Showcase Theater

Hello from colorado!

Vincent miranda was my god father and owner of the Pussycat chain.I have been putting together a collection of ANYTHING Pussycat. Even an old match book would make my day. I know this particular venue did not have the Pussycat name however..I am seaching for an old Pussycat marquee...you know..the oval w/ the ms. pussycat and "It's a Pussycat theatre" Please...if you have any information..let me know.
Thanks!

Tim David
tbdavid@msn.com
970.309.3991

The Enean theatre closed its doors in early 1968 and reopened on April 17, 1968 under the new name Concord Showcase. The Showcase theatre’s first feature was “The Fox” starring Sandy Dennis and Keir Dullea.

When I was a kid growing up in Concord, CA, I and my brothers used to go to the Enean nearly every week to see the latest Disney film. We saw things like "Charlie, The Lonesome Cougar", "Follow Me, Boys", "The Absent-Minded Professor" and many of the other Disney low-budget quickies that they used to make in the 50's and 60's to fund their much more expensive animated features. It was a childhood highlight.

Funny story about the Enean's later life... It was still operating as a porn house when the Presbyterian church that stands directly behind it bought the place, intending to close it down so they could remodel it into a Christian youth center.

The church served an eviction notice to Pussycat, but they refused to leave. Several years of wrangling in the courts ensued before Pussycat was finally ousted, which meant that, for a few years, the church OWNED a porno house!

My mom belongs to this church, and I still needle her about it every once in awhile :)

i grew up in concord and remember this theater. Unfortunatly it was always operating as a Porn house during my youth. I also remember when it was converted to the church. My mother went to this theater in the 1960s when she first moved to Concord. She told me stories about seeing films there after work. Must have been early 62-65.

Dear Pat Patterson:

I served on that committee which oversaw the purchase of the theater.
The church was bound to an ironclad lease on the present occupants.
The First Presbyterian Church in Concord even make national network headline news: "CHURCH RUNS PORNO MOVIE HOUSE." While the story was (partially true) the network FAILED to mention that the church was legally bound to honor the lease until it expired in 1985. Once it did, the Mitchell Brothers (NOT Pussycat as some claim) were ordered OUT although they offered to triple the rent! I know - the offer was routed through our committee!

As a member of that committee, I fought to preserve the theater exactly as it was and use it for plays, etc. The Session (ruling body of the Church) had other ideas - they gutted the theater, using volunteer work, and turned the building into the "Presbyterian Communicty Center" which lasted until the late 1990's when they leased the building to a Korean Presbyterian Group. To this day, this group uses the facility for worship services.

I have asked Cinema Treasures to correct the extremely inaccurate information listed for the Enean Theater. It opened on September 8, 1938. I even have a special edition of the Concord Transcript of its Grand Opening. I also might add that all the pictures that the Concord Historical Society has on the theater were take by me!

And, NO, the Mitchell Brothers did not refuse to leave - again, as a member of the comittee that oversaw that project, they had no recourse as their lease was UP!!!! What the court battles were about was how to break their CURRENT lease when the church bought the building!

RMerk's posting is correct. If there are any doubts as to what the Porno house looked like in 1970, I can supply photos! That is, when Cinema Teasures gets that photo-upload section fixed.

I justam very passionate for accuracy and my research, experience on the church committee, and memories will verify any incorrect information above. I suggest whoever wrote the original article on the Showcase read the September 8, 1938 edition of the Concord Transcript.

In addition to the Showcase photo, I have the original opening photos of the theater, plus the ONLY known color photos of the exterior and interior as the theater apeared during the ENEAN days.

abner

If you'd like -- send the photos to newsroom@cinematour.com and we'll get them posted on our site which we can then cross reference to this site.

Interesting to find that the Mitchell Brothers were operating this theater at the end of its days as a porn house. Any idea as to when they took over from Pussycat Theaters? (I know that in the mid-1980s, Pussycat Theaters was in serious financial problems due to the decline of XXX theaters, the death of Vince Miranda, and legal squabbles as to who would own what was left of the operations.) The ads for Pussycat Theaters in the San Francisco Chronicle had this listed as one of their theaters & I do not recall this theater listed as a Mitchell Brothers theater. (The Mitchells did advertise in the Chronicle, as of 1985, their only Bay Area theaters advertised were the O'Farrell, which mostly did live shows then; the Ritz in Hayward which closed at the end of 1985, and the Bijou on Market Street in San Francisco. Their Berkeley operation was already changed over by another operator into a mainstream house.)

I could see the Mitchells attempting then to try to break into the market, although Pussycat & the Mitchells historically didn't get along with one another. (As when the Mitchells bought the leases to several San Francisco theaters that had been operated by Walter Reade prior to that company's bankrupcy--That was mostly done to keep Pussycat from expanding into a theater which was near their O'Farrell flagship.)

New book-length Pussycat Theatre history from the San Diego Reader:
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2008/aug/07/pussycat-theater-history-when-cathouses-ruled-ca-n/

Okay, so I didn't exactly have the facts straight about who ran the porno house and the legal mumbo-jumbo around the whole deal...

I just find it humorous to find that a porno house was owned by a church :)

War agnosticism... Out! :)

This site has a 1980 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/dxp254

This is a December 1976 ad from the Oakland Tribune. The address doesn't match, however.
http://tinyurl.com/ld8tr8