Valmar Theater

Though I’ve searched every Internet source I can think of, I’ve found no clues to the location of the Marval Theatre. This comment by Sal44 on the Rita Theatre page mentions four theaters in Vallejo that don’t appear to be listed here yet, including the Crown and the Rio, both in the 300 block of Virginia Street. Either of them might have been the Marval under later name, or it might have been one of the two outlying theaters Sal44 doesn’t remember the names of.

There’s also a problem with the Valmar’s address. The photo Bryan Krefft uploaded shows that it was in the block of Georgia Street just east of Santa Clara Street. Vallejo has extended Georgia Street all the way to Mare Island Way, and stretched the numbering to reach it. Google Maps now places its pin icon a block west of, and Street View displays the number 243 Georgia at, the Valmar’s actual location.

The theater at 331 Virginia must have been the one Sal44 knew as the Rio. Most likely it didn’t make it into the CinemaScope era. Narrow theaters usually weren’t worth the expense of converting unless they were the only show in town.

I’ve found a couple more references to the Crown Theatre, which was probably the final name of the Marval. One mentions the 1958 film Macabre being shown there, and says the name of the Crown’s manager was Mr. Barber. A 2009 Times-Herald article about Vallejo’s downtown urban renewal project says that the Crown Theatre was among the buildings demolished in 1962.

As for the Valmar Theatre, I’ve come across a couple of references to a theater on Georgia Street being destroyed by a fire in the late 1940s. That might have been the fate of the Valmar. But I’ve also seen a few comments from people who say there was a third theater on Georgia Street, so it might have been that one that burned. Some people say it was called the Rita Theatre, and one called it the Ritz. I wonder if there was a predecessor to the Solano Avenue Rita Theatre, and its name was changed to Ritz when the new Rita opened?

The ValMar building was built in the 1880s, it first was a grocery store owned by the Cochran and Collins brewery, then Collins Grocery Co. for about 30 years, it then became an auto showroom for Cadillac Agency. In the late 1920s it was taken over by an independent moving picture company, may have had a different name before the ValMar but it was co-operated by P.S. Macdonald and Louis Trager. Around 1937 William Fox West Coast Theatres purchased it and became a chain. The ValMar closed around the end of WWII (see news article in the photos area).