The building which housed the Hyde still stands, and actually predates the theater, which was carved out of one of its storefronts (and likely a good deal of additional space). The commercial building itself has a brick and terra cotta English look to it with a slate gabled roof. When the Hyde was put into it, the portion of the facade over the theater entrance was given a Moderne fascia and a trapezoidal neon marquee. When the Hyde was gutted for office and retail, the Moderne fascia was replaced by a wood fascia of milled Victorian Revival shingles and moldings. I have heard that a few features, such as decorative painted surfaces, from the Hyde still survive inside the building. Around the rear are still to be seen a pair of auditorium exit doors.
I remember when my cousin, who is now 14, was considered old enough (about 5) by his parents to go to a movie, I had planned to take him to see the re-release of “Star Wars,” at Oakland’s Grand Lake, so even though he would clearly be growing up in an era of megaplexes and home entertainment, he could look back and remember seeing his very first movie in a grand old theater. His parents, my older cousin and her husband, forgot that this was my plan, and took him to see it at the Galaxy. He later made the very logical (for a 5-year-old) observation that it made sense to see the movie at the Galaxy, since the movie itself took place “…in a galaxy far, far away.”
A few weeks later, it was plain to them that one viewing of this movie was not going to satisfy him, so for his second time seeing it, we made it a family trip and all went to the Grand Lake, where he was indeed taken with the look of the place.
I was in Dixon in the early 1990s and found the theatre. Its front by this time was very plain, looking much like adjacent simple retail fronts. I do have a photo I took of it in one of my albums. There was a simple ticket lobby indented from the street, as I recall. There was no marquee, just a simple light box sign reading “Dixon Theatre,” in serif letters. This may be the same sign now advertising Calvary Chapel on their web page. It looks like it. There was no marquee, and I don’t even remember poster cases or a reader board. It seemed to be used for something other than a theatre at the time, or perhaps was simply closed.
Glad to hear the statue has been found. Maybe a replica could be made of a durable synthetic material, and the original put in a museum for safekeeping.
This business of destroying metal sculptures and melting them down to make much more banal things in the name of quick profit has a parallel in ancient Rome. Rome was swarming with bronze statuary in Imperial times. Nearly all of it was melted down after the breakup of the Empire. There exists one notable survivor, a statue of Marcus Aurelius riding a horse. It was spared because it was mistaken to be a statue of Constantine, the first Christian emperor. Later, in safer, more historically enlightened times, its true identity was confirmed, and so it survives.
It’s such a shame that we are losing things like this due to meth addicts. I have a degree of compassion for addicts, but absolutely none for those who manufacture. I won’t comment further on the depths our culture has sunk due to the dispicable drug trade. I’d be here all night.
My first memory of the Fox Westwood Village was in about 1972, when my dad, mom, paternal grandmother and I attended a daytime screening of Hanna-Barbera’s cartoon version of the famed children’s classic story “Charlotte’s Web.” My dad worked for Hanna-Barbera as an animator and this was a special showing prior to the premiere, especially for family and friends of all those who had worked on the film. My main architectural memory of the interior at that time was looking up at the auditorium ceiling, with its star-shaped cove, which, during the Skouras redecorating, was repainted in such a way (intentionally or not) that it looked very obviously like a gigantic Star of David. I wondered at the time why this was. It still looks like this, though the later insertion of many cylindrical downlights have blurred one’s enjoyment of the ceiling.
The next time I was in there was with my cousin in 1989 to see “Old Gringo.” Then I was in there in 1998 and 2005 on tour with the Theatre Historical Society. On these two latest visits, it was plain that much nice upgrading to the look of the theatre’s interior had taken place, all with adiquate respect to the historical decorative features, regardless of whether they were original or Skouras.
During a recent tour of the under-construction Alameda I was given a couple of weeks ago, I was told that the colors of paint now on the vertical sign and marquee are replicated after the originals, which were found by scraping. They are consistent with the colors of signage popular at the time—definitely Jazz Age— orange and black being often combined with greens, blues, aquas, and turquoises for a very dramatic effect.
