Valley Theatre
2435 Ventura Boulevard,
Camarillo,
CA
93010
2435 Ventura Boulevard,
Camarillo,
CA
93010
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The Camo Theatre was located in the Bank of America building. An opening date has not been found, but a date on the building is for 1916 and operated by J.F. Lewis & Sons (possible retail use). The Camo Theatre was first listed in the 1941 edition of Film Daily Yearbook. Following a remodel it reopened on April 10, 1942 as the Valley Theatre. The Valley Theatre operated until closure on July 12, 1964 when it was replaced by the opening of the new Ponderosa Theatre (It has its own page on Cinema Treasures). The Valley Theatre then became a church, and later, a rug store. It has now been gutted to become JJ Brewsky’s (a tavern).
I walked through the interior recently and could find very little evidence that it’d ever been a theatre; there were some demarcations of a possible projection booth but I couldn’t figure out where they’d’ve put the screen and there were no visible marks where seats or concession stand might have been bolted.
Contributed by
MagicLantern
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Recent comments (view all 8 comments)
There was a Valley Theater in Anderson, CA as well. Don’t ask me where Anderson is located.
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Anderson is about ten miles south of Redding along highway 99/Interstate 5. The theatre building was still there about 25 years ago, the last time I was in Anderson, but I believe it had by then already been closed for some time, and I don’t remember it being called the Valley. The theatre was right across the street from the Southern Pacific’s main line to Oregon, and I believe the small building on the left in that photo is the old Anderson railroad station.
The tavern website mentions that the building was constructed in 1916, long before it became a movie theater.
http://tinyurl.com/64c7np
There was a Valley Theatre operating in Camarillo in 1946, according to an item in Boxoffice Magazine’s issue of May 18 that year: “CAMARILLO, CALIF.— S. and J.D. Burger, Operators of the Valley Theatre here, have commissioned Harold E. Burkett, Ventura architect, to draw plans for a 500-seat house to be erected on Ventura Blvd. here on a site which they acquired a year ago.”
Maybe the planned theater was a replacement for the original Valley Theatre? But if it didn’t open until 1956, the planning stage was awfully long.
So…from J.D. Burger to J.J. Brewsky’s. Guess this building’s restaurant fate was sealed early on.
When this address is entered in Fresh Logic Atlas a barnlike structure on the corner of Ventura Blvd. & S. Glen Dr. appears to have a fantastic checkerboard sidewalk extending both east and west beyond it’s street frontage. Interestingly, this pattern is nearly undecipherable when viewed in bird’s eye or on Google Earth.
BTW, it this the Valley Theatre, or some other strange apparition?
Well, duh to me…I think The Valley is probably the one two bldgs. to the east with the MARQUEE, LOL!
Opened April 16th, 1942.