Alice Schott and the Alhecama Theatre
Midwest Transplant Championed Arts, Education, and Women's Health
The Alhecama Theatre at 914 Santa Barbara Street was christened by Alice Schott, shortly after she and her husband purchased the property in 1939. The name is derived from the first two letters of each of her four daughters’ names: Alice, Helen, Catherine, and Mary Lou. The woman who gave the theater its name was one of the city’s most active community leaders for some 50 years.
Alice Florence Touhy was born in Nebraska on June 17, 1881, the anniversary, she later liked to point out, of the battle of Bunker Hill. As a young child she took up painting, and this love of art would stay with her for the rest of her life. A second lifelong interest came from her days at nursing school in Denver; she became very involved in women’s health issues.
In Denver she met German native Max Schott, who made his U.S. fortune in mining and metals. They married in 1912. In 1920, the couple moved to Santa Barbara, it being Max Schott’s intention to retire. He changed his mind, and for many years the Schotts maintained homes both here and in New York City, where Alice became especially interested in housing issues in Harlem. In the 1930s the couple helped bring many German refugees fleeing Nazi oppression to the U.S.
