Catalina Cruz, Island catalina.

William Wrigley, Jr. bought controlling interest in the Santa Catalina Island Company in 1919 and devoted himself to preserving and promoting it, investing millions in both needed infrastructure and attractions. In 1921 he sold lots for building in the town of Avalon.

The tourism industry was encouraged by the construction of a beautiful Art Deco dance hall, called the Casino, in 1929. The Casino was 140-feet high when it was built and was the tallest building in Los Angeles County at the time. Surrounded by sea on three sides, the round Art Deco structure stands the equivalent of 12 stories tall.

Avalon Theater, on the first level, shows first-run movies nightly, and the theater's original Page Organ still plays before the show. The circular dome ceiling creates remarkable acoustics that global experts have traveled to Avalon to study. The upper level houses the world's largest circular ballroom with a 180 foot diameter dance floor. French doors encircle the room, and balcony views are spectacular.

The text of a postcard postmarked August 1947 reads, "the gorgeous Catalina Island Casino is a two million dollar 'Palace of Pleasure' located midway between Hotel St. Catherine and the town of Avalon. It is the only building of its size in the world, erected on a full circular plan.

A mammoth motion picture theatre is on the ground floor and above the worlds largest circular ballroom." Wrigley put in circular ramps instead of stairs, an idea taken from his Chicago Cubs Stadium. The ramps allowed the large numbers of people using the ballroom to quickly move to and from their destinations without accident or injury.

The upstairs dance floor has a capacity of over 6,000 dancers, and sits above the glamorous Avalon Theater, which seats 1,150 and is the first ever designed specifically for sound movies. The upstairs dance floor is also used by the local high school basketball team making it one of the plushest and most expensive basketball courts ever.

The insulation is done so well that theater patrons cannot hear the band playing or the 6,000+ partying dancers on the floor above, yet the excellent acoustics are so good that a speaker on the theater stage can speak in a normal voice without a microphone and be heard clearly by everyone in the theater including those in the back rows.

While the theater shows movies almost exclusively, it has the capabilities to host theatrical productions as well. The Casino's name derives from a more traditional Italian definition of casino, meaning social gathering place; the building has never served as a gambling establishment and for many years did not even serve alcohol.

During World War II, the island was closed to tourists and used as a military training facility. Catalina's airport, the "Airport in the Sky" (AVX), was completed in 1946. The 3,250-foot (990-meter) runway sits on a mountaintop, 1,602 feet (488 meters) above sea level. Up until the time of the airport's construction, the only air service to the island was provided by seaplanes.

In 1975, Philip Wrigley deeded the Wrigley shares in the Santa Catalina Island Company to the Catalina Island Conservancy that he had helped create. The Conservancy now stewards 88 percent of the island. The mission of the Catalina Island Conservancy is to be a responsible steward of its lands through a balance of conservation, education and recreation.

So far, the successes include the opening of California's first permanent desalination plant in 1991. The group is also working to restore bald eagles to the island, and protect the native Ironweed. Among thousands of species of plants and animals, Catalina is home to 15 found nowhere else. These include five endemic mammals, among them, the Catalina Island Fox and Beechey Ground Squirrel, which live among the unique Catalina Mahogany.

Buffalo roam the interior of the island, where visitation is allowed only on special tour buses. A dozen buffalo were brought to the island in the 1920s for the filming of "The Vanishing American." Over 200 buffalo now roam Catalina's protected plains.

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