The Long Beach United Artists was demolished sometime between Spring, 1981 and Summer, 1982. I remember seeing it still standing and operating in ‘81, but I had no camera with me. When I returned to take photos of Long Beach theatres in mid-Summer, 1982, it was gone. The Roxy, State, Palace, Imperial, and Fox West Coast were still there, and I shot them except the State, which I happened not to notice, I believe, because the marquee was gone, and I didn’t remember it from my early childhood.
My father, Ed Parks, along with his buddy, Pete Nellis, were the poster painters for the New Haven Paramount in c.1935/‘36/'37 when both of them were going to art school at Yale. This was the main way they earned extra money during school. My dad left the East Coast in 1938 to work as an animator for Walt Disney, and animation became his career for life. Pete was quite an art historian, and my dad later found out after the War that Pete had gotten a job helping to return many of the art treasures in Europe hidden away during the War to their rightful museums and collections, as he had an encyclopedic memory for such things. The two of them fell out of touch, but in the mid 1990s, due to some contact information in a Yale alumni magazine, my dad was able to write Pete, who did write back. It was a little sad though, as Dad still had vivid memories of their friendship, but Pete only remembered some of the paintings my dad did in class, and didn’t remember their Paramount gig in any detail.
For the aesthetic record: For the last twenty-five years or so of its existence, the backside of the main (original) screen tower of the Skyview was painted blue, but before that, it was painted in wide, alternating vertical bands of pink and mint.
The building is now used for offices. While layers of paint were cleaned off the facade, exposing a very nice red and tan brick surface, the wonderful little marquee which had been on the theatre since at least the 1930s was removed, as were the slabs od white and grey veined marble which were still in place in the ticket lobby.
The 1929 Film Daily Yearbook lists the “New Santa Cruz” as having 1,100 seats. As many of you know, sometimes seat numbers were adjusted in reality, and sometimes the numbers were “stretched.”
The 1929 Film Daily Yearbook listing gives the Cameo’s seating capacity as 400. This would certainly jibe with the size of the auditorium structure which I recall behind the commercial block portion of the building.
Great handbill! Thanks for posting it. Of the businesses listed as sponsors of the film event at the Unique, the Santa Cruz Sentinel is still in business. The Brown’s Bulb Ranch and Brown Ranch in Capitola lasted until well into the 1970s, when the land was taken over by the Capitola Mall.
A little more information on the Unique can be gleaned from “The Sidewalk Companion to Santa Cruz Architecture,” a paperback guide which was published in the late 1970s, and may still be available used. The book also contains a photo of the facade when it was Swain’s. On adjacent pages are descriptions (and photos) of the Santa Cruz and Del Mar theaters.
Due to work obligations, I am not able to attend this meeting, which is today. I’m hoping that MAYBE someone who has read my previous posts will attend, or at the very least, people from San Francisco’s neighborhood theatre and historic preservation community are going to be there.
I’ve been a member since 1987, and even in this wonderful world of online sharing of photos and information, it is still like having a mini-Christmas when a new issue of MARQUEE magazine arrives in the mailbox!
To comment on the previous post: It was not a bad location at all. El Capitan was, to quote the late SF theatre historian Steve Levin, “A phenomenal moneymaker before television.” From that point, the huge capacity of the house made it a white elephant very quickly, and indeed, competition from smaller, more efficient-to-run theatres in the area would have had an effect. Any need for a big house in the Mission neighborhood was filled by the smaller, but still capaceous, New Mission Theatre, across the street and to the South. The New Mission managed to keep its doors open into the 1990s, but not without having taken a turn as a boxing match venue before reverting back to a regular movie policy in its last years. Add to this the smaller Tower, Grand, and Crown, and a downtown-sized palace like El Capitan was a dinosaur, once people started staying home more to watch the Small Screen.
At one time in the late 1920s, there was a proposal to remodel/update the facade of the Liberty using the same ornamental scheme originally designed for the Golden State Theatre in Monterey. A photo exists of the Golden State exterior rendering, with the Liberty Theatre, San Francisco, name pasted where the Golden State name had been at the bottom of the drawing. This design was by Reid Bros. The remodeling was never carried out. Monterey’s Golden State was built exactly as drawn in the rendering.
