El Rey Theater
230 West Second Street,
Chico,
CA
95928
230 West Second Street,
Chico,
CA
95928
1 person
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 35 comments found
A 2010 photo can be seen here.
The use of the phrase “store-front theatre” in the first paragraph of the description makes no sense. This building was built as a vaudeville theater in 1905, and has always been a theater, both before and after it was rebuilt following the 1946 fire.
Bill Coady is correct. The El Rey is showing old movies on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with very low admission prices. Furthermore, they take requests on the theater’s Facebook page. There are also many live events upcoming. Apparently the theater is doing well.
The “Save the El Rey” web site that Lost Memory linked to on January 22, 2008, no longer has anything to do with the theater, and now exists only to host advertising links. There’s no point in clicking on it.
Photos of the El Rey Theatre.
View link
View link
View link
The El Rey is showing movies again! The schedule is on the JMAX website,
http://www.jmaxproductions.net
It must have been a large store.
If this was the American then it was far from being a store front theatre as stated inb the header.
Here is a 2005 photo of the El Rey courtesy of Tom Spaulding.
View link
Apparently it was. The 1942 photo is this theater. Here is a circa 1940 photo showing the American Theater. It is the same theater.
Must have been a major remodel.
It might be a photo of this theater. Compare the 1942 photo to the March 2008 photo. The small building to the right of the theater looks similar in both photos.
Some discrepancy between the 1942 and 1980 photos. The earlier one may not be this El Rey.
Here is a 1980 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/lofln4
Here is a 1942 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/pgt334
Here is a March 2008 photo.
JMAX Productions now features upcoming El Rey events on its website. They’re few and far between, but at least something is going on there.
Save the El Rey Theater.
There is a show there Friday night:
http://tinyurl.com/3xuprw
The El Rey has reopened with live performances, but on a very limited schedule. It’s being booked by JMax Productions. Henry Rollins did a spoken word show November 3 (the reopening event, as far as I know), and a couple of bands are scheduled for December dates. The venue has not yet been added to the Chico News & Review’s local nightlife grid, though. When (and if) it shows up there, we’ll know the revival is probably going to succeed.
Apparently the El Rey’s owner, Eric Hart, decided that his plan to gut the building and convert it to offices and retail space was not financially viable at this time. The Chico Enterprise-Record article (linked from myblueheven’s comment of July 15 above) about the planned sale of the building no longer works, but it looks as though there was no sale yet, to the preservationist group or anyone else. Instead, the latest news is that Hart will open the venue for live performances, according to this September 19 article from Chico News & Review.
Despite the article’s mention of October 5th as the date of the first event, an appearance by guitarist Jorma Kaukonen, I don’t see it among events listed in the current issue of the paper- though it is still listed on Kaukonen’s website. There might have been a hitch with the minimal renovations needed to get the place ready on time, or maybe the permits.
No news on whether the El Rey is still for sale or not, but Chico’s other classic theatre, the Senator (also owned by Eric Hart last I heard), is currently listed on LoopNet for $5,250,000.
A Wurlitzer theater organ opus 248 style 135B was installed in a Majestic Theater in Chico on 10/10/1919. Status: sold.
Nice, more than double what he paid.
I wonder where these people were when Regal sold it for $750,000.
This is a recent photo of the El Rey Theater.
There is a plan underway to buy the theatre and refurbish it as a theater! The current owner who has decided not to do the conversion has placed it on the market for 1.7 million. There is a nonprofit group forming called the El Rey Theatre Alliance to make it so. See this article: http://www.chicoer.com/ci_6191660
Here is a 1980s night view of the El Rey Theater.
there a current price for this theater
I erred in a post for the Senator Theatre in Chico. I said that I had take my son to see Fantasia there in 1981, but it was actually the El Rey. This is REALLY SAD. The El Rey was wonderful.