Crest Theatre

No apology necessary, I did’t word my correction post very clearly.

Thanks CWalczak. The intent of the link is to connect to the postcard image of the Crest.

The correct link for the Crest in Sacramento is located HERE here.

The Crest is currently for sale.

View link

Here is a recent night photo of the Crest.

From BOXOFFICE, December 14, 1946:

Damage Claims of $176,344 Made After Marquee Falls

Sacramento, Calif. – Two suits for damages totaling $176,344 were filed in superior court as an aftermath of the collapse of the Hippodrome theater marquee last September 14. Damages of $100,500 were asked by the husband and parents of Mrs. Jessie Shirley Potter, 41, of Alta, who was crushed beneath the marquee. Suit for $75,844.50 was filed by Joseph Brady, 40, who said he suffered a skull fracture, broken collarbone, permanent brain injury and loss of hearing in one ear when he was hit by the falling marquee. Defendants in the actions are the Empress Theatre Co. of Sacramento, successor to the Hippodrome Theatre Co., Inc., West Coast Theatres Corp. of Northern California, Fox West Coast Theatres Corp., the Campbell Construction Co., the Physicians Building Corp. and several John Does.

The CREST succeeded the HIPPODROME theater, whose marquee had fallen, killing a woman. Since then the CREST has been a beacon for Sacramentans looking for a movie or a concert since it opened on October 6, 1949 with a gala event and the showing of “That Midnight Kiss,” starring Kathryn Grayson and Mario Lanza. The stars were on hand.

On the site where the CREST now sits, 1013 K St., the EMPRESS Theater vaudeville house opened in 1912. Its name later was changed to the HIPPODROME, and it became a full-time movie house in 1927.

In 1946, the HIPPODROME marquee collapsed, injuring three people and killing Mrs. R. S. Potter of Alta, in Placer County. The theater janitor said the marquee fell in “just one big drop.” The theater owners decided to gut the structure to the walls and build the CREST inside. At the peak, Sacramento boasted 26 downtown theaters.

When I worked for the Sacramento Music Circus there was an old program hanging around from the Sacramento Theatre Company that had a map of all the old theaters around downtown before 1930. The Hippodrome was mentioned and the article stated that Maude Adams flew as PETER PAN in that theater, but I don’t recall the date. I thought it was 1910, but if that was true, then the theater was actually the Empress at the time. Anyway, I think it’s cool that the original Broadway Peter Pan flew in Sacramento.

The Crest can be seen in this recent photo.

Here is some recent news about the marquee:
http://www.sacbee.com/345/story/1578496.html

I wonder if that photo can actually be as early as 1914? Some of the cars look a bit advanced for that date. But clearly, the Empress Theater in the photo is the same the building (or at least the front of the building) that became the Hippodrome. If the Crest web site is right about the construction date of the Empress, that would push the building of the Hippodrome back to 1912, and, if Hippodrome is to be an aka for the Crest, then Empress Theater should also be an aka.

And most likely they began showing movies in this theater no later than 1920, since an organ was installed that year. I don’t think pure vaudeville houses ever bothered to install organs.

Tom DeLay’s comment of October 5, 2005, says that the organ for the Hippodrome was shipped on February 28, 1920. If it went directly to the theater then the Hippodrome was most likely opened in that year. The Crest’s official web site gives no date for construction of the Hippodrome, but only says that it converted from vaudeville to movies in the late 1920s.

The Crest web site also says that the Hippodrome’s predecessor theater, the Empress, was built in 1912 and opened in 1913. But there’s a card in the California Index headed “THEATRES—SACRAMENTO—GRAND THEATRE” that cites an item published in the regional entertainment paper, The Rounder, issue of February 3, 1912, saying “Jim Post buys the lease on the Empress Theatre, formerly the Grand.”

If this was the same Empress Theatre that was torn down to make way for the Hippodrome, then the building was older than the authors of the Crest web site think it was. And if the Empress was an older theater, merely renamed, its demolition in 1919 would make more sense than if it had been newly built in 1912.