Thank you Ken, for your tireless globetrotting, both real and virtual. I have had many instances of eye-rolling smiles, when I’ve commented-on or looked at an obscure theatre, only to find that, “Ken got there first!” and then say to myself, “Why am I not surprised?!”
Thanks to Ross, Patrick, Michael, and everyone who has worked so hard at organizing all the information all of us out here share with the site. Happy Anniversary, CT!
Gentlemen—Where did you get information on an El Rey in Monterey? I worked on the restoration of the Golden State Theatre in Monterey from 1991 through just a couple of years ago and have never heard of this! On Salinas Street? There’s an El Rey in Salinas on Main St. Then there’s the Del Rey (demolished) in Seaside, immediately adjacent to Monterey.
According to a notice from the San Francisco Planning Department, dated Nov. 24, 2010, the Preliminary Mitigated Declaration for the 5400 Geary Boulevard project (Alexandria Theatre) has been extended until January 24, 2011. This is for the purpose of extending the comment period so that an informational hearing about the project before the Historic Preservation Commission can be held.
The meeting is January 19, 2011, at 12:30pm.
Contact Chelsea Fordham at (415) 575-9071 or
for more information.
Assuming I am able to attend the meeting, I am hoping to be able to bring up the issue of the trees that are planned for the sidwalks on both street facades of the Alexandria building. At last report, bushy, leafy trees are planned. In ten years or so, they will all but obscure the lower half of the theatre building. Others have voiced opposition to this type of tree, suggesting that palm trees be substituted. These would not obscure the building, and would be more appropriate for the Egyptian Revival character of the building exterior. By no means would this mean planting colossal date palms, as one city staffer mistakenly thought was the intention. Rather, a thinner, more graceful species (and there are many) could be selected. Leafier trees could still be planted along the sidewalk in front of the residential units making up the rest of the site. The result:
1. The ongoing “Greening” of San Francisco’s streets continues.
2. The Alexandria Theatre building’s exterior remains clearly visible as the last remaining Egyptian Revival theatre exterior in Northern California, and the only such theatre designed by the most prolific Northern California theatre architects of the period, the Reid Bros.
Reading the article in more detail, it’s good to see that they are wanting to steer clear of politics and religion. I can certainly see how Afghanis would be very weary of that sort of thing,having fled much extremism in their country of origin and, like any group anywhere in the world, want to simply celebrate creativity and be entertained, which is what theatres are chiefly built for in any time, in any community.
Here’s hoping they don’t let extreme religious views affect the bas relief busts of Mercury on the facade, or the two nude goddesses which still fly across the auditoium ceiling. These features, together with a fine floral terrazzo entry sidewalk, are almost the only things of an artistic nature which make the building worth keeping intact.
This all makes a sadder picture when one remembers the stock of wonderful old buildings—including many theatres—downtown Long Beach once had. If Long Beach had had the vision to keep more of them, there would have been a greater sense of place and atmosphere retained. Just saving the buildings would not have been a cure-all, but it would have endeared the downtown to more people, and perhaps more poeple would have actually cared what happened down there.
I visited this theatre in the early 1990s. It was being used for plays. Since the interior had a plain Moderne look that clearly evidenced that it had been used as a movie theatre, I asked someone there why the stylistic difference between exterior and interior? They replied that the 1940s facade had been removed in order to reveal the original, 1860s facade. I’ve seen a photo from the Steve Levin Collection (now part of the Theatre Historical Society Collection) taken by insurance photographer Ted Newman sometime around 1942-‘45 that shows the 1860s facade to have been fully intact then, save for a horozontal swing-out sign of neon, “Nevada Theatre.”
I saw this as part of a classic movies series in 1990 at the Oakland Paramount. Was a wide image—probably the Panavision version, but I clearly remember it having the long, intact overture, with the abstracted lines which ultimately turn into a shot of New York buildings. Last year, the California Theatre in San Jose ran it, but I came in several minutes into the film because I was out in the lobby doing a book signing. I heard lots of music wafting into the lobby from the auditorium (faintly—it’s a very long lobby)before I actually went it, so probably the overture was intact in that print. Since that showing was partly put on by the Packard Humanities Institute, which did much to restore that theatre and presents classics there fairly often…I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d secured an intact print.
Thanks for linking to this article, Eric.
