I remember stumbling across this theatre in the early 1980s while in San Francisco. I had no camera that day, so didn’t take pictures of the wonderful facade. The theatre was closed and remodeled very soon after, because the next time I came—with camera—it was remodeled. It wasn’t that the facade was particularly unusual, or even beautiful—it was the fact that it was obviously that of a well-preserved example of “late nickelodeon” style theatre architecture—with a high foyer open to the street, and a little box office in the center of a row of doors. There was either pressed tin or some kind of plaster paneling on the walls and ceiling of the entrance. Today, only the general shape of the roofline remains from the original look.
I would nominate the Avalon as being definitely in my Top Ten of California historic movie theatres. I have visited it once, and was awestruck by the quality of design and craftsmanship everywhere. Lovers of art deco especially should make an effort to see it. The Avalon even stands next to the Oakland Paramount in its quality, though the two are vastly different. The ballroom above the Avalon’s auditorium is likewise a work of high craftsmanship and architectural design.
The facade is nearly identical to that of Jorgensen’s Parkway in Oakland. Though the Parkway still operates as a movie theatre, the facade of the State/Del Mar is actually the better preserved of the two.
The interiors were designed quite diferently, however. The State/Del Mar can be best described as conservative Neo-Classical, whereas the Parkway is Egyptian Revival with a proscenium and organ grille which borrow much of their look from the Metropolitan/Paramount in LA and the Egyptian in Hollywood.
I hope the Palm remains. Most of San Mateo’s old theatres still stand, but they’ve all been altered to the point where only diehard theatre buffs who know what to look for structurally can tell they were once theatres.
The Manor still has its upper facade intact—marquee and interior gone.
The San Mateo has only four Ionic columns, a pediment, and a fly tower to give any indication—interior gutted.
The Baywood—facade flattened-over years ago. Interior is at least partially gone, ceiling rumored to be intact, but I’m unsure about that.
One other theatre (name unknown to me) with a vaulted roof and Moderne facade survives downtown.
The Palm is the sole intact survivor. Here’s hoping it gets landmarked and preserved as intact as possible.
I have been a member of the Theatre Historical Society since 1987, and have enjoyed every minute of my membership—the wonderful magazine MARQUEE, attending the Conclaves as often as I can, and the wonderful friends I’ve made. I only met Brother Andrew once, briefly at one of the THS annual Conclaves, but let me state for the record that I deeply appreciate all he did. It is clear that THS would not be where it is today without him.
A quick artistic comment. The illustrator who did the cover of Styx’s Paradise Theatre album used the facade of Chicago’s then-still-standing Granada Theatre as his model, though with not as much rich terra cotta ornamentation as was really there. The marquee on the album is imaginary, though quite in keeping with the era.
Though I loved old theatres from the time I first went to movies, it was the fact that that, when a teenager, the then-new Paradise Theatre album cover reminded me of an abandoned theatre I knew of when younger (the Tracy, in Long Beach, CA), that really spurred my interest in old theatres. Thanks, Styx!
My father often attended the State as a child in the late 20s and early 30s. He also attended the abovemention Loew’s Poli Palace, originally known as the Poli Palace, and now the only one of the East Main St. mivie palaces to survive (I was in it in 1990 prior to its restoration). The State was still standing in 1981 when Dad took me to Waterbury to show me his childhood haunts. The State was closed and boarded up. Its facade was plain and modernized, with a pastel-painted Moderne marquee with yellow glass reader boards. Dad told me it was just a shadow of what he remembered it as looking like.
Prior to demolition, the Moderne vertical sign, which had neon letters reading PUSSYCAT but which actually dated to one of the theatre’s earlier incarnations, was removed and saved. This theatre was a very narrow brick building. The site still stands empty today, along with several adjacent parcels.