Also, the great amount of red neon on the signage is constistent with other theatres designed by Pflueger. In the late 1980s, I remember the marquee of the Pflueger-remodeled New Mission in San Francisco. Its marquee is very similar in design to that of the Alameda, albeit not as wide, being on a narrower facade. It was in near perfect operation at the time, and all the tubing, including the lettering, was red. I don’t know about the New Mission’s vertical sign tower as I never saw that in operation. A friend who grew up going to Pflueger’s El Rey in San Francisco (now a church, and the neon’s gone) tells me that the marquee and signage of that theatre had a similarly red-dominant neon color scheme.
Saw it at the Rio in Santa Cruz, CA, though not on opening week. I was in 9th grade at the time. Still reeling from Star Wars, my friends and I were suitably impressed by Close Encounters, though we still maintained our Star Wars enthusiasm.
The Rio (1949) is still intact and operating, though now mainly a live venue, with films from time-to-time.
I took a single slide photo of the State in 1981. It was closed, but looked in reasonable shape. The vertical sign was indeed the one shown in the historic photos (and the color photo of it being removed). I hope it was saved. The deco facade was completely painted white, and a pale green trapezoid marquee had replaced the moderne one in the old photos. It had reader boards on its angled sides, and “STATE” in block letters had been on the side paralleling the street, but the letters had been removed, leaving outlines where the green paint had not faded.
I saw and took one slide photo of the Florida in 1981. It was closed at the time, and indeed on the marquee where in the 1940s and 60s photos it says “Theatre” in neon, it said “Circus,” which at the time baffled me.
The exterior of the theatre was pale yellow, with some other colored accents on the vertical and marquee, like red and green.
I was saddened to see in one of the preceeding slideshows, one of the kingly figures from the auditorium walls still in the theatre, damaged. This would indicate to me that these figures were not cared for, and during the oh-so-necessary-nowadays process of asbestos removal before demolition of the Coronet’s shell, they were probably all peeled of and discarded, except for this one battered figure. I hope I am wrong. I have a hunch the asbestos people cared as much for these figures as the guys gutting the Coliseum Theatre did about the eight huge chandeliers in that theatre. My friend offered them good money for them, but they were allowed to crash to the floor anyway, except one, which my friend got because he was on the site that instant. It wound-up in an antique gallery on Melrose in L.A., selling for beaucoup bucks.
The facade of the Telenews featured a wonderful polychrome terra cotta fan of leafy and geometric shapes radiating above the marquee on an otherwise sleek, moderne composition. I recall seeing a color photo of it. The site of both the Esquire and Telenews is now an open plaza, with access to the subway tracks of both MUNI and BART.
When a bank occupied the building, one large chandelier and a series of small ones were worked into the bank decor. They were obviously from the theatre days.
So nice to see another view of this theatre other than the one photo I took of it in 1981 during a family road trip, when I was just starting to photograph theatres. My shot was angled from the other direction, and showed the MONTANA vertical neon sign. The theatre was closed then, just as pictured in the above-linked black and white photo. I remember that the brick sidewall of the theatre had a faded and peeling painted sign reading Montana Theatre, with what appeared to be a later painting of the word “New” over it. I’m amazed at the 1901 date. I assumed it would have been built well into the Teens.
The interior of the Guild is structurally plain, but there are numerous things to delight the eye. The tiny lobby is decorated in a kind of funky artiness that’s hard to describe, as though someone went to a craft store, bought various decorative moldings and trimmings and had lots of fun. This beats the previous look, which dated from the Sixties or early Seventies, where both the lobby and auditorium were black and orange. For many years since though, the auditorium has featured some nice fixtures and ornamental details slavaged from other classic theatres. I’m quite sure the two moderne ceiling fixtures are from the Uptown, San Francisco. The wall sconces are also moderne, but I don’t know where they’re from. A gilded wave motif wainscot and some large scroll/floral flourishes at the front and rear of the auditorium come from some Fox house and date from the Skouras era, and are identical to portions of the intact Skouras decor in the Redwood City Fox and the California in Berkeley, among others.
A black and white photo taken in the 40s of the Guild’s interior shows modest moderne interpretations of classical themes in murals flanking the screen.
