Beverly Hills Little Theatre for Professionals
The Beverly Hills Little Theatre for Professionals, which grew out of a nationwide little theatre movement, was a playhouse founded by actor Harold Lloyd and others in 1931 in Beverly Hills, California. It was originally at the Wilkes Vine Street Theatre, now renamed the Ricardo Montalbán Theater, and some years later moved to a renovated location on Santa Monica Boulevard. The venue was a 400-seat theater, with the names of the founder-subscribers inscribed on the backs of the seats. An article in Variety stated that Lloyd's mother Elisabeth Fraser Lloyd, Gladys Lloyd Cassell, and Sam Hardy served on the "coin-raising" (fundraising) committee.
Beverly Hills Little Theatre for Professionals
John Craven (right) on Broadway in Our Town, opposite his father Frank Craven. The year before, he got his first stage experience at the Beverly Hills Little Theatre for Professionals.
Theda Bara
Mildred Davis Lloyd, for whom the theatre prize was named, and little theatre co-founder Harold Lloyd.
Harold Clayton Lloyd Sr. was an American actor, comedian, and stunt performer who appeared in many silent comedy films.
Lloyd in 1924
1917 advertisement featuring Lloyd as "Lonesome Luke", with Snub Pollard and Bebe Daniels
Film still of Harold Lloyd and his future wife Mildred Davis in A Sailor-Made Man (1921)
Lloyd in Grandma's Boy (1922)