LAPL has added an undated photo showing the Tower’s facade, and a big locomotive. It’s probably from 1937-38, though. The first title on the marquee is “Slave Ship”, a Warner Baxter-Wallace Beery vehicle released in 1937. I can’t read the second feature title.
ken mc: You can add the Orpheum. Here’s a brief item from the July 16, 1949, issue of Boxoffice: “Susanville, Calif.— Work has been resumed on rebuilding the old Orpheum. Owned by T&D, the project was halted by the extreme cold last winter. The circuit also owns and operates the Sierra Theatre here.”
I guess it was a theater before it became a bowling alley. From the second photo you linked to, it looks as though it might have been a lodge hall of some sort first. In any case, the style of the building suggest an origin in the 19th century.
The architect of this theater was the noted San Diego modernist, Richard George Wheeler. Boxoffice Magazine featured an illustrated article on the San Diego Cinerama Theatre in its issue of December 7, 1964.
The Whittwood Theatre opened in 1964. It was among the theatres on which construction had begun during 1963, as listed in Boxoffice Magazine’s annual review of new and remodeled theaters. An exterior photo appeared in a Boxoffice feature on October 25, 1964, and a closeup shot of its entrance appeared on the front page of the magazine’s The Modern Theatre section of December 7 that year. It was the subject of an entire article in the Boxoffice issue of March 15, 1965.
The Whittwood was built for Bruen’s Whittier Theatres. It had 960 seats, a fifty-foot curved screen, and the auditorium walls were paneled with a gold damask fabric to match the stage drapes. The building was designed by Whitter architect Ray W. Johnson, and the Los Angeles office of the B.F. Shearer Co. handled the interior layout, design, and equipment.
A photo of the auditorium in the 1965 Boxoffice article showed a feature I had forgotten from my one visit to the Whittwood. Unlike stadium sections in older theaters I had been in, that at the Whittwood was elevated several feet above the main floor, so patrons had to climb a fairly long staircase leading from the cross-aisle to get into it, and would be several rows back by the time they reached the seats. Then they would have to descend stepped side-aisles to reach seats in the first few rows. I suppose this design was adopted to make more room for the lobby and restrooms, which were tucked under the stadium section.
There should be a separate page for the original Valley Plaza Theatre, opened in 1966 by Statewide Theatres, and later operated by Loew’s. Apparently it was demolished to make way for the current megaplex.
The April 6, 1964, issue of Boxoffice Magazine announced that the re-opening of the Fox Winrock had taken place on March 24, with a special, invitation-only event. The house had been closed for one week to install the Cinerama screen. Three projection booths for Cinerama had already been included in the original plans for the theater, which had opened the previous year. The seating capacity was reduced by about 35 seats (from the original 800) for the 95-foot screen’s installation, though. The opening program was “This Is Cinerama”, and it was expected to run for at least eight weeks.
The exact opening date for the Esquire was April 1, 1964, according to the April 6 issue of Boxoffice Magazine that year. The opening movie was the French ballet-drama “The Lovers of Tereul”.
Among the unusual features (for that time) of the Esquire were a wheelchair platform accommodating four persons, and a row of seats wired to the sound system for hard-of-hearing patrons.
The interior and exterior of the theater, which was located in an existing building, was designed by motion picture art director Eugene Lourie.
Except for its colonial brick facade decoration, this theater was virtually identical to the Annandale Theatre, also opened in 1964 by the same owner, according to an item in Boxoffice Magazine, July 13, 1964.
According to the July 13, 1964, issue of Boxoffice Magazine, the Annandale Theatre was nearing completion. The 1000 seat house was to have a 60 foot screen, six channel stereo sound, and 70mm projection equipment.
The article mentioned that owner Don King was also building a nearly identical house called the Springfield Center Theatre, which I would guess is this one, judging from the description in the comment by rlvjr. The Springfield house was slated for a September opening.
The Fox Rossmoor Theatre was scheduled for a July 15, 1964, opening, according to an item in Boxoffice Magazine issue of July 13 that year. It opened as a deluxe, single-screen house with 838 seats.
This theater is probably the one about which Boxoffice Magazine published an item in its issue of September 28, 1964. The item said that the Stanley Warner Management Company was planning a theater on a four acre site adjacent to the Clairemont Shopping Center in San Diego, and that groundbreaking would take place soon. The company was projecting an opening date of March, 1965, for the $1,000,000 project. It was to be a first-run house, equipped to handle all screen processes, and would be operated by the Stanley Warner Circuit.
The December 18, 1937, issue of Boxoffice Magazine has revealed that the Vogue was a bit older than I had thought. It carried a brief item saying that A.L. Olander’s New Vogue Theatre had opened on Tuesday, December 14. It also said that the decoration of the theater had been done by the Robert Powers Studio.