The Long Beach United Artists was demolished sometime between Spring, 1981 and Summer, 1982. I remember seeing it still standing and operating in ‘81, but I had no camera with me. When I returned to take photos of Long Beach theatres in mid-Summer, 1982, it was gone. The Roxy, State, Palace, Imperial, and Fox West Coast were still there, and I shot them except the State, which I happened not to notice, I believe, because the marquee was gone, and I didn’t remember it from my early childhood.
My father, Ed Parks, along with his buddy, Pete Nellis, were the poster painters for the New Haven Paramount in c.1935/‘36/'37 when both of them were going to art school at Yale. This was the main way they earned extra money during school. My dad left the East Coast in 1938 to work as an animator for Walt Disney, and animation became his career for life. Pete was quite an art historian, and my dad later found out after the War that Pete had gotten a job helping to return many of the art treasures in Europe hidden away during the War to their rightful museums and collections, as he had an encyclopedic memory for such things. The two of them fell out of touch, but in the mid 1990s, due to some contact information in a Yale alumni magazine, my dad was able to write Pete, who did write back. It was a little sad though, as Dad still had vivid memories of their friendship, but Pete only remembered some of the paintings my dad did in class, and didn’t remember their Paramount gig in any detail.
For the aesthetic record: For the last twenty-five years or so of its existence, the backside of the main (original) screen tower of the Skyview was painted blue, but before that, it was painted in wide, alternating vertical bands of pink and mint.
The building is now used for offices. While layers of paint were cleaned off the facade, exposing a very nice red and tan brick surface, the wonderful little marquee which had been on the theatre since at least the 1930s was removed, as were the slabs od white and grey veined marble which were still in place in the ticket lobby.
The 1929 Film Daily Yearbook lists the “New Santa Cruz” as having 1,100 seats. As many of you know, sometimes seat numbers were adjusted in reality, and sometimes the numbers were “stretched.”
The 1929 Film Daily Yearbook listing gives the Cameo’s seating capacity as 400. This would certainly jibe with the size of the auditorium structure which I recall behind the commercial block portion of the building.
CWalczac, Thank you so much for linking to those photos!
Great handbill! Thanks for posting it. Of the businesses listed as sponsors of the film event at the Unique, the Santa Cruz Sentinel is still in business. The Brown’s Bulb Ranch and Brown Ranch in Capitola lasted until well into the 1970s, when the land was taken over by the Capitola Mall.
A little more information on the Unique can be gleaned from “The Sidewalk Companion to Santa Cruz Architecture,” a paperback guide which was published in the late 1970s, and may still be available used. The book also contains a photo of the facade when it was Swain’s. On adjacent pages are descriptions (and photos) of the Santa Cruz and Del Mar theaters.
Due to work obligations, I am not able to attend this meeting, which is today. I’m hoping that MAYBE someone who has read my previous posts will attend, or at the very least, people from San Francisco’s neighborhood theatre and historic preservation community are going to be there.
I’ve been a member since 1987, and even in this wonderful world of online sharing of photos and information, it is still like having a mini-Christmas when a new issue of MARQUEE magazine arrives in the mailbox!
To comment on the previous post: It was not a bad location at all. El Capitan was, to quote the late SF theatre historian Steve Levin, “A phenomenal moneymaker before television.” From that point, the huge capacity of the house made it a white elephant very quickly, and indeed, competition from smaller, more efficient-to-run theatres in the area would have had an effect. Any need for a big house in the Mission neighborhood was filled by the smaller, but still capaceous, New Mission Theatre, across the street and to the South. The New Mission managed to keep its doors open into the 1990s, but not without having taken a turn as a boxing match venue before reverting back to a regular movie policy in its last years. Add to this the smaller Tower, Grand, and Crown, and a downtown-sized palace like El Capitan was a dinosaur, once people started staying home more to watch the Small Screen.
Minor detail: The date for the El Rey in Salinas is 1935, according to the little marble “cornerstone” at one lower corner of the facade.
At one time in the late 1920s, there was a proposal to remodel/update the facade of the Liberty using the same ornamental scheme originally designed for the Golden State Theatre in Monterey. A photo exists of the Golden State exterior rendering, with the Liberty Theatre, San Francisco, name pasted where the Golden State name had been at the bottom of the drawing. This design was by Reid Bros. The remodeling was never carried out. Monterey’s Golden State was built exactly as drawn in the rendering.
