Thanks Joe, for establishing the opening of the 41st Avenue Playhouse for the record. I moved to Santa Cruz County August 30, 1973 (I was ten), and probably went to that theater for the first time in late ‘73 or early '74, to see “Chariots of the Gods?” I remember there was actually an usher in the lobby where the hallway split to the left and right to go to the various screens, and he would ask you which movie you were coming to see, and then direct you to the appropriate auditorium. This was in addition to the usher who tore tickets at the door. I remember the staff wearing black jackets and slacks, white shirts, and black bowties.
As this is one of the most beloved, and most-visited theaters of my late childhood and young adulthood, I will give, for the record, the movies I saw here.
Prior to when I began keeping careful record of movies I’ve seen theatrically (1982), I can’t recall anywhere near all of them, though I do know the first visit was for a double feature, circa 1975, of “That’s Entertainment,” and “Travels with My Aunt.” The latter was the first time I ever saw nudity onscreen (a stripper in a club) albeit a rear view. I also know we saw “The Great Santini,” and “Serial” in about 1980 or ‘81—not necessarily paired. More childhood education: The latter had a humorous orgy scene, this time with frontal nudity.
By no means will I even consider blurring the eyes of fellow Cinematreasures members/readers by listing all movies seen at every theater on this site that I’ve attended (I would never have time), but as the “Cap” was my family’s most-frequented theater, and it got almost all the movies after the local UA houses were done with them, I think a complete list is in order of what I saw, in fond remembrance:
1982
“Raiders of the Lost Ark” with “The Jazz Singer” (yes, with Neil Diamond)
“The French Leutenant’s Woman” with “Atlantic City"
"Absence of Malice” with “Seems Like Old Times"
"First Monday of October” with “Reds"
"Deathtrap” with “Victor/Victoria"
"Modern Problems” with “Tron"
1983
"Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid” with “Tex"
"Trail of the Pink Panther” with “Time Bandits"
"Missing” with “Evil Under the Sun"
"Max Dugan Returns” with “The Black Stallion Returns"
"The Verdict” with “Without A Trace"
"King of Comedy” with “Max Dugan Returns” (again!)
“The Survivors” with “Tootsie"
"Local Hero” with “Chariots of Fire"
1984
"The Grey Fox” with “Mr. Mom"
"A Christmas Story” with “Romantic Comedy"
"Cross Creek” (We didn’t stay for the second feature. I do know that it was something we were afraid might offend the sensibilities of guests we were entertaining from then-Communist China as part of an exchange program with UC Santa Cruz!)
“Yentl” with “Best Friends"
"Silkwood” (Not sure why I—alone this time—didn’t stay for the second feature)
“Tender Mercies” with “Racing With the Moon"
"The Natural” with “Unfaithfully Yours"
"Broadway Danny Rose” with “The Dresser"
"The Karate Kid” with “Hanky Panky"
1985
"Protocol” (Didn’t stay for second feature—perhaps I or my then-girlfriend weren’t interested)
“Falling in Love” with “King David"
"A Passage to India” (Didn’t see second feature)
“Vertigo” with “The River"
"The Man Who Knew Too Much” with “The Trouble With Harry"
"The Return of the Soldier” (Didn’t see second feature)
“Amadeus” (Didn’t see second feature)
1986
“Clue” with “Young Sherlock Holmes"
"The Trip to Bountiful” with “White Nights" At this point I was now living fulltime outside Santa Cruz County, so my visits became fewer*****
1987
"Soul Man” with “Jumpin’ Jack Flash"
"Crocodile Dundee”(Didn’t see second feature)
1988
“Baby Boom” (Didn’t see second feature)
1989
“Crossing Delancey” with “Clara’s Heart"
"Pink Cadillac” with “Scens From the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills"
1990
—didn’t go at all—
1991
"Quigley Down Under” with “On the Air"
1992
"For the Boys” with “Barton Fink"
AND THAT WAS IT.
The Capitola closed within a couple of years.
The first thing that comes to mind about this theater is that over the years, the staff was always very friendly, sometimes even holding the door open for departing patrons and wishing them “Good night!”