I’ve also run across an item in Boxoffice issue of December 22, 1951, saying that the Sherman Theatre in Sherman Oaks had been sold to Al Olander, operator of the Garmar and Vogue Fine Arts Theatres in Montebello. Apparently, New Vogue Theatre was the opening name, and Vogue Fine Arts Theatre was a temporary aka later.
The Canyon Theatre opened in June, 1966, according to an article in Boxoffice Magazine’s June 13th issue that year. It had 700 seats, and was one of the first theaters in the Robert Lippert chain’s major expansion into Southern California.
The Auto-See Drive-In was opened by 1949. According to the November 12, 1949, issue of Boxoffice Magazine, the Yuba City city council received complaints from many citizens about the 600-car operation, citing “…uncontrolled noise, traffic hazards, and the nuisance of scattered trash from the theater.”
OK, the August 5, 1944, issue of Boxoffice gives another clue to the Butte’s origin. It noted that the Butte and three other Sacramento Valley theaters had been leased by T&D Jr. Enterprises from the heirs of the late Morgan Walsh. That indicates that it was the Mann/Walsh project of 1938 which became the Butte Theatre. Interestingly enough, T&D Jr. Enterprises had been taken over by Fred Naify, former owner of the Gridley Theatre, in 1947.
From Boxoffice Magazine, February 12, 1938: “…George Mann and Morgan Walsh…have acquired a corner lot in Gridley, Cal, and will proceed immediately to construct a Class A theatre on the site.” Projected cost was $100,000, and seating was to be “about 800.”
Mann and Walsh were the operators of the Redwood Theatres Circuit, which was very active in the small towns of the Sacramento Valley during this era, so it seems quite possible that the unnamed theater to which the article refers was the Butte. It is on a corner lot.
But then there’s this item from the June 4, 1938 issue of Boxoffice: “Plans for rebuilding the Gridley Theatre, Gridley, are being drawn up, says owner Fred Naify. The house was destroyed by fire on May 15, with an estimated loss of $55,000.”
Whether it was the Redwood Theatres project, or Naify’s rebuilt theatre, renamed, the Butte probably dates from late 1938 or early 1939.
The recent opening of the Center Theatre in Ontario, Oregon, was noted by an item in the November 27, 1948, issue of Boxoffice Magazine. The owner of the independent house was Howard Matthews. The building was 75x120 feet, and the cost was $125,000. The entrance was decorated with burgundy tile and Arizona flagstone, and the auditorium was painted coral and turquoise (how very midcentury) with drapes in varying shades of gold.
Custom made modern furniture and carpets of turquoise and golden brown adorned the lobby. There was a small stage in the auditorium, and the 750 seat house had a crying room, as well as a party room seating 14. Plans were drawn by Salt Lake City architect Paul Evans.
The plain facade the Oaks Theatre sported in its final years probably dates from 1945, and the name change from Fair Oaks Theatre was probably made at the same time (four letters being cheaper than eight.) Boxoffice Magazine’s issue of February 3, 1945, carried a brief item saying that the Fair Oaks Theatre had been gutted by fire. Manager George Haines said that plans were underway for immediate reconstruction. The item also mentioned the theater’s history as the original home of the Pasadena Playhouse, and added that the Fair Oaks had been showing movies since 1935.
During the summer of 1937 the Orpheum was remodeled. It was reopened as the Utah Theatre on September 29, 1937, according to a brief item in Boxoffice Magazine’s issue of October 2nd that year. The item mentions a new marquee and other exterior alterations, and indirect lighting. The Utah opened under the management of Holden Swiger, for the Fox Intermountain chain.
Boxoffice Magazine of September 3, 1973, said that the Butte Theatre was scheduled to be shuttered that day. The last operator was United Artists Theatres.
Google Maps street view shows that the Butte has lost its marquee and distinctive art moderne tower. The terrazzo of the former ticket vestibule appears to be partly intact, but the vestibule’s roof is gone and the entrance doors are sealed up. The auditorium is still standing.
The address was 410 Fremont Street. Cinema 1-2-3 opened in early June, 1972, according to an item in Boxoffice Magazine’s issue of July 10 that year. It was the fourth theater opened by NTC, the Nevada Theatre Corporation. The 900 seat house was designed by San Francisco architect Gale Santocono. A one-man projection booth served all three screens, with semi-automated Cinemeccanica projectors using 13,000 foot reels.
LAPL has added an undated photo showing the Tower’s facade, and a big locomotive. It’s probably from 1937-38, though. The first title on the marquee is “Slave Ship”, a Warner Baxter-Wallace Beery vehicle released in 1937. I can’t read the second feature title.
ken mc: You can add the Orpheum. Here’s a brief item from the July 16, 1949, issue of Boxoffice: “Susanville, Calif.— Work has been resumed on rebuilding the old Orpheum. Owned by T&D, the project was halted by the extreme cold last winter. The circuit also owns and operates the Sierra Theatre here.”
