History of the Tower Theatre: Part I

When the Tower Theatre opened to the public on October 12, 1927 with the FBO film “The Gingham Girl,” it was unusual in several respects.  On the exterior, the terra cotta clock tower was visible from blocks away.  The lavish detail on the outside continued with a bronze and wrought iron marquee, which wrapped around the building on two sides.  Over the marquee was a large arched stained glass window.  The Eighth Street side of the building was decorated with large sign frames and wall niches topped by the nude figures of a director and his starlet. 

Inside, the theater was even more elaborate. Owner H. L. Gumbiner had collaborated with the young architect S. Charles Lee to design a 900-seat movie palace and two stores on a small corner lot no bigger than the average theater lobby.  The wide marble stairway and pillars flanked by a wrap-around mezzanine lobby gave every patron a splendid view of the 400-bulb crystal and bronze chandelier and the huge stained glass window.  Inside the auditorium, a high ceiling topped by a cloud-painted dome made both the main floor and balcony seem spacious.  The double proscenium with side boxes drew the viewer’s attention immediately to the small stage and the screen, which was the prime focus of the theater.  The Tower was built specifically as a movie house, with virtually no stage.  It was the first theater in Los Angeles built to show sound films and was equipped with Warner Brothers Vitaphone sound equipment.  Downstairs was a full basement lobby, children’s play room, restrooms, a refrigeration plant, and dressing rooms.

The story of the Tower cannot be told without emphasizing the contributions of both H. L. Gumbiner and S. Charles Lee, two Jazz Age entrepreneurs who never took no for an answer.  Gumbiner came to Los Angeles from Chicago in the early 1920’s to cash in on the city’s booming real estate market.  He quickly took a lease on both the Cameo Theatre and the Garrick Theatre at Eighth and Broadway.  He operated both theaters as second run houses, but he longed to break into the big time.  In 1926 he announced plans to demolish the 1911 Garrick Theatre and build a new movie palace on that choice corner.  At the same time, S. Charles Lee was just beginning his career as an architect.  His dream was to become one of the top theater designers in the country.  Lee desperately wanted the Tower design job and decided to throw a cocktail party for Gumbiner to convince him to give Lee the job.  They reached an agreement that if Lee could devise a 900-seat movie palace with two stores on that small lot, the job was his.

What Lee delivered was a scale version of a movie palace, complete in every detail including the grand Wurlitzer pipe organ.  Because he was young and adventurous, Lee included many of the latest features in theater design including full air conditioning, sound, an electronic seat indicator system to show vacant seats, a crying room in the balcony for mothers with babies, and one of the largest and best-equipped projection booths on Broadway. Lee had given Gumbiner the best small theater possible to compete with the bigger movie palaces on Broadway.  Opening night was hosted by actor William Demarest, who is remembered by baby boomers as Uncle Charlie on “My Three Sons.”

The main problem was that Gumbiner could not really compete with the big theaters.  He was an independent on a street dominated by the big studios. Each studio had its own large theater along the street and they had no need of Gumbiner’s new house. For the next few years he managed to get films from a few independent studios.  By 1935, the depression and the consolidation of theater chains left Gumbiner no choice but to lease his theater to another chain. The Tower became part of Metropolitan Theatres and showed second run and independent film for the next few years.

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