Los Angeles County

Biographies

 

 

 

 

JOHN ARCHIBALD QUINN

 

 

     QUINN, JOHN ARCHIBALD, Investments, Los Angeles, California, was born in Toronto, Canada, the son of Thomas Quinn and Cecilia (Fraser) Quinn.  He married Lena A. Wooten at Toronto, Canada, the (sic) 1904, and to them there have been born two children, Eugene Howard and Dorothy Cecilia Quinn.  Mr. Quinn is descended of a long line of Canadians who have been prominent in the politics and public affairs of the Dominion.  His uncle, the Hon. C. F. Fraser, was a member of the Canadian Parliament, and his father was for many years Treasurer of the Central Prison of Canada, a position of importance and trust under the Canadian form of government.

 

     Mr. Quinn received the early part of his education in the public schools of his native city and completed his studies at De La Salle Institute of Toronto, graduating in the class of 1894.

 

     Upon the conclusion of his school career Mr. Quinn entered the employ of A. A. Allen & Company, a wholesale hat firm in Toronto, and remained with them for four years, during which time he learned the business.  In 1898 he left the firm and took a position with a larger house, the Gilleshie-Ansley Company, with whom he was associated for a year.

 

     Believing that New York City offered him a better opportunity for business advancement, Mr. Quinn left his native Canada in 1899 and went there, where for two years he was engaged with a large wholesale hat company.  About this time he decided to open an establishment of his own. Accordingly, he returned to Toronto and engaged in the hat and furnishing business.  His first store proving a success, he established others, and in time had three stores in operation.  He conducted this business for about five years, but in 1906, when he received a splendid offer from the Hackett-Carrhart Company of New York, he sold out his Canadian interests and again went to New York.  He became manager of the company, one of the large clothing manufacturing concerns of the country, and during the time he held the office made a record for economical handling of its affairs.

 

     His work as manager of the Hackett-Carrhart Company attracted the attention of other large concerns and at the end of the year he received an offer to become buyer for the company stores of the great Phelps-Dodge Mining Company, the Copper Queen.  This company, one of the largest copper producing corporations in the world, operates stores in various parts of the West, for which millions of dollars’ worth of stock is purchased in New York.  Two of these stores, one at Douglas, Arizona, the other at Bisbee, Arizona, are mammoth institutions, which compare favorably with the large department stores in the great cities of the United States.   Their stock runs into millions and includes everything from mining machinery to the latest creations in Paris gowns and millinery.

 

     As buyer for this great institution, Mr. Quinn, then only twenty-seven years of age, made his headquarters in Douglas, Arizona, and while there he became interested in the moving picture business, which he foresaw as one of the future great amusement lines of the United States.  For many years moving pictures were not taken seriously by the greater part of the public, being considered catch-penny amusement devices.  In the process of evolution, however, they grew in importance and interest and today form one of the largest fields of investment in the United States.  By the building of safe theaters, choosing high-class subjects for depiction and employing talented actors, the business has been placed upon a high plane and compares, so far as legitimacy of its attractions go, with the older and better known branch of amusement houses.

 

     Mr.  Quinn was one of the men who realized that this was a line of activity bound to increase in importance and educational value, as well as being a profitable field for investment, so in 1907 he backed his brother in a motion picture theater in Douglas.  This proved a great success and Mr.  Quinn established theaters in several other cities of Arizona, all of which were splendid successes.

 

     In 1909 his theatrical interests had become so great that Mr. Quinn was compelled to devote his entire time to them, so resigned his position with the Phelps-Dodge Company and went into the theatrical business exclusively.  At the end of a year he disposed of a part of his Arizona interests and moved to Los Angeles, where he began by leasing a small house in the business section of the city known as the “Ideal Theater.”  Close upon this he bought the Bijou and Banner theaters, in partnership with G. H. McLain, but later they divided their interests, Mr.  Quinn disposing of the Bijou and retaining exclusive control of the Banner Theater.  Before the end of the year 1910 Mr. Quinn added to his holdings the Garrick Theater, one of the largest and most beautiful in the city.

 

     For two years Mr. Quinn made no other important investments, but in 1912 he started negotiations for a long lease on Tally’s Theater and building, planning to raise the height of the building to thirteen stories, in keeping with other skyscraper structures in the city.  He finally abandoned this plan, however, and began negotiations for a more centrally located site and, if successful in securing this, will carry his theater-office building project to completion on this property.  The deal with involve a vast amount of money, all told, and the building thus completed would be one of the most imposing in Los Angeles and would have the distinction of being the first motion picture theater in the world to provide an office building structure as part of the building improvements of a city.

 

     In addition to the above plans, Mr. Quinn also obtained a long lease on another property opposite the site of the New Hotel Rosslyn, a thirteen-story structure, upon which he plans to build one of the finest theaters on the Pacific Coast, with seats for nine hundred spectators.  Also, he has another property in San Diego, California, on which he proposes building a theater in the near future.

 

     It is Mr. Quinn’s plan to build a chain of theater-office buildings in different cities of the Pacific Coast.  He will make his headquarters in Los Angeles, but his field of operations, including the work of elevating the motion picture business to a higher plane, will extend to all parts of the Pacific Coast.

 

     Although he still is a young man, Mr. Quinn has been one of the active and successful men of the Southwest.  He is affiliated with the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.  He makes his home at Ocean Park, one of the seaside resorts adjacent to Los Angeles.

 

     His club is the Knickerbocker of Los Angeles.

 

 

Transcribed 11-25-11 Marilyn R. Pankey.

Source: Press Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I,  Page 869, International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta.  1913.

© 2011 Marilyn R. Pankey.

 

 

 

GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPIES 

GOLDEN NUGGET INDEX