Roxy Theatre
658 Fifth Avenue,
San Diego,
CA
92101
658 Fifth Avenue,
San Diego,
CA
92101
3 people
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Pussycat Theatres
Functions: Restaurant
Previous Names: Rivoli Theatre, Diana Theatre, Savoy Theatre, Bijou Theatre, Cinema XXX
Nearby Theaters
Opened as the Rivoli Theatre on April 10, 1923 with Buck Jones in “The Fast Mail”. In the early-1970’s it was re-named Bijou Theatre and was operated by Pussycat Theatres, screening adult films.
Contributed by
KenRoe
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Recent comments (view all 20 comments)
Thx, DanW. When I listed Cass St. in my Google search, the other Roxy popped right up. I posted there yesterday. Hope I can eventually put up a link to that photo of colorful murals on the north wall.
In trying to locate a few other theaters (including an unsuccessful one for the Fox downtown), I spotted your posts (and replies) for a few theaters. It’s refreshing to know that San Diego has someone around like you. Take that as a compliment. Today I’m having difficulty finding the Landmark Hillcrest Cinema. I swear, east coast venues are so much easier to locate.
Hello again Brooklyn Jim
I’m not in San Diego any longer. I left in December of 2000. The city was taken over by outsiders and is no longer the San Diego I knew and loved. The old Fox Theatre is now Copely Symphony Hall. I always found that a very strange choice because the Fox, as a movie theatre, was notorious for bad acoustics; it cost a lot of money to straighten that out too. They should have used the Balboa for a symphony hall as the acoustics there are perfect. I think Landmark’s Hillcrest Theatre(s) is on University Avenue somewhere between 5th and 10th. I used to do work for Landmark at the old Guild Theatre on 5th and did some work for them at the Park (now closed; formerly the Capri and, before that, the Egyptian). Go to this link to see some old San Diego houses: View link
Much appreciated, good sir. Will have some fun rooting through those references. I can certainly appreciate your dissatisfaction with the current scene as it runs pretty deep with me, too. You might pick up on some of that in my Loma Theater post, among others.
CinemaTreasures is a wonderful site, but I have some difficulty with certain San Diego theaters, some of which, like Landmark Hillcrest Cinema, may never have had an entry. The former Guild, a block away on 5th did, but nothing for the Hillcrest. I was there last night to see “An Inconvenient Truth” – don’t miss it, BTW – so I guess I’ll have to contact my friend, regional manager Chris Principio, and see if he can get something going…
Again, thx, DanW!!!
I watched many movies at the old Loma. A beautiful house.
There’s a cover article in today’s San Diego Reader, detailing the histories of all the downtown theaters once run by Vince Miranda, at one time co-owner of California’s Pussycat Theatre chain. This is one of the theaters chronicled in the piece, which is built from a series of email interviews with Cinema Treasures contribs Dan Whitehead and Tim David (David is Miranda’s godson). Unfortunately, the online version doesn’t have any of the great photos and graphics seen in the printed version – I wrote the piece and will probably put scans of the graphics on my own webpage before much longer, after the next issue comes out. Here’s a link to the article on the Reader site:
View link
This is our second major feature on southern CA theaters in about a year (the other, “Field Of Screens,” is just on San Diego drive-ins and can be found on the Reader site with the search bar). If anyone here likes the article(s) and would like to encourage the publisher to greenlight more, feel free to leave your thoughts about the piece in the comment section after article. The paper really pays attention to reader comments!
http://www.sdreader.com/ed/cover/
The Roxy is a restaurant called Geary’s Steakhouse.
It’s actually Greystone the Steakhouse. My misteak. Here are some recent photos:
http://tinyurl.com/32824j
http://tinyurl.com/3ybt8z
http://tinyurl.com/3bwxqu
I can’t believe the comedy/tragedy masks are still there!! Those were Mr. Tate’s idea.
This house didn’t become the Savoy until sometime in the 1940s. The Savoy Theatre that got the Wurlitzer organ in 1923 was a different house, at 3rd Avenue and C Street. It was a legitimate house for most of its history, but it was on the Pantages vaudeville circuit for a while, which is probably when the organ was installed.
The Rivoli theatre opened on April 10th, 1923. Grand opening ad posted.