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The Spreckels Theatre and office building has been in continuous operation since its opening on August 23, 1912. Commissioned by sugar magnate John D. Spreckels to commemorate the opening of the Panama Canal and the Pan-American Exposition held in San Diego in 1915, the Spreckels was the largest reinforced concrete building in California at that time and one of the first modern office buildings in San Diego.
When completed in 1912, San Diego's oldest theatre was the largest of its kind west of New York City. It originally had 1,915 seats, to commemorate the 1915 Exposition. Subsequent remodeling has reduced seating capacity to approximately 1,500.
The theatre's decor is in the baroque style. Allegorical paintings by Emil Mazy of Los Angeles decorate the prosce- nium. The murals depict two angels sprinkling a horn of plenty and Neptune bringing San Diego the riches of the ocean. A large medallion in the ceiling depicts Dawn while four smaller medallions have motifs of Air, Water, Earth and Fire. The walls, ceilings, stairs and lobby are finished in Predora onyx.
Many luminaries have graced the Spreckels stage, including Abbott and Costello, John and Lionel Barrymore, Enrico Caruso, Katherine Hepburn, Al Jolson, Bela Lugosi, Anna Pavlova, Sergei Rachmaninov, Will Rogers, Arthur Rubinstein, John Philip Sousa and Julian Bream. The theatre was managed for 17 years by John Mason Dodge. In 1931 it was acquired and run as a movie house by Louis Metzger. His daughter, Jacquelyn Littlefield, took over and restored the building in 1970. Now fully staffed,
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