Nevada Theatre
401 Broad Street,
Nevada City,
CA
95959
401 Broad Street,
Nevada City,
CA
95959
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Website link is broken. Here is correct website: http://www.nevadatheatre.com/phone/film-series.html
Mid `50’s street scene photo added courtesy of Joel Windmiller. Cedar Theatre on the far left.
And one of the guys from Buck Rogers in the 25th century works there!
This theater apparently runs as both a movie theater with a film series operated by the small Sierra Theaters chain, but it also is home to a number of live theater groups. Hence it has two official websites. The one for the theater groups staging productions there is: http://www.nevadatheatre.com/ and the one for the film series is http://sierracinemas.com/nevada.asp. {The current official website listed is a dead link).
A 2012 photo can be seen here.
The 1912-1913 Cahn guide follows its listing of the Nevada Theatre at Nevada City with the addition of “Broadway Theatre—Pictures.” During that period, the guide usually listed movie houses at the end of the entries for a given city, following the town’s stage houses. At least in 1912, there must have been both a Nevada Theatre and a Broadway Theatre in Nevada City.
I don’t know if there was a relationship to the Broadway Theatre at 409 Broad Street listed in the FDYs in the 1940s and early 1950s. Is it possible that Broadway Theatre was never an aka for the Nevada/Cedar Theatre? 409 Broad would have been a few doors up the hill from the Nevada Theatre. The buildings on that site now look like old houses converted to shops, but they could be newer construction in a vintage style.
“Green” film festival at the Nevada. View link
From the 1950s a photo postcard view of Broad Street along with the Cedar Theatre in Neveda City.
I visited this theatre in the early 1990s. It was being used for plays. Since the interior had a plain Moderne look that clearly evidenced that it had been used as a movie theatre, I asked someone there why the stylistic difference between exterior and interior? They replied that the 1940s facade had been removed in order to reveal the original, 1860s facade. I’ve seen a photo from the Steve Levin Collection (now part of the Theatre Historical Society Collection) taken by insurance photographer Ted Newman sometime around 1942-‘45 that shows the 1860s facade to have been fully intact then, save for a horozontal swing-out sign of neon, “Nevada Theatre.”
Looks like a REAL theatre in 1957. It doesn’t now. What happened??
Editions of Film Daily Yearbook 1941, 1943 & 1950 list the only movie theatre operating in Nevada City as the Broadway Theatre, 409 Broad Street, with seating capacities varying from 500 to 531. The 1952 edition of FDY lists the Broadway Theatre (as detailed ) and also the Cedar Theatre with no address or seating capacity.
From Boxoffice, December 3, 1949: “The new Cedar Theatre will be opened November 25, according to John E. Keegan, manager for the Naify Theatre interests. Installation of projection equipment at the 630 seat house is scheduled for this week, Keegan said.”
Boxoffice of April 28, 1956, had this to say: “Vern Sandow will lease from T&D the Cedar Theatre at Nevada City. Sandow is installing a wide screen and will run his theatre seven nights a week.”
Then, from the February 17, 1958, issue of Boxoffice: “Vernon Sandow, owner of the Cedar Theatre, will cease operations March 1 because of financial loss.”
After that, I can’t find any more references to a theater in Nevada City.
This is from Boxoffice magazine in June 1946:
NEVADA CITY, Calif.-The Nevada Theater on Broad Street will be completely remodeled by T&D Enterprises. The main floor will be extended to accommodate 650 seats, and a new balcony with loges will be constructed. Rest rooms will be added on both the main and mezzanine floors. A new marquee and a new entrance and vestibule will be built, all under the direction of A.A. Cantin, San Francisco architect.
1957 photo:
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