Wacky Wednesday #97: Loma Theater Bookstar

This is a painting I did of the Loma Theater twelve years ago.

This week’s costume is especially interesting if you live in San Diego and you know the building I’m channeling. (If not, sit tight and read on. I think you’ll find it cool, even if you don’t have a connection with this theater or San Diego.) I’m dressed as the Loma Theater Bookstar, a book store housed within a beautiful former theater built in the 1940s. I think I first saw this building in the late ‘90s, while driving to a mural-painting job. The theater was closed in the 1987 and eventually the book store moved into the space. The marquee was preserved and the inside of the theater retains some original elements. From my very first glimpse of this building, I was intrigued.  

My husband saw the film E.T. at this theater in 1982. This kind of theater evokes memories for my generation because when I was a child in the 80s, there were still big movie theaters around. The last time I saw a movie in a big theater was in 1996 or ‘97. I still remember what I saw and where. That was about the time that multiplexes were being developed. The multiplexes of today are practical—I can’t deny that. But allow me to indulge in some memories of where I saw movies as a child and teen: cavernous theaters with red velvet drapes and an Old Hollywood flair. As a child I didn’t go to movies often but the memories from those experiences are stamped into my brain. Can you imagine how huge a 1000-seat theater seemed to a six-year-old? I was so small and the screen was gigantic. The sound swirled through the huge room and enveloped you. Seeing a movie in that kind of theater was dramatic. 

A dozen years ago I stopped outside the Loma Theater Bookstar and took photos of the façade. I love old theater marquees. I dig the neon and the majesty of these buildings. From my photos I started painting a series of old theaters. I’m embarrassed to say that I did not finish some of the paintings I started. But here on my blog I do not pretend that I’m perfect and it’s refreshing when we share our human moments. When I couldn’t get the effect I wanted I put the painting aside (for years!). But these days I’m motivated by attempting something intriguing and finishing it. I accept that my art and I don’t have to be perfect. So I’m going to finish the paintings I started years ago. My costume and my painting are going to work together to celebrate this beautiful building.

This costume was made entirely from supplies I already had at home—fabric, paint, cardboard, pipe cleaners, hot glue sticks—so my total cost was $0.

The theater marquee and my marquee.

Would you like to know a little bit of history about the Loma? The theater was built in 1945 and according to two different accounts, it had either 1188 seats or nearly 1000. It was the creation of architect S. Charles Lee, who designed many motion picture theaters on America’s west coast. The theater has an Art Deco design, a style popular in the 1920-1940s, that used industrial imagery along with geometric shapes, repetition, detailed decoration and vivid colors. The beautiful ceiling murals inside the theater still remain (touched up, but in the original design). The last movie shown at The Loma was in 1987. These days, reading books printed on paper rather than a tablet is less common than it once was, so it feels especially fitting that a classic past time like reading can be nurtured within a classic building.

Photo courtesy of Shelley Hospitality.

A photo of the Loma Theater in 1957.

                              

                     

Ceiling murals inside the book store.

                             

Detail of the ceiling murals.

                            

The details on the Loma’s facade appealed to me from the very moment I first saw it. I love architecture (older buildings as well as new designs). As a teenager I began taking photos (using film!) of buildings I liked. Now I can indulge my interest without having to buy film, and I have hundreds of photos of beautiful old buildings in San Diego as well as other cities. Creating a costume inspired by a gorgeous old theater brings together several of my interests and it is a pleasure to pay homage to this building, to the theaters of my childhood, and to San Diego history.