I’m really saddened by Avenal’s loss, and hope that they find the will and money to rebuild. I visited the Avenal Theatre just a few weeks ago with a fellow theatre buff friend of mine who does beautiful artistic photos of theatre neon at night. The Avenal is the most recent addition to my friend’s portfolio, and it’s a beautiful photo. Let’s hope that the theatre ultimatley reemerges as beautiful as when we saw it so recently.
It was obvious how much the theatre’s recent reopening was contributing to the main street of Avenal.
This theatre opened in the 1930s, and was Mission in style. The architect was Alexander Cantin. It had no traditional marquee, due to very strict sign regulations in Carmel even at that time. The Carmel was demolished in the late 1950s to make way for the Carmel Plaza shopping Center. Many of the seats, which featured an unusual mission tile roof and bell design on their aisle standards, were salvaged and used to reseat the balcony of the State Theatre in nearby Monterey, where most of them are still in place, in 2003.
The architect was S. Charles Lee.
During its last years Spanish-language films were shown, into the 1980s. The building was later turned into a thrift store/“swap-meet” affair, though the exterior was mostly left intact.
I must append my praise to the Humason family for keeping this treasure going! Danny’s enthusiam and love for the building—plainly evidenced above—was also obvious in 1990 when I was able to tour the building with him, and again in 1994 when I attended several Wurlitzer organ concerts and silent films there as part of the American Theatre Organ Society’s Convention. Imagination and Showmanship are alive and well at the Hanford Historic Fox!
This theatre was a pre-Twenties house which was later drastically remodeled under Fox operation in the Skouras style. There were swirling neon-lit coves on the ceiling and phoenix-like birds flying across the walls toward the screen.
I am told by a former resident of the area that the building still stands, in use as a bank.
The concrete shell of the Campus survives, its fly tower calling attention to anyone who cares to look that there once was a theatre on the spot. The 1951 Film Daily Yearbook lists it as operating, but judging from the architectural style of the facade that was applied in its long-ago conversion to office and retail, it couldn’t have operated as a theatre much beyond that date.
The Strand was long ago renamed the Elmwood, and operates today as a triplex with a wonderful historically-maintained and decorated feel.(You may want to look up “Elmwood” under Berkeley, CA) Coincidentally, during its triplexing renovation, the Elmwood received salvaged light fixtures from the Strand, San Francisco.
The Esquire was originally the American, and built before the 1920s. As the Esquire in the late 1930s, it was given a vertical sign tower almost identical to the Esquire Theatre in Sacramento, which partially survives—sign intact—as an IMAX theatre. One Bay Area collector has a set of doors from the Oakland Esquire, which feature cobalt blue etched glass panels.
The architect was S. Charles Lee of Los Angeles. The interior was very simple and streamlined. The vertical sign tower remained all through the supermarket years, and has been nicely retained in the conversion by Hollywood Video. I can’t however, understand the application of cast foam Neoclassical cornice moldings to what otherwise was an almost totally intact Moderne facade! Fortunately, they are not all that noticeable.
The Lincoln was originally a theatre for black audiences.
When I lived in Oakland in the early 1980s during college, I remember seeing the boarded-up theatre’s stucco facade and fly tower clad in rusting corrugated metal from the BART train, near the West Oakland BART station.
The facade of the Moulin Rouge featured a wonderful metal and neon windmill which turned. This remained in place until the demolition of the theatre’s facade prior to redevelopment of the property.
The Kinema was designed by noted theatre architect G. Albert Lansburgh. The interior featured a rectangular proscenium flanked by fluted columns, and a lavish ceiling designed to look like a Middle Eastern tent canopy. This look was a great inspiration to architect Timothy Pflueger, who emulated it in the auditorium of his first theatre, San Francisco’s Castro.
