Festival Cinemas 5
1450 N. California Blvd,
Walnut Creek,
CA
94596
1450 N. California Blvd,
Walnut Creek,
CA
94596
3 people
favorited this theater
Had two seperate but not connected entrances and lobbies, each with its own bathrooms and concession stands. Each side was only connected by walking through a couple booths. Offices and storage both upstairs, with an arcade with its own entrance. Side 1 had the largest (#1) and smallest (#2) theatres (450 + 100? seats) and Side 5 had theatres #3-5 (380, 150, 150 seats respectively). Opened 1969, closed and demolished in 2001.
Contributed by
Robert
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Recent comments (view all 19 comments)
Sadly it was torn down and replaced by an office complex sometime in 1981. It’s not even that welcoming of a complex either.
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I have a lot of fond memories of the Festival. It was always the nicest theater in the area, until the arrival of the Brendon in Concord, which is now oddly itself fallen out of favor.
The Festival Cinemas 5 opened on Wednesday May 28, 1969 (coincidentally, the same day the Capri theatre in Concord, CA opened). It had originally opened as the Festival 1 & 11 and had only two screens. The first features were “Winning†starring Paul Newman and “The Loves of Isadora†starring Vanessa Redgrave.
The Festival 1 & 11 would expand to (5) screens and become the Festival Cinema Center on Wednesday June 30, 1971. The films playing were:
1)Plaza Suite
2)Tora, Tora, Tora
3)The Summer of 42
4)Love Story
5)Wild Rovers
One of the last films to play there was The Odd Couple 2. We won tickets from a radio station.
George Senda
Concord, Ca
I lived in Walnut Creek in the early 1940’s. I remember the El Rey theater quite well. Saw many movies there. I attended the Walnut Creek school (4th grade). I can remember our class going to see
“Bambi” there. Also remember the long line of people waiting to get
in to see “Gone with the Wind” when it played at the El Rey. Seems
like there was an El Rey hot dog stand next to the theater. There
was also the “Home Restaurant” on one end of town when you came in
from Oakland. There was a Walgreens in about the middle of town. I have happy memories of living in Walnut Creek in the early 1940’s.
bfole… you should post your comments at the El Rey Theatre section at /theaters/10834/
Seems that people are only recalling the XXX days and after.
AT the Festival I remember watching “Blazing Saddles” and laughing my head off. Also remember watching “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” and getting a lot of dirty looks when I roared with laughter.
This was my favorite theater growing up. A lot of ‘classics’ (mind you I’m a child of the 80s) I saw at this theater and fondly remember. This was also the theater that inspired me to get into the film industry. My God Mother took me to see the ‘muppet movie’ when I was a kid here and her daughter was a theater manager. she took me to the projector room after the film and being up there just ‘inspired’ me to get into this industry. About 15 years later I saw my first screen credit in that theater. This year I had my biggest screen credit yet and would have loved to have seen it there, sadly. It’s gone.
I worked at the festival w.c. 1984-1987 and enjoyed it a great deal. I don’t recommend a movie theater as a first job because it will make you hate most future occupations. We would turn out all the lights after closing, grab flashlights and headsets, and engage in a creepy (pre laser tag) hunt occasionally. Also running employee only sneaks of films like Aliens, Untouchables, Brazil, and Clan of the Cave Bears (what the hell WAS that scampering noise in the booth!) was quite memorable.
Having been a former “real” projectionist, which required union membership, and apprenticeship when carbon-arch projection was the main source of the single screen theater, I hated (and still do)the multiplex theatre-type of operation.
But of all the “bird cages” that were built, I must say the Festival in Walnut Creek was, at least, the nicest of all that I have seen.
I remember the arcade booth upstairs. I believe the same company opened the Regency in Pleasant Hill. These two multiplexs were very nice for that type of operation, but if you saw the Roxy Theater in New York, or the Fox Theater San Francisco, or the Radio City Music Hall, you will know what I mean by the term “bird cages.” I even used to call the Enean (Concord) and El Rey (Walnut Creek) Theaters “fly traps” compared to the large monster theaters, but the suburban theaters had a nice intimate atmosphere. The Orinda is a fine example of a gem.
The Festival could not last for the same reason the single screens disappeared – first, there was “twinning” – converting a single screen into two auditoriums….then the “four-plex” and along came the Festival (done in good taste)……movie distributors simply
sought out the larger complexes and ignored the smaller ones.
Now, they are tearing down 12 to 16 multiplexes in favor of larger ones. I certainly do not care for today’s designs and colors of
these new “broom closets.”
At least, the Walnut Creek Festival had taste in designs!
I worked here from 84 to 87 or so. Fun job. Fond memories of bloo spooge, cleaning the drains under the drink machines, butter flavoring.
I got free tickets (like we didn’t get into whatever we wanted free anyway), when I cleaned up puke on I think side 1 when Gremlins was playing there and some kid couldn’t handle the microwave scene. Good times.