This theater opened as the Scotts Valley Cinema around 1977. It began as a twin cinema—Scotts Valley’s first and as yet only movie venue as far as I know. Located at the back of what was then the Kings Village Shopping Center, it was advertised by a tall sign pylon trimmed in redwood, with two backlit plastic two-sided reader boards topped by a plastic illuminated sign reading simply, “CINEMA.” The reader boards had the numbers 1 and 2 permanently affixed. Below them was another reader board which was used to advertise special shopping center events. Later, when additional screens were added to the cinema, this reader board was pressed into service to advertise movies, and all reader boards were divided up into smaller segments to include advertising for what would ultimately be six screens. The decor was originally very minimal, as was so typical of the bleak 1970s trend in cinema design. The lobby was about as nondescript as they come, with plain sheetrock walls. Both auditoriums had mustard fabric on the walls, but they did have operating curtains, and the exits on either side were trimmed in matching fabric which draped simply but attractively on either side. By the 1990s, when additional screens were added, the color schemes of all auditoriums were done in various colorful fabrics, though the curtains around and infront of the two orginal auditoriums' screens were left in their original mustard fabric. The lobby was given a more colorful and festive feel.
I first attended movies here soon after its opening, as my best friend lived in Scotts Valley during our Junior High through Junior College years. I remember seeing “Battlestar Galactica” in Sensurround during those years, as well as “Heaven Can Wait,” and “House Calls."
Since 1982, I have kept a record book of all theatrical screenings of movies I’ve seen, and those I’ve seen from that point on at the Scotts Valley are as follows:
1982
"Cinderella"
1983
"Peter Pan” with “The Last Unicorn"
"Flashdance” with “48 Hours"
1984
"Greystoke—The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes” with “The Bounty"
"The Neverending Story” with “Jungle Book"
1986
"Wildcats” with “Best of Times"
1991
"Father of the Bride"
1993
"The Joy Luck Club"
1995
"Now and Then”
The 41st Avenue Cinemas, which opened as the 41st Avenue Playhouse (always a multiscreen movie theater, never actually a “playhouse”) was operating at least as early as 1973. My first visit was in 1973 or 1974, to see “Chariots of the Gods.” Several years later, the theater would screen “Star Wars,” for a very long engagement. Subsequent movies in the first Star Wars trilogy would show at the larger Rio Theatre in Santa Cruz. Both houses were United Artists operations during those years.
The 41st Avenue sits in a corner of a shopping center. A pole-mounted, two-sided reader board announces the theater’s presence to passing traffic. Its cement block faux adobe brick facade with cedar shingle awning matches the architecture of most of the rest of the shopping center. The entrance indents back from the facade like a classic movie theater ticket lobby. The interior was originally painted in the earth tones so popular at the time of its opening, with mustard-colored fabric on the auditorium walls. There were curtains, which always opened and closed for the show in the days before onscreen advertising.
The 41st Avenue went independent after United Artists' departure from Santa Cruz County in the 1990s.
I commend the Fox project for making what I believe is the wise design choice of keeping the present marquee and restoring it, rather than going back to the original, which was rather flimsy-looking in my opinion. The present one is more substantial, graceful, and has—practically speaking—more efficient reader board space!
The Theatre Historical Society of America toured the Fox Pomona in 2005. It was a real mess then, but we could all see the potential. It’s so nice to see it realized.
I finally saw the completed replicated Royal facade last night. It was a little early in the evening, and the lighting behind the stained glass was not on. A copy of what may have been the original marquee is now attached. There is at least one difference, and that is that it is held up by steel pillars. The marquee has geometric patterns where reader boards would be, backed by what appears to be translucent white glass or plastic. The design copies a marquee which was rendered in a color pastel presentation drawing produced by the offices of Miller and Pflueger. I saw this pastel during an auction preview of the John Pflueger collection at Butterfild and Butterfield in 1990. The marquee had two large metal and cathedral glass laterns at the corners. Not long after, I mentioned having seen the rendering to theatre historian Steve Levin, and he had seen the same illustration years before, and commented that he had never actually seen a photo of that first marquee design, and was unsure whether it had even actually been executed like that. A photo does exist of a rectangular marquee with geometric neon and traditional reader boards, which for a time coexisted with the tall Royal vertical sign added later. The wedge-shaped marquee familiar to all of us over the last several decades was added still later. Regardless of whether the present marquee duplicates something once there, or whether it was inspired by the pastel rendering from the Pflueger office, the result is quite impressive. The steel pillars may seem a jarring note to purists, perhaps, but maybe they were required by modern building codes. The lanterns employ the same vivid orange and gold-veined cathedral glass that was installed in the false window on the facade.
