Tower Theatre
103 D Street,
Marysville,
CA
95901
103 D Street,
Marysville,
CA
95901
1 person
favorited this theater
Showing 19 comments
Opened January 17, 1941 with “Carolina Moon” supported by by The Three Stooges in “Nurse to Worse” and other short subjects.
1954 photo added courtesy of Derrick Gardner‎.
to KrynMCPromotions, if they need volunteers for the museum, please let them know im interested.
A September 2012 photo can be seen here.
The Tower Theatre will now be home to a New Museum. The “Yuba County Museum of History” has currently signed a thirty month lease for the front area of the Tower Theater in Marysville on D Street, and must complete remodeling work prior to opening hopefully by the end of this year, December 2011.
The foyer and lobby area will provide approximately 2600 square feet and allow the museum to showcase large artifacts and exhibits. The remainder of the old Theatre/Restaurant is unfortunately now an office.
http://www.yubacountyhistory.org/location.html https://www.facebook.com/yubacountymuseum
I wasn’t questioning the opening date the newspaper gave. I was just disappointed that Boxoffice didn’t run an item about the event. The magazine ran very few items about Marysville’s theaters, unfortunately. Other towns in the valley often got better coverage.
There’s no doubt about the opening date of the Tower Theater. I’ve got a photocopy in front of me of the Appeal-Democrat from January 17, 1941 with the advertisement saying:
GRAND OPENING
– TODAY -
DOORS OPEN AT 5:30 P.M.
Boxoffice Magazine mentions the Tower twice in December, 1940. The December 14 issue said that the Tower would be opening on Christmas Day, but the December 21 issue said that the opening had been moved back until the middle of January. I can’t find anything in Boxoffice about the actual opening, though.
The last mention (in fact the only mention I can find) of the Liberty in Boxoffice is in the September 23, 1939, issue which mentions that the employees of the house had given operator Harry Hunsacher a birthday party.
The most recent mention of the Tower I’ve found in Boxoffice is a line in the March 7, 1958, issue which said that the house had been closed. The Tower had been closed for at least part of 1957 as well. The December 21 issue of Boxoffice that year said that it had been reopened by the United California circuit.
Here’s a photo of D Street north from 1st in the 1920s, showing the Tower’s predecessor at right. The source identifies the theater as the Atkins. Here’s a photo of the same theater dated 1908, when it was called the Marysville Theatre.
The theater at First and D that burned down on January 28, 1926 was operating as the National Theatre at that time. The new Liberty Theatre “Was Built On Site of Old National At First and D” (Marysville Appeal 1/8/1927) and opened on January 11, 1927. The new National Theatre on E St., which would become the State Theatre, was under construction at the time of the new Liberty Theatre’s opening. The old Liberty Theatre on 2nd St. had its last showing on January 9, 1927.
The Tower Theatre opened at First and D on January 17, 1941. The Liberty Theatre stopped showing up in advertisements in the Appeal-Democrat some time before the opening of the Tower, and both theaters advertised with the slogan, “The Family Theatre,” so I’m guessing that the Tower was a remodel of the new Liberty. But while I can find advertisements for the opening of the Tower, I haven’t found an article on its opening.
The first film at the Tower was Gene Autrey’s Carolina Moon. They advertised 1000 seats at 20 cents.
Though there are some Internet sources which say that the State Theatre was built on the site of the Marysville Theatre, it was actually the Tower which was erected on the Marysville’s site. Links to photos of the Marysville can be found on its Cinema Treasures page.
Prior to the mid-1920s fire which destroyed it, the Marysville had been operating under the name Atkins Theatre. After the fire, for some time a small movie house called the Liberty Theatre occupied the location. There is a photo of the Liberty ca.1927 on page 121 of the Arcadia Publishing Company book Marysville, part of its Images of America series. The Tower, with its moderne design, apparently dates to the 1930s or early 1940s.
Does anyone know when the Marysville Tower was built?
Thanks for the confirmation.
Ken mc:The photo link you posted above on Nov 19th does show the 350 seat capacity Lyric Theatre which was located further up D Street at # 211. It currently does not have a listing on Cinema Treasures.
View link
View link
I think that this picture represents a different theater in Marysville called the Lyric. The neighboring businesses do not resemble the stores surrounding the Tower.
View link
Here is a photo from the UC Davis collection:
View link
Call the town of Marysville and speak to the Town Clerk and find out who the property owner is.
I have often driven by that theater and thought that I would like to buy it but don’t know how to find ut who currently owns it to see if they would like to sell it.
I remember the Tower Theater well. It sat more or less at the foot of the now-defunct D Street bridge. It just wasn’t summer without those dark, cool afternoons spent watching a double-bill for a quarter. Another quarter got you (one size fits all) a fountain soda and popcorn. Next to the theater I remember a hamburger place (I almost think it was named after the theater, but I’m not sure.) where you could get a McDonald’s-quality hamburger for ten cents.
Of course, in those days it was a respectable family theater, but nothing stays the same.
You have also mentioned two more of my favorite Marysville landmarks—the Bok Kai temple and St. Joseph’s Church, where Monsignor Horgan, Father Hines and Father Doheny presided. Despite being surrounded by levees that hamper its growth, Marysville is kind of a neat little place, but summers there (as they are here in Sacramento) are murderous.