Wiltern Theatre

Wiltern Theatre. . , The Busiest Intersection in the Country , In 1928 a count of passing cars, trucks and buses revealed the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue to be the busiest intersection in the country. Boosters seized on the news to promote the idea that Wilshire's destiny was to become the Fifth Avenue of the West, the premier shopping street and business address in fast-growing Los Angeles. It was an overly hopeful notion, but it nonetheless changed the way people looked into the future. , Henry de Roulet didn't need a traffic count to know something big was brewing. He sold real estate out of a wood-frame house on the southeast corner of Wilshire and Western, not far from the childhood home of actor Jackie Coogan. De Roulet's Pellissier Tract , named for his grandfather Germain Pellissier, a French sheepherder and land investor who had acquired 140 acres from the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1882 , attracted plenty of buyers. Los Angeles was adding thousands of people a year and migrating west along Wilshire Boulevard. To fulfill its role as the grand concourse of the future, though, de Roulet figured that his corner of Wilshire should be elevated in stature with an eye-catching landmark structure that would exemplify the era's optimism. , He turned to Stiles O. Clements, the young architect who had revived the fortunes of the old-line firm of Morgan, Walls and Clements. De Roulet made an astute choice. Noteworthy Spanish Colonial Revival and Churrigueresque buildings on the boulevard bore Clements' aesthetic stamp, most notably the McKinley Building located close to Western at 3747 Wilshire. Clements, though, was known for his stylistic agility and had begun to propel Los Angeles into the Art Deco era with his striking black-and-gold Richfield tower downtown. For the important crossing of Wilshire and Western, he gave de Roulet a stunning headquarters building that became the talk of the town. , Zigzag Moderne , A gently rounded base filled an entire block of the boulevard, with display windows on the first and second floors to catch the eye of riders on the open top deck of Wilshire buses. Rising out of the base was a Zigzag Moderne tower clad in "Pellissier Green" ceramic tiles, aligned in chevrons that angled toward the sky." Just 12 stories high but with enough apparent soar to entice King Kong," the architect and critic Charles Moore marveled decades later. De Roulet moved his offices in, doctors and dentists filled the tower, and the ground level belonged to a movie house designed by G. Albert Lansburgh with a dazzling terrazzo entryway, large pipe organ and a ceiling by Anthony Heinsbergen. , Demolition Delayed , Building Saved , Originally called the Warner Bros. Western, the Wiltern Theatre opened October 7, 1931 with a gala premier of Alexander Hamilton attended by stars like James Cagney, Clark Gable and Jean Harlow. The theatre closed temporarily during the Depression, but the tower remained a visual landmark on the Wilshire skyline. Insurance company Franklin Life bought the property in 1956 for its Los Angeles headquarters, then in 1979 shuttered the theatre again and made plans to raze the entire block for a parking lot. The newly formed Los Angeles Conservancy joined with city leaders to delay demolition and have the Pellissier Tower listed on the National Register of Historic Places. , Developer Wayne Ratkovich stepped up to save the Pellissier and commission extensive renovation by preservation architect Brenda Levin. The theatre, known now as the Wiltern, remains a popular live performance venue and the upper floors are popular with architects and designers.