On the far right is the Elmo Theatre on Morro Street at Marsh. It’s facade is well lit by afternoon sunlight, as is the upper part of its vivid red stage house.
Left of center can be seen the distinctive arc of the blade sign on the Fremont Theatre, at 1025 Monterey Street.
The large white building just right of center is the Anderson Hotel at Monterey and Morro. The Obispo Theatre’s facade, with a bit of light reflecting from its blade and marquee, can be seen just short of midway along Monterey Street from the hotel to the Fremont.
It’s been established that El Monterey was an earlier name of the Obispo Theatre (see Pat OD’s comment of May 25, 2006, and subsequent on the Obispo page.) In the SLO 150th Anniversary album there’s now a scan of an early postcard of Monterey Street, showing the distinctive facade of the El Monterey. The picture is undated, but from the style of the card,the vehicles on the street, and the fact that the theatre had no marquee, it looks as though it could have have been pre-WWI. The original El Monterey presumably took its name from its location on Monterey Street.
Ah, so the actors had won the awards for movies the theatre wasn’t showing. I hadn’t thought of that. So the marquee blurb might have been one of those ploys by a desperate theatre manager trying to find some way to attract audiences to a two-year-old re-release double billed with a newer release so unpromising that it has actually been placed below the older feature on the marquee.
Convoy with Clive Brook was released in the United States on January 3, 1941, but had been released on September 28, 1940 in the United Kingdom. Though the theatre’s marquee boasts that both features are Academy Award Winners, I can’t find anything on the Internet about which awards either film won.
If Convoy won an Oscar as a 1940 release, then the earliest possible date on this photo would be February 28, 1941. If it won as a 1941 release, then the earliest possible date for the photo would be February 27, 1942.
In any case, these movies seem an odd pairing, award winners or not. I wonder if the Hawaii was having trouble getting bookings at the time? And what’s the deal with the bagpipers and other folk perched atop the marquee?
Michele: Almost all of the ground floor of the Taft Building was occupied by a Rexall drug store in those days. I remember a coffee shop called Aldo’s in the neighborhood, but I can’t recall exactly where it was. It was supposedly at Aldo’s that Cher first met Sonny Bono in 1963. I don’t know if Cher would remember exactly where Aldo’s was or if she’s suppressed that knowledge.
Oh, wait. The L.A. library website now has some street directories of the era available on-line. OK. Aldo’s is listed in the 1960 directory as having two locations on Hollywood Boulevard: at 6413, which would have been just east of the Warner Cinerama Theatre; and at 6721, almost directly across the street from the Egyptian Theatre. I don’t know at which of these locations Cher met her diminutive destiny.
The 1960 directory lists another Aldo’s at 7369 Melrose, but I have no memory of that location at all.
It’s been ages since I’ve been there, but I believe the view is southward on Morro Street from Monterey, and if so then the Elmo must have been on the east side of Morro, north corner of Marsh. Is there anyone here from SLO who can confirm or deny this location?
Also, here is aroid’s birds-eye view of SLO, with the distinctive arc of the Fremont’s blade visible at left of center, and the Elmo at the right with its large, red stage house clearly visible:
I think the recently added Cinema Treasures Uptown Theatre page just got pulled as a duplicate listing of this Alcazar Theatre. In fact I now see that it was the 1907 photo linked there and above on this page by Seymour Cox, and even earlier (January 2005) by Lost Memory which was the duplicate. I think that photo is of the New Alcazar/Republic/Sutter/Uptown, which was on a corner lot. This Alcazar Theatre on O'Farrell Street was on a mid-block lot, as can be seen by the photo provided for this page by frenchjr25.
I’m still not sure about the interior photo Seymour linked to above, but it’s probably the of Uptown.
The question also remains as to which of the two theatres was actually designed by Cunningham & Polito.
The Uptown page can be restored, but with the correct location of Sutter and Steiner, southwest corner.
There was an Uptown Theatre on Sutter at Steiner which was once called the New Alcazar, according to the San Francisco Theaters, Cinemas, Dancehalls, after 1906 page. I can’t find anything about an Uptown Theatre at Post and Filmore, though.
More confusion: The Alcazar I linked to above was at 260 O'Farrell Street. The 1907 exterior photo linked to by Seymour Cox above is of that theatre, not the Uptown. I’m not yet sure about the interior photo.
