Inside The Casino at Catalina Island

 So in the last blog entry I showed my drone shots I took last July of The Casino at Catalina. I noted that it is primarily used as a movie theater and has a ballroom upstairs for special events. I am going to travel back ten years in time to show pictures I took inside of The Casino when I took a tour of it. At the time I had all these ideas of showing what I did on the island that day when I went, but I never did show anything on here. That is kind of the way I have been over the past ten years or so. I have taken lots of pictures and videos of things, but unless I am motivated with something I think is worth mentioning I tend to just leave it on an external hard drive, DVD, etc. Something touristy like this is rather well known too, but I am in the mood so let's go back ten years...

Here is what the inside of the theater looks like:

One of the first theaters created when silent movies became "talkies" in the late 1920's and early 1930's. I would not mind seeing a movie here, but typically my trips to Catalina last a day. I leave before the night movie is shown.

Going upstairs to the ballroom:

One thing I knew going into the tour was that an old movie, Murder on a Honeymoon (1935), had been filmed in here. A murder takes place near the end of the movie:

I was listening to what our young lady tour guide was telling us, but meanwhile I was trying to hunt down where they filmed this. 

It has been ten years, but if I remember correctly, I concluded that the murder took place in the background here. You can look at the windows and artistic signs above the windows and doorways. Some of the artistic signs might have been changed around because the area has changed a lot over the years. In the Airwolf tv series episode, Sins of the Past, from 1984 they show the ballroom as well and it looks different too. In any case, even if I am little off here you get the idea of how the ballroom would have been used for the murder in that movie.

Finally, looking up I saw this. 

In the next blog I will show the next thing I did that day at Catalina.

The Casino at Catalina (Drone Shots)

Over the July 4th weekend I was able to revisit Catalina. Over the next few blogs I will describe my adventure there. I have been to Catalina a few times over the decades of my life. Let me start this blog with my latest adventure, and then I will talk some about my past experiences.

So the first thing I did was get off the boat and head to the other side to where The Casino is at Avalon, Catalina. I got my small drone out and took off to get some pictures.

This is a rather common shot I have seen in the past while watching the weather report in Southern California over the years. I assume it was a helicopter flying by, but now people are able to this by just using a drone. 

Maybe a more unique shot of The Casino as I was just flying above it with the drone.

Then I flew it in a more northerly direction and took a picture looking more to the south at Avalon. I just spent enough time getting it up, flying it around for a few pictures, and then got back down. There were other things scheduled for the day, so this was just something meant to be done rather quickly in the morning right as I got on shore. 

The Casino is primarily used as a movie theater and for special events like weddings on the upper floor. On the day I was here they were showing The Batman movie there. In the next blog I will time travel back about ten years as I show some of what was (and I hope still is) inside of the Casino.

My brother mentioned to me that in the Airwolf tv series in the 1980's there was an episode where they blow up The Casino. The episode was called, "Sins of the Past".