I remember stumbling across this theatre in the early 1980s while in San Francisco. I had no camera that day, so didn’t take pictures of the wonderful facade. The theatre was closed and remodeled very soon after, because the next time I came—with camera—it was remodeled. It wasn’t that the facade was particularly unusual, or even beautiful—it was the fact that it was obviously that of a well-preserved example of “late nickelodeon” style theatre architecture—with a high foyer open to the street, and a little box office in the center of a row of doors. There was either pressed tin or some kind of plaster paneling on the walls and ceiling of the entrance. Today, only the general shape of the roofline remains from the original look.
The architect was S. Charles Lee. The facade was/is similar to Lee’s Tower Theatre in Compton, now gone.
I would nominate the Avalon as being definitely in my Top Ten of California historic movie theatres. I have visited it once, and was awestruck by the quality of design and craftsmanship everywhere. Lovers of art deco especially should make an effort to see it. The Avalon even stands next to the Oakland Paramount in its quality, though the two are vastly different. The ballroom above the Avalon’s auditorium is likewise a work of high craftsmanship and architectural design.
The architect was Mark T. Jorgensen.
The facade is nearly identical to that of Jorgensen’s Parkway in Oakland. Though the Parkway still operates as a movie theatre, the facade of the State/Del Mar is actually the better preserved of the two.
The interiors were designed quite diferently, however. The State/Del Mar can be best described as conservative Neo-Classical, whereas the Parkway is Egyptian Revival with a proscenium and organ grille which borrow much of their look from the Metropolitan/Paramount in LA and the Egyptian in Hollywood.
I hope the Palm remains. Most of San Mateo’s old theatres still stand, but they’ve all been altered to the point where only diehard theatre buffs who know what to look for structurally can tell they were once theatres.
The Manor still has its upper facade intact—marquee and interior gone.
The San Mateo has only four Ionic columns, a pediment, and a fly tower to give any indication—interior gutted.
The Baywood—facade flattened-over years ago. Interior is at least partially gone, ceiling rumored to be intact, but I’m unsure about that.
One other theatre (name unknown to me) with a vaulted roof and Moderne facade survives downtown.
The Palm is the sole intact survivor. Here’s hoping it gets landmarked and preserved as intact as possible.
I have been a member of the Theatre Historical Society since 1987, and have enjoyed every minute of my membership—the wonderful magazine MARQUEE, attending the Conclaves as often as I can, and the wonderful friends I’ve made. I only met Brother Andrew once, briefly at one of the THS annual Conclaves, but let me state for the record that I deeply appreciate all he did. It is clear that THS would not be where it is today without him.
A quick artistic comment. The illustrator who did the cover of Styx’s Paradise Theatre album used the facade of Chicago’s then-still-standing Granada Theatre as his model, though with not as much rich terra cotta ornamentation as was really there. The marquee on the album is imaginary, though quite in keeping with the era.
Though I loved old theatres from the time I first went to movies, it was the fact that that, when a teenager, the then-new Paradise Theatre album cover reminded me of an abandoned theatre I knew of when younger (the Tracy, in Long Beach, CA), that really spurred my interest in old theatres. Thanks, Styx!
The architects were Charles Peter Weeks and William Day, also architects of the nearby Fox Oakland.
My father often attended the State as a child in the late 20s and early 30s. He also attended the abovemention Loew’s Poli Palace, originally known as the Poli Palace, and now the only one of the East Main St. mivie palaces to survive (I was in it in 1990 prior to its restoration). The State was still standing in 1981 when Dad took me to Waterbury to show me his childhood haunts. The State was closed and boarded up. Its facade was plain and modernized, with a pastel-painted Moderne marquee with yellow glass reader boards. Dad told me it was just a shadow of what he remembered it as looking like.
Prior to demolition, the Moderne vertical sign, which had neon letters reading PUSSYCAT but which actually dated to one of the theatre’s earlier incarnations, was removed and saved. This theatre was a very narrow brick building. The site still stands empty today, along with several adjacent parcels.
