Rooted In Community: Picturing the past, focusing on the future at the 20th Century Gross Theatre
- Laurie Craig
- 22 hours ago
- 9 min read
Trio restoring 86-year-old building set to debut Aurora Grand Theater for movie screenings this month and future live stage performances
By Laurie Craig
Juneau Independent
After several idle years, life is returning to the 20th Century Gross Theatre on Front Street in downtown Juneau. Plans include a "soft" opening this month with a charity event and live entertainment for summer visitors.
A trio of energized visionaries is renovating the 86-year-old concrete theater that brought live entertainment, motion pictures and the renowned Kimball theater organ to Juneau. Another group of Juneauites is restoring the building’s apartments.
James McSweeney, Emelia Sween and Elise LaBronte have named their new venture Aurora Grand Theater. The art deco lettering on the theater’s entry doors announce “Stage and Screen Coming Soon.”
The group’s current preparations focus on the balcony where an upstairs performance portion of the theater is being readied for an April kickoff movie showing to benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS). A stage platform is under construction while seating is still in unfinished form. Major renovations will be needed, however, and will continue through the summer on the main floor seating and stage area.
The three associates met while working for the Alaska Marine Highway System. While James left the ferry service, Emelia continues with ocean work as a sea pilot guiding ships throughout Southeast Alaska.
Working on the ferries can be isolating, said James McSweeney during a March 19 interview with all three principals in the theater lobby. He comes to the theater with a performance and technology background. However, the timing of ferry work was difficult for engaging in such activities in Juneau.
“When you’re home, off the boat, you have a different schedule than everyone else,” McSweeney said, preventing him from making a commitment to local production rehearsals or similar organizations in Juneau. “It’s been my home for 10 years, but I don’t know very many people in town because I’ve been on the boat so much of the time,” he added.
James McSweeney saw an opportunity to build community connection when he walked past the closed theater and saw a sign, “For Lease. Build to Suit,” with a phone number. He called and connected with a partnership of two local men who had purchased the building. The new owners are renovating the apartments, but are not ready to discuss details. The theater restoration is proceeding with the three former ferry colleagues.
McSweeney has experience dealing with isolating challenges. “I am severely dyslexic,” he said. “I had a really hard time in school.” He found respite and support in art classes and theater. As a new theater operator, he wants to help young people who may suffer from the same disability. To that end, the theater is opening with a movie screening to support the local chapter of Big Brother Big Sisters. The nonprofit group’s mission is to “create and support one-to-one mentoring relationships that ignite the power and promise of youth,” according to BBBS’ national website.
The Aurora Grand will show the film, “O, Brother, Where Art Thou?,” a play on words to encourage adults to volunteer as "big brothers" or "big sisters." One screening per night is planned for Thursday, April 9 through Saturday, April 11 at 5:30 p.m., plus one at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, April 12. A representative of BBBS will be on hand to accept donations and provide information about the organization.
“We are so grateful for this opportunity to partner with the theater,” said Claudia Lara, director of community giving with Big Brothers Big Sisters’ state office in Anchorage. “April is our national month of giving,” she said. Their “Big Bash” will occur at Juneau’s Spice Cafe on April 22.
Altruism was a hallmark of the 20th Century Gross Theatre’s founder William David “W.D.” Gross who built a chain of theaters throughout Southeast Alaska. Gross started an annual winter fund drive in 1914 to provide spending money for older Alaskans living at Sitka’s Pioneers’ Home. He solicited donations from individuals, organizations and businesses each November and December for about 60 years. Other civic groups received funding from him as well.
W. D. Gross’s life is a classic rags-to-riches story of a man who foresaw the needs of the Klondike stampeders and started a business to serve them. Born in Russia in 1879 and trained as a tailor, Gross emigrated to Seattle as a child with his family. In 1897, W.D. took his clothier skills to Dyea at the start of the Chilkoot Trail where gold-crazed fortune seekers began the arduous climb up the Chilkoot Pass to the Yukon border en route to Dawson City. Gross followed, selling heavy-duty work clothes to miners. In 1897 and 1898 thousands of people headed north to the goldfields.
On a supply trip to Seattle, Gross had an experience that changed the direction of his life.
“While there he saw early motion pictures which inspired him to purchase a projector and four reels of film,” states a description of W. D. Gross on the website of the Jewish Museum of the American West.
“Upon returning to Dawson, Gross created the first ‘movie theater’ — charging $1 admission to watch 15-20 minute shows which he screened three times per night,” states the museum narrative. After the Klondike rush waned in 1899 and miners departed for Nome and Fairbanks, Gross went there, too.
Over the years Gross’s theater venture expanded to entertainment venues throughout Southeast Alaska. He built “Coliseum” theaters in Ketchikan, Sitka, Juneau, Douglas, Haines, Petersburg, Wrangell and Skagway. They offered live performances as well as films.
Early movies had no sound, so musicians were employed to add dramatic accompaniment as scenes were depicted and "intertitle" text panels detailed the actions on the screen. Theater organs offered a wide variety of instrumentation and became popular for that purpose. In 1928, W.D. Gross purchased a theater organ from the Kimball manufacturing company in Chicago and installed it in his South Franklin Street Coliseum theater. A few years later the organ was moved to Gross’s biggest theater on Front Street. It remains today in a popular public place, as described below.
