The theatre name sign, readerboard, and the marquee neon are very similar to those on the State in Pecos, Texas. the facade of the Pecos example is far simpler.
Actually, this is the block which faces the Chinese. You can see the stage fly tower of the theatre peeping up just beyond the metal clad obelisks on the top of the Chinese facade. To the Left in the photo is the side of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The plain brick building which obscures the Chinese in the photo is long gone. There is a much taller building there now, built in the 70s or thereabouts.
If I had seen that peering down at me in the darkness of an old theatre when I was a kid, it would have creeped me out. Glad to see unusual things like this saved from the landfill. This item being sheet metal, I would guess it was on the facade or marquee. It looks like something one would find in/on a nickelodeon.
This is actually in Palo Alto, on Emerson Street. The Bijou opened sometime in the 60s in this terra cotta clad 1920s commercial block and closed in the mid-80s. The interior was plain and draped in blue fabric. The part of the building which once contained the theatre now houses Gordon Biersch Brewery.
RIGHT ON, Simon! I completely agree about curtains and NEVER showing a blank screen. During my childhood in the late 60s, through the 70s, and into the 80s, I don’t recall ever seeing a blank screen. It was in some homespun tiny art theatres in the 80s that I first came to walk into some little auditoriums with no curtains. But even then, there were soft lights on the screen—sometimes colored—aimed at the screen until the show started.
My friend Jack Tillmany has in his very extensive collection a 1920s color tinted postcard view of this theatre as the Merced. It was unquestionably designed by A. W. Cornelius originally. Its facade bears the design Cornelius used on so many of his theatres. In fact, it most closely resembles the California in Pittsburg, but a bit narrower.
Adding one more theatre to the record of those by A. W. Cornelius: The “old” Merced in Merced (not to be confused with the present one with its signature tower). The “old” Merced had a facade almost identical to that of the California in Pittsburg. It was long ago remodeled to a Moderne look, which it still has today. It was later known by such names as Strand, Cinema III, and at this time is called the Mainzer.
By looking at this image, it would seem that the sheet metal-clad tower which supports the present vertical sign from the 40s was constructed simply by applying the sheet metal to the steel structure shown here. The proportions are the same.
Wonderful photograph! This is the first time perhaps any of us have seen anything of the original look of the theatre’s interior, even though technically, the ticket lobby is still the exterior. The winged sun disks are terrific and the doors are quite interesting and echo similar doors in other Egyptian Revival buildings of the day. I would venture a guess the ceiling of the ticket lobby still exists today, hidden above the present marquee soffit. This is often the case, and was found to be so in the Metro on Union St., the Golden State, in Monterey, the California in San Jose, and many others. The exterior popcorn machine and neon sign, partially visible on the Right, is also intriguing.
What a terrific photo. I would love to know where this was found. It shows that the Moderne marquee which is still on the theatre was not installed at the same time as the vertical sign which still remains there today. It also shows a late 20s/early 30s vertical sign which was not on the theatre when it opened. Also, the quality of sunlight on the building makes it possible to see more detail on two of the four faces of the goddess of Hathor at the base of the flagpole. Thank you, jeterga, for sharing these! Now, if someone can just find photos of the original 20s Egyptian interior decorative scheme, that will be an even bigger “Holy Grail.”
Sorry for the duplication. There was a glitch for a moment in the loading process, and I thought it hadn’t uploaded.
GaryParks
commented about
entryon
Sep 23, 2011 at 5:09 am
I don’t know why this photo, of all of them, is the one that appears on the Elsinore’s first photo page by default. It is not the first, nor the last photo in the series that I posted. If I knew it was going to happen like this, I would not have posted it.
I have just seen a brief news item online from what seems to be a substantial source that the Varsity’s next use is to be an Apple Store. If it is to continue as a retail space, this does make a lot of sense. The Apple Stores I’ve seen either in person or in articles tend to be open and spacious, which a former theatre is. I don’t think we need to fret about this use of the building causing significant, if any, compromise to the surviving original interior features.
Simon and John: Thank you both for your kind words! Yes, Jack and I worked hard, but also had a lot of fun researching, hunting-down images, and writing the text. For the most part, Jack wrote about the business end, and I took care of architectural analysis, though occasionally we traded focus.
Simon and John: Thank you both for your kind words! Yes, Jack and I worked hard, but also had a lot of fun researching, hunting-down images, and writing the text. For the most part, Jack wrote about the business end, and I took care of architectural analysis, though occasionally we traded focus.
