Perhaps my mind has gone bonkers but after I arrived here in 1976 it seems to me that in addition to its very sticky floors, that the screen had been placed at the back wall of the stage as everything else had been removed and this was the only way they could get a screen of the proper Cinemascope dimensions to fit.
Funny comment Vindanpar. The basic look has never changed but this unusual photo shows all the curtains up and the lighting grids lowered for maintenance.
I am now 79 years old and remember attending a movie there with a friend of my mother and there was a movie and vaudeville. This was in the mid or late forties. In fact, we had an orchestra seat on the right side of the house not far from those box seats shown in this photo. It was a lovely place and such a shame that it has been so butchered and left to decay.
I hope so. Such a sad fate for a theater which is not TOO big and the building seems to be in good shape otherwise. Getting that concrete out of there split off the balcony would be the difficult part. Here in SF the Golden Gate Theatre had that problem but managed it after Cinerama there.
Even if they had saved the Fox, that oddly shaped stage which abuted the Polk Street sidewalk and left no room for expansion of the facility, might have evantually doomed the structure anyway. My biggest disappointment though was that my first visit to SF was in the fifties and I had no idea as to what a treasure was there. Anyway, at age 16 me and some other teenaged friends decided to take in a SciFi movie at the Golden Gate for that weekend. Grrrr……
These comments about the Astor Theatre are intersting and I would like to put in my two cents as I worked there as an usher briefly after graduating from high school in 1956. When I started they were playing Raintree County in 65mm which I thought was was an odd film size. This was being played on a Roadshow basis. After that closed they went back to the “grind” with a dreadful film whose name I cannot recall now. At the time I worked there the stage and pit had already been removed and seats went right up to the main curtain. They ever sold that many seats but can you imagine trying to look up at that huge screen from the first few rows for several hours. The projection booth was in the second balcony and was a long climb up there. I had to assist brining up the film for the grind movie which was in 35mm. I would have hated to carry the 65mm prints up all those stairs. Some dressing rooms still existed on stage left and were being used for storage. Backing up a few years, a friend of the family took me to see Joan of Arc there when it still had a stage and pit and was probably still called the Tremont Street Theater.
BTW, that photo above which purports to be the Majestic Theater, in no way resembles the Majestic in the fifties and sixties when I lived there. It might be the old YMCA but even then the building next door does not look familiar. We will certainly have to find a better picture for this site.
If you arre interested in the latest images, check out Google Earth as their latest scan of the area was done on 9/20/14 and shows a Walgreens now at 2 Essex Stree, corner of Washington St.
Saw Vaudeville in this theater when I was very small. Next time into this theatre was a teenager fo see “This is Cinerama”. Now, while the building remains, the interior theater crumbles before our eyes. I have misplaced two good photos of that disaster but if I find them again I will upload them.
Unless I misread something here, I would have to disagree with Terry Wade above as I was in the Golden Gate Theatre once after Cinerama was taken out and it did have a huge curved front curtain on the main floor anyway. It was quite possible that the screen was stashed at the back of the stage which would have been weird no matter how you look at it (pun intended). BTW, I saw Cinerama at the Warner Theater (I think) in Hollywood (This is Cinerama) as well as at the RKO Boston Theatre. It is a damn shame what happened to that lovely place after Cinerama.
I briefly worked at the Astor in the mid-fifties as an usher. They were running “Raintree County” (Elizabeth Taylor) on a reserved seat/roadshow basis and after that ended they went back to the daily grind with a film whose name I do not recall right now. The projection booth took up part of the second balcony which had pieces and parts strewn about the now bare floor. I do not know if the booth extended through the back wall of the auditorium or not. Some dressing rooms remained from the vaudeville era. It was far too large, even then, for movies. As the Tremont Street Theater, it had a beautiful proscenium arch for its large stage. A friend of the family took me there one time to see a film and I was rather impressed by the theatre even at that early stage of my life. As for “Union Station”, have never heard that name used before this.