Vincent Rainey, architect of the Court, went on to design many theatres for the Syufy family. His signature designs, the Century domes in San Jose, are still in operation. Other domes were designed by him and built elsewhere, and he kept designing well into the multiplex era, indeed into the 1990s.
To answer Simon’s question:
There were curtains, but I do not remember seeing them operate during the 1990s or after, when I went there. As for the roof sign, yes, there is one. It is double-sided, and consists of metal channel letters virtually identical to those on the more famous rooftop sign of the nearby Grand Lake Theatre. The Parkway’s letters were originally all lightbulb, but at some point were redone with single-tube green neon. It has been a habit for me to look over toward the Parkway from the 880 freeway at night to see the lit rooftop sign. I did so a week ago and it was still completely lit, despite all the rain we’ve recently had. In fact, it was my seeing that sign from the freeway in the 1990s which first alerted me to the fact that the Parkway had reopened. I began attending occasionally with Oakland friends. My last time in there was last Summer, when leading the Theatre Historical Society Conclave tour. As Egyptian architecture is a specialty of mine, I was able to speak to the detailing of the proscenium as well as the general history of the theatre.
The original CALIFORNIA metal and milk glass marquee sign from 1923 has been brought up from the Fox’s understage basement and is now on display high on the wall of the restaurant which occupies the former outer lobby area. There are also framed historic photos below it on the same wall.
While ordering tickets online the other day to the upcoming “Monty Python’s Spamalot” at the Golden Gate, I noticed that SHN has a dusk view of the Golden Gate on their site, and it looks like the letters on the Golden Gate vertical signs are lit. This may be just a photoshop job. Can anyone enlighten me as to whether neon has indeed (rightfully) returned to the letters on the Golden Gate’s verticals? I will likely not be by the theatre until we see that show in May, and I’m itching to know if it was just a bit of photoshop wizardry fulfilling my wishful thinking, or if indeed this refurbishment has very recently been done. I do know that plans are underway to refurbish the whole office block portion of the Golden Gate. I hope the signs can be part of that. I would not complain at all if the letters “SHN” were placed in the blank spaces at the top where “RKO” was once written.
I thought these plaques were still available for anyone who wanted to purchase them! My cousin—who works for Warner Bros., and was a projectionist for UA long ago—has one hanging in his entertainment center area, and a good friend who is a fellow longtime Theatre Historical Society member has one on the door of his basement mini movie palace home theatre.
Vinecent Raney was an architect who really spanned the decades and styles of movie theatre design. The rather typical, but very attractive Court theatre in Livingston is his—late 1930s, and he designed the streamlined Rita in Vallejo for the Syufys, and would later become their architect for the Century domes of the 60s and the multiplexes they would build into the 1990s. Raney was indeed the man behind the Century look, from the architect’s standpoint.
Something needs to be clarified: The photo you see above is a “birds eye” view of an outdoor MODEL of the Fox Pomona! The real Pomona has its tower on the other side, and in the model pictured, the block of the auditorium is much shallower than what is there in the case of the real building. Also, look closely, there are trolly/train tracks running down the street, and all the surrounding buildings are way different than the real downtown Pomona.
I’m guessing here, but I think this photo shows something I remember fondly from my childhood—the outdoor model railroad layout at the Los Angeles County Fair in Pomona! I don’t recall it having the theatre as part of the model then, but I went to the Fair and looked lovingly at that train layout every year from about 1966 to 1972. My folks had a heck of a time tearing me away to go look at other exhibits, unless it was to go look at the INDOOR O-gauge layout that was underneath the grandstand. Can anyone tell me the status of those wonderful model layouts?