The San Francisco Theaters, Cinemas, Dancehalls, after 1906 page lists the Uptown as being at 2101 Sutter, corner of Steiner, and gives the following series of names it’s had:
New Alcazar 1908-1911
1912-1925 Republic
Sutter 1926
Uptown 1930-1970.
Assessor information for the addresses 1224-1230 N. Vine St. gives a construction date of 1993 for the building on this property. I checked the information for the adjacent properties (in case of address migration) and they both have modern construction too. It looks as though the Filmarte is closed/demolished rather than just closed.
Cinemark advertises the whole complex as a single operation called Century Stadium 14 Sacramento, and I don’t know of any open theatres listed on Cinema Treasures that aren’t listed under their current operating name (unless they’ve not yet been updated, of course.) I don’t know of any open theatres operating as single complex that are listed on two separate CT pages (except by accident) either.
I guess the mods will have to decide what their policy will be about this complex and its peculiar arrangement. I’d be inclined to just list it under its current name and then have a single paragraph describing the situation of its orphaned building. But right now this page is like a tail wagging its dog.
Edwards Irvine Spectrum 21 was designed by the architectural firm of Perkowitz + Ruth. It was the first entertainment center the firm had designed. Perkowitz + Ruth would go on to design many cinemas for Edwards and other exhibitors.
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.
This is the Assessor information for the addresses 2615 through 2625 W. Temple Street, plus 304 N. Benton Way: Parcel of @ 10,118 Sq. ft.; Building area 12,452 sq. ft.; Built in 1924; Current use, Studio (Movie/Radio/TV Studio).
Sounds like the thetre, so I’d say it’s probably not been demolished.
The Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin has posted an article about Deposit’s State Theatre on their website. (The article is dated November 1, 2007, and the site apparently keeps articles on display for only seven days before they go into the pay-to-view archive.)
The story tells about the collapse of the theatre’s roof two hours after the audience had departed on a snowy night in February of 1985; the formation of a local group which purchased and rebuilt the theatre; the reopening in 1988; the fire in September, 1994, which destroyed everything but the facade and marquee; the successful rebuilding of the theatre a second time, and its reopening less than a year after the fire; the flooding of the Delaware River in June of 2006, which inundated the theatre’s stage and every row of seats; how more seats were acquired from another theatre and sufficient repairs made to reopen the State once again in September of 2006.
The article also quotes a spokesperson for the State who describes the theatre’s current condition: “Some flood damage still needs repair, we need to work on the stage curtain, the marquee needs some work, and our vintage 1937 popcorn machine broke down!”
The State’s own website appears to be defunct, but the theatre has a brief page at the Deposit Chamber of Commerce site. No events are currently listed, so I do hope the theatre hasn’t suffered another disaster since the publication of the newspaper article two days ago.
Puzzling, indeed. However, the Department of Neighborhoods site does give the theatre’s opening date as December 3, 1920, more than an month after the organ’s installation. That would have been sufficient time for the name to have been changed. Maybe there’s someone around who has access to Seattle city directories from the era, or newspaper ads for the theatre, and could look up both names to see which was used when?
I did also find this 2003 article from the Seattle Times which also gives Winter Garden as the opening name. Newspaper articles about things that happened decades earlier than their publication date are not always reliable, but this particular article was by Paul Dorpat, a writer who had been doing a “Seattle now and then” feature since 1982. He might be a reliable source.
Unfortunately the most recent photo with a confirmed date I can find of the Winter Garden is the one from 1932 on the PSTOS page. The night shot just below it looks earlier (note the five-globed streetlight standards, as opposed to the three-light standards in the 1932 shot), but that photo has no other clues as to its date.
The Department of Neighborhoods page doesn’t specifically cite a source for their claim that the big Winter Garden vertical sign was part of the original plans. Neither does PSTOS cite a specific source for the information about the organist playing at the Progressive Theatre in 1927, but there’s The Silent Era’s page which cites Film Daily’s 1926 Yearbook (published in 1925) as listing the theatre as the Winter Garden. One or the other must be wrong.
And, for what it’s worth, the Seattle Historic Resources Survey appears to be doing pretty good research, even if much of the work is being done by volunteers. Some of the photos could be better, though.
Here is a page about the Winter Garden Theatre, full of information dug up by the City of Seattle’s Department of Neighborhoods for their historic buildings inventory.
They name the architect of record for the Winter Garden as Frank H. Fowler, but indicate that B. Marcus Priteca, for whom Fowler may have once worked, “…appears to have had some limited role in this project.”
