Fremont Theatre
226 Fremont Street,
Las Vegas,
NV
89101
226 Fremont Street,
Las Vegas,
NV
89101
3 people
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Correction to the above comments. It’s Karl Malden Oscar winner for A Streetcar Named Desire (well deserved), On the Waterfront and Patton. Reminder to kiddies playing at home: MALDEN WAS HÃŒS TRUE FIRST NAME! Don’t mess this one up! Factoid: I almost met him as a extra on The Streets of San Francisco. But alas it wasn’t meant to be! I did get to meet the late great Richard Hatch! So there you have it folks! Rant and TV history off! 😘😘
Just reading the past posts - somebody mentioned that they saw “Dawn Of The Dead” here. Unfortunately, the poster got the Fremont confused with the Cinemas 1-2-3 which did run the movie - in 1978. As others pointed out, the Fremont “closed up shop” in 1974. Also - it was a single screen theatre - not a triplex like the Cinemas.
Another thing about the Fremont that made it different from the other Vegas movie theatres - it had, during it’s “heyday”, a true loge (to today’s movie goers, what is known as “stadium seating”), and a “waterfall curtain” in front of its screen. (At the other indoor theatres, their curtain{s} would just open - one to the left & one to the right. (These days, with multiplexes everywhere, it seems none of them have any curtains in front of their screens.)
As for why the theatre closed, a pretty DUMB MOVE on the part of that friggin' hotel - “Oh - we need the space to expand our operations!” Then again, that’s how Vegas was & is - A FRIGGIN' TOTAL LACK OF RESPECT ON IT’S HISTORY!
I saw several movies at the Fremont on various trips to downtown Las Vegas: “The Owl and the Pussycat” (Barbra Streisand and George Segal, 1970); “Sleeper” (Woody Allen and Diane Keaton, 1973); and “Galaxy of Terror” (Erin Moran, Robert Englund, Edward Albert, and Ray Walston, 1981). So it was open at least that late. After it was demolished I believe it was assimilated by the Fremont hotel-casino. Resistance was futile…. Cheers.
This opened on May 29th, 1946. Grand opening ad posted.
Link with several partial marquee photos.
http://vintagelasvegas.com/tagged/Fremont-&-3rd
August 1960 photo added. Photo credit Edythe and Lloyd Katz Collection via the UNLV Libraries Digital Collections.
I was the doorman of the Fremont and the afternoon manager of the Huntridge for most of 1959. New mr. Katz and Mr. Zumar.
The Fremont, along with the El Portal, are visible in the 1958 photo here: http://www.shorpy.com/node/21139
Another March 1956 photo added, photo credit Credit Las Vegas News Bureau. Copy via the Nevada Armored Transport, Inc. 1946-1984 Facebook page.
Breaking The Sound Barrier was a British film from around 1952—-Natalie Wood and Karl Mauldin were in Bombers B-52 in 1957.
In 1952, I was going to school at LVHS and working part time at this theater, I really loved my job. I think the manager at that time was a Mr. Ealy. I’ll never forget New Years Day the movie showing was Breaking The Sound Barrier with Natalie Wood and Karl Mauldin. After work we would go next door and have the best French fries in town. Down the street there was an Orange Julius stand that we went to also. My grandfather was a bookkeeper for Las Vegas Distributing. Those movies were the best ever made
Added photo and copy courtesy of Nevada Armored Transport, Inc. 1946-1984 Facebook page.
There is a brief glimpse of the marquee in the 1977 film “The Gauntlet.” Clint Eastwood is in an ambulance escorting a prisoner to the airport as it passes the Fremont.
My Father, Harry Zumar was the General Manager of the Nevada Theater Corporation which ran the: Fremont, Huntridge, and Guild Theaters. He passed away January 12th of this year at the age of 97.
The Fremont Theater held the world premiere of the original Ocean’s Eleven with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Lawford present.
There is an ironic story behind this theatre location for me. I was the opening General Manager of the Neonopolis 14 Theatre that is/was located less than a block from where the Old Fremont Theatre stood. My grandmother’s first cousin is/was Jane Russell (my grandmother passed away last year). I have a print at home of “The Las Vegas Story” in storage. Turns out Ms. Russell was at that 1952 premiere.
When I learned all the above info, I just thought it was a great example of how small the world actually is and how everything is somehow related.
