Plumas Theatre

Motion Picture Herald, May 13, 1927, noted an unnamed theater was due to open in Portola the last of May 1927. The Setab Theatre made its debut in Film Daily Year Book 1928 with 200 seats.

Sanborn Maps 1930 show the theatre (with a skylight along the peak of the roof) located at what was then 6 Commercial Street. Another small pre-1927 theater was located in the 100 block of Commercial, aptly named the Portola Theatre.

From 1933 to 1939 it was listed as the Gilda Theatre with 300 seats and a April 30, 1939, article in the Nevada State Journal, reported it was being sold by Martha Toomey and her daughter Gilda.

The Reno Evening Gazette noted May 8, 1941 that Mac Ferson was the new owner of the Plumas Theatre. The seller was Harvey Amusement Co., a chain of 12 Northern California theaters. The theater last showed up in FDYB 1948 as the Plumas Theatre.

The most recent Google aerial shows a building (still with a skylight) and a streetside view of the Ponderosa Bowl, built in 1927.

On August 28, 2015, a fire demolished the Ponderosa Bowl, leaving the concrete walls. The Sierra Booster noted the Bowl had been vacant for sometime but tenants were evacuated from the above apartments.

Get Movie Tickets & Showtimes

Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater.