Sequoia Theatre
2114 Broadway,
Redwood City,
CA
94063
2114 Broadway,
Redwood City,
CA
94063
2 people
favorited this theater
Showing 10 comments
The June 22, 1950 midnight collapse of the balcony was actually caused by a huge pile of plastered ceiling that fell onto the balcony, injured a total of 27 patrons including one in serious condition. During investigation, a section of 40x15ft plaster fell from vibration caused by someone walking across the framework above the loge section. The youngest of the injured is a 5-year-old boy who had laceration on his head. One of the patrons injured was 52-year-old Mrs. Robert Case who either jumped or fell from the loge section to the main floor at approximately 20 feet below.
The incident happened minutes just before the second feature, “Pirates Of Capri”, ended around 15 minutes before midnight when the collapse happened without even a single notice or warning.
Rapid (I almost wrote rabid) development engulfed Redwood City in recent years, and one building affected was that which once housed the original Sequoia Theatre. After sitting vacant for a decade, it was un-roofed and gutted, and a two-story commercial and office building was built in what remained of the shell, essentially leaving nothing of the original structure but the two side walls. The theater has been effectively, even if not yet utterly, demolished.
The Sequoia opened a bit earlier than we thought. This item is from the October 14, 1916 issue of Motography:
As I remember, Art Blumenthal’s store only sold TV’s, phonographs, stereos, record albums, and was the best place to find the latest 45 RPM’s. One of my favorite stores…..A really great family.
The building on Broadway that was next door to the B of A on the corner was an appliance store from 1950 to 1980 ( Art Blumenthal ). Schneiders was on the corner across from the courthouse
Joe
You’re right the photos have all been removed, what a shame. I do remember the one original photo of the Sequoia Theatre at 2114 Broadway, with about 100 people standing in front, and it’s now gone. There is still one photo of the Redwood Theatre posted on the Redwood Theatre site dated 7/6/09 by ken mc.
Unfortunately, all of the best ones are gone, even of the Fox Theatre.I spent many years in that theatre.
Please pardon my misattribution of your comment, Larry. By three o'clock in the morning I get a bit dazed, and I lost track of who wrote which remarks.
I’m still trying to hunt down a photo of the original Sequoia Theatre, but so far all I’ve found are the aerial views of Redwood City I linked to on the Fox Theatre page, and those links are now dead, as are the links to photos of the Redwood Theatre. The San Mateo County Library system has apparently taken its photo collection offline.
Joe Vogel
It was my aunt who banked at the BofA at Broadway and Jefferson when she was at the FOX THEATRE at 2215 Broadway. The original SEQUOIA THEATRE was to the immediate left of that BofA and still stands. It seems it is now a bar/restaurant. BofA, after closing the Broadway/ Jefferson branch, for a time moved to the corner of Broadway and California Ave, just one block from the old REDWOOD THEATRE. The REDWOOD THEATRE was torn down to make way for another new BofA, which was later closed and converted to Andersons TV/Video. That’s when the current BofA opened it’s new branch on the corner of Jefferson and Marshall St. with the parking lot being where the original BofA was.
Over on the Redwood Theatre page, redwood red says in one comment that he recalls his aunt doing her banking at the old Bank of America branch at Broadway and Jefferson, where the current Bank of America’s parking lot is located, adjacent to the Sequoia Theatre’s building.
An item in the March, 1916, issue of the trade journal The Architect and Engineer says this: “W.H. Toepke, formerly of Havens & Toepke… has prepared plans for a $15,000 motion picture theater to be built adjoining the bank building at Redwood City.”
W.H. Toepke was a San Francisco architect. Given the date of the announcement, and the 1917 opening of the Sequoia, adjacent to the former bank building, it seems very likely that the Sequoia was the theater Toepke was designing. The projected cost of $15,000, low even for 1916, probably explains why the first Sequoia had a shed roof where the fly tower ought to have been. For $15,000 you just didn’t get a proper stage house for your theater.
Quite a few web sites list it as Spanky’s Night Club, but that’s the old Sequoia all right. In Google Street View you can take a look at the side of the building from Jefferson Avenue and easily make out that there was once an auditorium in it. I doubt if any of the original interior remains, though, as the place was converted to other uses so long ago, and has probably gone through multiple remodelings since. The current bland front looks like it probably dates from the 1960s.
The Century 20 Downtown isn’t listed at Cinema Treasures yet, and neither is the Century 12 on Bayshore Boulevard.