Fine Arts Cinema
2451 Shattuck Avenue,
Berkeley,
CA
94704
2451 Shattuck Avenue,
Berkeley,
CA
94704
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I saw some interesting programming at the Fine Arts back in the 1990s, including the silent “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” from 1910, accompanied by a live klezmer band, and a Ray Dennis Steckler film festival, where I bought some of his VHS tapes and got him to sign the boxes, along with my copy of “RE/Search #10: Incredibly Strange Films”.
There are a few fires that occurred at the Fine Arts Theatre, the earliest one being on November 14, 1957, caused by the projector while in a middle of one out of 3 Charlie Chaplin films. This forced an evacuation of 25 patrons, nobody injured. It caused an estimated $800 in damage.
Saw my first porn film there! Back in the day, of course, before home video. I think I went two or three times.
Francesca where are you,. I had such a crush on you. Alas I was just a kid. And you were the candy girl.
I was one of the projectionists there from 1969- 1973
Helped rebuild the projectors after the fire.
Pauline Kael had a film library there and during the maintenance of some of th enitrate prints the fire started.
Only 1.25 reels of film burned.
the booth was destroyed.
600 reels were undamaged in the fireproof storage area.
After they demolished the building, someone spray-painted “Cinema is Dead” on a remaining wall amidst the rubble.
Berkeley Daily Planet, 7/2/04:
http://tinyurl.com/ynzo6s
Oops—-forgot about Bombay Cinema too.
The Fine Arts was originally The Cinema; later it was known as Mitchell Brothers Cinema, Berkeley Adult Cinema, and Horizon Cinema.
Don’t know for sure about the theater part, but me, I just can’t help feeling that this is Kennedy’s way of rubbing it in.
Surprisingly enough, though it seems the new building will not have a theatre inside, the builders have gone ahead and installed a beautiful and neon-bedecked marquee, reading FINE ARTS, which would have served the theatre, but will now herald the name and entrance of the building. It’s a shame that the theatre part of the development fell through. The building is, I think, a handsome piece of Moderne Revival, and I’m sure out-of-towners in the future will assume the building houses a theatre.
…or am I missing something? Is a theatre going in there after all?
Forgot to mention (though it’s probably way too obvious by now), that the Fine Arts (Cinema) has been demolished (as in Closed/Demolished).
Unfortunately, the Fine Arts is no more. Operator Keith Arnold was unable to come up with the funding ($800,000 to $1.2 million) required by developer Patrick Kennedy to outfit the space that was to be taken by the cinema. Frankly, I for one was afraid this might happen—-that was how Berkeley lost Gaia Bookstore, and the Shotgun Players had also gotten royally screwed. If only Arnold and Scherer had had the foresight to continue the Fine Arts screenings at temporary sites during the interim—-we might still have a Fine Arts Cinema (as opposed to a Fine Arts BUILDING) even if they’d had to give up on that particular site anyway (the Shotgun Players did more or less bounce back after their own raw deal with Kennedy).