To answer NativeForestHiller’s question: As a THSA Board member, I have been there when we have discussed and made decisions regarding this book project. NO theatres have been ommitted from this new printing of the original book. What you are going to see is what was published originally, and in finer quality that the one that came out in the 70s, from what has been clearly told to us. I can’t speak for the 70s reprint, having never seen it. I have seen a number of sample proof pages of this new printing and they are very crisp. Now, at last report, there will be an insert that will identify a few theatres which were on the drawing boards and unnamed/unbuilt at the time the book came out. There will be a new page acknowledging those of us who helped bring this project to fruition.
This is truly an heirloom item to be treasured. Receiving my copy is going to feel like Christmas!
Regarding putting funny comments on the movie below the actual movie title on the marquee: This has also long been an amusing policy at Landmark’s Aquarius, in Palo Alto, CA. sometimes they do it at the little Guild in nearby Menlo Park as well. They used to do it at the now-closed Park, also in Menlo Park. I’ll always remember when “Cold Comfort Farm” played at the Park, and they put “I saw something nasty in the woodshed” on the marquee. When the Guild played the Afghani film “Osama,” they wrote underneath, “No, not THAT one!”
Too bad they couldn’t do what they did to make the Urban Outfitters store in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was housed in the State Theatre, a big Art Deco house down the street from the better-known (and restored) Michigan Theatre. The State’s facade was left completely intact, the lobby was adjusted so you could go into Urban Outfitters on the main floor (some vestiges of the theatre interior were still there, but not a lot), or go up into the former balcony, which still operated as a twin cinema.
Ads appear in the papers for this theatre in 1972 and 1973, and it appears in the City Directory for that time period as well. Whether it operated without advertising during other years, or these indeed were the only years of operation is something not known at this point.
I’ve kept a log of all the theatrical movie viewings I’ve been to since 1982. I just looked it up, and I saw “A Christmas Story” in early 1984 at the Capitola Theatre in Capitola (for many years Santa Cruz County’s double feature bargain house, a wonderfully cozy 1947 theatre), with my mom and a good friend from school. It was paired with a movie called “Romantic Comedy,” which I do not remember at all.
Ken mc: Interesting photo you just posted. I didn’t know there was a “second” marquee on the theatre, that trapezoid being a very typical example of what Fox put on their houses in the late 30s. So that one existed between the original, rather understated rectangular marquee, and the wild neon one from the Skouras remodeling, which is the one I remember vividly from my childhood, which in the late 60s/early 70s, was excellently maintained, and I loved just looking at it and watching the animation of all that neon. I still remember the ways in which some parts moved.
On November 13, 2008, all seven members of the San Francisco Planning Commission unanimously approved an appeal by The Friends of 1800 historical preservation group regarding a developer’s plans to demolish the back portion of the Harding Theater to build condominiums and make substantial modifications to the remainder. The next day, the developer announced his intention to sell the building.
For more info see: http://savetheharding.blogspot.com/
-and-Friends of 1800 site mentioned above.
Indeed this has major hallmarks of S. Charles Lee’s work: The lotus-shaped sculpted elements on the end bays of the facade, the large flutings on the central curved portion, and the horozontal neon bands and more acutely-curved sections between the aforementioned elements—one can find these all on other Lee theatres.
From about 1966, when I first started going to the movies as a very tiny tot, to 1973, when we moved away from Southern California, it was just part of the show to have a movie ad for the Los Angeles Times newspaper. I remember a loud and nasal male voiceover, and the paper landing on a brick doorstep. I just remember the last words were, “…in the Los Angeles Times! On sale now!” The theatres I went to the most during this time were the Bay and the Fox Rossmoor in Seal Beach (both National General houses), and the Crest and Belmont in Long Beach—also NGC houses.
I haven’t been in downtown Sacramento in about 15 years, but when I was there, I walked around to all the locations where theatres had once been, and although the theatre itself was gone, the office tower still appeared just as it is in the photo in the previous post, except that the marquee frame was being used to display signage for the Taco Bell occupying the front of the building.
In Lost Memory’s Nov. 3, 2008 post, the photo shows something quite interesting. The lightbulb sunburst that is swung out from the top of the facade is nearly identical to a similar feature which was mounted on top of T&D’s DeLuxe Theatre in San Jose (1912, with the sunburst added a little later). I just compared a photo of the San Jose example with that in the above post/link. The one in San Jose had no writing in it, whereas the Sacramento one says “T&D’s Photoplays DeLuxe.”