The section of the page devoted to describing the original appearance of the theatre includes this line:
“A very elaborate electrified 520 sq. ft steel and glass marquee and a monumental, vertically-hung neon and bulb-light sign for the ‘Winter Garden’ were part of the original design.”
This contradicts the claim above, and at the PSTOS Winter Garden page, that the house opened under the name Progressive Theatre. Elsewhere on the Department of Neighborhoods' page it does say that the stock company which financed the project was originally called the Progressive Company, before its name was changed to Winter Garden Company. I’m not sure which (if either) of the websites has the story right. It seems possible that the theatre’s organ was ordered under the company’s original name, and this name would have been on the Wurlitzer company records from which PSTOS probably got the information.
I remember Aladdin Theaters. They ran a number of drive-ins, too. Their logo, as I recall, was a lamp with a chubby genie rising from it. In fact I think the Floral may have been one of their drive-ins for a while. Ron Pierce says the Anaheim Drive-in was built by Aladdin. I also have a vague recollection of the Aladdin logo on the Vineland when it was first opened (I was about ten years old, I think, so it’s hazy.)
Some of the original plans, sections and detail drawings for this theatre, from the office of the architectural firm William Riseman Associates, are now part of the J. Evan Miller Collection of cinema plans, which is held by the special collections department at Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Plans for this very early twin cinema were done by the Boston architectural firm of William Riseman Associates. The plans are dated 1962. The original name of the theatre was apparently Charlottetown Twin Cinemas. Some of the firms plans and drawings for the project are now part of the J. Evan Miller Collection of cinema plans, which is held by the special collections department at Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
The architectural firm which designed the 1965 revamp of the Circle Theatre for Sumner Redstone’s Showcase Cinemas was William Riseman Associates, of Boston. Many floor plans, sections, sight-line diagrams, and seating plans from the project are now part of the J. Evan Miller Collection of cinema plans which is held by the special collections department at Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Flickr user aroid presents a 1958 bird’s eye view of downtown San Luis Obispo in which three of the city’s theatres can be picked out:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/selago/860154876/
On the far right is the Elmo Theatre on Morro Street at Marsh. It’s facade is well lit by afternoon sunlight, as is the upper part of its vivid red stage house.
Left of center can be seen the distinctive arc of the blade sign on the Fremont Theatre, at 1025 Monterey Street.
The large white building just right of center is the Anderson Hotel at Monterey and Morro. The Obispo Theatre’s facade, with a bit of light reflecting from its blade and marquee, can be seen just short of midway along Monterey Street from the hotel to the Fremont.
It’s been established that El Monterey was an earlier name of the Obispo Theatre (see Pat OD’s comment of May 25, 2006, and subsequent on the Obispo page.) In the SLO 150th Anniversary album there’s now a scan of an early postcard of Monterey Street, showing the distinctive facade of the El Monterey. The picture is undated, but from the style of the card,the vehicles on the street, and the fact that the theatre had no marquee, it looks as though it could have have been pre-WWI. The original El Monterey presumably took its name from its location on Monterey Street.
Ah, so the actors had won the awards for movies the theatre wasn’t showing. I hadn’t thought of that. So the marquee blurb might have been one of those ploys by a desperate theatre manager trying to find some way to attract audiences to a two-year-old re-release double billed with a newer release so unpromising that it has actually been placed below the older feature on the marquee.
Convoy with Clive Brook was released in the United States on January 3, 1941, but had been released on September 28, 1940 in the United Kingdom. Though the theatre’s marquee boasts that both features are Academy Award Winners, I can’t find anything on the Internet about which awards either film won.
If Convoy won an Oscar as a 1940 release, then the earliest possible date on this photo would be February 28, 1941. If it won as a 1941 release, then the earliest possible date for the photo would be February 27, 1942.
In any case, these movies seem an odd pairing, award winners or not. I wonder if the Hawaii was having trouble getting bookings at the time? And what’s the deal with the bagpipers and other folk perched atop the marquee?
Michele: Almost all of the ground floor of the Taft Building was occupied by a Rexall drug store in those days. I remember a coffee shop called Aldo’s in the neighborhood, but I can’t recall exactly where it was. It was supposedly at Aldo’s that Cher first met Sonny Bono in 1963. I don’t know if Cher would remember exactly where Aldo’s was or if she’s suppressed that knowledge.
Oh, wait. The L.A. library website now has some street directories of the era available on-line. OK. Aldo’s is listed in the 1960 directory as having two locations on Hollywood Boulevard: at 6413, which would have been just east of the Warner Cinerama Theatre; and at 6721, almost directly across the street from the Egyptian Theatre. I don’t know at which of these locations Cher met her diminutive destiny.