The Majestic Theatre in no way can be compared to the single level Northpoint Cinema in San Francisco which only had one level on a slightly sloping concrete slab with poor sightlines as a result. The Majestic had a balcony and also,when I was a teenager in the fifties, they did sometimes show twin bills. Some of the postings here also seem to place it on the wrong side of East 1st Street. It was on the south side with its stage housing smack dab against the narrow street that ran between it and the Truckee River. Loges separate from the balcony?? If your poster is saying that, I do not remember that. The front rows could have been referred to as the loge as they were separated from the other rows of seats by a cross aisle. I think they costs more then regular balcony seats.
I wonder if the back wall of the relatively small and odd shaped stage had NOT been smack dab against the sidewalk on the Polk Street side of the building, if something could have been done to enlarge the stage and possibly save this gem? The Paramount in Oakland does not have that problem BUT it appears to be a solid and thick concrete wall. I doubt that the City of Oakland could have afforded the complex rebuild of that wall. Fortunately they didn’t lose that theatre. In fact they finally reopened their Fox Theatre.
I wonder if anyone has any interior shots of the old Granada (pre-fire). As I had only been in Reno about two years at the time of the fire I have virtually no memory of what the interior looked like. I have a fair amount of memories of the Majestic although I do not recall multiple curtain openings before the movie. Anyway, it would be nice to see what the original Granada looked like. Thank you.
First of all the Nevada Theater was not operating into the seventies. I first arrived in Reno in the fall of 1950 and the operating theaters were: Granada, Majestic, Tower, and the tiny Crest next to the Wigwam Coffee Shop. I had heard of the Victory Theater through a friend and if memory serves me correctly she said it was inside what was (in 1950) a small arcade of retail shops on North Virginia Street just north of East First Street. There were also two drive-ins, the Midway on South Virginia Street and the El Rancho in Sparks. She also told me that the Wigwam Theater was much bigger than the Crest but when remodeled some of the space was given to the Emporium Music Store behind it which resulted in a much smaller Crest Theater.
Perhaps my mind has gone bonkers but after I arrived here in 1976 it seems to me that in addition to its very sticky floors, that the screen had been placed at the back wall of the stage as everything else had been removed and this was the only way they could get a screen of the proper Cinemascope dimensions to fit.
Looks like the organ chambers were rather deep.
Funny comment Vindanpar. The basic look has never changed but this unusual photo shows all the curtains up and the lighting grids lowered for maintenance.
I am afraid to ask this question so it shall remain a rhetorical question: What is that space being used for now. Arghhhhh……..
I am now 79 years old and remember attending a movie there with a friend of my mother and there was a movie and vaudeville. This was in the mid or late forties. In fact, we had an orchestra seat on the right side of the house not far from those box seats shown in this photo. It was a lovely place and such a shame that it has been so butchered and left to decay.
I hope so. Such a sad fate for a theater which is not TOO big and the building seems to be in good shape otherwise. Getting that concrete out of there split off the balcony would be the difficult part. Here in SF the Golden Gate Theatre had that problem but managed it after Cinerama there.
Even if they had saved the Fox, that oddly shaped stage which abuted the Polk Street sidewalk and left no room for expansion of the facility, might have evantually doomed the structure anyway. My biggest disappointment though was that my first visit to SF was in the fifties and I had no idea as to what a treasure was there. Anyway, at age 16 me and some other teenaged friends decided to take in a SciFi movie at the Golden Gate for that weekend. Grrrr……
These comments about the Astor Theatre are intersting and I would like to put in my two cents as I worked there as an usher briefly after graduating from high school in 1956. When I started they were playing Raintree County in 65mm which I thought was was an odd film size. This was being played on a Roadshow basis. After that closed they went back to the “grind” with a dreadful film whose name I cannot recall now. At the time I worked there the stage and pit had already been removed and seats went right up to the main curtain. They ever sold that many seats but can you imagine trying to look up at that huge screen from the first few rows for several hours. The projection booth was in the second balcony and was a long climb up there. I had to assist brining up the film for the grind movie which was in 35mm. I would have hated to carry the 65mm prints up all those stairs. Some dressing rooms still existed on stage left and were being used for storage. Backing up a few years, a friend of the family took me to see Joan of Arc there when it still had a stage and pit and was probably still called the Tremont Street Theater.
