Santa Clara Theatre
956 Franklin Street,
Santa Clara,
CA
95050
956 Franklin Street,
Santa Clara,
CA
95050
3 people
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Harvey Entertainment, Westland Theatres
Architects: William Binder, Ernest Curtis
Firms: Binder & Curtis
Styles: Streamline Moderne
Previous Names: Casa Grande Theatre
Nearby Theaters
The Casa Grande Theatre was opened on November 1, 1927 with Dolores Costello in “The College Widow” plus 2 acts of vaudeville on its stage. Following a Streamline Moderne style makeover, the operators Harvey Amusement Company, renamed it the Santa Clara Theatre and it reopened on June 4, 1938 with Adolphe Menjou in “The Goldwyn Follies” and Billy Mauch & Robert J. Mauch in “Penrod and his Twin Brother”. By 1950 it was operated by the San Francisco based Westland Theatres chain, but still owned by Harvey Amusement Company. It was closed in 1965.
Demolished, along with nearly all of downtown Santa Clara in an urban renewal project in the late-1960’s, this theatre was the work of architects Binder and Curtis, who designed several theatres in both the downtown and neighborhoods of the adjacent city of San Jose.
For a time, at least, the Santa Clara Theatre was run by the same chain which operated San Jose’s Binder and Curtis-designed Hester Theater (now Towne Theater), closeby.
Contributed by
Gary Parks
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Recent comments (view all 9 comments)
The Santa Clara was originally called the Casa Grande, when built in the 1920s.
Here is a photo circa 1950s:
http://tinyurl.com/nd4njx
Boxoffice of July 30, 1938, reported that the Harvey Amusement Company and Gerald Hardy had acquired the Casa Grande Theatre in Santa Clara, and would spend $20,000 renovating it. The house was expected to reopen in August as the Santa Clara Theatre.
I can confirm Harvey Amusement still owned the theater in 1955. I believe they owned it until it was demolished in 1963 as part of an 8-block urban renewal project. The photo posted by Ken Mc is from “Santa Clara” by Bea Lichenstein, the Images of America, Arcadia Publishing. Page 116. Margot Warburton owns the image.
There sure have been a lot of theatres lost in cities due to urban renewal.Nice photo posted by Lost Memory.Thanks Babcock.
That’s the Santa Clara theater I know and saw movies on a regular basis. It closed down around 1963 because of the urban renewal project, which turned out to be a complete failure.
I worked at the Santa Clara Theater from 1961-June 1963. Mr. Jenkins was the manager at the time. The Usherette’s wore brocade uniforms and carried flashlights to assist patrons in finding a seat. My favorite part of the job was getting to see movies I probably would not have seen. My least favorite part was having to approach “necking” couples and tell them we had a hands off policy. I also remember priests from the University of CA coming to “screen” movies before recommending to students. All and all a great experience.
I would like to know how if it’s true or false that this theatre was not scheduled to be demolished with the downtown in the 60’s. Also why the hell is it so difficult to get pictures of what it looked like inside the theatre.
It opened as the Casa Grande theatre on November 1st, 1927, and reopened as the Santa Clara theatre on June 4th, 1938. Listings ended in 1965. Grand opening ads posted.