Patch Blog: Historic Graves Mansion and Rialto Theater Collide

I expect that few readers have heard of the Graves Mansion in Alhambra, near the San Marino border. Jackson Graves (1852-1933) was a lawyer, bank exec, and title company founder in Los Angeles as it was growing in the 1870-1920’s.

He and his family lived on a large orange ranch. The property extended from between Garfield Avenue and Granada Avenue in Alhambra on the south side of Huntington Drive. He had a private stop in front of the mansion named “Pasqualito” on the Pacific Electric Railway.

The house was very large with immense columns in the front like a Southern mansion. When it was demolished in the 30’s, the whole property was subdivided.

Fast forward to the landmark Rialto Theater on Fair Oaks in South Pasadena. In the 1930’s, silent films were just going out. The last silent I can remember was a hilarious series of police chases using Model T fords on dirt roads, probably filmed in Beverly Hills out on Wilshire Blvd. The cameramen used a technique where they would film the shot by running their cameras in slow motion. Then, the film would be run at a faster speed through the projectors. The result was like magic. It became all fast action, car chases, and wrecks!

Also at the Rialto, I remember watching a movie about the Deep South. There was a memorable scene with the famous Hattie McDaniel (1895-1952). Hattie was the quintessential African American maid, cook, and servant in the movies.  She had a big part in “Gone with The Wind.”

The movie I saw could have been “The Little Colonel”  (1935) starring Shirley Temple, Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson, and Lionel Barrymore. One of the classic scenes was Shirley and Bojangles tap dancing up the steps of the grand staircase. Or it might have been another great classic, “Judge Priest” (1934) starring Will Rodgers, Stepin’ Fetchit and Hattie McDaniel. In this movie, Will Rodgers expounds great wisdom, Stepin’ Fetchit exaggerates his part, and Hattie McDaniel sings.

The scene from one of the movies I saw at the Rialto was when Hattie McDaniel came out on to the front porch under the colonnades of a beautiful antebellum plantation mansion. I looked at the scene and said, “Eek! That home is not in the Deep South!  It’s the Graves Mansion!!”

While in the theater that day, at just twelve years old, I learned that in the movies everything is make believe.

Note to readers: Does anyone remember that house and which movie it might have been in?