Title supplied by cataloger.; Herman J. Schultheis was born in Aachen, Germany in 1900, and immigrated to the United States in the mid-1920s after obtaining a Ph.D. in mechanical and electrical engineering. He married Ethel Wisloh in 1936, and the pair moved to Los Angeles the following year. He worked in the film industry from the late 1930s to the mid-1940s, most notably on the animated features Fantasia and Pinocchio. His detailed notebook, documenting the special effects for Fantasia, is the subject of a 14-minute short-subject included on the film's DVD. In 1949, he started employment with Librascope as a patent engineer. Schultheis was an avid amateur photographer who traveled the world with his cameras. It was on one of these photographic exhibitions in 1955 that he disappeared in the jungles of Guatemala. His remains were discovered 18 months later. The digitized portion of this collection represents the images Schultheis took of Los Angeles and its surrounding communities after he relocated to the area in 1937. Architect Clifford A. Balch designed the 1927 Churrigueresque/Deco style Golden Gate Theater and Vega Building, located at 5176 East Whittier Boulevard, at the corner of Atlantic in East Los Angeles. The entrance replicated the portal of the University of Salamanca in Spain and the original 12 stores, also of Spanish design, were housed on the first floor of the Vega Building. The theater was designed both as a legitimate playhouse, seating 1,500 and a movie house. The courtyard contained two fountains and A.B. Heinsberger created the interiors. This complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. The Vega Building was demolished in 1992, but the theater was saved and is still standing today. An American flag is in the foreground of this view of the southwest corner of Whittier and Atlantic in East Los Angeles, which captures the corner tower of the Vega Building and the Blade sign for the Golden Gate Theater. A sign for the 1938 Humphrey Bogart film "Swing Your Lady" is visible down the street.
Type
Image
Format
1 photographic print :b&w ;15 x 11 cm. Photographic prints
Golden Gate Theater (East Los Angeles, Calif.) Motion picture theaters--California--East Los Angeles Architecture--California--East Los Angeles--Spanish influences Towers--California--East Los Angeles Streets--California--East Los Angeles Film posters--California--East Los Angeles Lampposts--California--East Los Angeles Lost architecture--California--East Los Angeles Flags--United States Whittier Boulevard (East Los Angeles, Calif.) East Los Angeles (Calif.) Schultheis Collection photographs Balch, Clifford A
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