Thanks Joe, for establishing the opening of the 41st Avenue Playhouse for the record. I moved to Santa Cruz County August 30, 1973 (I was ten), and probably went to that theater for the first time in late ‘73 or early '74, to see “Chariots of the Gods?” I remember there was actually an usher in the lobby where the hallway split to the left and right to go to the various screens, and he would ask you which movie you were coming to see, and then direct you to the appropriate auditorium. This was in addition to the usher who tore tickets at the door. I remember the staff wearing black jackets and slacks, white shirts, and black bowties.
As this is one of the most beloved, and most-visited theaters of my late childhood and young adulthood, I will give, for the record, the movies I saw here.
Prior to when I began keeping careful record of movies I’ve seen theatrically (1982), I can’t recall anywhere near all of them, though I do know the first visit was for a double feature, circa 1975, of “That’s Entertainment,” and “Travels with My Aunt.” The latter was the first time I ever saw nudity onscreen (a stripper in a club) albeit a rear view. I also know we saw “The Great Santini,” and “Serial” in about 1980 or ‘81—not necessarily paired. More childhood education: The latter had a humorous orgy scene, this time with frontal nudity.
By no means will I even consider blurring the eyes of fellow Cinematreasures members/readers by listing all movies seen at every theater on this site that I’ve attended (I would never have time), but as the “Cap” was my family’s most-frequented theater, and it got almost all the movies after the local UA houses were done with them, I think a complete list is in order of what I saw, in fond remembrance:
1982
“Raiders of the Lost Ark” with “The Jazz Singer” (yes, with Neil Diamond)
“The French Leutenant’s Woman” with “Atlantic City"
"Absence of Malice” with “Seems Like Old Times"
"First Monday of October” with “Reds"
"Deathtrap” with “Victor/Victoria"
"Modern Problems” with “Tron"
1983
"Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid” with “Tex"
"Trail of the Pink Panther” with “Time Bandits"
"Missing” with “Evil Under the Sun"
"Max Dugan Returns” with “The Black Stallion Returns"
"The Verdict” with “Without A Trace"
"King of Comedy” with “Max Dugan Returns” (again!)
“The Survivors” with “Tootsie"
"Local Hero” with “Chariots of Fire"
1984
"The Grey Fox” with “Mr. Mom"
"A Christmas Story” with “Romantic Comedy"
"Cross Creek” (We didn’t stay for the second feature. I do know that it was something we were afraid might offend the sensibilities of guests we were entertaining from then-Communist China as part of an exchange program with UC Santa Cruz!)
“Yentl” with “Best Friends"
"Silkwood” (Not sure why I—alone this time—didn’t stay for the second feature)
“Tender Mercies” with “Racing With the Moon"
"The Natural” with “Unfaithfully Yours"
"Broadway Danny Rose” with “The Dresser"
"The Karate Kid” with “Hanky Panky"
1985
"Protocol” (Didn’t stay for second feature—perhaps I or my then-girlfriend weren’t interested)
“Falling in Love” with “King David"
"A Passage to India” (Didn’t see second feature)
“Vertigo” with “The River"
"The Man Who Knew Too Much” with “The Trouble With Harry"
"The Return of the Soldier” (Didn’t see second feature)
“Amadeus” (Didn’t see second feature)
1986
“Clue” with “Young Sherlock Holmes"
"The Trip to Bountiful” with “White Nights"
At this point I was now living fulltime outside Santa Cruz County, so my visits became fewer*****
1987
"Soul Man” with “Jumpin’ Jack Flash"
"Crocodile Dundee”(Didn’t see second feature)
1988
“Baby Boom” (Didn’t see second feature)
1989
“Crossing Delancey” with “Clara’s Heart"
"Pink Cadillac” with “Scens From the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills"
1990
—didn’t go at all—
1991
"Quigley Down Under” with “On the Air"
1992
"For the Boys” with “Barton Fink"
AND THAT WAS IT.
The Capitola closed within a couple of years.
The first thing that comes to mind about this theater is that over the years, the staff was always very friendly, sometimes even holding the door open for departing patrons and wishing them “Good night!”
