It’s a fine example of what architect G. Albert Lansburgh could do on a smalltown budget in 1923*. After all these years, there is much here to delight the eyes of the vintage movie theater enthusiast, and if its past operational policies and present atmosphere at the nearby Green Valley Cinema are any indication, there will be a friendly, community-oriented feel to the place. Though I no longer live in the area, we’ll try to get down there for a show before too long.
A big round of applause to the Garcias and Andrades for bringing back the Fox!
*Other Bay Area theaters by Lansburgh are:
WARFIELD, San Francisco
GOLDEN GATE, San Francisco
EL CAPITAN, San Francisco
WAR MEMORIAL OPERA HOUSE (with Arthur Brown), San Francisco
Visible in the photo at the top is a semicircular decorative lighting feature over the proscenium which seems to be identical to that still surviving in the Senator Theatre, Baltimore, also by Zink. Slits around the edge of this feature emit light in spectrum-like rays out across the ceiling—a simple but dramatic effect.
I’ve submitted one update to a theater which was in the 1987 Edition and has since been spectacularly restored, plus one theater with which I’ve long been associated which was not in the 1987 Edition.
It’s easy to contribute—join the fun!
Gary Parks, Western Regional Director, Theatre Historical Society of America
The Theatre Historical Society of America toured this theater on our 1990 Conclave (my first). It was still a firstrun theater then. The downstairs theaters were painted in neutral tones, but the ornament was all there. The upstairs consisted of the intact balcony, with a floor going out to a wide screen standing in front of the upper half of the proscenium and organ fronts. The ceiling dome still had its original gilded finishes, and in the center was a wonderful stained glass chandelier. The lobby is oval shaped, with a mezzanine running all around it, and pillars.
Looking at the Granada Theatre as it appears today, and comparing it with the historic photo of the Moorish facade, I would say, based on proportion, window location, and height of the building to the left that these are one and the same theater.
In Lost Memory’s post which links to the Lost Treasures site page of the California Theatre, now a bank—that is most definitely the California that got the Skouras treatment, as it appears in Preston Kaufman’s Skouras annual from Theatre Historical Society, and the facade and sidewall configuration of the theater are the same, although the Skouras treatment removed most, though not all, of the facade’s basic neo-classic facade elements, and then added a neon marquee which bears some resemblance to that still extant on the California Theatre in Berkeley.
Lost Memory:
Thanks so much for your posts. Other than my one visit to the site and one photo, I knew nothing about the place. On the Century 21 site, it shows that the building looks better now than it did then, plus I had never seen any historic photos. How nice to know that the interior decorative painting is intact. I saw none of that when I went partway into the building. It sounds like the building has been much more mindfully taken care of in recent years.
The Vogue building has been completely renovated by the church. One can still tell by its general mass and proportions that it was a theater, but all original detail, save for some tall, slender arched gooves on the exterior of the projection room, has been obliterated with very typical cast neoclassical moldings and stucco. The marquee, sign tower, box office, and terrazzo are all gone. Many windows have been cut into the auditorium sidewalls.
From my one visit to Portland, I can attest to the myriad neighborhood theaters there. My wife lived there while in college, and we visited the area last year. I had an agenda to photograph and attend several of the best-known theaters, and we did so, but then we kept stumbling upon others. When we got home, I found there were STILL a number we’d missed! Portland really stands out in this department. Long may it do so.
Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, there is a car dealer which has been doing the same type of thing—manicures, pedicures, coffee shop, lounge, TV…but no theater…yet. Their commmercials feature banter between the dealership owner and the Bay Area’s #1 talkshow host—a customer of theirs—kidding around while talking about the cars and the facility.