Thank you Ken, for your tireless globetrotting, both real and virtual. I have had many instances of eye-rolling smiles, when I’ve commented-on or looked at an obscure theatre, only to find that, “Ken got there first!” and then say to myself, “Why am I not surprised?!”
Thanks to Ross, Patrick, Michael, and everyone who has worked so hard at organizing all the information all of us out here share with the site. Happy Anniversary, CT!
Gentlemen—Where did you get information on an El Rey in Monterey? I worked on the restoration of the Golden State Theatre in Monterey from 1991 through just a couple of years ago and have never heard of this! On Salinas Street? There’s an El Rey in Salinas on Main St. Then there’s the Del Rey (demolished) in Seaside, immediately adjacent to Monterey.
According to a notice from the San Francisco Planning Department, dated Nov. 24, 2010, the Preliminary Mitigated Declaration for the 5400 Geary Boulevard project (Alexandria Theatre) has been extended until January 24, 2011. This is for the purpose of extending the comment period so that an informational hearing about the project before the Historic Preservation Commission can be held.
The meeting is January 19, 2011, at 12:30pm.
Contact Chelsea Fordham at (415) 575-9071 or
for more information.
Assuming I am able to attend the meeting, I am hoping to be able to bring up the issue of the trees that are planned for the sidwalks on both street facades of the Alexandria building. At last report, bushy, leafy trees are planned. In ten years or so, they will all but obscure the lower half of the theatre building. Others have voiced opposition to this type of tree, suggesting that palm trees be substituted. These would not obscure the building, and would be more appropriate for the Egyptian Revival character of the building exterior. By no means would this mean planting colossal date palms, as one city staffer mistakenly thought was the intention. Rather, a thinner, more graceful species (and there are many) could be selected. Leafier trees could still be planted along the sidewalk in front of the residential units making up the rest of the site. The result:
1. The ongoing “Greening” of San Francisco’s streets continues.
2. The Alexandria Theatre building’s exterior remains clearly visible as the last remaining Egyptian Revival theatre exterior in Northern California, and the only such theatre designed by the most prolific Northern California theatre architects of the period, the Reid Bros.
Reading the article in more detail, it’s good to see that they are wanting to steer clear of politics and religion. I can certainly see how Afghanis would be very weary of that sort of thing,having fled much extremism in their country of origin and, like any group anywhere in the world, want to simply celebrate creativity and be entertained, which is what theatres are chiefly built for in any time, in any community.
Here’s hoping they don’t let extreme religious views affect the bas relief busts of Mercury on the facade, or the two nude goddesses which still fly across the auditoium ceiling. These features, together with a fine floral terrazzo entry sidewalk, are almost the only things of an artistic nature which make the building worth keeping intact.
This all makes a sadder picture when one remembers the stock of wonderful old buildings—including many theatres—downtown Long Beach once had. If Long Beach had had the vision to keep more of them, there would have been a greater sense of place and atmosphere retained. Just saving the buildings would not have been a cure-all, but it would have endeared the downtown to more people, and perhaps more poeple would have actually cared what happened down there.
I visited this theatre in the early 1990s. It was being used for plays. Since the interior had a plain Moderne look that clearly evidenced that it had been used as a movie theatre, I asked someone there why the stylistic difference between exterior and interior? They replied that the 1940s facade had been removed in order to reveal the original, 1860s facade. I’ve seen a photo from the Steve Levin Collection (now part of the Theatre Historical Society Collection) taken by insurance photographer Ted Newman sometime around 1942-‘45 that shows the 1860s facade to have been fully intact then, save for a horozontal swing-out sign of neon, “Nevada Theatre.”
I saw this as part of a classic movies series in 1990 at the Oakland Paramount. Was a wide image—probably the Panavision version, but I clearly remember it having the long, intact overture, with the abstracted lines which ultimately turn into a shot of New York buildings. Last year, the California Theatre in San Jose ran it, but I came in several minutes into the film because I was out in the lobby doing a book signing. I heard lots of music wafting into the lobby from the auditorium (faintly—it’s a very long lobby)before I actually went it, so probably the overture was intact in that print. Since that showing was partly put on by the Packard Humanities Institute, which did much to restore that theatre and presents classics there fairly often…I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d secured an intact print.
Movieman:
That is correct. See my post of 2003 near the very beginning of this thread, for more info.
This is essentially like the view screens in “1984.” ‘Nuff said.