On site observation by me this morning: I was allowed to briefly step into the former auditorium. I can confirm firsthand that the auditorium has been completely gutted to the bare concrete and open beam steel ceiling joists. An extensive new steel armature for the rock climbing wall structure now twists and turns throughout the space, and is admittedly quite impressive. At present, the original wall surfaces and ceiling coves of the lobby and the passages leading to the former auditorium are intact. Original ornamental plaster leaves still are extant in the passages, but once in the auditorium, all trace of theatrical use is completely gone. The exterior at present remains completely unchanged from its days as WET, save for the removal of the club’s name from the former reader-board spaces on the marquee.
Slight detail correction to the owl story: I recently got clarification from Jack—The owls would come into the sign from the top, and nest in the space above the “S”, not actually in it. Careful examination of images of the sign would appear to confirm this.
Hooray! Finally a “new” theater where not only did they come up with some nice exterior signage, but the actual interior wall surface
has more than just two-tone flat fabric panels on it! Here we see actual arches and tasseled drapes. It may not be Rapp & Rapp, but the spirit of the decor is most welcome.
Actually, this photo had to have been taken in about 1982, as the crumpled white banner which shows up in my 1982 photos (next in the sequence) is still hanging over the word OAKLAND on the central part of the marquee. Also, the red portions of the marquee still show weathering, and the square plugs covering holes from the removal of neon. Also the bottom border of the marquee is white, the result of a chain-wide removal of bottom border neon that Fox West Coast did in the 60s to save on the maintenance of neon broken by falling marquee letters. The red was repainted in a darker shade (and the same shade applied to the white border at the bottom) in Summer, 1987, when the street was used for shooting a scene in “Tucker, the Man and His Dream,” so this would have to date before that.
It should be noted that the organ from this theater was used for at least a few recordings by Gaylord Carter, though I believe this was after the organ had been removed from the Criterion to a new home.
Also, the 60s marquee of the Criterion can be glimpsed in "Pee Wee's Big Adventure," in the background of several shots filmed along the street (the stolen bike scenes) with a generic "Cartoon Cavalcade" advertised on the reader board.
The theatre name sign, readerboard, and the marquee neon are very similar to those on the State in Pecos, Texas. the facade of the Pecos example is far simpler.
Actually, this is the block which faces the Chinese. You can see the stage fly tower of the theatre peeping up just beyond the metal clad obelisks on the top of the Chinese facade. To the Left in the photo is the side of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The plain brick building which obscures the Chinese in the photo is long gone. There is a much taller building there now, built in the 70s or thereabouts.
If I had seen that peering down at me in the darkness of an old theatre when I was a kid, it would have creeped me out. Glad to see unusual things like this saved from the landfill. This item being sheet metal, I would guess it was on the facade or marquee. It looks like something one would find in/on a nickelodeon.
There is a feature article on this theatre in the 1952 Edition of Theatre Catalog.
This is actually in Palo Alto, on Emerson Street. The Bijou opened sometime in the 60s in this terra cotta clad 1920s commercial block and closed in the mid-80s. The interior was plain and draped in blue fabric. The part of the building which once contained the theatre now houses Gordon Biersch Brewery.
RIGHT ON, Simon! I completely agree about curtains and NEVER showing a blank screen. During my childhood in the late 60s, through the 70s, and into the 80s, I don’t recall ever seeing a blank screen. It was in some homespun tiny art theatres in the 80s that I first came to walk into some little auditoriums with no curtains. But even then, there were soft lights on the screen—sometimes colored—aimed at the screen until the show started.
My friend Jack Tillmany has in his very extensive collection a 1920s color tinted postcard view of this theatre as the Merced. It was unquestionably designed by A. W. Cornelius originally. Its facade bears the design Cornelius used on so many of his theatres. In fact, it most closely resembles the California in Pittsburg, but a bit narrower.
Adding one more theatre to the record of those by A. W. Cornelius: The “old” Merced in Merced (not to be confused with the present one with its signature tower). The “old” Merced had a facade almost identical to that of the California in Pittsburg. It was long ago remodeled to a Moderne look, which it still has today. It was later known by such names as Strand, Cinema III, and at this time is called the Mainzer.
By looking at this image, it would seem that the sheet metal-clad tower which supports the present vertical sign from the 40s was constructed simply by applying the sheet metal to the steel structure shown here. The proportions are the same.