With regard to Larry Goldsmith’s assertion above that there has only been one theater on Broadway (the Sequoia/Fox), he may be right and I may have to stand corrected. I won’t belabor the point based merely on the look of a structural concrete sidewall with a blocked-off door or two that appear in about the right place for former exit doors, and a section in back which has always looked to me like a non-fly stage house. It could just be a coincidence. Such things happen. Many years ago a friend swore up and down that he’d found a former theater in San Jose on the Southern fringe of Downtown, based on its concrete structure and the presence of four admittedly very theatrical-looking ornamental masks and other details on the facade. I investigated. It was never a theater, just a nice old industrial building
Looking at the details of the Redwood Theatre’s exterior in that photo from the San Mateo Library’s collection, I do see details that are hallmarks of S. Charles Lee’s style, or at least of the contractors he used. The angular sunburst of neon atop the marquee, with its almost Navajo neon tube patterning and the horizontal ribs applied to the far ends of the marquee reader boards. The cursive script of the neon on the tower appears in other Lee theaters, and the contrasting horizontal striping on the lower walls does as well. Of course, these are all motifs found on theaters of the day all over and by numerous architects, but their combination in a single theater just “feels” like a Lee.
This theater has a real hometown feel—unusual for a multiplex. When I have seen movies here, I’ve noticed that the staff, which encompasses a spectrum of age groups, is very friendly and courteous. Also, there are bullitin boards and displays in the lobby promoting local community groups, functions, and events. It’s really nice to see how the Garcias and Andrades utilize their roles as local movie exhibitors to support the community.
The theater destroyed by fire mentioned in the previous post would be the Golden Bough Theatre (not to be confused with a later theater of that same name built after WWII and run by UA in its later years and now used for live presentations). The “old” Golden Bough was entered through a courtyard, called The Court of the Golden Bough, which still remains. At least one wall of the old auditorium can still be seen further back on the property if one looks carefully. Later buildings were built up against and around it.
I just discovered and photographed this theater last weekend on a little tour of exploring some of the tiny towns North of Visalia. It still looks exactly like what the previous poster describes, though I have insufficient knowledge to confirm the crack house part. Someone attached over-the-counter rope lighting to the metal “COVE” letters on the marquee to outline them. It’s a far cry from neon, but at least someone’s heart was in the right place.
First, to answer the above poster: I, for one, have never seen any interior photos of the theater—vintage or otherwise. How I wish I’d taken photos when inside on the night my friend took the abovementioned neon photo of the exterior!
We visited the site once more last weekend on the way to our usual yearly family event in Visalia. Absolutely nothing has been done to the theater itself since my last visit/posting, save for the installation of a tidy wooden fence across the entrance/ticket lobby, complete with decorative lattice along the top, and a locked door. Reconstruction of the storefront to the left of the theater entrance was undertaken this year, and is almost complete. Like the storefront to the right of the theater which was rebuilt a couple of years ago, it is not an exact replica of what was originally there, but harmonizes fine with the streetscape. At some point, the reconstruction of the theater facade will necessitate removing portions of these new storefronts. The streamlined walls bearing the poster cases which face the street have been carefully retained and built around. It almost looks a little surreal.
This is indeed baffling. In addition, there is a sturdy-looking concrete structure on Broadway across the street and down almost two blocks from the Fox, which was certainly a theater once upon a time. It was not listed in ‘51 in the FDYB. There is a little plaza on the corner next to it, and from here one can clearly view the theater structure. It was a nightclub in the 80s, and hasn’t seen much use since.
It would be interesting to know if the Goya name is a tribute to Francesco Goya, the famed Spanish painter and printmaker. He’s best known for his paintings “The Massacre of the Innocents,” and the nightmarish “Saturn Devouring His Children,” a painting which I first saw in an art book when about 7. It so frightened me that I memorized what was on the pages immediately before and after, so I would not accidently turn to the image. Goya’s series of etchings, “The Caprices” are also famous. Some are as, or nearly, disturbing as “Saturn.” Any information as to whether the theatre/cinema was named after this artist would be appreciated.