This theater opened as the Scotts Valley Cinema around 1977. It began as a twin cinema—Scotts Valley’s first and as yet only movie venue as far as I know. Located at the back of what was then the Kings Village Shopping Center, it was advertised by a tall sign pylon trimmed in redwood, with two backlit plastic two-sided reader boards topped by a plastic illuminated sign reading simply, “CINEMA.” The reader boards had the numbers 1 and 2 permanently affixed. Below them was another reader board which was used to advertise special shopping center events. Later, when additional screens were added to the cinema, this reader board was pressed into service to advertise movies, and all reader boards were divided up into smaller segments to include advertising for what would ultimately be six screens. The decor was originally very minimal, as was so typical of the bleak 1970s trend in cinema design. The lobby was about as nondescript as they come, with plain sheetrock walls. Both auditoriums had mustard fabric on the walls, but they did have operating curtains, and the exits on either side were trimmed in matching fabric which draped simply but attractively on either side. By the 1990s, when additional screens were added, the color schemes of all auditoriums were done in various colorful fabrics, though the curtains around and infront of the two orginal auditoriums' screens were left in their original mustard fabric. The lobby was given a more colorful and festive feel.
I first attended movies here soon after its opening, as my best friend lived in Scotts Valley during our Junior High through Junior College years. I remember seeing “Battlestar Galactica” in Sensurround during those years, as well as “Heaven Can Wait,” and “House Calls."
Since 1982, I have kept a record book of all theatrical screenings of movies I’ve seen, and those I’ve seen from that point on at the Scotts Valley are as follows:
1982
"Cinderella"
1983
"Peter Pan” with “The Last Unicorn"
"Flashdance” with “48 Hours"
1984
"Greystoke—The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes” with “The Bounty"
"The Neverending Story” with “Jungle Book"
1986
"Wildcats” with “Best of Times"
1991
"Father of the Bride"
1993
"The Joy Luck Club"
1995
"Now and Then”
The 41st Avenue Cinemas, which opened as the 41st Avenue Playhouse (always a multiscreen movie theater, never actually a “playhouse”) was operating at least as early as 1973. My first visit was in 1973 or 1974, to see “Chariots of the Gods.” Several years later, the theater would screen “Star Wars,” for a very long engagement. Subsequent movies in the first Star Wars trilogy would show at the larger Rio Theatre in Santa Cruz. Both houses were United Artists operations during those years.
The 41st Avenue sits in a corner of a shopping center. A pole-mounted, two-sided reader board announces the theater’s presence to passing traffic. Its cement block faux adobe brick facade with cedar shingle awning matches the architecture of most of the rest of the shopping center. The entrance indents back from the facade like a classic movie theater ticket lobby. The interior was originally painted in the earth tones so popular at the time of its opening, with mustard-colored fabric on the auditorium walls. There were curtains, which always opened and closed for the show in the days before onscreen advertising.
The 41st Avenue went independent after United Artists' departure from Santa Cruz County in the 1990s.
I commend the Fox project for making what I believe is the wise design choice of keeping the present marquee and restoring it, rather than going back to the original, which was rather flimsy-looking in my opinion. The present one is more substantial, graceful, and has—practically speaking—more efficient reader board space!
The Theatre Historical Society of America toured the Fox Pomona in 2005. It was a real mess then, but we could all see the potential. It’s so nice to see it realized.
I finally saw the completed replicated Royal facade last night. It was a little early in the evening, and the lighting behind the stained glass was not on. A copy of what may have been the original marquee is now attached. There is at least one difference, and that is that it is held up by steel pillars. The marquee has geometric patterns where reader boards would be, backed by what appears to be translucent white glass or plastic. The design copies a marquee which was rendered in a color pastel presentation drawing produced by the offices of Miller and Pflueger. I saw this pastel during an auction preview of the John Pflueger collection at Butterfild and Butterfield in 1990. The marquee had two large metal and cathedral glass laterns at the corners. Not long after, I mentioned having seen the rendering to theatre historian Steve Levin, and he had seen the same illustration years before, and commented that he had never actually seen a photo of that first marquee design, and was unsure whether it had even actually been executed like that. A photo does exist of a rectangular marquee with geometric neon and traditional reader boards, which for a time coexisted with the tall Royal vertical sign added later. The wedge-shaped marquee familiar to all of us over the last several decades was added still later. Regardless of whether the present marquee duplicates something once there, or whether it was inspired by the pastel rendering from the Pflueger office, the result is quite impressive. The steel pillars may seem a jarring note to purists, perhaps, but maybe they were required by modern building codes. The lanterns employ the same vivid orange and gold-veined cathedral glass that was installed in the false window on the facade.
