Cinema-Guild and Studio
2436 Telegraph Avenue,
Berkeley,
CA
94704
2436 Telegraph Avenue,
Berkeley,
CA
94704
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I too lived around the corner from the Cinema Guild and went there all the time while a student at Berkeley. The best part of my education at UC was in those cinemas. Fondly remember buying tickets from Pauline Kael at the ticket booth situated between the two storefronts and chatting with her about the selections. I still have many of the programs that she wrote and distributed every month with capsule reviews including two versions of her last program – one which her husband had had overprinted to black out her farewell note.
Sadly, the Sequoia Apartments, the building housing the former Cinema Guild was gutted by a several-alarm fire in November 2011 and was so badly damaged it had to be demolished. The cause was said to be an electrical short in the elevator’s machinery.
I lived around the corner from the Cinema Guild and went there all the time while a student at Berkeley. Special times! A terrific movie education, much fun, and great audiences.
I was one of the projectionists at the Cinema 1969-1973(Shattuck and Haste) Paulene Kael stored her collection in our film vault.
I don’t know about “first twin cinema” but I can tell you about the Cinema-Guild and Studio and the most bizarre “twin bill” I’ve ever experienced. It was in the mid or late 1960s. The two films were “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” and “The Pawnbroker.” Like I said, bizarre!
In no way were the Cinema-Guild and Studio “the country’s first twin cinema”.
The Bexley Theatre in Ohio might be a better candidate for that honor.