Being a 1930s theater, constructed well after it became clear that talkies were here to stay, the Esquire would not have had an organ. A few theaters were equipped with organs after the advent of talkies in the US, such as at Radio City Music Hall, the RKO Roxy (Center) in New York, the Paramount in Oakland, and the United Artists in Berkeley (the latter a move-over from an older theater), but these are exceptions. In Great Britain, organs continued to be put in theaters for a while longer, but clearly for the music being part of the show package, not as possible film accompanimant.
Major structural work is in progress on the stupa dome at the top of the theater. Restoration work to the terra cotta facade over the marquee is nearing completion and shines like new.
I first attended the Rio in 1975, for a revival of “2001: A Space Odyssey,” paired with the European animated science fiction fantasy, “Fantastic Planet.” At this time the Rio’s auditorium was draped in crimson soundfold, and this is the look I knew during all the years I went to shows there. However, a longtime resident of the Santa Cruz area said that before the soundfold was applied to the walls, there were murals depicting women being attended by nymphs or putti or somesuch. I’m wondering if anyone will ever confirm the existence of these murals. I remember the tiered lotus wall fixtures with lighting in red and blue that I mentioned in an earlier post, and there was originally a blue-lit neon clock to the right of the screen. Also, during my earliest visits there, overstuffed couches still remained in the lobby, and there was at least one framed painting on the wall, which was clearly of 1940s vintage, depicting a vase and a bowl of fruit. Also, there was a mirror mounted in the front of the concession stand, which had a silkscreened image of a smiling woman, advertising a soft drink, probably Coca-Cola. The mirror was suffering from some oxydation of the silver and paint on its back.
The marquee had two subsequent color schemes after the 1970s colorful one so recently recreated:
—A late 70s or early 80s one which was light cocoa brown with white and dark blue accents (this is how it looked when I first photographed and attended movies there in 1984.
—A 1990s (?) very bland light tan, beige and white color scheme, recently consigned to blessed oblivion by the current colors.
It’s a fine example of what architect G. Albert Lansburgh could do on a smalltown budget in 1923*. After all these years, there is much here to delight the eyes of the vintage movie theater enthusiast, and if its past operational policies and present atmosphere at the nearby Green Valley Cinema are any indication, there will be a friendly, community-oriented feel to the place. Though I no longer live in the area, we’ll try to get down there for a show before too long.
A big round of applause to the Garcias and Andrades for bringing back the Fox!
*Other Bay Area theaters by Lansburgh are:
WARFIELD, San Francisco
GOLDEN GATE, San Francisco
EL CAPITAN, San Francisco
WAR MEMORIAL OPERA HOUSE (with Arthur Brown), San Francisco
Visible in the photo at the top is a semicircular decorative lighting feature over the proscenium which seems to be identical to that still surviving in the Senator Theatre, Baltimore, also by Zink. Slits around the edge of this feature emit light in spectrum-like rays out across the ceiling—a simple but dramatic effect.
I’ve submitted one update to a theater which was in the 1987 Edition and has since been spectacularly restored, plus one theater with which I’ve long been associated which was not in the 1987 Edition.
It’s easy to contribute—join the fun!
Gary Parks, Western Regional Director, Theatre Historical Society of America
The Theatre Historical Society of America toured this theater on our 1990 Conclave (my first). It was still a firstrun theater then. The downstairs theaters were painted in neutral tones, but the ornament was all there. The upstairs consisted of the intact balcony, with a floor going out to a wide screen standing in front of the upper half of the proscenium and organ fronts. The ceiling dome still had its original gilded finishes, and in the center was a wonderful stained glass chandelier. The lobby is oval shaped, with a mezzanine running all around it, and pillars.
Looking at the Granada Theatre as it appears today, and comparing it with the historic photo of the Moorish facade, I would say, based on proportion, window location, and height of the building to the left that these are one and the same theater.
In Lost Memory’s post which links to the Lost Treasures site page of the California Theatre, now a bank—that is most definitely the California that got the Skouras treatment, as it appears in Preston Kaufman’s Skouras annual from Theatre Historical Society, and the facade and sidewall configuration of the theater are the same, although the Skouras treatment removed most, though not all, of the facade’s basic neo-classic facade elements, and then added a neon marquee which bears some resemblance to that still extant on the California Theatre in Berkeley.