I’m really saddened by Avenal’s loss, and hope that they find the will and money to rebuild. I visited the Avenal Theatre just a few weeks ago with a fellow theatre buff friend of mine who does beautiful artistic photos of theatre neon at night. The Avenal is the most recent addition to my friend’s portfolio, and it’s a beautiful photo. Let’s hope that the theatre ultimatley reemerges as beautiful as when we saw it so recently.
It was obvious how much the theatre’s recent reopening was contributing to the main street of Avenal.
This theatre opened in the 1930s, and was Mission in style. The architect was Alexander Cantin. It had no traditional marquee, due to very strict sign regulations in Carmel even at that time. The Carmel was demolished in the late 1950s to make way for the Carmel Plaza shopping Center. Many of the seats, which featured an unusual mission tile roof and bell design on their aisle standards, were salvaged and used to reseat the balcony of the State Theatre in nearby Monterey, where most of them are still in place, in 2003.
The theatre opened in the 1950s. As of right now, its facade neon and marquee are being restored.
The architect was S. Charles Lee.
During its last years Spanish-language films were shown, into the 1980s. The building was later turned into a thrift store/“swap-meet” affair, though the exterior was mostly left intact.
The sign mentioned above is exactly identical to that of the Starlite Drive-In in Watsonville, demolished in the 1980s.
I must append my praise to the Humason family for keeping this treasure going! Danny’s enthusiam and love for the building—plainly evidenced above—was also obvious in 1990 when I was able to tour the building with him, and again in 1994 when I attended several Wurlitzer organ concerts and silent films there as part of the American Theatre Organ Society’s Convention. Imagination and Showmanship are alive and well at the Hanford Historic Fox!
This theatre was a pre-Twenties house which was later drastically remodeled under Fox operation in the Skouras style. There were swirling neon-lit coves on the ceiling and phoenix-like birds flying across the walls toward the screen.
I am told by a former resident of the area that the building still stands, in use as a bank.
The concrete shell of the Campus survives, its fly tower calling attention to anyone who cares to look that there once was a theatre on the spot. The 1951 Film Daily Yearbook lists it as operating, but judging from the architectural style of the facade that was applied in its long-ago conversion to office and retail, it couldn’t have operated as a theatre much beyond that date.
The Rivoli’s auditorium was virtually identical to that of the Irving, on Irving St. in San Francisco (demolished).
The Strand was long ago renamed the Elmwood, and operates today as a triplex with a wonderful historically-maintained and decorated feel.(You may want to look up “Elmwood” under Berkeley, CA) Coincidentally, during its triplexing renovation, the Elmwood received salvaged light fixtures from the Strand, San Francisco.
The Esquire was originally the American, and built before the 1920s. As the Esquire in the late 1930s, it was given a vertical sign tower almost identical to the Esquire Theatre in Sacramento, which partially survives—sign intact—as an IMAX theatre. One Bay Area collector has a set of doors from the Oakland Esquire, which feature cobalt blue etched glass panels.
The architect was S. Charles Lee of Los Angeles. The interior was very simple and streamlined. The vertical sign tower remained all through the supermarket years, and has been nicely retained in the conversion by Hollywood Video. I can’t however, understand the application of cast foam Neoclassical cornice moldings to what otherwise was an almost totally intact Moderne facade! Fortunately, they are not all that noticeable.
The Lincoln was originally a theatre for black audiences.
When I lived in Oakland in the early 1980s during college, I remember seeing the boarded-up theatre’s stucco facade and fly tower clad in rusting corrugated metal from the BART train, near the West Oakland BART station.
The facade of the Moulin Rouge featured a wonderful metal and neon windmill which turned. This remained in place until the demolition of the theatre’s facade prior to redevelopment of the property.
The Kinema was designed by noted theatre architect G. Albert Lansburgh. The interior featured a rectangular proscenium flanked by fluted columns, and a lavish ceiling designed to look like a Middle Eastern tent canopy. This look was a great inspiration to architect Timothy Pflueger, who emulated it in the auditorium of his first theatre, San Francisco’s Castro.