Guild Theatre

Here is a nice write-up and photo set from 4/3/11:

http://inmenlo.com/2011/04/03/guild-theatre-bringing-movies-to-menlo-for-85-years/

This piece confirms GaryParks' points about the interior details not being original, and that it wasn’t originally named the Guild (was just the “Menlo Theatre.”

This is an exterior photo and here is a view of the interior.

The interior of the Guild is structurally plain, but there are numerous things to delight the eye. The tiny lobby is decorated in a kind of funky artiness that’s hard to describe, as though someone went to a craft store, bought various decorative moldings and trimmings and had lots of fun. This beats the previous look, which dated from the Sixties or early Seventies, where both the lobby and auditorium were black and orange. For many years since though, the auditorium has featured some nice fixtures and ornamental details slavaged from other classic theatres. I’m quite sure the two moderne ceiling fixtures are from the Uptown, San Francisco. The wall sconces are also moderne, but I don’t know where they’re from. A gilded wave motif wainscot and some large scroll/floral flourishes at the front and rear of the auditorium come from some Fox house and date from the Skouras era, and are identical to portions of the intact Skouras decor in the Redwood City Fox and the California in Berkeley, among others.

A black and white photo taken in the 40s of the Guild’s interior shows modest moderne interpretations of classical themes in murals flanking the screen.

I recall reading or hearing that the Guild was originally built in the Twenties, and had its facade lopped off and rebuilt when El Camino Real was widened. Guild was not the theatre’s original name. It MAY have been the Menlo Park at first, though I shouldn’t be quoted on this. Obviously, this would have been before the Park on El Camino, or the Menlo, on Santa Cruz Avenue, were opened.

Oh Guild. How do I love thee. You are quite simply my favorite theatre to see any movie that I know will mean something special to me. All Ambout My Mother, Huit Femmes, Enigma, Kolya, Gosford Park, Talk To Her, Billy’s Hollywood Screen Kiss, Wilde, A Prarie Home Companion. I can sit back and stare at your comfortable screens and stay warm in the Winter and cool in the Summer. Your staff treat me with a familiar manner that sometimes we fight, other times they alone are worth the price of admission. Your marquee glows pink against the El Camino back drop to let us all know to stop and say hi sometime.

Here is a nice color photo:
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Photo of the Guild Theatre.
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