Vincent Rainey, architect of the Court, went on to design many theatres for the Syufy family. His signature designs, the Century domes in San Jose, are still in operation. Other domes were designed by him and built elsewhere, and he kept designing well into the multiplex era, indeed into the 1990s.
To answer Simon’s question:
There were curtains, but I do not remember seeing them operate during the 1990s or after, when I went there. As for the roof sign, yes, there is one. It is double-sided, and consists of metal channel letters virtually identical to those on the more famous rooftop sign of the nearby Grand Lake Theatre. The Parkway’s letters were originally all lightbulb, but at some point were redone with single-tube green neon. It has been a habit for me to look over toward the Parkway from the 880 freeway at night to see the lit rooftop sign. I did so a week ago and it was still completely lit, despite all the rain we’ve recently had. In fact, it was my seeing that sign from the freeway in the 1990s which first alerted me to the fact that the Parkway had reopened. I began attending occasionally with Oakland friends. My last time in there was last Summer, when leading the Theatre Historical Society Conclave tour. As Egyptian architecture is a specialty of mine, I was able to speak to the detailing of the proscenium as well as the general history of the theatre.
The original CALIFORNIA metal and milk glass marquee sign from 1923 has been brought up from the Fox’s understage basement and is now on display high on the wall of the restaurant which occupies the former outer lobby area. There are also framed historic photos below it on the same wall.
While ordering tickets online the other day to the upcoming “Monty Python’s Spamalot” at the Golden Gate, I noticed that SHN has a dusk view of the Golden Gate on their site, and it looks like the letters on the Golden Gate vertical signs are lit. This may be just a photoshop job. Can anyone enlighten me as to whether neon has indeed (rightfully) returned to the letters on the Golden Gate’s verticals? I will likely not be by the theatre until we see that show in May, and I’m itching to know if it was just a bit of photoshop wizardry fulfilling my wishful thinking, or if indeed this refurbishment has very recently been done. I do know that plans are underway to refurbish the whole office block portion of the Golden Gate. I hope the signs can be part of that. I would not complain at all if the letters “SHN” were placed in the blank spaces at the top where “RKO” was once written.
I thought these plaques were still available for anyone who wanted to purchase them! My cousin—who works for Warner Bros., and was a projectionist for UA long ago—has one hanging in his entertainment center area, and a good friend who is a fellow longtime Theatre Historical Society member has one on the door of his basement mini movie palace home theatre.
Vinecent Raney was an architect who really spanned the decades and styles of movie theatre design. The rather typical, but very attractive Court theatre in Livingston is his—late 1930s, and he designed the streamlined Rita in Vallejo for the Syufys, and would later become their architect for the Century domes of the 60s and the multiplexes they would build into the 1990s. Raney was indeed the man behind the Century look, from the architect’s standpoint.
Something needs to be clarified: The photo you see above is a “birds eye” view of an outdoor MODEL of the Fox Pomona! The real Pomona has its tower on the other side, and in the model pictured, the block of the auditorium is much shallower than what is there in the case of the real building. Also, look closely, there are trolly/train tracks running down the street, and all the surrounding buildings are way different than the real downtown Pomona.
I’m guessing here, but I think this photo shows something I remember fondly from my childhood—the outdoor model railroad layout at the Los Angeles County Fair in Pomona! I don’t recall it having the theatre as part of the model then, but I went to the Fair and looked lovingly at that train layout every year from about 1966 to 1972. My folks had a heck of a time tearing me away to go look at other exhibits, unless it was to go look at the INDOOR O-gauge layout that was underneath the grandstand. Can anyone tell me the status of those wonderful model layouts?
To answer NativeForestHiller’s question: As a THSA Board member, I have been there when we have discussed and made decisions regarding this book project. NO theatres have been ommitted from this new printing of the original book. What you are going to see is what was published originally, and in finer quality that the one that came out in the 70s, from what has been clearly told to us. I can’t speak for the 70s reprint, having never seen it. I have seen a number of sample proof pages of this new printing and they are very crisp. Now, at last report, there will be an insert that will identify a few theatres which were on the drawing boards and unnamed/unbuilt at the time the book came out. There will be a new page acknowledging those of us who helped bring this project to fruition.