I guess it was a theater before it became a bowling alley. From the second photo you linked to, it looks as though it might have been a lodge hall of some sort first. In any case, the style of the building suggest an origin in the 19th century.
The architect of this theater was the noted San Diego modernist, Richard George Wheeler. Boxoffice Magazine featured an illustrated article on the San Diego Cinerama Theatre in its issue of December 7, 1964.
The Whittwood Theatre opened in 1964. It was among the theatres on which construction had begun during 1963, as listed in Boxoffice Magazine’s annual review of new and remodeled theaters. An exterior photo appeared in a Boxoffice feature on October 25, 1964, and a closeup shot of its entrance appeared on the front page of the magazine’s The Modern Theatre section of December 7 that year. It was the subject of an entire article in the Boxoffice issue of March 15, 1965.
The Whittwood was built for Bruen’s Whittier Theatres. It had 960 seats, a fifty-foot curved screen, and the auditorium walls were paneled with a gold damask fabric to match the stage drapes. The building was designed by Whitter architect Ray W. Johnson, and the Los Angeles office of the B.F. Shearer Co. handled the interior layout, design, and equipment.
A photo of the auditorium in the 1965 Boxoffice article showed a feature I had forgotten from my one visit to the Whittwood. Unlike stadium sections in older theaters I had been in, that at the Whittwood was elevated several feet above the main floor, so patrons had to climb a fairly long staircase leading from the cross-aisle to get into it, and would be several rows back by the time they reached the seats. Then they would have to descend stepped side-aisles to reach seats in the first few rows. I suppose this design was adopted to make more room for the lobby and restrooms, which were tucked under the stadium section.
The name of the chain is misspelled at top. It is Reading Cinemas.
This is their web site.
The theater’s individual web page is still at the URL Lost Memory posted in the comment above.
This is no longer the Pacific Gaslamp 15. It’s being called the Gaslamp Stadium by its new operator, Reading Cinemas.
The Bakersfield Valley Plaza 16 is now operated by Reading Cinemas. Pacific can be taken off the name.
New web sites, too:
Bakersfield Valley Plaza 16 web page.
Reading Cinemas U.S. web site.
There should be a separate page for the original Valley Plaza Theatre, opened in 1966 by Statewide Theatres, and later operated by Loew’s. Apparently it was demolished to make way for the current megaplex.
The lobby of Lippert’s La Habra Theatre was pictured on the cover of the October 6, 1956, issue of Boxoffice Magazine.
The April 6, 1964, issue of Boxoffice Magazine announced that the re-opening of the Fox Winrock had taken place on March 24, with a special, invitation-only event. The house had been closed for one week to install the Cinerama screen. Three projection booths for Cinerama had already been included in the original plans for the theater, which had opened the previous year. The seating capacity was reduced by about 35 seats (from the original 800) for the 95-foot screen’s installation, though. The opening program was “This Is Cinerama”, and it was expected to run for at least eight weeks.
Oh, I forgot to include that Boxoffice gave the Esquire’s seating capacity as 525.
The exact opening date for the Esquire was April 1, 1964, according to the April 6 issue of Boxoffice Magazine that year. The opening movie was the French ballet-drama “The Lovers of Tereul”.
Among the unusual features (for that time) of the Esquire were a wheelchair platform accommodating four persons, and a row of seats wired to the sound system for hard-of-hearing patrons.
The interior and exterior of the theater, which was located in an existing building, was designed by motion picture art director Eugene Lourie.
Except for its colonial brick facade decoration, this theater was virtually identical to the Annandale Theatre, also opened in 1964 by the same owner, according to an item in Boxoffice Magazine, July 13, 1964.
According to the July 13, 1964, issue of Boxoffice Magazine, the Annandale Theatre was nearing completion. The 1000 seat house was to have a 60 foot screen, six channel stereo sound, and 70mm projection equipment.
The article mentioned that owner Don King was also building a nearly identical house called the Springfield Center Theatre, which I would guess is this one, judging from the description in the comment by rlvjr. The Springfield house was slated for a September opening.
The Fox Rossmoor Theatre was scheduled for a July 15, 1964, opening, according to an item in Boxoffice Magazine issue of July 13 that year. It opened as a deluxe, single-screen house with 838 seats.
This theater is probably the one about which Boxoffice Magazine published an item in its issue of September 28, 1964. The item said that the Stanley Warner Management Company was planning a theater on a four acre site adjacent to the Clairemont Shopping Center in San Diego, and that groundbreaking would take place soon. The company was projecting an opening date of March, 1965, for the $1,000,000 project. It was to be a first-run house, equipped to handle all screen processes, and would be operated by the Stanley Warner Circuit.
