Empress Theatre (California) repainted and the "Empress Theatre" sign was painted into the pediment. Its window panels were uncovered and refurbished, seats from Fox Theatres were salvaged and installed, gypsum decoration was re-gilded, and period-appropriate carpeting was laid. The Empress thrived throughout the decade. 1989 On Tuesday October 17, the Loma Prieta earthquake, measuring 6.9 on the moment magnitude scale, shook the San Francisco Bay Area; the Empress Theatre was not spared. To repair damage from the quake and make the building seismically safe for use was a task so monumental that it caused the theatre to sit vacant and derelict for nearly
The Great Los Angeles Earthquake of the movie centres on the political and social fallout following the earthquake, and Winslow's attempts to reunite with her family (from whom she had become separated). The movie was aired over a two-night period on NBC during November 1990. There had been some public interest in earthquakes following the Loma Prieta earthquake which rocked San Francisco in October 1989, and in addition seismologists at the time were predicting a massive earthquake to strike along the New Madrid Fault line, which runs along the Mississippi River, an event which ultimately did not occur. (A real earthquake would eventually strike Los