Victoria Theatre
460 Fifth Street,
Gustine,
CA
95322
460 Fifth Street,
Gustine,
CA
95322
1 person
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previous Names: Frates Theatre, Valley Theatre
Nearby Theaters
The 150-seat Victoria Theatre was opened by 1926. By 1934 it had been enlarged to 450-seats. In 1948 it was renamed Valley Theatre.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater.
Recent comments (view all 3 comments)
This house was also known as the Valley Theatre, from 1948 until it closed in 1954, according to Mrs. Snokes' history.
The history also tells about an earlier theatre called the Gustine Opera House which showed movies from the time of its opening in May of 1912 until it was destroyed by a fire (which originated in the projection room) in 1920.
I’ve run across a card in the L.A. Library’s California Index which claims that there was also a Gustine Theatre in Gustine in the 1930s. The card cites a Motion Picture Herald article of February 15, 1936, which says that an Elwood Laws had leased the Gustine Theatre. It’s only the library’s caption on the card that says that the theatre was in the town of Gustine. I don’t know if this was yet another name for the Victoria, or was another theatre altogether, or is just a mistake in the index (I’ve previously found a number of others.) It seems to me that if there’d been a second theatre in Gustine at that time then Mrs. Snokes would have mentioned it in her fairly thorough history.
I’d be less inclined to skepticism in this particular case were it not for the fact that there was a fellow named William Gustine who was in the theatre business in the San Joaquin Valley during the 1930s, and it has occurred to me that the Gustine Theatre in question might have originated as one of his operations and, if named after him, could have been anywhere in the region.
Most recently an antique mall. Google Street View of March 2024 shows it permanently closed. Marquee and blade sign are still intact.
The correct address of the Valley Theatre is 498 Fifth Street. The timeline in a locally published history of the Gustine area by Patricia Carson Snoke says that Jack Frates built the Victoria Theatre in 1920. It was remodeled and renamed Valley Theatre in 1948. It closed in 1954 and the building was converted for use as a bowling alley in 1958.
As Trolleyguy notes in the previous comment, the most recent occupant of the building was an antique mall, said to be permanently closed in a notation on the March, 2024 Google street view. Real estate web sites say the unoccupied building is currently listed for sale at $375,000.