Lost Memory:
Thanks so much for your posts. Other than my one visit to the site and one photo, I knew nothing about the place. On the Century 21 site, it shows that the building looks better now than it did then, plus I had never seen any historic photos. How nice to know that the interior decorative painting is intact. I saw none of that when I went partway into the building. It sounds like the building has been much more mindfully taken care of in recent years.
The Vogue building has been completely renovated by the church. One can still tell by its general mass and proportions that it was a theater, but all original detail, save for some tall, slender arched gooves on the exterior of the projection room, has been obliterated with very typical cast neoclassical moldings and stucco. The marquee, sign tower, box office, and terrazzo are all gone. Many windows have been cut into the auditorium sidewalls.
From my one visit to Portland, I can attest to the myriad neighborhood theaters there. My wife lived there while in college, and we visited the area last year. I had an agenda to photograph and attend several of the best-known theaters, and we did so, but then we kept stumbling upon others. When we got home, I found there were STILL a number we’d missed! Portland really stands out in this department. Long may it do so.
Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, there is a car dealer which has been doing the same type of thing—manicures, pedicures, coffee shop, lounge, TV…but no theater…yet. Their commmercials feature banter between the dealership owner and the Bay Area’s #1 talkshow host—a customer of theirs—kidding around while talking about the cars and the facility.
Thanks, Scott, for helping establish an approximate time of last operation.
With regard to Larry Goldsmith’s assertion above that there has only been one theater on Broadway (the Sequoia/Fox), he may be right and I may have to stand corrected. I won’t belabor the point based merely on the look of a structural concrete sidewall with a blocked-off door or two that appear in about the right place for former exit doors, and a section in back which has always looked to me like a non-fly stage house. It could just be a coincidence. Such things happen. Many years ago a friend swore up and down that he’d found a former theater in San Jose on the Southern fringe of Downtown, based on its concrete structure and the presence of four admittedly very theatrical-looking ornamental masks and other details on the facade. I investigated. It was never a theater, just a nice old industrial building
Looking at the details of the Redwood Theatre’s exterior in that photo from the San Mateo Library’s collection, I do see details that are hallmarks of S. Charles Lee’s style, or at least of the contractors he used. The angular sunburst of neon atop the marquee, with its almost Navajo neon tube patterning and the horizontal ribs applied to the far ends of the marquee reader boards. The cursive script of the neon on the tower appears in other Lee theaters, and the contrasting horizontal striping on the lower walls does as well. Of course, these are all motifs found on theaters of the day all over and by numerous architects, but their combination in a single theater just “feels” like a Lee.
This theater has a real hometown feel—unusual for a multiplex. When I have seen movies here, I’ve noticed that the staff, which encompasses a spectrum of age groups, is very friendly and courteous. Also, there are bullitin boards and displays in the lobby promoting local community groups, functions, and events. It’s really nice to see how the Garcias and Andrades utilize their roles as local movie exhibitors to support the community.
Santa Cruz’s Encina/Skyview Drive-In is now demolished. There are no more drive-ins in Santa Cruz County.
The theater destroyed by fire mentioned in the previous post would be the Golden Bough Theatre (not to be confused with a later theater of that same name built after WWII and run by UA in its later years and now used for live presentations). The “old” Golden Bough was entered through a courtyard, called The Court of the Golden Bough, which still remains. At least one wall of the old auditorium can still be seen further back on the property if one looks carefully. Later buildings were built up against and around it.
I just discovered and photographed this theater last weekend on a little tour of exploring some of the tiny towns North of Visalia. It still looks exactly like what the previous poster describes, though I have insufficient knowledge to confirm the crack house part. Someone attached over-the-counter rope lighting to the metal “COVE” letters on the marquee to outline them. It’s a far cry from neon, but at least someone’s heart was in the right place.
