El Rey Theatre
230 W. 2nd Street,
Chico,
CA
95928
230 W. 2nd Street,
Chico,
CA
95928
2 people
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Burned down October 24th, 1946.
American theatre burned Fri, Oct 25, 1946 – 1 · The Chico Enterprise (Chico, California) · Newspapers.com
Became the American theatre on March 18th, 1939. Grand opening ad posted.
Renamed National on September 1st, 1925.
The El Rey, dark for some time, is reopening tomorrow night, Saturday, February 10, 2018, with live performances. Here is their web site. Proceeds from this event will go to continuing renovations of the house.
Sunday night the theater will present the 1938 film Robin Hood, much of which was filmed in Chico’s Bidwell Park.
The El Rey’s Facebook page lists no events since a concert on February 10. I don’t know how long it’s been since they ran a movie, but I’m quite sure the place does not have any digital projection equipment.
1963 photo added courtesy of Kris Vierra.
Current update – The EL Rey is in the process of being sold to a franchise pizza restaurant. It has operated as a concert/event/film space for the past 9 years. The potential new owners plan to turn it into a two story building with high end apartments upstairs and a restaurant below, To my knowledge, there are currently no plans on the part of the potential new owners to maintain it as a theater. Last night, the Chico city counsel voted unanimously to add it to the next counsel meeting agenda, to discuss adding it to the city’s historical preservation listing as well as the legality of doing such. If anyone has any verifiable historical facts on the theater, they would be great to have for the city counsel meeting in 2 weeks. More info can be found at www.elreychico.org
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.
The El Rey is showing movies again! The schedule is on the JMAX website,
http://www.jmaxproductions.net
Must have been a major remodel.
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
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.
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.
Nice, more than double what he paid.
I wonder where these people were when Regal sold it for $750,000.
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
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.
From the UCLA Digital Archive:
View link
Last night was the last night of the El Rey. 102 people for the 4:15 show. 410+ for the 7:00.
It was surreal to say the least.
I didn’t finish that last sentence. It ought to have said that the El Rey was certainly the oldest intact movie theater still standing north of Sacramento.
It’s interesting that it outlasted two Chico multiplexes which closed recently after operating only a few years.