Park Theatre
1936 High Street,
Selma,
CA
93662
1936 High Street,
Selma,
CA
93662
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Blumenfeld Theater Circuit, Panero Theatres
Architects: Vincent G. Raney
Styles: Streamline Moderne
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This was the second Park Theatre in Selma, CA. The Park Theatre opened on October 21, 1948 in downtown Selma next to the J.C.Penney Co. department store. The theatre had an 800 seat auditorium with a balcony. I remember the auditorium had high walls with dark gray paneling. The carpeting inside was a dark crush-red with large paisley print, the lobby had a very low ceiling with the snack bar facing the four to six entrance doors with five small square windows in each door.
The facade was a beautiful Art Moderne style with a large marquee reading “Park”, which had rolls of square boxes around which looked like the “Hollywood Squares” game show when illuminated at night.
The theatre showed first run movies and Spanish-language movies on Sundays. The last movie I saw there was “Friday the 13th: Part 3”. It was closed on March 23, 1983 for renovations to be carried out. It never reopened as on May 17, 1984 during renovations, the Park Theatre burned down. Today a parking lot sits there, where the theatre once stood. This was downtown Selma’s last movie house. Until in the mid-1990s, the Selma Cinemas opened in the northwest part of town.
Contributed by
Ben Rayonez
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Recent comments (view all 3 comments)
The Park Theatre was the subject of a brief article in the April 2, 1949, issue of Boxoffice. The compact house featured a stadium seating section to maximize capacity on a small lot. The Park was built for the Panero Theatre Company and was designed by architect Vincent G. Raney.
Boxoffice of May 29, 1948, said that the Park Theatre in Selma was being razed to make way for a new theater that would be Selma’s “A” house, so the Vincent Raney-designed Park Theatre that burned in 1984 was the second of the name at this location.
I’m not sure how old the first Park’s building was. On August 17, 1940, Boxoffice said that Sam Levin had opened his new house, the Park in Selma, on August 9. I’ve found no details about it, but I doubt an eight-year-old building would have been demolished for the 1948 rebuild, so the first Park must have been either an old theater renamed, or an existing old building converted into a theater.
Sam Levin had bought an interest in the Selma Theatre in 1937, and both that house and the original Park were taken over by the Blumenfeld circuit in 1941, as reported in the September 6 issue of Boxoffice that year. The new Park of 1948 was built for the Panero circuit.
Here is the April 2, 1949, Boxoffice article about the new Park, which includes Raney’s clever floor plan.
The original Park Theatre in Selma opened August 19, 1938 with “Start Cheering.” After the War, Panero Theatres Circuit unveiled a larger and new-build Park Theatre with the Raney plans. It launched October 21, 1948. It appears to have closed March 23, 1983 for renovations. During that project, it burned down.