Escott O. Norton

A native of Los Angeles, California, Escott O. Norton grew up in the suburb of Eagle Rock. His mother Sally was a theatre professor and co-founder of the Occidental College Summer Theatre Festival, and his father Oakley was a progressive education pioneer and custom home designer and builder. Escott grew up in the worlds of architecture, theatre, and movies, his mom took him to the Eagle Theatre at a young age and he was hooked. Later, she took him to the Rialto Theatre in South Pasadena and it was there that he fell in love with historic theatres. This passion would drive him for decades. He started making Super 8 movies with his good friend Jason Cardwell, and he graduated from high school early in order to start working in the film business. His first on-set job was in the camera department working for William Moffitt, but because of his experience building props and sets for OXY Summer Theatre he quickly transitioned to art dept., working his way up to Art Director and Production Designer. After stepping away from the industry to pursue architecture, he was never far away from historic movie theatres, he founded the Friends of the Rialto advocacy group, and eventually joined the board of the Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation, serving as Executive Director for many years. He now consults on historic theatre renovations and restorations, and has started producing a line of Historic Theatre Coloring Books to share his passion for this unique form of architecture through interacting coloring and written history.