Fair Oaks Theater

Joe Vogel on January 24, 2010 at 1:51 am

A March 22, 1947, Boxoffice item said that G.W. Page was building a new theater at the corner of Grand Avenue and Alder Street in Arroyo Grande. Boxoffice of December 13, 1947, said that Bob Page had opened his new Fairoaks Theatre in Arroyo Grande. Page also operated the Bay Theatre in Morro Bay.

I’ve found Boxoffice referring to not only a Grande Theatre in Arroyo Grande, but also to an Arroyo Theatre and an Arroyo Grande Theatre. So far I’ve been unable to tell if this was one theater that kept changing its name, or if Boxoffice was just inconsistent about the name, or if there were actually two (probably not three in this tiny town) different theaters.

In 1938 and 1939, all three names were given, though always one name per item, for a theater operated by Charlie Olds. A March 5, 1938, item said that Charles Olds was taking over the dark Mission Theatre in Arroyo Grande and would reopen the 400-seat house on March 15, after remodeling was complete. There was nothing about him ever opening a second theater. Olds vanished from Boxoffice by 1945, but the multiple theater names continued.

An ad in Boxoffice of January 17, 1948, said that the Arroyo Theatre had installed new chairs. The February 18, 1950, issue said the Grande Theatre was getting a complete remodeling. In 1949, one item named George Page as the operator of the Arroyo Theatre. Did he buy the rival house, or was this an example of confusion by Boxoffice?

I haven’t found any of these three names mentioned after the 1950 item other than retrospectively (former owner of the Arroyo, for example) but the Fairoaks (Boxoffice split the name into Fair Oaks a few times, but Fairoaks was their most frequent usage) is last mentioned in the January 8, 1955, issue.