The Pasadena Playhouse

Gilmor Brown founded the Pasadena Community Playhouse in 1917, starting out in a converted burlesque house, and in 1925 moved into the Spanish Colonial Revival building it still occupies, designed by the Pasadena architect Elmer Grey. Brown added the Pasadena Playhouse College of Theatre Arts in 1928; the state legislature later voted the Playhouse the official State Theatre of California. The college closed in 1969, the same year the theatre itself shut and filed for bankruptcy, though the Playhouse was revived and operates today. Brown is the presence people describe. Long after his death, and while the college was still running, the elevator in the classroom tower would stop of its own accord at the floor where his office had been. Actors and technicians speak of being watched during rehearsal, benignly, and of a man's voice saying hello in an empty room.