for the [Panama-California Exposition]] held in San Diego the same year as the San Francisco exposition were also widely publicized. This was the milieu of ferment, experimentation, and Spanish-influenced work into which Smith introduced his first house.

Influenced: Reginald Johnson, Carleton Winslow, [Wallace Neff]], Myron Hunt, John Byers, [Gordon Kaufmann]], Roland E. Coate, Joe Plunkett, Francis Underhill, Mott(?) Marston, Garrett Van Pelt. His assitant Lutah Maria Riggs went on to a career of her own which lasted into the second half of the twentieth century.

Builder vernacular houses of the Spanish style ranged from spacious middle class dwellings with full tile roofs to small flat-roofed working class cottages with a bit of tile trim, an arched front window, and perhaps a small porch with an open arch. Such houses were erected by the thousands in every direction from Los Angeles, dominating entire suburban blocks developed in the 1920s.

On-line sources about GW Smith