Every visitor to Catalina is greeted by the Avalon Casino, one of the island's most recognizable landmarks. But few know that inside this famous building is a fully functioning movie theater, which has been open to the public since 1929.
A visit to the Avalon Theatre is not your typical trip to the neighborhood multi-plex. It is a trip back in time, to the Golden Age of Hollywood, when a night at the movies meant glamor and glitz. Movie theaters of the 1930s were palaces, decorated with beautiful murals and plush red velvet seats. Organ music filled the air, adding a soundtrack for the silent pictures on the screen. William Wrigley made sure that his theater was designed with excellent acoustics so it would be ready for the new-fangled "talkie" movies of the day. The theater's beautiful undersea murals were designed by John Gabriel Beckman, noted for his design of the Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood.
Today, you can pay your admission to see a first-run, present day film and still be transported back in time. On weekends, if you arrive an hour before the movie starts, you'll be treated to a free concert by Robert Salisbury on the historic Page pipe organ. And just before the movie begins, you can imagine you're watching with Errol Flynn, Clark Gable or Mary Pickford.
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