Gustine Theatre
328 5th Street,
Gustine,
CA
95322
328 5th Street,
Gustine,
CA
95322
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After reexamining a history of the Gustine area by Patricia Carson Snoke I am convinced that the Gustine Theatre was the former Gustine Opera House, which Ms. Snoke says opened in May, 1912. It was equipped to show movies from the beginning, but also presented vaudeville and a variety of local events. In 1915 it was sold to Peter Bladt, who remodeled it, giving it a sloped floor for the first time.
On March 7, 1920 a projection booth fire broke out during the show. A capacity audience escaped unscathed, though a bucket brigade using water from a nearby horse trough failed to save the building or two neighboring structures. There were presumed casualties, however. Several goldfish who had been kept in the trough by a local were missing following the conflagration, and were assumed to have perished in the flames, or perhaps under the feet of the bucket brigade.
This house might have opened earlier than 1919, or perhaps there was an earlier theater of the same name. This item is from Moving Picture World of November 17, 1917: “GUSTINE, CALIF.—Gustine theater has opened under the management of Fred Muller.” Gustine had a movie theater at least as early as 1916, when the April1 MPW had this item: “Gustine, Cal.—P. J. Bladt has taken over a theater here and has installed a Power’s Cameragraph No. 6A and a Fort Wayne Compensarc.”
The Gustine Theatre suffered a fire in 1920, as reported in the April 3 Exhibitors Herald: “NEWMAN. CAL.— The Gustine theatre was destroyed recently by fire which originated in the projection room.”