BTW, that photo above which purports to be the Majestic Theater, in no way resembles the Majestic in the fifties and sixties when I lived there. It might be the old YMCA but even then the building next door does not look familiar. We will certainly have to find a better picture for this site.
If you arre interested in the latest images, check out Google Earth as their latest scan of the area was done on 9/20/14 and shows a Walgreens now at 2 Essex Stree, corner of Washington St.
Saw Vaudeville in this theater when I was very small. Next time into this theatre was a teenager fo see “This is Cinerama”. Now, while the building remains, the interior theater crumbles before our eyes. I have misplaced two good photos of that disaster but if I find them again I will upload them.
Unless I misread something here, I would have to disagree with Terry Wade above as I was in the Golden Gate Theatre once after Cinerama was taken out and it did have a huge curved front curtain on the main floor anyway. It was quite possible that the screen was stashed at the back of the stage which would have been weird no matter how you look at it (pun intended). BTW, I saw Cinerama at the Warner Theater (I think) in Hollywood (This is Cinerama) as well as at the RKO Boston Theatre. It is a damn shame what happened to that lovely place after Cinerama.
I briefly worked at the Astor in the mid-fifties as an usher. They were running “Raintree County” (Elizabeth Taylor) on a reserved seat/roadshow basis and after that ended they went back to the daily grind with a film whose name I do not recall right now. The projection booth took up part of the second balcony which had pieces and parts strewn about the now bare floor. I do not know if the booth extended through the back wall of the auditorium or not. Some dressing rooms remained from the vaudeville era. It was far too large, even then, for movies. As the Tremont Street Theater, it had a beautiful proscenium arch for its large stage. A friend of the family took me there one time to see a film and I was rather impressed by the theatre even at that early stage of my life. As for “Union Station”, have never heard that name used before this.
The Majestic Theatre in no way can be compared to the single level Northpoint Cinema in San Francisco which only had one level on a slightly sloping concrete slab with poor sightlines as a result. The Majestic had a balcony and also,when I was a teenager in the fifties, they did sometimes show twin bills. Some of the postings here also seem to place it on the wrong side of East 1st Street. It was on the south side with its stage housing smack dab against the narrow street that ran between it and the Truckee River. Loges separate from the balcony?? If your poster is saying that, I do not remember that. The front rows could have been referred to as the loge as they were separated from the other rows of seats by a cross aisle. I think they costs more then regular balcony seats.
I wonder if the back wall of the relatively small and odd shaped stage had NOT been smack dab against the sidewalk on the Polk Street side of the building, if something could have been done to enlarge the stage and possibly save this gem? The Paramount in Oakland does not have that problem BUT it appears to be a solid and thick concrete wall. I doubt that the City of Oakland could have afforded the complex rebuild of that wall. Fortunately they didn’t lose that theatre. In fact they finally reopened their Fox Theatre.
I wonder if anyone has any interior shots of the old Granada (pre-fire). As I had only been in Reno about two years at the time of the fire I have virtually no memory of what the interior looked like. I have a fair amount of memories of the Majestic although I do not recall multiple curtain openings before the movie. Anyway, it would be nice to see what the original Granada looked like. Thank you.
First of all the Nevada Theater was not operating into the seventies. I first arrived in Reno in the fall of 1950 and the operating theaters were: Granada, Majestic, Tower, and the tiny Crest next to the Wigwam Coffee Shop. I had heard of the Victory Theater through a friend and if memory serves me correctly she said it was inside what was (in 1950) a small arcade of retail shops on North Virginia Street just north of East First Street. There were also two drive-ins, the Midway on South Virginia Street and the El Rancho in Sparks. She also told me that the Wigwam Theater was much bigger than the Crest but when remodeled some of the space was given to the Emporium Music Store behind it which resulted in a much smaller Crest Theater.