The 1960 directory lists another Aldo’s at 7369 Melrose, but I have no memory of that location at all.
Here is a wider version of aroid’s picture:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/selago/22190944/
It’s been ages since I’ve been there, but I believe the view is southward on Morro Street from Monterey, and if so then the Elmo must have been on the east side of Morro, north corner of Marsh. Is there anyone here from SLO who can confirm or deny this location?
Also, here is aroid’s birds-eye view of SLO, with the distinctive arc of the Fremont’s blade visible at left of center, and the Elmo at the right with its large, red stage house clearly visible:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/selago/860154876/
I think the recently added Cinema Treasures Uptown Theatre page just got pulled as a duplicate listing of this Alcazar Theatre. In fact I now see that it was the 1907 photo linked there and above on this page by Seymour Cox, and even earlier (January 2005) by Lost Memory which was the duplicate. I think that photo is of the New Alcazar/Republic/Sutter/Uptown, which was on a corner lot. This Alcazar Theatre on O'Farrell Street was on a mid-block lot, as can be seen by the photo provided for this page by frenchjr25.
I’m still not sure about the interior photo Seymour linked to above, but it’s probably the of Uptown.
The question also remains as to which of the two theatres was actually designed by Cunningham & Polito.
The Uptown page can be restored, but with the correct location of Sutter and Steiner, southwest corner.
There was an Uptown Theatre on Sutter at Steiner which was once called the New Alcazar, according to the San Francisco Theaters, Cinemas, Dancehalls, after 1906 page. I can’t find anything about an Uptown Theatre at Post and Filmore, though.
More confusion: The Alcazar I linked to above was at 260 O'Farrell Street. The 1907 exterior photo linked to by Seymour Cox above is of that theatre, not the Uptown. I’m not yet sure about the interior photo.
The San Francisco Theaters, Cinemas, Dancehalls, after 1906 page lists the Uptown as being at 2101 Sutter, corner of Steiner, and gives the following series of names it’s had:
New Alcazar 1908-1911
1912-1925 Republic
Sutter 1926
Uptown 1930-1970.
This is a duplicate listing. It’s already here as the Alcazar:
/theaters/3126
Assessor information for the addresses 1224-1230 N. Vine St. gives a construction date of 1993 for the building on this property. I checked the information for the adjacent properties (in case of address migration) and they both have modern construction too. It looks as though the Filmarte is closed/demolished rather than just closed.
Cinemark advertises the whole complex as a single operation called Century Stadium 14 Sacramento, and I don’t know of any open theatres listed on Cinema Treasures that aren’t listed under their current operating name (unless they’ve not yet been updated, of course.) I don’t know of any open theatres operating as single complex that are listed on two separate CT pages (except by accident) either.
I guess the mods will have to decide what their policy will be about this complex and its peculiar arrangement. I’d be inclined to just list it under its current name and then have a single paragraph describing the situation of its orphaned building. But right now this page is like a tail wagging its dog.
Edwards Irvine Spectrum 21 was designed by the architectural firm of Perkowitz + Ruth. It was the first entertainment center the firm had designed. Perkowitz + Ruth would go on to design many cinemas for Edwards and other exhibitors.
It’s the same theatre. The page needs to be updated.
Century Stadium 14 Sacramento
The correct address and telephone number:
1590 Ethan Way
Sacramento, CA 95825
(916) 922-4241
The number of screens is 14, of course.
It is now owned by Cinemark, which swallowed up most of the Century chain.
And of course we can add Scott Neff’s information that the architect was Vincent G. Raney.
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.
From ZIMAS:
This is the Assessor information for the addresses 2615 through 2625 W. Temple Street, plus 304 N. Benton Way: Parcel of @ 10,118 Sq. ft.; Building area 12,452 sq. ft.; Built in 1924; Current use, Studio (Movie/Radio/TV Studio).
Sounds like the thetre, so I’d say it’s probably not been demolished.
Listed in the Los Angeles Times of February 10, 1971, as an independent theatre, located at Palo Verde Avenue and Spring Street.
The Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin has posted an article about Deposit’s State Theatre on their website. (The article is dated November 1, 2007, and the site apparently keeps articles on display for only seven days before they go into the pay-to-view archive.)
