River Theatre
1213 North Chester Avenue,
Oildale,
CA
93308
1213 North Chester Avenue,
Oildale,
CA
93308
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Bryan Krefft
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The street address is 1213 North Chester Ave. Google will give Bakersfield as the city.
Country music star Buck Owens used the former River Theater as his recording studio and headquarters from 1968 to 1992. In 1992 he leased it to Rick Davis, who continued to let local bands, including Korn, record here. Rick was a keyboardist for Buck Owens as well as the father of Korn vocalist Jonathan Davis. In April of 2008 Rick gave up his lease and closed the studio. Bakotopia.com, a Bakersfield entertainment website says that the River Theater was built in 1939. A historical photo of the River Theater can be found at kcmuseum.org, the Kern county museum
official website.
The River Theatre was built for the Banducci and Lemucchi Theatre Company, according to an item in Southwest Builder & Contractor, March 17, 1939. The May 26 issue of the same publication revealed that Clifford Balch was the architect for the project.
The September 23, 1939, issue of Boxoffice Magazine reported that the River Theatre at Oildale had been opened. Banducci and Lemucchi also operated the Arvin Theatre at Arvin and the Granada Theatre in Bakersfield.
Following the death of Jim Banducci in 1955, various issues of Boxoffice reported multiple closings and re-openings of the River under various operators during the next two years, until it was taken over by Ernest Martini in 1957. Martini was still operating the house in January, 1964, the last mention of it I’ve found in Boxoffice.