Daly City Theatre
6212 Mission Street,
Daly City,
CA
94014
6212 Mission Street,
Daly City,
CA
94014
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In the early 1950’s Saturday Matinees were soldout with 4-hours of continuous black&white film entertaining moviegoers with the lastest Western, Crime drama or Comedy such as Abbott&Costello. Adults could sit in Lodge Section (last 10 rows) and smoke to there hearts desire, clouds of smoke would fill the auditorium. The theater was always clean and spotless, the concession counter was fully stocked and fresh butter popcorn was only 10cents a box. Wednesday nights, were spin-the-wheel night designed to pull more movie crowd to fill the seats. A local entertainer would spent 15 minutes between intermission giving away various gifts with winners taking home the prize of the night. Only problem was with 2-feature films showing, it would be after 11pm before the shows Let out. Unfortunately, She could not compete with television and officially closed on 22 December 1955 and demolished in 1958.
The January 21, 1928, issue of Building and Engineering News said that architect C. H. Jensen was completing revised plans for a 1,250 seat theater to be built at Daly City for E. Baron and Carol Nathan, proprietors of the Jefferson Theatre.
If the Daly City Theatre resembles the work of Reid Brothers, it might be because C. H. Jensen was that firm’s chief draftsman for several years prior to striking off on his own in 1921.
Too bad it gone!
This blog at View link contains a late 1930’s line drawing (likely based on a photo) of the Daly City Theatre. As is noted in the blog, this illustration ran at the top of the theatre’s newspaper advertisements in the late 1930’s. The newspaper ads I’ve seen from the late 1920’s don’t have this image.
As a five year old I sat in my Grandparent’s front window and watched the crane swing a wrecking ball into the walls of the Daly City Theater. Many times my Grandfather and I walked across the street to watch the demolition up close. I love the photo that kenmc posted!
Here is a 1942 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/2ndxgl
I have seen a photo of the facade of this theatre, not long after it closed, with the marquee’s message inviting patrons to attend what was then the brand new Serra Theatre nearby. The Serra itself lasted until the early 1990s.