I recall reading or hearing that the Guild was originally built in the Twenties, and had its facade lopped off and rebuilt when El Camino Real was widened. Guild was not the theatre’s original name. It MAY have been the Menlo Park at first, though I shouldn’t be quoted on this. Obviously, this would have been before the Park on El Camino, or the Menlo, on Santa Cruz Avenue, were opened.
I remember driving up a long stretch of El Camino for the first time on a Summer evening in 1985. It was like a candy store of neon-bedecked theatres. I knew about the ones in Palo Alto then, but as I drove North, would see for the first time:
GUILD and PARK, Menlo Park
FOX, Redwood City (not on El Camino, but I looked for it)
LAUREL, San Carlos (dark, having recently closed forever)
BELMONT, Belmont
PALM, San Mateo
In future years I would attend the Guild and Park numerous times, have now been to concerts at the Fox, would never step inside the Laurel, would attend the Belmont once, would consider stepping inside the Palm, but then reconsider, not wanting to deal with other patrons, and would later discover the Millbrae in time to attend once before its gutting.
Though most of the theatres are gone or converted to other uses, driving up El Camino is still a treat for fans of roadside commercial architecture and signage from the middle third of the 20th Century. Much has been demolished or gentrified beyond recognition since I first drove the road in ‘85, but a number of visual treats still remain.
Yes, now it’s just the tiny Guild.
The exterior, viewed at night, can also be seen in “Sneakers.” The interior shown in the movie—supposedly in the office block portion—appears to have been a set, though I’m not positive.
Also, a number of years ago, an Oakland rapper (don’t recall his name) pictured himself on the cover of his album standing in front of the theatre, with the vertical sign (then still unrestored) prominently behind him.
When they were filming “Tucker” I was going to art school in Oakland, and hung out on Telegraph, watching them redo the street to look like 1940s Chicago. Vintage cars were everywhere—a real treat. I then made it a point to see the movie at the Grand Lake, knowing that it would be fun to watch the “Chicago” scenes with an Oakland crowd. I was not disappointed. There were frequent guffaws every time a character would make reference to Chicago while standing somewhere that was obviously Oakland. The audience seemed to enjoy the movie otherwise, though.
Moderne ceiling fixures either salvaged from, or identical to lobby fixtures from the Uptown’s moderne makeover look reside at Berkeley’s Oaks Theatre (in the lobby), and Menlo Park’s Guild Theatre (in the auditorium).
I have one slide photo of the State, which I took in 1981. The theatre was closed and boarded up. The facade was very simple, but the wedge-shaped marquee and vertical sign were quite nice, albeit somewhat typical of a late 1930s look. If you are familiar with the now demolished Madera in Madera, or the demolished Del Mar in San Leandro, you have a pretty good idea of the look of the State in Coalinga. One feature which was a little different was a tiered series of cavetto moldings forming a sort of visual support for the top part of the vertical sign. I will bet these tiers were once uplit with hidden neon. The top of the vertical sign had a rounded top, with a series of concentric neon tubes, rainbowlike.
Great to hear that a plan for a marquee restoration is in the works for this Pflueger-designed theatre. For too many years it has had a marquee which was a product of the Let’s See How Boring We Can Make It school of marquee design during the Sixties. The other Pflueger theatre in the general area, the Senator in Chico, has a marquee that more befits the facade grandeur. The State deserves the same.
I saw CLOSE ENCOUNTERS soon after it opened at the Rio in Santa Cruz, CA.
Amazingly enough, though I spent the last years of the 70s (during high school) dancing to practically every song on the SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER soundtrack, I didn’t see it back then, as my parents were extremely strict about my only going to see G-rated features until STAR WARS, which was my first PG. R-ratings were verboten. My first R was ALL THAT JAZZ, circa 1980.
I didn’t see FEVER until a restored print was screened in the late 1990s at the Towne Theatre in San Jose (then an arthouse but today a Bollywood venue)!
I toured this theatre in 1995 with the Theatre Historical Society.
(www.historictheatres.org) It was closed then, and in need of some work. It still had charm though, and a lot of original features. I remember hearing the Bohm had reopened, and am now saddened to know it has closed.
