The Pasadena Playhouse

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Visit our Tour Destination: Southern California page to see the entire tour of the area’s Save America’s Treasures sites.

Historic photo of the interior of The Pasadena Playhouse.
Photo courtesy of The Pasadena Playhouse.

The Pasadena Playhouse

39 South El Molino Avenue

Pasadena, CA

Website:  The Pasadena Playhouse

The Treasure:  During the first half of the 20th century, The Pasadena Playhouse was the center of live theater in southern California, offering a training ground for Hollywood actors and an alternative entertainment for the Pasadena community. Completed in 1925, The Pasadena Playhouse is a Spanish Colonial Revival building representative of the work of Los Angeles architect Elmer Grey.

Accessibility:  Check their website and schedule a play into your Tour America’s Treasures itinerary! In addition, you can request a tour of the historic theater to get the backstage story.

Gilmor Brown, founder of
the Pasadena Playhouse.
Photo courtesy of
The Pasadena Playhouse.

Background:  The history of The Pasadena Playhouse is inextricably tied to the tireless achievements of its ambitious founder, Gilmor Brown. Born in North Dakota sometime around 1880, Brown studied theatrical arts in Chicago, toured with several companies as an actor, and then recruited friends and family into his own repertory company. Known as the Savory Players, they settled in Pasadena in 1917.

Down the road from Pasadena, Hollywood’s film industry was still in its infancy but growing fast. There was a hunger for a live theater scene and  Brown’s troupe was swiftly embraced as an important community asset. Brown established the Community Playhouse Association of Pasadena, presenting performances wherever he could, most frequently in the Savoy Theater, a renovated burlesque house. By 1924, his troupe was established enough to be able to raise local support to build The Pasadena Playhouse.

Gilmor Brown was a restless innovator during the 1920s. His main large playhouse was technically sophisticated on a par with the best in the east and could accommodate up to five staging areas. He experimented with theater-in-the-round techniques with his special Fairoaks Playbox theatre. And he managed a College of Theatre Arts within The Playhouse, training theater actors and polishing the talents of would-be film stars. Impressed by this busy theater community, playwright George Bernard Shaw dubbed Pasadena “the Athens of the West.” Shortly after The Pasadena Playhouse achieved the notable distinction of being the first American theater to present the full Shakespearean canon, the California legislature recognized the importance of its work by declaring it the official State Theatre in 1937.

The 686-seat theater nurtured the careers of many up-and-coming stars over the years. Some of the notable names include: Dana Andrews, Raymond Burr, Robert Preston, Ruth Buzzi, Jamie Farr, Charles Bronson, Gene Hackman, Victor Jory, Victor Mature, Lloyd Nolan, Tyrone Power, George Reeves, Randolph Scott, Sally Struthers, Harry Dean Stanton, Gloria Stuart, Robert Taylor, Gig Young, Robert Young, Dustin Hoffman, and Gene Hackman.

Historic photo of actors relaxing on The Pasadena Playhouse patio.
Photo courtesy of The Pasadena Playhouse.

Historic photo of stagehands painting the fire curtain at The Pasadena Playhouse.
Photo courtesy of The Pasadena Playhouse.

Notes from the Editor:  In the late 1920s, Randolph Scott was bumming around in Hollywood, getting occasional bit parts in movies. Cecil B. DeMille told him to get some acting experience at The Pasadena Playhouse. Scott followed his advice, learned his craft, and went on to became a major cowboy star, concluding his career with Sam Peckinpah’s magnificent Ride the High Country in 1962.

After graduating from high school, Robert Preston studied acting at The Pasadena Playhouse in the late 1930s. Preston was a mid-level Hollywood actor for many years, but his career really took off on the Broadway stage when he landed the role of a lifetime, “Professor” Harold Hill in The Music Man. 

A 20-year-old Raymond Burr arrived at The Pasadena Playhouse in 1937 and learned his trade there. For many years, he worked as a dependable supporting actor in Hollywood movies before hitting iconic stardom as TV’s Perry Mason.

Dustin Hoffman dropped out of Santa Monica College in 1957 to join The Pasadena Playhouse. There he met Gene Hackman. Both had major careers ahead of them.

For each of them and many more, The Pasadena Playhouse was where it all began.

Other Recommended Sites:  The Pasadena Playhouse was in the forefront when television first rocked the entertainment industry. The Playhouse built and operated one of Southern California’s first TV stations, KTTV. For more television and movie history, Burbank and Universal City are just a few miles further west on Ventura Freeway. In the Burbank area, you can visit NBC Studios, Sony Pictures Studio, Warner Brothers Studio, and Universal Studios. Watch for stars. They work here.

Historic photo of the 1924 groundbreaking for The Pasadena Playhouse.
Photo courtesy of The Pasadena Playhouse.

Tour America's History Itinerary

Monday’s destination:  Campo de Cahuenga
Wednesday’s destination:  San Diego Museum of Man

© 2012 Lee Price