Jose Theatre
62 S. Second Street,
San Jose,
CA
95113
62 S. Second Street,
San Jose,
CA
95113
4 people
favorited this theater
Built in 1904, the Jose Theatre is the oldest theater in San Jose, California.
It is a designated city of San Jose Historic Landmark and is eligible for the National and California Registers.
In June of 2001, the city council agreed to a ten-year lease with the Improv Comedy Club, which opened in the Spring of 2002.
Contributed by
Ron Pierce
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Recent comments (view all 23 comments)
Did you know that the Jose Theatre had a 4-man orchestra? Here is a picture of the group ca. 1910.
[url=http://content.scu.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/svhocdm&CISOPTR=255&REC=2]
This is another vintage (1950?) photo of the Jose Theater.
Here is a recent photo of the Jose Theater.
Little known historical fact, courtesy of Wikipedia:
During the War of 1812, Francis Scott Key, accompanied by American Prisoner Exchange Agent Colonel John Stuart Skinner and Mexican Attache Jose Romero-Gonzalez, dined aboard the British ship HMS Tonnant, as the guests of three British officers. Skinner, Key, and Romero-Gonzalez were allowed to return to their own sloop, but were not allowed to return to Baltimore because they had become familiar with the strength and position of the British units and of the British intention to attack Baltimore. As a result of this, Key was unable to do anything but watch the bombarding of the American forces at Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore. Peering through the heavy smoke, he commented to the Attache, “Jose, can you see?” Shortly thereafter, he was inspired to compose our national anthem.
Was this theater named after Jose Romero-Gonzalez? Or is it named after the city of San Jose?
There is no Jose Romero-Gonzalez. I was just wasting valuable web space. I’m going back to work now.
That was pretty good. I bought the whole story. LOL
Here is another recent photo of Jose.
1986 Photo
The good old Jose… we would go there Saturday afternoons and pay 10 cents to see three movies. Lots of hispanics would hang out there, sometimes there were fights and a place where people “made out” and just hung out..