The building which housed the Hyde still stands, and actually predates the theater, which was carved out of one of its storefronts (and likely a good deal of additional space). The commercial building itself has a brick and terra cotta English look to it with a slate gabled roof. When the Hyde was put into it, the portion of the facade over the theater entrance was given a Moderne fascia and a trapezoidal neon marquee. When the Hyde was gutted for office and retail, the Moderne fascia was replaced by a wood fascia of milled Victorian Revival shingles and moldings. I have heard that a few features, such as decorative painted surfaces, from the Hyde still survive inside the building. Around the rear are still to be seen a pair of auditorium exit doors.
Holly: contact me below, and I can steer you in the right direction re. those historic photos.
I remember when my cousin, who is now 14, was considered old enough (about 5) by his parents to go to a movie, I had planned to take him to see the re-release of “Star Wars,” at Oakland’s Grand Lake, so even though he would clearly be growing up in an era of megaplexes and home entertainment, he could look back and remember seeing his very first movie in a grand old theater. His parents, my older cousin and her husband, forgot that this was my plan, and took him to see it at the Galaxy. He later made the very logical (for a 5-year-old) observation that it made sense to see the movie at the Galaxy, since the movie itself took place “…in a galaxy far, far away.”
A few weeks later, it was plain to them that one viewing of this movie was not going to satisfy him, so for his second time seeing it, we made it a family trip and all went to the Grand Lake, where he was indeed taken with the look of the place.
I was in Dixon in the early 1990s and found the theatre. Its front by this time was very plain, looking much like adjacent simple retail fronts. I do have a photo I took of it in one of my albums. There was a simple ticket lobby indented from the street, as I recall. There was no marquee, just a simple light box sign reading “Dixon Theatre,” in serif letters. This may be the same sign now advertising Calvary Chapel on their web page. It looks like it. There was no marquee, and I don’t even remember poster cases or a reader board. It seemed to be used for something other than a theatre at the time, or perhaps was simply closed.
Glad to hear the statue has been found. Maybe a replica could be made of a durable synthetic material, and the original put in a museum for safekeeping.
This business of destroying metal sculptures and melting them down to make much more banal things in the name of quick profit has a parallel in ancient Rome. Rome was swarming with bronze statuary in Imperial times. Nearly all of it was melted down after the breakup of the Empire. There exists one notable survivor, a statue of Marcus Aurelius riding a horse. It was spared because it was mistaken to be a statue of Constantine, the first Christian emperor. Later, in safer, more historically enlightened times, its true identity was confirmed, and so it survives.
It’s such a shame that we are losing things like this due to meth addicts. I have a degree of compassion for addicts, but absolutely none for those who manufacture. I won’t comment further on the depths our culture has sunk due to the dispicable drug trade. I’d be here all night.
My first memory of the Fox Westwood Village was in about 1972, when my dad, mom, paternal grandmother and I attended a daytime screening of Hanna-Barbera’s cartoon version of the famed children’s classic story “Charlotte’s Web.” My dad worked for Hanna-Barbera as an animator and this was a special showing prior to the premiere, especially for family and friends of all those who had worked on the film. My main architectural memory of the interior at that time was looking up at the auditorium ceiling, with its star-shaped cove, which, during the Skouras redecorating, was repainted in such a way (intentionally or not) that it looked very obviously like a gigantic Star of David. I wondered at the time why this was. It still looks like this, though the later insertion of many cylindrical downlights have blurred one’s enjoyment of the ceiling.
The next time I was in there was with my cousin in 1989 to see “Old Gringo.” Then I was in there in 1998 and 2005 on tour with the Theatre Historical Society. On these two latest visits, it was plain that much nice upgrading to the look of the theatre’s interior had taken place, all with adiquate respect to the historical decorative features, regardless of whether they were original or Skouras.
You might want to check the Archives of the Theatre Historical Society of America:
www.historictheatres.org
During a recent tour of the under-construction Alameda I was given a couple of weeks ago, I was told that the colors of paint now on the vertical sign and marquee are replicated after the originals, which were found by scraping. They are consistent with the colors of signage popular at the time—definitely Jazz Age— orange and black being often combined with greens, blues, aquas, and turquoises for a very dramatic effect.
