Stamm Theatre
912 G Street,
Antioch,
CA
94509
912 G Street,
Antioch,
CA
94509
1 person
favorited this theater
Once a gathering spot for the local community, and a key part of the city’s main cruise. The Stamm family chose not to maintain the theatre due to the newer and bigger screens opening around the area and sold to a church group who have turned this once welcoming theatre into another church.
Many a blockbuster film was shown here in it’s heyday. Beautiful alfresco murals of portugese fishing men and women lined the walls on both sides of the auditorium with deep maroon carpeting and high loges for those attendees wishing for a spectacular view from above.
This theatre will be sadly missed by most east county natives.
Contributed by
R.Soliz
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Recent comments (view all 16 comments)
HELP!
During the early 1990’s when the Stamm was in its last days, I tried to photograph the interior. The owner would NOT give permission, stating they would take pictures before the interior was gutted. I checked back and they never did. Dealing with the Stamm family was the only difficulty I had in photographing theater interior.
Does anyone have an interior shot (NOT exterior – I have plenty of those) of the Stamm? If so, would you kindly reply and post it?
Thanks
Trainmaster
Here is a 1986 photo of the Stamm:
http://tinyurl.com/dn5tkb
1986 photo oc the Stamm Theatre.
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Couple more 1986 night photos of the Stamm Theatre.
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Another one.
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Re: Trainmaster’s comment. My father had certain dealings with George Stamm when our family lived in Antioch during the 1950s; suffice it to say his memories of the man were not fond. The Stamm was my home-away-from-home in those days, and it broke my heart to see it gutted to the bare concrete walls in 1999. If the Stamm family did indeed refuse to allow photos of the interior, then didn’t photograph it themselves, shame on them; it was nothing less than a crime against posterity. If anyone does respond to Trainmaster’s request for interior shots, I’d love to hear about it myself.
The only interior shot of the Stamm I’ve been able to find is one of the lobby that appeared in an ad for Gulistan carpets published in Boxoffice of February 5, 1949.
The opening of this 1,100-seat Art Moderne theater was noted in Boxoffice of December 18, 1948. I’ve been unable to discover the name of the architect.
In the early 1990s, I drove out to Antioch for the sole purpose of attending movies at the Stamm and El Campanil theatres. I saw “The Coneheads” at the Stamm (awful movie), but that wasn’t the point, I got to see the inside of the theatre. As I was not allowed to take photos, I had my Plan B—my sketchbook. I drew a black and white sketch and made color notes of a large section of the center part of the Left sidewall of the auditorium, and as soon as I got home that night, made a color rendering of it. It should be said that all the murals were lit by UV lighting, and glowed in the dark as the movie ran—an eerily beautiful effect.
I still have this color rendering. I really don’t want to open up some kind of account to post photos online—it’s all I can do to keep up with theatre-related matters in Theatre Historical Society and other commitments…BUT…if anyone else would like to post this for me, I would be happy to scan and email an image of this drawing. All I’d ask is that the drawing be credited with my name. This may be the only color record of the muralwork we have.
Those who remember the Stamm Theatre might like to read this post on my Cinedrome blog. I post as many (grainy) images as I could find of the interior from that 1949 Box Office Magazine article. Alas, the link to that ad for Gulistan carpets mentioned by Joe Vogel above has now gone dead, but I do include — with the artist’s permission — Gary Parks’s rendering of one of the Stamm’s auditorium murals. I hope you get as much bittersweet pleasure in reading the post as I did in preparing it.
CORRECTION: The grainy pics on my post are from Motion Picture Herald, not Box Office. Oops!
The Laurel Theatre in San Carlos used the same master drawings for some of the human figures in its auditorium murals as were used in the Stamm. A photo which proves this can be found in “Theatres of the San Francisco Peninsula” which theatre historian Jack Tillmany and I co-authored. They are the same figures, but arranged differently.