Lyceum Theatre

From the Fresno Bee archives:
— September 17, 1916: The Lyceum opens. Glass and Butner were the architects of the $12,000 building, which they praised as being “the last word in the way of a modern up-to-date show place.”
— April 13, 1952: Ben Nakamura, owner of the Cal theatre, Purchased the Lyceum from Hardy’s Theaters.
— July 27, 1957: Six people were arrested for staging a strip tease at the Lyceum. Besides the dancers, the building owner and manager were arrested. The police took films of the act in the half-filled theatre, which was followed by a motion picture.
— April of 1960: Their small ads say it was now under new management with a triple feature policy with admission prices of .55 and .20 cents. It appeared this management was short lived because the Lyceum later disappeared from the paper and didn’t pop up until 1967.
— 1967: A story on the revitalization old buildings in Chinatown said that the Lyceum and Ryan theaters were “already gone.”
The Rex theatre also known as the Cal theater was in the Nippon Hall behind the Nippon building at 909 F Street. Only the Azteca theatre remains today.
A complete walking guide of China Town or Japan Town and the locations of the four theaters can be found at:
http://japantownatlas.com/map-fresno.html

Oddly enough, they won a Ronson pocket lighter.

If would be nice if they won $20 to cover the cost of the fire damage. :)

$20 damage shouldn’t even be in the newspaper. It must have been a slow news day.

It must be “long” lost. I was an avid moviegoer in Fresno from 1953-1969, and this theater was already history at that point.