This is truly an heirloom item to be treasured. Receiving my copy is going to feel like Christmas!
Regarding putting funny comments on the movie below the actual movie title on the marquee: This has also long been an amusing policy at Landmark’s Aquarius, in Palo Alto, CA. sometimes they do it at the little Guild in nearby Menlo Park as well. They used to do it at the now-closed Park, also in Menlo Park. I’ll always remember when “Cold Comfort Farm” played at the Park, and they put “I saw something nasty in the woodshed” on the marquee. When the Guild played the Afghani film “Osama,” they wrote underneath, “No, not THAT one!”
Too bad they couldn’t do what they did to make the Urban Outfitters store in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was housed in the State Theatre, a big Art Deco house down the street from the better-known (and restored) Michigan Theatre. The State’s facade was left completely intact, the lobby was adjusted so you could go into Urban Outfitters on the main floor (some vestiges of the theatre interior were still there, but not a lot), or go up into the former balcony, which still operated as a twin cinema.
Ads appear in the papers for this theatre in 1972 and 1973, and it appears in the City Directory for that time period as well. Whether it operated without advertising during other years, or these indeed were the only years of operation is something not known at this point.
I’ve kept a log of all the theatrical movie viewings I’ve been to since 1982. I just looked it up, and I saw “A Christmas Story” in early 1984 at the Capitola Theatre in Capitola (for many years Santa Cruz County’s double feature bargain house, a wonderfully cozy 1947 theatre), with my mom and a good friend from school. It was paired with a movie called “Romantic Comedy,” which I do not remember at all.
Ken mc: Interesting photo you just posted. I didn’t know there was a “second” marquee on the theatre, that trapezoid being a very typical example of what Fox put on their houses in the late 30s. So that one existed between the original, rather understated rectangular marquee, and the wild neon one from the Skouras remodeling, which is the one I remember vividly from my childhood, which in the late 60s/early 70s, was excellently maintained, and I loved just looking at it and watching the animation of all that neon. I still remember the ways in which some parts moved.
On November 13, 2008, all seven members of the San Francisco Planning Commission unanimously approved an appeal by The Friends of 1800 historical preservation group regarding a developer’s plans to demolish the back portion of the Harding Theater to build condominiums and make substantial modifications to the remainder. The next day, the developer announced his intention to sell the building.
For more info see: http://savetheharding.blogspot.com/
-and-Friends of 1800 site mentioned above.
Indeed this has major hallmarks of S. Charles Lee’s work: The lotus-shaped sculpted elements on the end bays of the facade, the large flutings on the central curved portion, and the horozontal neon bands and more acutely-curved sections between the aforementioned elements—one can find these all on other Lee theatres.
It could be worse. At least they are keeping the drive-in as a theater.
From about 1966, when I first started going to the movies as a very tiny tot, to 1973, when we moved away from Southern California, it was just part of the show to have a movie ad for the Los Angeles Times newspaper. I remember a loud and nasal male voiceover, and the paper landing on a brick doorstep. I just remember the last words were, “…in the Los Angeles Times! On sale now!” The theatres I went to the most during this time were the Bay and the Fox Rossmoor in Seal Beach (both National General houses), and the Crest and Belmont in Long Beach—also NGC houses.
I haven’t been in downtown Sacramento in about 15 years, but when I was there, I walked around to all the locations where theatres had once been, and although the theatre itself was gone, the office tower still appeared just as it is in the photo in the previous post, except that the marquee frame was being used to display signage for the Taco Bell occupying the front of the building.
In Lost Memory’s Nov. 3, 2008 post, the photo shows something quite interesting. The lightbulb sunburst that is swung out from the top of the facade is nearly identical to a similar feature which was mounted on top of T&D’s DeLuxe Theatre in San Jose (1912, with the sunburst added a little later). I just compared a photo of the San Jose example with that in the above post/link. The one in San Jose had no writing in it, whereas the Sacramento one says “T&D’s Photoplays DeLuxe.”