The Granada: Celebrating 100 Years of the Arts in Santa Barbara
It’s our story. Our history. Our very own home movie.
And now, an award-winning documentary.
The Granada Theatre opened in 1924 as a Grand Movie Palace and Live Performance Venue. The Granada Holding Company envisioned a magnificent performance space — a skyscraper — that would attract tourists, encourage prosperity, and serve as a gathering place for all of Santa Barbara.
We invited award-winning filmmaker April Wright to tell The Granada’s story. April brings the Granada’s rich history alive with stories shared by many of the people who had a front row seat, including the granddaughters Charles Urton (the original builder) and members of the dynamic, visionary team who helped to restore the theater to the state-of-the-art performance center it is today. Film historian Ross Melnick adds details and insight into The Granada’s role in the growth of the American film industry.
The Granada: Celebrating 100 Years of the Arts in Santa Barbara was awarded “Best Documentary Short” at renowned director Kevin Smith’s Smodcastle Film Festival.
April Wright is an award-winning filmmaker who fell in love with movies going to drive-ins and movie palaces in the Chicago area where she grew up. April’s film “Going Attractions: The Definitive Story of the Movie Palace” won numerous Best Documentary and Grand Prize awards at film festivals prior to its December 2020 premiere on Turner Classic Movies.
Her latest documentary, “Back to the Drive-in,” was released theatrically to much critical acclaim during summer 2022 and is now streaming on Amazon Prime. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation.
Ross Melnick is Professor of Film and Media Studies at UC Santa Barbara. He was named an Academy Film Scholar and NEH Fellow for his recent book, Hollywood’s Embassies: How Movie Theaters Projected American Power Around the World (Columbia University Press, 2022), which received the Richard Wall Memorial Award from the Theatre Library Association. He is also the author of American Showman: Samuel ‘Roxy’ Rothafel and the Birth of the Entertainment Industry (CUP, 2012), which was awarded “Book of the Year” by the Theatre Historical Society of America.