The 20th Century Gross Theatre opened on Oct. 31, 1940, after two years of construction. The Daily Alaska Empire edition of that day lavished praise on the decor. Today, the theater still has a large proscenium and full stage on the main floor behind the movie screen.
Original features of the 1940 theater still exist, though some have been hidden for decades. An elegant chandelier is visible through gaps in the drop ceiling of the main theater where seating for 300 patrons remains in place. The balustrade on the stairs to the balcony is the original Art Deco style, but needs refinishing to bring back the chrome shine. Large decorative artwork on the main theater walls are still obscured by draped coverings. Rehabilitation of the main floor is planned for this summer while the balcony productions bring in some revenue.
The “Giant Kimball organ” was an important feature on opening night of the 20th Century Gross Theatre. Larry McCann was “at the console” providing a concert as the crowd arrived, according to the Empire description of opening night festivities. By 1940, films were accompanied by sound so the organ was played prior to screening and during intermissions.
Over the years, the organ deteriorated. With community effort in the 1970s it was rehabilitated and donated to the state and is now a key attraction on the eighth-floor atrium of the State Office Building where local organists offer free concerts at noon on Fridays. The pipe organ makes 548 unique sounds controlled by manual keyboards and foot pedals. Presently, the organ needs additional repairs estimated to cost about $250,000.
The Kimball theater organ is a true connection between Juneau’s entertainment past and its present. Two local musicians have strong links. J. Allan MacKinnon, a third-generation Juneauite, was an organist at the 20th Century starting in 1960. He frequently plays free Friday noon concerts in the SOB. Laurie Clough also volunteers her time and talent playing the Kimball organ. Clough has a unique connection: she grew up in the historic Chicken Ridge house once occupied by the Gross family.
J. Allan MacKinnon, left, plays the restored 20th Century Theatre’s Kimball pipe organ on Friday, March 20, 2026, in the atrium of the State Office Building. Free concerts are given at noon Fridays during much of the year. At right, organist Laurie Clough, inside the glass pipe organ enclosure on March 27, 2026, explains features of the organ that was built in 1928 and installed in the 20th Century Gross Theatre in 1940. Early organists played dramatic musical accompaniment for silent movies. Once "talkies" became common, the organs were played as pre-movie entertainment and during intermissions. (Photos by Laurie Craig / Juneau Independent)
In past years, different groups have tried to purchase the 20th Century building. Not until recently has the Gross business enterprise decided to sell the downtown landmark.
As the fourth generation of movie theater management, Dorain Gross, president and CEO of Gross Alaska Inc., said she and her family are ready to move on from the business their great-grandfather started. The family business — as well as the movie theater industry — has had its ups and downs over the past 120-plus years.
A particularly tough time occurred in the early 1980s when unscrupulous business partners caused problems. One method of financial recovery was converting the theater balcony to an additional movie venue. Called “twinning,” the Grosses doubled their film offerings with that reconstruction in 1981. Two years later they built and opened Glacier Cinema in Mendenhall Valley which still operates today as a five-plex. But harder times were ahead.
“COVID did the most damage when everything was shut down,” Dorain Gross said in a March 26 interview. “No one wanted to gather in a crowded theater.” That’s when the last movie was shown downtown. Once COVID restrictions were lifted, professional actors went on strike, so no new films were being created, she noted.
“I’ve given my whole life to this, and I’m not getting any younger,” said Gross, a 63-year-old grandmother with youngsters in Juneau. “It’s been a pleasure to do, but it’s also a lot of responsibility.” She would like to focus on other things. Only the Glacier Cinema properties remain to be sold.
“There’s a lot of things that aligned,” she said of the recent sale of the 20th Century, “…I really believe in the power of positive thinking, and I think things are lining up, so it just feels like it’s definitely the right time.”
On Monday, March 30, Dorain Gross sat in the 20th Century theater lobby with Aurora Grand’s McSweeney and Emelia Sween. On a table, Dorain opened a box of old photos and shared stories of her family and the theater. McSweeney and Sween asked about the details seen on several 8x10 prints. They keyed in on a photo of the large movie projector used to show reels of film. Their new projector is small and digital.
Another historic photo from early 1960 shows the theater marquee announcing “North to Alaska” starring John Wayne. The storefront exterior is temporarily decorated with a split log facade, spruce boughs and crossed snowshoes to enhance the movie’s rugged Alaskan atmosphere.
Some Alaska-themed movies have had their early showings in the 20th Century. During the 1970s several films made by local cinematographer Chuck Keen were screened there. “Timber Tramps” was about loggers. “Mad Trapper of the Yukon” made in 1972 (re-released in 1975 as “Challenge to Be Free”) was based on a true story of a trapper long pursued through Canada by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
The 1999 film “Limbo,” by director John Sayles, had a special showing at the 20th Century theater. The drama took place in Southeastern Alaska and was filmed at several locations in Juneau.
Twenty-eight years after summer filming of "Limbo" in 1998, Juneauite Maria Gladziszewski recalled her small role in the movie in an interview on April 5. She had two scenes: one in a crowded bar interior where she had brief speaking lines and another on the dock. She played a tour guide. A vacant space now occupied by Devil’s Club Brewing Company was the location of sets built for the bar scene and also for a cabin scene. Gladziszewski continues to receive quarterly residual checks for her performances, she said.
• Contact Laurie Craig at lauriec@juneauindependent.com.
