Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra—February 5, 2019—CAMA's International Series at The Granada Theatre—Centennial Season

Over the years, the Community Arts Music
Association vacillated between booking its
seasons at the Granada and the Arlington.
Finances, availability, lighting, acoustics,
comfort, and number of seats were the major
factors in those decisions. When the Granada
closed for remodeling in 1964, they lost 315
seats, making it less attractive to CAMA, though
the organization returned to it in 1967 for nine
seasons when audience attendance had fallen
off severely. In 1976, CAMA and other local
performing arts groups placed their hopes
on an enlarged and renovated Arlington.
Not completely satisfied with the acoustics
of the Arlington, CAMA discovered that the
possibility of returning to the Granada was not
an option once its balcony was converted into
two mini-theaters in 1981.
Although a large civic auditorium was
proposed as a WPA project in the late 1930s,
it was never approved. The effort to create a
true performing arts center in Santa Barbara
with an acoustically superior concert hall
dates back to 1952, when one group worked
out a plan to build such an auditorium on the
hill of Vegamar, the former Beale/Child’s Estate
(today’s Zoo), while another group pushed for
a concert hall on land off Las Positas Road. In
the intervening years, a score of plans to build
a concert hall surfaced, but none came to
fruition. Despite the renovation that created
the Arlington Performing Arts Center, some
remained skeptical as to its suitability. Though
lauding its opening night in 1976, News-Press
writer Kenneth A. Brown opined, “But it is a
mistake to call the Arlington a ‘center for the
performing arts.’ The phrase is grandiose and
misleading. It suggests a versatility that the
building, for all its virtues, simply does not
have.” So the search went on.
In 1997, former mayor and civic promoter
Hal Conklin, president of the Santa Barbara
Renaissance Fund, revealed plans to create a
performing arts cultural center on the 1300
block of State Street. Intended to serve the
various performing arts groups in town,
conceptual designs developed by architects
Roger Phillips, Fred Sweeney, and Henry
Lenny included major interior changes for the
Arlington Theatre, replacement of the Vons
grocery store with a multiplex theater, the
construction of a new smaller theater for more
intimate performances, an inn for visiting
performers, and apartments for live-in artists.
Renovation of the Granada Theatre, too, was
added to the plan. When it became clear
that the Arlington would not be available if
Metropolitan Theatres were not guaranteed
nine replacement screens in compensation
for losing the Arlington as a movie house
(and the seeming impossibility of meeting
this condition in the foreseeable future), the
renovation of the Granada jumped to the
forefront of the overall plan.
In 2003, the Santa Barbara Center for
the Performing Arts, Inc. launched a capital
campaign and announced that they had
obtained an option to purchase the Granada
at a below-market price. They planned
to renovate the theater so that local and
visiting musical groups would have a truly
great venue. The cost, they estimated, would
be about $15-18 million. The response was
initially lukewarm due to doubts about the
effectiveness of such a renovation and rivalry
from another group that still wanted a new
auditorium outside of town.
In the end, two local philanthropists,
Michael Towbes and Sara Miller McCune,
donated $3.5 million to allow the Center
to close escrow on the Granada Theatre.
“The project really struck home to me,”
In 2003, the Santa Barbara Center for the Performing Arts, Inc. announced plans to purchase
and renovate the Granada. Sara Miller McCune (far left) with Michael & Anne Towbes, made the
purchase possible. Nell Campbell photo
said McCune in a February 20, 2003 Los
Angeles Times article, “the community
stands to benefit enormously.” The building’s
ownership was split and a group of investors
purchased the office tower portion and the
Santa Barbara Center for the Performing Arts
purchased the theater. Initial plans were
modest. They included restoring the balcony,
which had been walled off and divided for
two cinemas, reconfiguring the lobby, and
generally renovating the run-down theater.
As time passed, the planners added
elements as they sought to accommodate local
performing arts groups, which they hoped
would make the Granada their venue of choice.
Due to the ever-increasing scope of work, by
July 2003 the estimated cost was $20.5 million;
by October 2004, it was $32 million; by August
2005, it was $40 million as continuing upgrades
over the original plan grew to include widening
the existing 40-foot proscenium to 50 feet, and
adding an acoustical shell and other acoustical
elements.
One of the most celebrated features of the theater
was its four-manual, 17-rank Wurlitzer organ.
Courtesy Santa Barbara Historical Museum
20 CENTENNIAL SEASON CELEBRATION CAMA AT THE GRANADA THEATRE - PHILHARMONIA BAROQUE ORCHESTRA 21