First, to answer the above poster: I, for one, have never seen any interior photos of the theater—vintage or otherwise. How I wish I’d taken photos when inside on the night my friend took the abovementioned neon photo of the exterior!
We visited the site once more last weekend on the way to our usual yearly family event in Visalia. Absolutely nothing has been done to the theater itself since my last visit/posting, save for the installation of a tidy wooden fence across the entrance/ticket lobby, complete with decorative lattice along the top, and a locked door. Reconstruction of the storefront to the left of the theater entrance was undertaken this year, and is almost complete. Like the storefront to the right of the theater which was rebuilt a couple of years ago, it is not an exact replica of what was originally there, but harmonizes fine with the streetscape. At some point, the reconstruction of the theater facade will necessitate removing portions of these new storefronts. The streamlined walls bearing the poster cases which face the street have been carefully retained and built around. It almost looks a little surreal.
This is indeed baffling. In addition, there is a sturdy-looking concrete structure on Broadway across the street and down almost two blocks from the Fox, which was certainly a theater once upon a time. It was not listed in ‘51 in the FDYB. There is a little plaza on the corner next to it, and from here one can clearly view the theater structure. It was a nightclub in the 80s, and hasn’t seen much use since.
This is one of only two classic theaters in Santa Cruz County still showing movies fulltime. Welcome back, Watsonville Fox!
I recently read that the Lyric was torn down in 1959.
It would be interesting to know if the Goya name is a tribute to Francesco Goya, the famed Spanish painter and printmaker. He’s best known for his paintings “The Massacre of the Innocents,” and the nightmarish “Saturn Devouring His Children,” a painting which I first saw in an art book when about 7. It so frightened me that I memorized what was on the pages immediately before and after, so I would not accidently turn to the image. Goya’s series of etchings, “The Caprices” are also famous. Some are as, or nearly, disturbing as “Saturn.” Any information as to whether the theatre/cinema was named after this artist would be appreciated.
Being a 1930s theater, constructed well after it became clear that talkies were here to stay, the Esquire would not have had an organ. A few theaters were equipped with organs after the advent of talkies in the US, such as at Radio City Music Hall, the RKO Roxy (Center) in New York, the Paramount in Oakland, and the United Artists in Berkeley (the latter a move-over from an older theater), but these are exceptions. In Great Britain, organs continued to be put in theaters for a while longer, but clearly for the music being part of the show package, not as possible film accompanimant.
Major structural work is in progress on the stupa dome at the top of the theater. Restoration work to the terra cotta facade over the marquee is nearing completion and shines like new.
I first attended the Rio in 1975, for a revival of “2001: A Space Odyssey,” paired with the European animated science fiction fantasy, “Fantastic Planet.” At this time the Rio’s auditorium was draped in crimson soundfold, and this is the look I knew during all the years I went to shows there. However, a longtime resident of the Santa Cruz area said that before the soundfold was applied to the walls, there were murals depicting women being attended by nymphs or putti or somesuch. I’m wondering if anyone will ever confirm the existence of these murals. I remember the tiered lotus wall fixtures with lighting in red and blue that I mentioned in an earlier post, and there was originally a blue-lit neon clock to the right of the screen. Also, during my earliest visits there, overstuffed couches still remained in the lobby, and there was at least one framed painting on the wall, which was clearly of 1940s vintage, depicting a vase and a bowl of fruit. Also, there was a mirror mounted in the front of the concession stand, which had a silkscreened image of a smiling woman, advertising a soft drink, probably Coca-Cola. The mirror was suffering from some oxydation of the silver and paint on its back.
The marquee had two subsequent color schemes after the 1970s colorful one so recently recreated:
—A late 70s or early 80s one which was light cocoa brown with white and dark blue accents (this is how it looked when I first photographed and attended movies there in 1984.
—A 1990s (?) very bland light tan, beige and white color scheme, recently consigned to blessed oblivion by the current colors.