Stanford Theatre facts for kids
Stanford Theatre's marquee at night
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| Address | 221 University Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94022 |
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| Coordinates | 37°26′43″N 122°09′46″W / 37.445208°N 122.162666°W |
| Owner | David and Lucile Packard Foundation |
| Type | Indoor theatre |
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| Opened | June 9, 1925 |
| Renovated | 1987-1989 |
| Architect | Weeks and Day |
The Stanford Theatre is a special old movie theater in Palo Alto, California. It's known for showing classic films. It was built a long time ago in the 1920s. Its design looks like old buildings from Persia and Moorish styles.
Today, the theater mainly shows movies made between 1910 and 1970. They often have special film events. These events might focus on a certain type of movie, or films by famous directors like Alfred Hitchcock. They also feature movies with well-known actors such as Bette Davis and Cary Grant. The Stanford Theatre is very popular. It attracts a lot of people who love watching classic films in the United States.
The Theatre has a huge musical instrument called "The Mighty Wurlitzer Organ." This special organ is played live during breaks in the movies. It also provides music for silent films, which are movies without spoken words.
The Theatre's Story
The Stanford Theatre was designed by architects named Weeks and Day. Building it started in 1924. It cost about $300,000 back then. The theater first opened its doors on June 9, 1925. The first movie shown was I'll Show You the Town. It could hold about 1,500 people.
When it first opened, the theater had a special organ. This organ could make sounds like many different musical instruments. It had pipes of all sizes, from tiny to very large.
By the 1960s, the theater was not doing very well. The original organ had been taken out. The inside of the theater was not kept clean. Many people didn't want to go there anymore.
In 1987, something changed. A famous dancer named Fred Astaire passed away. David Woodley Packard decided to hold a film festival of Astaire's movies at the theater. This festival was a big success. David Woodley Packard's father, Hewlett-Packard co-founder David Packard, then agreed to buy the old theater. They bought it through the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.
The Packard Foundation bought the theater in 1987 for $7.7 million. They spent another $6 million to fix it up. The theater had a grand reopening in 1989. The movie shown was The Wizard of Oz.
The restoration process was very detailed. Workers looked at over 5,000 old drawings. This helped them match the original colors of the theater. They also put in a new organ. The original one had been sold off in pieces. It took two years to find and fix parts for the new organ. Some parts came from famous places like Grauman's Chinese Theatre and Loew's Theatre.
The theater was updated again in late 2017. It got new paint and new carpets. The seats were also fixed with new padding and soft coverings. It opened again in December that year, once more showing The Wizard of Oz.
Today, Cyndi Mortensen manages the Stanford Theatre. The Stanford Theatre Foundation runs it, with David Woodley Packard in charge.
Gallery
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See also
- California Theater
- David and Lucile Packard Foundation
- Packard Humanities Institute
