Tower Theatre

Here is a December 1951 ad from the Oakland Tribune:
http://tinyurl.com/cqhhcj

I’m sure that anyone living in the vicinity of a neighborhood theatre would be proud to have Vincent Miranda and his fine group of business partners open a Pussycat Theatre there. I’m sure the Loma Prieta earthquake in 89 was the “one brightside” for the area residents of that theatre.

A while after it had opened in New York in August of 1947, Vittorio De Sica’s film “Shoe Shine” played at the Tower for three weeks. That shattering neo-realist movie about the aftermath of World War II and life in a boys' prison was distributed at the time by Lopert Films, Inc.

This was the last Pussycat theater in the Bay Area to shut down. The opening bill under Pussycat on Jan 1, 1976 was “Sensations”(billed as “The senation of the Cannes film festival” and it was a French porn film) and “Seduction of Lyn Carter”.

When it operated as the Tower, adult films did well here. Films that did have long runs here included “Les Amants”(aka The Lovers, 1959) and Putney Swope(played for many months in 1969) Last Tango in Paris did well here as second-run. Also playing here, Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein (in 3-D) and Andy Warhol’s Dracula, Together(Marilyn Chambers' film debut as well as Wes Craven’s directing debut in 1972), and Succubus(1969)

The Tower’s original name was the L.D. Purdy Theater; it became the Claremont in 1916.