You can also see the marquee down the way in this 1973 photo
http://tinyurl.com/ddtsn3
The Fremont marquee is on the right in this 1961 photo from Life magazine:
http://tinyurl.com/5tlt3g
Wow. Great photo of such an obscure place. The balcony had been sealed up, I think, by the time I frequented this theatre (1978-1982), but I remember the curved walls with the exit doors down front well.
I too remember the theatre well. Saw every scary movie they showed. The Spider. House on Haunted Hill, but none topped the Tingler. They put some cheesy vibrator under your seat and when the Tingler showed the buzzed the crap out of you. Would love to see a picture of the movie house again.
Good to see the Huntridge is still standing.
Wow!
I lived in North Las Vegas in the early 80’s. Just about a mile from Fremont St. Being a broke, 19-20 yr old punk, I, like many, cruised Fremont St on any given night looking for cheap thrills. Remember, Fremont Street is the OLD Vegas strip (the one you always see in old movies and the tv series Vegas). Like 42nd St in NY… wonderfully sleazy and slimey.
This theatre was a true grindhouse by the time I discovered it.
I first stepped in it when I had my eldest sister drop me and a friend off there for my 17th birthday to see Dawn of the Dead. Holy Hell! What a baptism by fire in the sleazehouse world!
I attended many a (cheap) matinee there, catching any low rent,z-grade shit that had a cool poster to sell it.
The Fremont Theatre was my $10 whore with a heart of gold.
One curious architectural feature I noticed:
As you entered from the street, you stepped down 5 or 6 steps into the nondescript, narrow lobby. Seems you were already entering the bowels of hoped for depravity. Nice.
I never bought popcorn or other from the singular concession stand. I was too broke for that. Always smuggled in my own candy, Who hasn’t, eh?
Another thing; I recall the Fremont as being a 2 screener. They must have dualed it by the time I found it. They would certainly have to.
But…my fondest, sad, excited, frustrated memory has to be this:
I bought my ticket to a typical midweek matinee (alone, as always) of some bad B flick. I sat in my habitual seat (about a 3rd from front, always center seat). Maybe 6 people in the whole auditorium.
About 15 minutes in, a 30 something woman, attractive, but working it hard, came and sat directly behind me. As the movie progressed, she leaned forward and asked me what she missed. Dorky, polite me..I told her. She asked more questions. I answered. She then came around and sat next to me, claiming to not being able to hear my answers.
My teen heart pounded! Wow! A porn fantasy coming true? Yeah, she was old(er), but the cleavage. Oooh…the cleavage.
As the movie (don’t even ask me what it was about at this point) progressed, she kept leaning into me. We ended up my arm around her, she nuzzling my neck.
The movie ended (How? Who knows.), the lights came up. The lone, bored usher came in, boredly sweeping. We got up and left. She asked, “what are we gonna do now?"
Long story short… she was a Fremont St hooker looking for a date. Seeing as I did not have any money (at ALL!), she ditched me in the next door casino faster than the old lady near me was losing her quarters in the slots.
Sigh.
At least she gave me a few weeks of jack off fantasies.
Guess she really was a cheap date.
Yes, this theater was right next to the Fremont Hotel & casino. I get this one and the El Portal confused since I was a teen and it was a long time ago. I think the Fremont was the better of the two. It’s funny when the movie was over I’d go next door to the Fremont and play those pinball machines that were right in the door way. They were for adults but no security guards ever bothered me. Anyway, I spent most of my teen years downtown Las Vegas at the Fremont theater.
Vegasite;
Thanks for the link to that great print, but it is of the Freemont Theatre, San Luis Obispo,CA (now known as the Freemont 4)listed here… /theaters/2302/
What a fun theatre. I remember in 1966 driving from Los Angeles to the Fremont Theatre for the sole purpose of seeing Raquel Welch in “One Million Years B.C.” and Martine Beswick in “Prehistoric Women”, months before it they were to play in L.A.
There is an art print of this theatre available at:
View link
It was owned by the Nevada Theatre Corp., who also owned the Huntridge and the Guild Theatre that was on either Second or Third off of Fremont. I worked as a ass. manager on the graveyard shift at the Fremont Theater in the mid 60’s, before there was the ‘Four Queens’ hotel across the street. One of the owners was Harry Zumar. There were two other partners. I remember when Wayne and Jerry of the Newton brothers were playing next door at the Fremont Hotel in the lounge and would come over to watch the movies. Wayne wasn’t even old enough to gamble in the casino.