Also, the great amount of red neon on the signage is constistent with other theatres designed by Pflueger. In the late 1980s, I remember the marquee of the Pflueger-remodeled New Mission in San Francisco. Its marquee is very similar in design to that of the Alameda, albeit not as wide, being on a narrower facade. It was in near perfect operation at the time, and all the tubing, including the lettering, was red. I don’t know about the New Mission’s vertical sign tower as I never saw that in operation. A friend who grew up going to Pflueger’s El Rey in San Francisco (now a church, and the neon’s gone) tells me that the marquee and signage of that theatre had a similarly red-dominant neon color scheme.
Saw it at the Rio in Santa Cruz, CA, though not on opening week. I was in 9th grade at the time. Still reeling from Star Wars, my friends and I were suitably impressed by Close Encounters, though we still maintained our Star Wars enthusiasm.
The Rio (1949) is still intact and operating, though now mainly a live venue, with films from time-to-time.
I took a single slide photo of the State in 1981. It was closed, but looked in reasonable shape. The vertical sign was indeed the one shown in the historic photos (and the color photo of it being removed). I hope it was saved. The deco facade was completely painted white, and a pale green trapezoid marquee had replaced the moderne one in the old photos. It had reader boards on its angled sides, and “STATE” in block letters had been on the side paralleling the street, but the letters had been removed, leaving outlines where the green paint had not faded.
I saw and took one slide photo of the Florida in 1981. It was closed at the time, and indeed on the marquee where in the 1940s and 60s photos it says “Theatre” in neon, it said “Circus,” which at the time baffled me.
The exterior of the theatre was pale yellow, with some other colored accents on the vertical and marquee, like red and green.
I was saddened to see in one of the preceeding slideshows, one of the kingly figures from the auditorium walls still in the theatre, damaged. This would indicate to me that these figures were not cared for, and during the oh-so-necessary-nowadays process of asbestos removal before demolition of the Coronet’s shell, they were probably all peeled of and discarded, except for this one battered figure. I hope I am wrong. I have a hunch the asbestos people cared as much for these figures as the guys gutting the Coliseum Theatre did about the eight huge chandeliers in that theatre. My friend offered them good money for them, but they were allowed to crash to the floor anyway, except one, which my friend got because he was on the site that instant. It wound-up in an antique gallery on Melrose in L.A., selling for beaucoup bucks.
The facade of the Telenews featured a wonderful polychrome terra cotta fan of leafy and geometric shapes radiating above the marquee on an otherwise sleek, moderne composition. I recall seeing a color photo of it. The site of both the Esquire and Telenews is now an open plaza, with access to the subway tracks of both MUNI and BART.
When a bank occupied the building, one large chandelier and a series of small ones were worked into the bank decor. They were obviously from the theatre days.
So nice to see another view of this theatre other than the one photo I took of it in 1981 during a family road trip, when I was just starting to photograph theatres. My shot was angled from the other direction, and showed the MONTANA vertical neon sign. The theatre was closed then, just as pictured in the above-linked black and white photo. I remember that the brick sidewall of the theatre had a faded and peeling painted sign reading Montana Theatre, with what appeared to be a later painting of the word “New” over it. I’m amazed at the 1901 date. I assumed it would have been built well into the Teens.
The interior of the Guild is structurally plain, but there are numerous things to delight the eye. The tiny lobby is decorated in a kind of funky artiness that’s hard to describe, as though someone went to a craft store, bought various decorative moldings and trimmings and had lots of fun. This beats the previous look, which dated from the Sixties or early Seventies, where both the lobby and auditorium were black and orange. For many years since though, the auditorium has featured some nice fixtures and ornamental details slavaged from other classic theatres. I’m quite sure the two moderne ceiling fixtures are from the Uptown, San Francisco. The wall sconces are also moderne, but I don’t know where they’re from. A gilded wave motif wainscot and some large scroll/floral flourishes at the front and rear of the auditorium come from some Fox house and date from the Skouras era, and are identical to portions of the intact Skouras decor in the Redwood City Fox and the California in Berkeley, among others.
A black and white photo taken in the 40s of the Guild’s interior shows modest moderne interpretations of classical themes in murals flanking the screen.