The December 18, 1937, issue of Boxoffice Magazine has revealed that the Vogue was a bit older than I had thought. It carried a brief item saying that A.L. Olander’s New Vogue Theatre had opened on Tuesday, December 14. It also said that the decoration of the theater had been done by the Robert Powers Studio.
I’ve also run across an item in Boxoffice issue of December 22, 1951, saying that the Sherman Theatre in Sherman Oaks had been sold to Al Olander, operator of the Garmar and Vogue Fine Arts Theatres in Montebello. Apparently, New Vogue Theatre was the opening name, and Vogue Fine Arts Theatre was a temporary aka later.
The Canyon Theatre opened in June, 1966, according to an article in Boxoffice Magazine’s June 13th issue that year. It had 700 seats, and was one of the first theaters in the Robert Lippert chain’s major expansion into Southern California.
The Auto-See Drive-In was opened by 1949. According to the November 12, 1949, issue of Boxoffice Magazine, the Yuba City city council received complaints from many citizens about the 600-car operation, citing “…uncontrolled noise, traffic hazards, and the nuisance of scattered trash from the theater.”
OK, the August 5, 1944, issue of Boxoffice gives another clue to the Butte’s origin. It noted that the Butte and three other Sacramento Valley theaters had been leased by T&D Jr. Enterprises from the heirs of the late Morgan Walsh. That indicates that it was the Mann/Walsh project of 1938 which became the Butte Theatre. Interestingly enough, T&D Jr. Enterprises had been taken over by Fred Naify, former owner of the Gridley Theatre, in 1947.
From Boxoffice Magazine, February 12, 1938: “…George Mann and Morgan Walsh…have acquired a corner lot in Gridley, Cal, and will proceed immediately to construct a Class A theatre on the site.” Projected cost was $100,000, and seating was to be “about 800.”
Mann and Walsh were the operators of the Redwood Theatres Circuit, which was very active in the small towns of the Sacramento Valley during this era, so it seems quite possible that the unnamed theater to which the article refers was the Butte. It is on a corner lot.
But then there’s this item from the June 4, 1938 issue of Boxoffice: “Plans for rebuilding the Gridley Theatre, Gridley, are being drawn up, says owner Fred Naify. The house was destroyed by fire on May 15, with an estimated loss of $55,000.”
Whether it was the Redwood Theatres project, or Naify’s rebuilt theatre, renamed, the Butte probably dates from late 1938 or early 1939.
The recent opening of the Center Theatre in Ontario, Oregon, was noted by an item in the November 27, 1948, issue of Boxoffice Magazine. The owner of the independent house was Howard Matthews. The building was 75x120 feet, and the cost was $125,000. The entrance was decorated with burgundy tile and Arizona flagstone, and the auditorium was painted coral and turquoise (how very midcentury) with drapes in varying shades of gold.
Custom made modern furniture and carpets of turquoise and golden brown adorned the lobby. There was a small stage in the auditorium, and the 750 seat house had a crying room, as well as a party room seating 14. Plans were drawn by Salt Lake City architect Paul Evans.
The plain facade the Oaks Theatre sported in its final years probably dates from 1945, and the name change from Fair Oaks Theatre was probably made at the same time (four letters being cheaper than eight.) Boxoffice Magazine’s issue of February 3, 1945, carried a brief item saying that the Fair Oaks Theatre had been gutted by fire. Manager George Haines said that plans were underway for immediate reconstruction. The item also mentioned the theater’s history as the original home of the Pasadena Playhouse, and added that the Fair Oaks had been showing movies since 1935.
During the summer of 1937 the Orpheum was remodeled. It was reopened as the Utah Theatre on September 29, 1937, according to a brief item in Boxoffice Magazine’s issue of October 2nd that year. The item mentions a new marquee and other exterior alterations, and indirect lighting. The Utah opened under the management of Holden Swiger, for the Fox Intermountain chain.
Boxoffice Magazine of September 3, 1973, said that the Butte Theatre was scheduled to be shuttered that day. The last operator was United Artists Theatres.
Google Maps street view shows that the Butte has lost its marquee and distinctive art moderne tower. The terrazzo of the former ticket vestibule appears to be partly intact, but the vestibule’s roof is gone and the entrance doors are sealed up. The auditorium is still standing.
The address was 410 Fremont Street. Cinema 1-2-3 opened in early June, 1972, according to an item in Boxoffice Magazine’s issue of July 10 that year. It was the fourth theater opened by NTC, the Nevada Theatre Corporation. The 900 seat house was designed by San Francisco architect Gale Santocono. A one-man projection booth served all three screens, with semi-automated Cinemeccanica projectors using 13,000 foot reels.