Wonderful photograph! This is the first time perhaps any of us have seen anything of the original look of the theatre’s interior, even though technically, the ticket lobby is still the exterior. The winged sun disks are terrific and the doors are quite interesting and echo similar doors in other Egyptian Revival buildings of the day. I would venture a guess the ceiling of the ticket lobby still exists today, hidden above the present marquee soffit. This is often the case, and was found to be so in the Metro on Union St., the Golden State, in Monterey, the California in San Jose, and many others. The exterior popcorn machine and neon sign, partially visible on the Right, is also intriguing.
What a terrific photo. I would love to know where this was found. It shows that the Moderne marquee which is still on the theatre was not installed at the same time as the vertical sign which still remains there today. It also shows a late 20s/early 30s vertical sign which was not on the theatre when it opened. Also, the quality of sunlight on the building makes it possible to see more detail on two of the four faces of the goddess of Hathor at the base of the flagpole. Thank you, jeterga, for sharing these! Now, if someone can just find photos of the original 20s Egyptian interior decorative scheme, that will be an even bigger “Holy Grail.”
Sorry for the duplication. There was a glitch for a moment in the loading process, and I thought it hadn’t uploaded.
I don’t know why this photo, of all of them, is the one that appears on the Elsinore’s first photo page by default. It is not the first, nor the last photo in the series that I posted. If I knew it was going to happen like this, I would not have posted it.
Apologies for the soft focus. I posted this only looking at the thumbnail.
I have just seen a brief news item online from what seems to be a substantial source that the Varsity’s next use is to be an Apple Store. If it is to continue as a retail space, this does make a lot of sense. The Apple Stores I’ve seen either in person or in articles tend to be open and spacious, which a former theatre is. I don’t think we need to fret about this use of the building causing significant, if any, compromise to the surviving original interior features.
I pressed Send too soon! And a big thank you to Michael Zoldessy, for posting the announcement to begin with!
Simon and John: Thank you both for your kind words! Yes, Jack and I worked hard, but also had a lot of fun researching, hunting-down images, and writing the text. For the most part, Jack wrote about the business end, and I took care of architectural analysis, though occasionally we traded focus.
Simon and John: Thank you both for your kind words! Yes, Jack and I worked hard, but also had a lot of fun researching, hunting-down images, and writing the text. For the most part, Jack wrote about the business end, and I took care of architectural analysis, though occasionally we traded focus.
On site observation by me this morning: I was allowed to briefly step into the former auditorium. I can confirm firsthand that the auditorium has been completely gutted to the bare concrete and open beam steel ceiling joists. An extensive new steel armature for the rock climbing wall structure now twists and turns throughout the space, and is admittedly quite impressive. At present, the original wall surfaces and ceiling coves of the lobby and the passages leading to the former auditorium are intact. Original ornamental plaster leaves still are extant in the passages, but once in the auditorium, all trace of theatrical use is completely gone. The exterior at present remains completely unchanged from its days as WET, save for the removal of the club’s name from the former reader-board spaces on the marquee.
Thanks Ross! I’ll take that as a compliment of the highest order!
Slight detail correction to the owl story: I recently got clarification from Jack—The owls would come into the sign from the top, and nest in the space above the “S”, not actually in it. Careful examination of images of the sign would appear to confirm this.
Hooray! Finally a “new” theater where not only did they come up with some nice exterior signage, but the actual interior wall surface has more than just two-tone flat fabric panels on it! Here we see actual arches and tasseled drapes. It may not be Rapp & Rapp, but the spirit of the decor is most welcome.
See my comment below the next photo in the sequence for a date.
Actually, this photo had to have been taken in about 1982, as the crumpled white banner which shows up in my 1982 photos (next in the sequence) is still hanging over the word OAKLAND on the central part of the marquee. Also, the red portions of the marquee still show weathering, and the square plugs covering holes from the removal of neon. Also the bottom border of the marquee is white, the result of a chain-wide removal of bottom border neon that Fox West Coast did in the 60s to save on the maintenance of neon broken by falling marquee letters. The red was repainted in a darker shade (and the same shade applied to the white border at the bottom) in Summer, 1987, when the street was used for shooting a scene in “Tucker, the Man and His Dream,” so this would have to date before that.
It should be noted that the organ from this theater was used for at least a few recordings by Gaylord Carter, though I believe this was after the organ had been removed from the Criterion to a new home.