I recall reading or hearing that the Guild was originally built in the Twenties, and had its facade lopped off and rebuilt when El Camino Real was widened. Guild was not the theatre’s original name. It MAY have been the Menlo Park at first, though I shouldn’t be quoted on this. Obviously, this would have been before the Park on El Camino, or the Menlo, on Santa Cruz Avenue, were opened.
I remember driving up a long stretch of El Camino for the first time on a Summer evening in 1985. It was like a candy store of neon-bedecked theatres. I knew about the ones in Palo Alto then, but as I drove North, would see for the first time:
GUILD and PARK, Menlo Park
FOX, Redwood City (not on El Camino, but I looked for it)
LAUREL, San Carlos (dark, having recently closed forever)
BELMONT, Belmont
PALM, San Mateo
In future years I would attend the Guild and Park numerous times, have now been to concerts at the Fox, would never step inside the Laurel, would attend the Belmont once, would consider stepping inside the Palm, but then reconsider, not wanting to deal with other patrons, and would later discover the Millbrae in time to attend once before its gutting.
Though most of the theatres are gone or converted to other uses, driving up El Camino is still a treat for fans of roadside commercial architecture and signage from the middle third of the 20th Century. Much has been demolished or gentrified beyond recognition since I first drove the road in ‘85, but a number of visual treats still remain.
Yes, now it’s just the tiny Guild.
William—and everybody. I see the mention of “Sneakers” was already made. Apologies for the repetition! :–)
The exterior, viewed at night, can also be seen in “Sneakers.” The interior shown in the movie—supposedly in the office block portion—appears to have been a set, though I’m not positive.
Also, a number of years ago, an Oakland rapper (don’t recall his name) pictured himself on the cover of his album standing in front of the theatre, with the vertical sign (then still unrestored) prominently behind him.
When they were filming “Tucker” I was going to art school in Oakland, and hung out on Telegraph, watching them redo the street to look like 1940s Chicago. Vintage cars were everywhere—a real treat. I then made it a point to see the movie at the Grand Lake, knowing that it would be fun to watch the “Chicago” scenes with an Oakland crowd. I was not disappointed. There were frequent guffaws every time a character would make reference to Chicago while standing somewhere that was obviously Oakland. The audience seemed to enjoy the movie otherwise, though.
Moderne ceiling fixures either salvaged from, or identical to lobby fixtures from the Uptown’s moderne makeover look reside at Berkeley’s Oaks Theatre (in the lobby), and Menlo Park’s Guild Theatre (in the auditorium).
I have one slide photo of the State, which I took in 1981. The theatre was closed and boarded up. The facade was very simple, but the wedge-shaped marquee and vertical sign were quite nice, albeit somewhat typical of a late 1930s look. If you are familiar with the now demolished Madera in Madera, or the demolished Del Mar in San Leandro, you have a pretty good idea of the look of the State in Coalinga. One feature which was a little different was a tiered series of cavetto moldings forming a sort of visual support for the top part of the vertical sign. I will bet these tiers were once uplit with hidden neon. The top of the vertical sign had a rounded top, with a series of concentric neon tubes, rainbowlike.
Great to hear that a plan for a marquee restoration is in the works for this Pflueger-designed theatre. For too many years it has had a marquee which was a product of the Let’s See How Boring We Can Make It school of marquee design during the Sixties. The other Pflueger theatre in the general area, the Senator in Chico, has a marquee that more befits the facade grandeur. The State deserves the same.
Thank you, everyone, for showing me that my late-blooming when it comes to “grown-up” moviegoing, was not such an anomaly!
I saw CLOSE ENCOUNTERS soon after it opened at the Rio in Santa Cruz, CA.
Amazingly enough, though I spent the last years of the 70s (during high school) dancing to practically every song on the SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER soundtrack, I didn’t see it back then, as my parents were extremely strict about my only going to see G-rated features until STAR WARS, which was my first PG. R-ratings were verboten. My first R was ALL THAT JAZZ, circa 1980.
I didn’t see FEVER until a restored print was screened in the late 1990s at the Towne Theatre in San Jose (then an arthouse but today a Bollywood venue)!
I toured this theatre in 1995 with the Theatre Historical Society.
(www.historictheatres.org) It was closed then, and in need of some work. It still had charm though, and a lot of original features. I remember hearing the Bohm had reopened, and am now saddened to know it has closed.