Esquire IMAX Theatre
1219 K Street,
Sacramento,
CA
95814
1219 K Street,
Sacramento,
CA
95814
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Reopened as Esquire IMAX on July 8th, 1999. Grand opening ad posted.
Opened on March 15th, 1940. Grand opening ads posted.
1968 photo added courtesy of Bill Kelder‎.
A few November 2013 photos can be seen here and here, and a 2011 photo is here.
Here are photos from 1940, 1982 and 1987:
http://tinyurl.com/qfh44e
http://tinyurl.com/orl2lh
http://tinyurl.com/q8csu8
Re: Posting above by Bob Koch…If you are still around, let me know. I met you years ago when I was a young ‘pup’ just getting started in ‘theatre management’, (1950) in Sacramento. You seemed to ‘pop’ up ‘servicing’ in every area I went to work. Started at the ‘California’ and ‘Studio’ in Sacto. Later in Chico; Modesto; Alameda. Hope to hear from you for ‘shop talk’. J. Lewis JCL
Phantasm and Every Which Way But Loose. That’s one interesting double feature.
Here is a photo, circa 1978:
http://tinyurl.com/27o9e3
“300” is currently playing here in IMAX.
http://www.fromscripttodvd.com/300_imax_dmr.htm
my name is mireya gomez I am not a member yet but could I get a map of the Sacramento Downtown Imax Theater
It’s not much, but a portion of the old Star Theatre can be seen in this 1983 image of K Street Mall: View link
My dad worked next door to the Esquire at Robert’s Fish Grotto, a seafood restaurant for over 20 years. He would get free tickets every once in a while to the Esquire and at time the Encore theatre that was on the other side of the Esquire. The Encore was much smaller and played more obscure films. Across the street was the Star theatre. I remember that they played at one point more adult oriented films, then in the mid seventies it was a Kung Fu movie place. Since there were so many movie places on K street, and before Sacramento decided to block and shut K street and redeisgn it into a “mall”, many people had a great choice of theatres. When the downtown area started to deteriorate and movie complexes started to take over the suburbs, the Esquire did twin itself, but management could not take care of it too well. The theatre would run 2nd and third run movies, double features for .75 cents etc. and the clientele became very shady. this was about the time that most of K street was in disrepair and many theatres started to get demolished (the Star, the Encore, The Fox etc). Out of all of these, the Crest is the only one that has survived and continues to show movies.
THe Sacramento Esquire IMAX theater has been open for a few years now and the only thing that remains from the old theater is the magnificent sign out front, it is very successful, However I remember seeing all the Cinerama Movies there and my Dad always enjoyed taking us kids to the Esquire he liked the seats and the popcorn, oh the memories in the upper Balcony !!
Architect for this theatre was Bill David. I serviced the projection room in this theatre for many years starting in 1950
According to my friend, the late Ruth Moore, a longtime Sacramento resident who remembered the Esquire’s opening circa 1938, her most vivid memory of what was considered an ULTRA modern theatre were the glowing, antiseptic toilet seats! Apparently there was some sort of element running through the seats which was meant to keep them constantly sanitized. A byproduct of this was that the seats themselves lit up.
Blumenfeld operated this downtown Sacramento theater in the 1970s. It sits ½ block from the convention center in downtown Sacramento.