Architect: Alister Gladstone MacDonald

Early Life and Background. Alister Gladstone MacDonald was born in London on 18th May 1898. He was the eldest child of James Ramsay MacDonald, the UK's first Labour prime minister, and Margaret Ethel Gladstone, social reformer and Board member of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies.
Educated in Hampshire, Alister left school in 1915 and during the First World War, volunteered as an orderly with the Friends Ambulance Unit. After the war, Alister enrolled at London University's Bartlett School of Architecture where he became a Donaldson medallist.
At the turn of the 1930s Alister chose to further his architectural studies with an extensive five-week trip to the USA. In the years following, he became one of the leading architects of cinemas in Scotland. A Career in Cinema Architecture. Before the Broadway, Alister designed new picture palaces for multiple small towns across Scotland, most notably for the Caledonian Associated Cinemas (CAC) circuit. His first commissions included a trio of CAC 'Playhouses' for Montrose, Peebles, and Elgin, where the Moray Playhouse remains open today.
Arguably Alister's most famous designs were two small newsreel cinemas in London's Victoria and Waterloo railway stations. He also designed the Empire Cinema and Peace Pavilion for Glasgow's Empire Exhibition in 1938, and independent cinemas in Kirkcaldy, Buckie and Dumfries. Alister in America. 28th December 1929:
Sets sail from Liverpool on the RMS Andania.
7th January - New York, New York:
Studies skyscrapers, visits the Capitol Theatre, and enjoys two shows on Broadway!
"I shall never forget my first sight of the skyline. In involuntarily remarked 'the new Babylon' when I saw those proud buildings rearing their heads above the clouds."
21st January - Cleveland, Ohio:
Delivers an address on world peace.
23rd January - Chicago, Illinois:
Studies architecture and visits Hull House.
"Not that I can build any (skyscrapers) in England but I might be able to utilise some of the features in other buildings."
1st February - Los Angeles, California:
Studies sound insulation design in Hollywood, meets Charlie Chaplin, and has dinner with the president's son, Herbert Hoover Jr.
11th February - Winslow, Arizona:
Takes an interest in the architecture of Spanish-American adobe dwellings.
13th February – Washington, D.C.
Visits President Hoover at the White House. Performs a national radio broadcast on Columbia Radio - "What I Think of America".
"It seems to me that (the skyscraper) is just a delightful and fascinating monument of folly."
1st March - New York:
Sets sail home on the RMS Aquitania "dashing up the gangplank with only a minute or two to spare."