Roxie Theatre
517 17th Street,
Oakland,
CA
94612
517 17th Street,
Oakland,
CA
94612
1 person
favorited this theater
The Dufwin Theatre opened on October 14, 1928 with 1,400 seats, and was used initially for live theater. It was converted for movies and renamed the Roxie Theatre, in which capacity it continued until its closure in the early 1980’s.
It was eventually gutted and converted into office space and renamed Dufwin Towers, though a trio of mosaics depicting its original function on the front (which was restored during the conversion after being painted over for years) remains, as does the lettering “Dufwin Theater” above.
Contributed by
Garrett Murphy
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Recent comments (view all 18 comments)
I don’t know if/when it was called The Dufwin Towers, but it’s called the Dufwin Theater Building now.
Man the Roxy-3 flicks for 2$. And me and my Mexican Patna form San Fran would hook up on the weekends and be there all day watching Black exploits & Fu Flicks. Ahh those were the days.
The Roxie was great and the Queen of B Triple Bills during the early seventies. It had a lobby with the snack bar in the center, stairs on both sides that went up to the balcony (it didn’t have a loge) ) where everyone did pot and drank nite train. There were no murals or paintings, as the walls and the sides of the screen were curtained over. Fights were always going down in there. All of a sudden the screen would go blank, the lights would come on, and about 20 uniformed Oakland police would come in, snatch some guy sitting in the front for no reason an drag him out. the lights would go out and the movie would come back on, and everyone would be catcalling out loud and kackling, it was great fun.
I used to attend the Roxie in the early 1980’s when I was in the United States Navy stationed at Naval Air Station in Alameda, California on the USS Kansas City (AOR 3). The majority of the movies had all black actors, and the patrons were mostly black. I remember watching “Superfly” for the first time and “Pipe Dreams” featuring Gladys Knight. I remember only paying 2 or 3 dollars to watch movies all afternoon and evening. The place used to get a good crowd on the weekend. I enjoyed the Roxie very much. Radioman third class, Anthony Jordan
Same thing went on at the Roxie that the Fox Grand Lake was doing. The Blumenfelds booked the Roxie at times like a road show house. had in the adds even 70mm listed. They didn’t have 70mm even had mono sound till many people got upset. Disney made them put in 4 track stereo for Mary Popins.Most people went to San francisco to see Cinerama, Todd-Ao and the other 70mm systems. The poor guys who went to the small Roxie screen missed all the presentation that SF had. It wasn’t till Ray S put in his Dome Century 21/22 big curved 70mm screens in San Jose that the 70mm hold had been let out of the SF theatres.
Here is a 1950 ad from the Oakland Tribune:
http://tinyurl.com/2st75n
Here is a 1956 ad:
http://tinyurl.com/2u9rxd
The year given for this photo is 1981.
Here are some 1928 photos:
http://tinyurl.com/nh3sx4
http://tinyurl.com/lgmrlw
In the early 1980s I patronized the Roxie. All the staff were Asian, very polite, friendly. I remember the lobby was spacious and regal. The concession stand offered a broader menu than a Dairy Queen. They sold Nochos, hamburgers, cheese fries, softserve, etc. The auditorium still looked exactly like the above 1928 photo, though kids had used Magic Markers to scribble graffiti over everything, which had ruined once lovely wood panelling. A triple feature was on the bill, but crowds of noisy teens were so loud I stayed only long enough to get a good look at architectural details.