Anthony Heinsbergen

Another prominent theatre muralist was Anthony Heinsbergen (1894-1981). At an early age Heinsbergen’s family moved to Los Angeles where he spent his adult life. After early commissions Heinsbergen painted a mural in a new theatre built by impresario Alexander Pantages. This started a fruitful relationship that resulted in murals in over 20 theatres that Pantages would go on to build.

Heinsbergen started a painting company in 1918 that would go on to employ nearly 200 people at its height. One source states that the studio painted murals in 757 theatres. Heinsbergen’s son Tony joined the company full time in 1951 and worked with his father for decades.

Above are a pair of murals painted by Heinsbergen that are on the auditorium side walls of the United Artists theatre in Los Angeles. In the lower third of either paintings you can see the founders of the United Artists movie studio, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith.

Heinsbergen’s work occasionally courted controversy for provocative themes and depictions of women that were deemed immodest for the 1920s and 1930s. Several murals in the Tower Theatre had to be modified due to this prior to the theatre’s opening. Above is an image and detailed view of the 1927 mural that stood above the proscenium. I am not sure if this is one of the murals that had to be modified but it has since been covered up.