Sierra Theater
819 Main Street,
Susanville,
CA
96130
819 Main Street,
Susanville,
CA
96130
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The Sierra Theater in Susanville, CA was built in the 1930’s. This theater is listed as open today.
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Lost Memory
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Recent comments (view all 15 comments)
ken: What you have found may be a picture of Susanville’s Orpheum Bowling Alley. Although the name Orpheum is most closely associated with theaters, there have been (and are) other businesses that use the name. I know of at least one music store (an appropriate enterprise, given that Orpheus was a musician), and there are a few bars called the Orpheum here and there.
Given the date of 1946, it seems certain that your photograph depicts the Orpheum Bowling Alley, though. That’s not to say that the bowling alley was not perhaps located in the former quarters of a theatre, of course, and kept the name to save on the cost of a new sign. It does seem a very odd choice of names for a bowling alley.
There’s no better way to pass the time, in my opinion, than discussing the existence of a bowling alley that went out of business 65 years ago in a town I’ve never visited. And some people like fishing…
I worked as a part time projectionist at the Sierra from 1956 through the early 60s (also the Lassen Auto Movie). The first movie I remember running by myself was the Elvis Presley film, “Love Me Tender.” The Sierra used Super Simplex projectors, Simplex XL soundheads and Peerless Magnarc lamps. The sound amp was Western Electric. The original projectors were moved to the drive-in in the early 50s when the Sierra was equipped to show 3D movies. I think the Sierra was owned by United California Theatres at this time.
Here is a modern photo of the Sierra Theater. Click on the photo to expand it.
There is a documentary running on PBS this week called “P.O.V. Prison Town USA” and there are several shots of this Main Sreet mainstay, with its vertical sign and yellow marquee, in plain view. I was happily surprised to find that such a seemingly depressed location is able to support this theater. (There is another theatre in town, the Uptown, but I didn’t notice if it too was shown.)
This link at the first comment still works; check it out for all things Susanville.
Following up on Joe Vogel’s comment of 12/28/05, here is another photo of the Orpheum in Susanville. We can’t establish that it actually was used as a theater, so I won’t add it. Apologies for detracting from the Sierra page:
http://tinyurl.com/2nhvyp
This is an August 2008 photo.
ken mc: You can add the Orpheum. Here’s a brief item from the July 16, 1949, issue of Boxoffice: “Susanville, Calif.— Work has been resumed on rebuilding the old Orpheum. Owned by T&D, the project was halted by the extreme cold last winter. The circuit also owns and operates the Sierra Theatre here.”
I guess it was a theater before it became a bowling alley. From the second photo you linked to, it looks as though it might have been a lodge hall of some sort first. In any case, the style of the building suggest an origin in the 19th century.
1982 Photo
Here is a 2009 photo.