Esquire IMAX Theatre

November 2009 photo of the Esquire IMAX Theatre.

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Re: Posting above by Bob Koch…If you are still around, let me know. I met you years ago when I was a young ‘pup’ just getting started in ‘theatre management’, (1950) in Sacramento. You seemed to ‘pop’ up ‘servicing’ in every area I went to work. Started at the ‘California’ and ‘Studio’ in Sacto. Later in Chico; Modesto; Alameda. Hope to hear from you for ‘shop talk’. J. Lewis JCL

Phantasm and Every Which Way But Loose. That’s one interesting double feature.

More photos are here.

Phantasm was released in March of 1979.

A 2008 night view can be seen here.

This is a recent 2006 photo of the IMAX Esquire Theater.

my name is mireya gomez I am not a member yet but could I get a map of the Sacramento Downtown Imax Theater

My dad worked next door to the Esquire at Robert’s Fish Grotto, a seafood restaurant for over 20 years. He would get free tickets every once in a while to the Esquire and at time the Encore theatre that was on the other side of the Esquire. The Encore was much smaller and played more obscure films. Across the street was the Star theatre. I remember that they played at one point more adult oriented films, then in the mid seventies it was a Kung Fu movie place. Since there were so many movie places on K street, and before Sacramento decided to block and shut K street and redeisgn it into a “mall”, many people had a great choice of theatres. When the downtown area started to deteriorate and movie complexes started to take over the suburbs, the Esquire did twin itself, but management could not take care of it too well. The theatre would run 2nd and third run movies, double features for .75 cents etc. and the clientele became very shady. this was about the time that most of K street was in disrepair and many theatres started to get demolished (the Star, the Encore, The Fox etc). Out of all of these, the Crest is the only one that has survived and continues to show movies.

THe Sacramento Esquire IMAX theater has been open for a few years now and the only thing that remains from the old theater is the magnificent sign out front, it is very successful, However I remember seeing all the Cinerama Movies there and my Dad always enjoyed taking us kids to the Esquire he liked the seats and the popcorn, oh the memories in the upper Balcony !!

According to my friend, the late Ruth Moore, a longtime Sacramento resident who remembered the Esquire’s opening circa 1938, her most vivid memory of what was considered an ULTRA modern theatre were the glowing, antiseptic toilet seats! Apparently there was some sort of element running through the seats which was meant to keep them constantly sanitized. A byproduct of this was that the seats themselves lit up.