The movie “the laughing policeman” with Walter Mattheau, has a great interior shot of the Victoria. For trivia buffs, in the movie, there is a scene at the Transbay Terminal, showing the Fun Terminal in the background, which was a 24 hour arcade. Parked in front of the Fun Terminal was a 1955 white T Bird Convertible, which belonged to my Aunt Lee Smulling who was a cashier there. She parked in the red zone in front to keep a eye out on it.
The Grandview, was a nice spacious clean theater. We went there several times during the late 70’s, watching most recent American releases with chinese subtitles. It didn’t have a snack bar, but you were allowed to exit, get something, and bring it back in. In the movie “Jade” there is a excellent interior shot of the theatre, as well as a brief chase scene through the Pagoda Palace, while a chinese opera was on stage.
Was allowed inside to take a look around. Beautiful, but why was there a red curtain put on the stage? The original curtain was green that matched the jade grillwork behind the buddahs. I bought the DVD Nightmare in Blood and a interior shot shows this. I also want to know when the management will start having performance acts that cater to an older audience, so that we can enjoy the theater as well. And what about movies? They just showed the big lebowski, on a makeshift smaller screen. So the Paramount will rule as the big screen theatre in downtown Oakland, and the Fox will be slowly torn apart by 20 to 30 year olds. Wonderful
The Lincoln was a very popular house for the West Oakland residents. It was well maintained and very clean. The Lincoln was a church for many years, the pastor always leaving the side exit doors open to allow air inside as the mold buildup was incredible. The Lincoln always showed two movies. Admission was $1.00 for general, and $1.25 for loge. Patronized by drunks and drug addicts, management didn’t care as long as they made enough money to pay for the lease. Many customers were allowed to sleep the night after closing time, regulars who did not have ahome to go to. Sleepovers were kicked out at 5a.m. to allow cleaning. Esther’s Orbit Room, a bar and bbq, always made sure that coffee was available. Back in the day of extreme prejudice in Oakland, where blacks could go to the T&D and allowed to sit only in the last 15 rows of the balcony, the Lincoln was the only theatre where you could see a movie, and be treated with respect. The Star Theatre had the same policy. A well maintained house, with features catering to the black audience, it is sad that this building could not withhold the years of time, and collapsed. There was a very brief meeting with the Oakland City council to restore it, but was scrapped due to funding.
The teatro vertical was not installed until the late 70’s, and which remains to this very day. The interior is gutted. When the Martin family closed the theatre, it was to have been reopened as a asian house to cater with the extremely increasing population of asians to the area. The plan was scrapped due to insurance. At that time, numerous fires destroyed many businesses in the area,fires very close to the Plaza. A fine theatre, had it not been for the insurance, it would probably had remained opened to this very day, as there were several operators willing to use it.
The Alameda Theatre, was refurbished beautifully. It was extremely disappointing to walk into this theatre with the curtains not closed. It ruined the atmosphere. I attended the Alameda regularly, I remember when the balcony was being converted to two theatres, they still showed movies – we were watching the movie downstairs and heard the hammers banging up above. When the Alhambra in San Francisco was de-twinned, and restored to its original condition, the curtain was not closed as well. I asked why to the Management of both. It was interesting of the responses I received. The Alhambra Manager replied, “closing the curtain went out with Mickey Mouse” – Alameda Management replied, “we have received a few complaints, I don’t know why they don’t”. As a former projectionist, and my father being a projectionist, I was trained young to the fact that you always use the curtains to provide the customer the best in their movie value. It is an art, and unfortunately this art is gone in a lot of houses, plagued by the responsibility of the projectionist having to run up to 14 projectors, and 10 in another house at the same time. I was in San Francisco yesterday and was allowed to walk around at the El Rey in San Francisco, which is Alameda’s sister theater, with the interior layout exactly the same, with a totally different motif, interesting layout of mirrors to reflect light though the lobby and different murals. Missing from the Alameda lobby was a mirror with a sunstar border, that was centered between the entrances Aisles of 2 and 4. The wall between these aisles were removed which was not part of the original condition of the theatre. The El Rey had this mirror also and it is still there. However, despite the curtain situation, the Alameda is a wonderful restoration, and well worth the trip.
