Hemet Theater
216 E. Florida Avenue,
Hemet,
CA
216 E. Florida Avenue,
Hemet,
CA
3 people
favorited this theater
Showing all 12 comments
Here is information on the fire, which was covered in the Theatre Historical Society news.
The theater was damaged by smoke and water on January 20th 2010 when fire gutted an adjoining building. On December 17, 2011 the Riverside Press-Enterprise noted that the non-profit Valley View Foundation was in escrow to purchase the theater. Earlier reports said that they wanted to turn the theater into a performing arts center.
The selling owners are Emerson Bixby and Dave Bernal, who purchased the theater in 2003 for $315,000. Before then it had been closed since October 26, 1995. They reopened the 442-seat in May of 2004 with plans to screen classic movies. They said that they even purchased a 70-mm projector to properly show some of these films.
The theater originally dates back to its opening on Thanksgiving day 1921. The owner was William Martin, whose brother James served as the contractor of the $300,000 theater.
Archives of the Press-Enterprise note that from 1987 until 1995 it was owned by Harold Martin, whose daughter Julie Burgard operated the theater. According to the Film Daily Yearbook, the theater at one time had up to 650 seats. The foundation held its latest fundraiser in the theater on April 3. The Valley View Foundation is now accepting all donations.
http://www.historichemettheatre.com/
The Theatre Historical Society has an article from the Press Enterprise: http://theatrehistoricalsociety.wordpress.com/2011/06/27/hemet-theatre-hemet-ca/
2009 photo of the Hemet Theatre.
View link
Here is a current photo of the theatre, post-fire:
View link
And also a link to a story about the fire, which hasn’t been mentioned on the theatre’s page yet:
View link
The correct link to the theater’s website is:
http://www.historichemettheatre.com/welcome.html
Here is another photo of the Hemet.
Here is a 1982 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/pbtexp
This was the Hemet in 2007.
There were attempts to turn the Hemet into a live theater venue in 2002, according to this article in the Press-Enterprise:
http://tinyurl.com/35797n
I forgot to post this link before. Here is a close-up of the Hemet theater.
Here is a 1960’s color postcard of the Hemet theater.
The Film Daily Yearbook 1941 gives a seating capacity of 650. The address given in the 1952 F.D.Y. is given as 200 E. Florida Avenue, Hemet, CA. Seating capacity 632.