The story tells about the collapse of the theatre’s roof two hours after the audience had departed on a snowy night in February of 1985; the formation of a local group which purchased and rebuilt the theatre; the reopening in 1988; the fire in September, 1994, which destroyed everything but the facade and marquee; the successful rebuilding of the theatre a second time, and its reopening less than a year after the fire; the flooding of the Delaware River in June of 2006, which inundated the theatre’s stage and every row of seats; how more seats were acquired from another theatre and sufficient repairs made to reopen the State once again in September of 2006.
The article also quotes a spokesperson for the State who describes the theatre’s current condition: “Some flood damage still needs repair, we need to work on the stage curtain, the marquee needs some work, and our vintage 1937 popcorn machine broke down!”
The State’s own website appears to be defunct, but the theatre has a brief page at the Deposit Chamber of Commerce site. No events are currently listed, so I do hope the theatre hasn’t suffered another disaster since the publication of the newspaper article two days ago.
Is this theatre located between Poplar and Juniper Streets? If so, then it must have been designed by Lee & Thaete Associates.
Puzzling, indeed. However, the Department of Neighborhoods site does give the theatre’s opening date as December 3, 1920, more than an month after the organ’s installation. That would have been sufficient time for the name to have been changed. Maybe there’s someone around who has access to Seattle city directories from the era, or newspaper ads for the theatre, and could look up both names to see which was used when?
I did also find this 2003 article from the Seattle Times which also gives Winter Garden as the opening name. Newspaper articles about things that happened decades earlier than their publication date are not always reliable, but this particular article was by Paul Dorpat, a writer who had been doing a “Seattle now and then” feature since 1982. He might be a reliable source.
Unfortunately the most recent photo with a confirmed date I can find of the Winter Garden is the one from 1932 on the PSTOS page. The night shot just below it looks earlier (note the five-globed streetlight standards, as opposed to the three-light standards in the 1932 shot), but that photo has no other clues as to its date.
The Department of Neighborhoods page doesn’t specifically cite a source for their claim that the big Winter Garden vertical sign was part of the original plans. Neither does PSTOS cite a specific source for the information about the organist playing at the Progressive Theatre in 1927, but there’s The Silent Era’s page which cites Film Daily’s 1926 Yearbook (published in 1925) as listing the theatre as the Winter Garden. One or the other must be wrong.
And, for what it’s worth, the Seattle Historic Resources Survey appears to be doing pretty good research, even if much of the work is being done by volunteers. Some of the photos could be better, though.
Here is a page about the Winter Garden Theatre, full of information dug up by the City of Seattle’s Department of Neighborhoods for their historic buildings inventory.
They name the architect of record for the Winter Garden as Frank H. Fowler, but indicate that B. Marcus Priteca, for whom Fowler may have once worked, “…appears to have had some limited role in this project.”
The section of the page devoted to describing the original appearance of the theatre includes this line:
This contradicts the claim above, and at the PSTOS Winter Garden page, that the house opened under the name Progressive Theatre. Elsewhere on the Department of Neighborhoods' page it does say that the stock company which financed the project was originally called the Progressive Company, before its name was changed to Winter Garden Company. I’m not sure which (if either) of the websites has the story right. It seems possible that the theatre’s organ was ordered under the company’s original name, and this name would have been on the Wurlitzer company records from which PSTOS probably got the information.I remember Aladdin Theaters. They ran a number of drive-ins, too. Their logo, as I recall, was a lamp with a chubby genie rising from it. In fact I think the Floral may have been one of their drive-ins for a while. Ron Pierce says the Anaheim Drive-in was built by Aladdin. I also have a vague recollection of the Aladdin logo on the Vineland when it was first opened (I was about ten years old, I think, so it’s hazy.)
Some of the original plans, sections and detail drawings for this theatre, from the office of the architectural firm William Riseman Associates, are now part of the J. Evan Miller Collection of cinema plans, which is held by the special collections department at Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Plans for this very early twin cinema were done by the Boston architectural firm of William Riseman Associates. The plans are dated 1962. The original name of the theatre was apparently Charlottetown Twin Cinemas. Some of the firms plans and drawings for the project are now part of the J. Evan Miller Collection of cinema plans, which is held by the special collections department at Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
The architectural firm which designed the 1965 revamp of the Circle Theatre for Sumner Redstone’s Showcase Cinemas was William Riseman Associates, of Boston. Many floor plans, sections, sight-line diagrams, and seating plans from the project are now part of the J. Evan Miller Collection of cinema plans which is held by the special collections department at Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.