Main Street Theatre
307 East Main Street,
Visalia,
CA
93279
307 East Main Street,
Visalia,
CA
93279
1 person
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It’s hard to believe that this theater, with its rather ordinary exterior, was designed by famous theater architect S. Charles Lee. Opened in 1949 as the Visalia Theatre, showing John Wayne in "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon," its quonset hut auditorium originally seated more than 600.
Today it pales when compared to the well-known Visalia Fox, four blocks away, whose architect is unknown. The Fox, however, seems to be very similiar to the atmospheric theaters Lee designed for the Fox circuit in the 1930s.
Since 1997 the theater has been home to the family-oriented Enchanted Playhouse whose mission is to "Enchant, surprise, excite and amuse audiences, young and old." The theater is also available for rental to the community.
Contributed by
Ron Pierce
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Recent comments (view all 11 comments)
Gary, what is your source for “Balch & Stanberry” as designers? (newspaper, building plans?)
Also, does any one have a photo of this theater from the front?
thanx
I am not about to speak for Gary (who is on a trip to Egypt right now), but the Fox Theatre in Hanford AND the Fox Theatre in Visalia were both designed by Balch and Stanberry. Motion Picture World of 1930 had floor plans of both the Hanford and Visalia Fox Theatres and both were clearly designed by B & S. The Visalia Fox folks have a fine book out (presumably available from the Friends of the Fox website)and this book also clearly states the B & S firm as architects.
For the record, the Visalia Fox Theatre website is:
http://www.foxvisalia.org/
Here are some pictures from the UCLA Digital Collection:
View link
View link
View link
In 1963, the operator was West Side-Valley Theaters, out of San Francisco. General manager was Roy Copper. WS-V also ran the Grand in Visalia, which I am going to add as I don’t see it listed on CT.
It looks like the original UCLA/Lee site has been taken down. Here are two photos from another UC site:
http://tinyurl.com/3yn9zt
http://tinyurl.com/2knuy7
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon with John Wayne was released in October of 1949.
Main Street Theater photo
This is a 1982 photo.
Here is a recent photo.