The movie “the laughing policeman” with Walter Mattheau, has a great interior shot of the Victoria. For trivia buffs, in the movie, there is a scene at the Transbay Terminal, showing the Fun Terminal in the background, which was a 24 hour arcade. Parked in front of the Fun Terminal was a 1955 white T Bird Convertible, which belonged to my Aunt Lee Smulling who was a cashier there. She parked in the red zone in front to keep a eye out on it.
The Grandview, was a nice spacious clean theater. We went there several times during the late 70’s, watching most recent American releases with chinese subtitles. It didn’t have a snack bar, but you were allowed to exit, get something, and bring it back in. In the movie “Jade” there is a excellent interior shot of the theatre, as well as a brief chase scene through the Pagoda Palace, while a chinese opera was on stage.
Was allowed inside to take a look around. Beautiful, but why was there a red curtain put on the stage? The original curtain was green that matched the jade grillwork behind the buddahs. I bought the DVD Nightmare in Blood and a interior shot shows this. I also want to know when the management will start having performance acts that cater to an older audience, so that we can enjoy the theater as well. And what about movies? They just showed the big lebowski, on a makeshift smaller screen. So the Paramount will rule as the big screen theatre in downtown Oakland, and the Fox will be slowly torn apart by 20 to 30 year olds. Wonderful
The Lincoln was a very popular house for the West Oakland residents. It was well maintained and very clean. The Lincoln was a church for many years, the pastor always leaving the side exit doors open to allow air inside as the mold buildup was incredible. The Lincoln always showed two movies. Admission was $1.00 for general, and $1.25 for loge. Patronized by drunks and drug addicts, management didn’t care as long as they made enough money to pay for the lease. Many customers were allowed to sleep the night after closing time, regulars who did not have ahome to go to. Sleepovers were kicked out at 5a.m. to allow cleaning. Esther’s Orbit Room, a bar and bbq, always made sure that coffee was available. Back in the day of extreme prejudice in Oakland, where blacks could go to the T&D and allowed to sit only in the last 15 rows of the balcony, the Lincoln was the only theatre where you could see a movie, and be treated with respect. The Star Theatre had the same policy. A well maintained house, with features catering to the black audience, it is sad that this building could not withhold the years of time, and collapsed. There was a very brief meeting with the Oakland City council to restore it, but was scrapped due to funding.
The teatro vertical was not installed until the late 70’s, and which remains to this very day. The interior is gutted. When the Martin family closed the theatre, it was to have been reopened as a asian house to cater with the extremely increasing population of asians to the area. The plan was scrapped due to insurance. At that time, numerous fires destroyed many businesses in the area,fires very close to the Plaza. A fine theatre, had it not been for the insurance, it would probably had remained opened to this very day, as there were several operators willing to use it.
The Alameda Theatre, was refurbished beautifully. It was extremely disappointing to walk into this theatre with the curtains not closed. It ruined the atmosphere. I attended the Alameda regularly, I remember when the balcony was being converted to two theatres, they still showed movies – we were watching the movie downstairs and heard the hammers banging up above. When the Alhambra in San Francisco was de-twinned, and restored to its original condition, the curtain was not closed as well. I asked why to the Management of both. It was interesting of the responses I received. The Alhambra Manager replied, “closing the curtain went out with Mickey Mouse” – Alameda Management replied, “we have received a few complaints, I don’t know why they don’t”. As a former projectionist, and my father being a projectionist, I was trained young to the fact that you always use the curtains to provide the customer the best in their movie value. It is an art, and unfortunately this art is gone in a lot of houses, plagued by the responsibility of the projectionist having to run up to 14 projectors, and 10 in another house at the same time. I was in San Francisco yesterday and was allowed to walk around at the El Rey in San Francisco, which is Alameda’s sister theater, with the interior layout exactly the same, with a totally different motif, interesting layout of mirrors to reflect light though the lobby and different murals. Missing from the Alameda lobby was a mirror with a sunstar border, that was centered between the entrances Aisles of 2 and 4. The wall between these aisles were removed which was not part of the original condition of the theatre. The El Rey had this mirror also and it is still there. However, despite the curtain situation, the Alameda is a wonderful restoration, and well worth the trip.