08/24/2020
Happy 108th Birthday to the Spreckels Theatre in San Diego, opened on this day in 1912!
The theatre was commissioned by sugar magnate John D. Spreckels to commemorate the opening of the Panama Canal and the upcoming Pan American Exposition held in San Diego in 1915, and accordingly was fitted-out with exactly 1,915 seats.
The proscenium sounding board is a huge mural painted in delicate hues, depicting two angels sprinkling riches from a cornucopia and the sea god Neptune, bringing prosperity to San Diego. The mural was painted by Los Angeles-based artist Emil T. Mazy
Extensive use of “the new electric light” was made in the auditorium. The fronts of both balconies, the front faces of the opera boxes, and accent lines in the ceiling were all decorated with bare incandescent light bulbs, similar in style but smaller in scale to the exposed lighting employed by architects Adler & Sullivan at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago.
Theatre website: spreckels.net.