Catalina Casino

In 1919, William Wrigley Jr., the chewing gum industrialist purchased Catalina Island as an investment. After a devastating fire ravaged the island before that, the land had a lot of work to be done on it. Wrigley wanted to be heavily involved in the island’s development and was a huge role in making what it is today. One of the main attractions of the town on Catalina, known as Avalon, is the Catalina Casino (gathering place in Italian).

The Art Deco style casino was completed as the 10th anniversary came around for Wrigley’s purchase of the island in 1929. Its original function was to be used as a showing room for “talkies” or movies with sound, as well as have a ballroom that was taken from the old design on the second floor.

The movie theater features a room with one big screen that can house 1,154 people at a time. Up until December of 2019 it showed movies that were currently being run, but now it serves a purpose of showing older movies as well as the Catalina Film Festival and the Silent Film Benefit. Along with movie showings, it also features a completely original 16 rank pipe organ shipped and installed by the Page Organ Company of Lima, Ohio.

On the top floor is the 20,000 square ft. ballroom which holds the 180 ft diameter dance floor. This floor is meant for 3,000 people but during the 1940’s, it is said to have held 6,200 occupants. Even though afterwards the ballroom has not been as used, the Casino still holds many of the annual events that the island has to offer. As an example, one of such is the New Year’s Celebration.

The design of the ballroom took after another one of Wrigley’s well-known purchases, Wrigley Field in Chicago. In the building process for the Casino, Wrigley decided to go against conventional design and placed in sloped walkways instead of stairs. From the main floor these walkways lead right up to the circular ballroom. The ideology behind this choice, was that it is easier for bigger groups of people to get up and down the ramps, rather than many having to take the stairs.

Sources:

https://www.catalinachamber.com/island-info/historic-landmarks/catalina-casino/

https://www.visitcatalinaisland.com/things-to-do/catalina-casino/