Studio Theatre

Opened on October 18th, 1950 with “Fancy Pants”. Grand opening ad posted.

Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks.

I have never seen a single photo of the interior. The one time I went to a movie there in the early 90s, I asked if I could take pictures and was not granted permission (with today’s tiny digital cameras, I wouldn’t have bothered asking, just snapped away). So, Plan B. I had my sketchbook, and did a drawing on the spot before and after the movie. I’ve posted it under the Photos section on this Studio page. It is as accurate a representation I could do in the time allowed. I have a lot of experience drawing buildings, so you can count on this as a faithful representation of the essential look of the auditorium. Check it out!

A couple of weeks ago I popped by again. Not to appear to contradict my friend Terry, but the lobby itself is still there, with its streamlined ceiling coves. What HAS been gutted out is the little “sunken” lounge behind where the concession counter was, which led to the restrooms.

Just went into the Studio theatre a few days ago and they have torn out the old lobby walls. Will they wreck the nice front glass boxoffice also and front neon sign? What will the new name be ‘Studio Rocks Downtown’. In the old days people went outside to climb rocks for free, now you have to go indside and pay.

Word reached me today via someone who owns a business nearby that Club WET is finis. Apparently an indoor rock climbing facility is taking the space. Supposedly the building has been rezoned so that it cannot be a nightclub again.

Club WET must have cleaned up its act considerably. Their advertising budget certainly has expanded. In addition to lots of print advertising, they now have a photographic billboard ad atop a building in San Francisco (!), fully visible as you approach the Bay Bridge, going Eastbound. Meanwhile, another alteration has occurred to the historic Studio facade. The marquee has been painted completely black, and the magenta neon has been removed and replaced with blue neon.

The Studio Theater became Club Wet around January 2009 – the latest in a string of nightclub businesses to inhabit the theater since the late 1990’s. Club Wet has had its business license revoked on September 23rd 2009 after a long series of incidents of violence and public drunkenness over the course of the summer. No word as to when or if the club will reopen.

Here is a 1986 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/cfnqqb

I saw HOW THE WEST WAS WON at the Studio Theatre on my 10th Birthday! What a wonderful experience on the big screen with its beautiful curtains. A few years later – when downtown San Jose fell to hell – the studio became pornographic – Adult X Rated Movies competing with the GAY across the street. The FOX had already closed its doors and the UNITED ARTIST was 100% Mexican Movies.
Later on – in 1975 – Paul Catalana (previous owner of the MAYFAIR
EL RANCHO DRIVE IN and TROPICAIRE TWIN VUE DRIVE IN all in San Jose)
took over the lease on THE STUDIO. He ran 3 Features and changed
weekly. Admission was only $1.00 or less and the place tried
to compete with the other very successful JOSE THEATRE around the corner on 2nd Street which was very very successful with a grind policy @ 50 Cents Before 6pm and $1 After 6pm. With poor management,
the STUDIO became a haven for drug dealers and gang activities. In fact, someone set seats on fire in the balcony on a Friday night
causing the house to shut down early that night.

A comment in response to rp2813. Actually in an earlier posting I did complain about the removal of the original tilework around the entrance, followed by a description of the acidic green tile (albeit high end) which has replaced it. This was around the time that this website was going through some remodeling, and my posting about the tile vanished into the ether. Indeed, some members of the Preservation Action Council of San Jose, to which I belong, wrote letters of protest about the impending removal of the original tile—to no avail.

Regarding the whole hailstorm of criticism from the Hispanic community in the early 90s when the Studio was to have been “taken away from them” for use as a performing arts facility…I remember it well. A lot of this was part of a keen sensitivity which had developed locally in that community following the creation of a statue of Thomas Fallon, first American Mayor of San Jose—a man not particularly regarded fondly in Hispanic circles—which was to have been erected Downtown. That statue languishes in storage, and later, instead perhaps, we got “graced” by the infamous coiled serpentine Quetzalcoatl statue, whose resemblance to a familiar substance is very evident upon viewing. It’s not only sad aesthetically, but a violation of separation of Church and State, as city funds went into it, and Quetzalcoatl is still considered a “viable” deity in some admittedly small circles. Government should be in the business of Representation, not Appeasement.

Anyway, in getting back to things theatrical, I agree with the above poster that successive nightclub uses do seem to gradually erode the features of converted theatres.

A little update: The Studio now houses a nightclub called “glo.” The signage on the former reader boards has changed, but otherwise the exterior remains in its original condition, with marquee and vertical sign neon still lighting up every night the club is running, just as you see in my 1990 photo above. During the recent interior renovation I peeked into the auditorium, and though the murals are long gone, the cast plaster ornament on the ceilings and on either side of the proscenuium is intact, though repainted.